Airy buds?

ok so I’m still new at growing, and been cursed with airy buds! My setup is a 5x5 tent with a veraspectra 1200w led and a 200w led. 18/6 for veg and 12/12 for bloom. I use fabric pots and water when needed phed Around 6.5. I use general hydroponics trio (micro,grow, and bloom). I follow the dosage for the respected growing period I’m in. Temps are 70 during day and 65 at night, with a humidity around 40%. When harvesting I wait until 30% amber tricombs. Then dry until stems snap. Curing in wide mouth mason jars for 2 to 4 weeks. So my question is why do I have airy buds.
Any input or advise would be great.
Thanks!

Did your lights get really close to your flower?


Did you use any flower hardener? Like Avalanche or G10?

Jmoy14 said:

ok so I’m still new at growing, and been cursed with airy buds! My setup is a 5x5 tent with a veraspectra 1200w led and a 200w led. 18/6 for veg and 12/12 for bloom. I use fabric pots and water when needed phed Around 6.5. I use general hydroponics trio (micro,grow, and bloom). I follow the dosage for the respected growing period I’m in. Temps are 70 during day and 65 at night, with a humidity around 40%. When harvesting I wait until 30% amber tricombs. Then dry until stems snap. Curing in wide mouth mason jars for 2 to 4 weeks. So my question is why do I have airy buds.
Any input or advise would be great.
Thanks!

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It could be temps, nutrients, ventilation or amount of light. Sometimes it’s just genetics but in your case I suspect insufficient amount of light.
You need a minimum of 600 watts to light up a 5x5 , those lights you’re using are misleading on the wattage. You probably have about 300-350 true watts. Just my opinion.

Lack of light. Like has been said. Those numbers for your LED's are misleading.

what everyone is saying- Not enough real draw light. Vipers lie.

How often do you water them?
Fabric pots seems to be good for roots but they are awful for keeping soil most and fertilised.

I watered mine every 24 hours with about 500-600ml of water in 5 gal pots. It brought soil moisture to 50-60%. It was usually gone in 12-14 hours with soil moisture dropping to 20% and lower.

Now I water them twice a day. As for feeding I feed them every second day with water fertilised to 1500 microsiemens/cm.

PinPin said:

watered mine every 24 hours with about 500-600ml of water in 5 gal pots.

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I water mine every 3-4 days with 4l of water in 15L fabric pots. And feed every time. But my are late in to flowering.

For dense buds you might want to look at HID lamps. I'm in the process of changing over to CMH, so far I'm impressed.

Cappuchino said:

I water mine every 3-4 days with 4l of water in 15L fabric pots. And feed every time. But my are late in to flowering.

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That may be a reason. Your soil will still dry very fast. Like I said above 60% soil moisture right ater watering drops to 20% and less in 12 hours. Lets say your 4 L brings soil moisture to 70-90% but it should be all gone in less than 24 hours. So you keep your plants thirsty for 2-3 days.

I have moved to watering twice a day with small amount(500-600ml) just to keep moisture about 30-40% overall for 24 hours.

I'd wish I started it from the beginning as I only watered them once a day and by morning when lights were off there was only 20% moisture left and they were sleeping with dry soil for another 12 hours.

My buds are very dense. I cut off some small buds from below and when I cut it in half there was a big chunk of green dense stuff in the middle.
However I am using a booster for flowering and I can see that trichomes are growing like crazy making buds bigger. So it may be not just how often I water them it is also the booster that affects their density.

I think growing in fabric pots after using plastic ones is very tricky. If I had not had sensors in my soil I would have never known for sure what's going on in my pots. I cannot test soil with my finger as I have roots everywhere.

I got airy buds from small light leaks years ago,sealed em up and all good>kicked myself

PinPin said:

but it should be all gone in less than 24 hours

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Not really. I have a soil hygrometer and may soil moister never drops lower then 40% according to it. I check when to water by pot weight. And you And you giving your plant that small amount of water (even twice a day) are keeping moist only upper layer of your medium leaving lower part of root ball completely dry. It is my opinion and you can do what ever works for you. Cheers.

Vipars do not lie, they tell you the actual wattage even if the model says 1000, they draw 600 and it says that right on their site.

I’ve gotten rockhard dense buds using blurples, tho recently I’ve stepped up to QBs.

Anyways in a 2x4 which is 8 sq feet, I had 370 watts of blurple, 400 max.

You’re in a 5x5 which is 25, you should be pushing around 12-1300

You’re pushing half of that

Light is your problem, get more lights or higher quality ones

Also keep them the correct distance to the plants

Then you’ll get dem dense ass buds

Jmoy14 said:

Temps are 70 during day and 65 at night

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Getting your temps up a little would probably help. LED doesn't put out much of any IR and many of us who've been using LED for a while now have found that something right around 80f is ideal for a lights on temp.
Besides that i second what has already been said... not enough light for a 5x5. Either get more light or only use like 3x3 of your tent.

Cappuchino said:

Not really. I have a soil hygrometer and may soil moister never drops lower then 40% according to it. I check when to water by pot weight. And you And you giving your plant that small amount of water (even twice a day) are keeping moist only upper layer of your medium leaving lower part of root ball completely dry. It is my opinion and you can do what ever works for you. Cheers.

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I have soil hygrometers which have probes at the bottom. These probes are 12cm deep into 23cm high soil. Water moves down in soil due to gravity so your assumption that I have dry roots at the bottom quite far from truth. it is a bottom layer of soil should have more moisture than the top one. So when my sensor says it is 18% left it comes from measurements in the middle, the bottom layer has more moisture but it is not a big difference, it is may be 25%.

I am not sure what is a point of putting 4L of water in 15L pots, to wash out all nutrients?


Yes I am watering them twice a day because I do not see any reason to pour such a huge amount of water. It just not going to stay there in fabric pots with a fan blowing in a cabinet and drying soil that sit in pots on sides through fabric ventilation in addition to some air going through the top and through the bottom of every pot. So it does not really matter how many liters your pour into them, they will dry very fast

I can do an experiment if you want and water one plant with 4 liters. I am sure it will be all gone within 24 hours. Plus I will just lose quarter or even half of it while watering as it will come out from sides before it will be absorbed into soil.

PinPin said:

I can do an experiment if you want and water one plant with 4 liters. I am sure it will be all gone within 24 hours. Plus I will just lose quarter or even half of it while watering as it will come out from sides before it will be absorbed into soil.

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I have just done it. Poured at least 2L in one pot. The moisture jumped to 93% while watering and soil had 900 microsiements EC. Some water run out from a bottom of a pot, a bit from sides.

Then 5 minutes later soil moisture is already 50%(water runs down remember and there is nothing at the bottom to keep it in fabric pots)
Also I washed out half of nutrients . It is only 455 microsiemens/cm after running so much water through the pot. And this is just 2L, I cannot imagine what 4L is doing.

Two other plants that have sensors and received almost the same amount of water also dropping soil moisture and nutrients in soil.
The only good thing so far is soil moisture seems to settle on 46-65% and has stopped dropping fast. Lets see how long it will stay in the middle of each of these three pots.
My guess the middle layer will be no more than 30% in 3-4 hours.

All these replies and barely any mention about genetics being responsible....some strains are just airy

waterproof808 said:

All these replies and barely any mention about genetics being responsible....some strains are just airy

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Sativa dominant strains in particular can be predisposed to airy buds. Good point.

genetics plus better lighting.....viper leds are weak shit.....need cree cxb3590 cobs or more powerful 3 watt led fixture or hps to get density aswell as level canopy.....all about par bro....viper led will give of sumat shit like 450 umoles from 18 inch hanging height and that's directly under it.....cree cob same wattage will be double that hence why your getting airy buds

Jmoy14 said:

ok so I’m still new at growing, and been cursed with airy buds! My setup is a 5x5 tent with a veraspectra 1200w led and a 200w led. 18/6 for veg and 12/12 for bloom. I use fabric pots and water when needed phed Around 6.5. I use general hydroponics trio (micro,grow, and bloom). I follow the dosage for the respected growing period I’m in. Temps are 70 during day and 65 at night, with a humidity around 40%. When harvesting I wait until 30% amber tricombs. Then dry until stems snap. Curing in wide mouth mason jars for 2 to 4 weeks. So my question is why do I have airy buds.
Any input or advise would be great.
Thanks!

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you no how many led forums i see with airy buds i thought a 1200 would blast a 1000 w hps what they are saying over on the led forums lol