How to firm up fluffy buds

[BakerT]

Morning all
I'm wanting to find a supplement or additive to firm up my buds.
My buds are full but I'm wanting to nugget them up.
My girls are in soil and then only using a monsta bud durning flowering but I'm heading to my local hydro shop today to upgrade my nutrients, but I'm needing to know what to give them
Any help would be awesome


BLAZE TO

 

[TorturedSoul]

I'm wanting to find a supplement or additive to firm up my buds.

More light(-energy) is probably the number one "supplement" for that, lol.

Some strains just tend to have a somewhat airy structure as far as the buds are concerned. Sativas. They require lots of light, more than the average indica, and one might still find that the buds aren't real dense.

Most bulk up a bit during the final week or two of flowering. Ironically, some people stop giving them nutrients during that period, being concerned with "flushing" and such. That always seemed kind of counter-intuitive to me, sort of like shutting off the fuel pump just as you're about to pass someone for the lead in the final turn before the finish line would be.

If you're trying to harvest more weight, consider adding more light (or at least investigating the possibility that it may be warranted; it might not be). If you're selling and your customers turn their noses up at sativa buds because they can't hit one with a baseball bat and send it 80' away, lol, you can try placing some in one of those vacuum sealer bags before they've quite dried and running a partial vacuum on the machine. That will compact them without crushing them into one lump. Allow them to remain for a short time, and they'll probably stay that way when you remove them from the bag to finish drying. When I used to deal, I had the same people who wouldn't even consider one of my sativas turn around and go nuts over them after they'd been slightly "smushed." Perception can be a funny thing.

Most of the "secret ingredients" found in those bulking/boosting products are merely the traditional flowering macronutrients. I've used GH's Liquid and Dry KoolBloom plenty of times (and have some of the liquid version in the cupboard now). Liquid KoolBloom's ingredients are: Magnesium phosphate, potassium phosphate and potassium sulphate. In other words, it's an NPK of 0-10-10 with a little magnesium, a little sulfur, and a lot of water. Helpful, if your plants can make use of it, but it's not a magic potion.

There are a few products that have certain PGRs, hormones/auxins, and the like, but I shy away from them. Some states' departments of agriculture (whatever department it is that's tasked with investigating plant nutrients, herbicides, and insecticides) have banned products like that from being sold in their state. If the state requires bud sold in medicinal-use dispensaries to be lab tested, and traces of such things are found, the grower cannot sell it in them. That is, I suspect, why a lot of bud grown in "legalized for medicinal-use" states ends up being sold by dealers halfway across the country. <SHRUGS> I'm not big on making the distinction between synthetic nutrients and "organics," but if I learn that a product that I have been using just got banned from sale in the state of Oregon (for example), I tend to discontinue use.

 

[Weaselcracker]

Seems very unlikely that the fluffy buds are a nutrient issue. Strain and lighting related as TS said. Save your money for lights.

 

[Bush Doctor 77]

I use GH Kool Bloom for about the last 4 weeks of bloom, but got to be careful There is a solid and liquid.

 

[TorturedSoul]

Yeah, they're not the same product even allowing for the fact that one is in a liquid form and the other is a solid. I listed the ingredients for the liquid one above. KoolBloom Dry contains ammonium phosphate, ammonium sulfate, magnesium sulfate, potassium phosphate, and potassium sulfate. Its NPK is 2-45-28.

Some people argue against having a bunch of "supplement" products on hand. I agree with them in a way... They can, however, be helpful things if the gardener just looks at them as things that allow them to better tailor their feed program. Most of us don't formulate our own nutrients from all the individual ingredients - although there's a current/active thread around here somewhere with that as part of the discussion subject, and there are a number of businesses that sell the bulk dry elements/minerals, even some micronutrient packages and (I think) beneficial microbial life, if you are interested in doing exactly that. Therefore, sometimes it's a little difficult to, for instance, reduce one element (when the plant shows signs of having too much) and still supply everything else at the same rate if said gardener only uses a two- or three-part nutrient set.

 

[Bush Doctor 77]

I use organic sources outdoors. Bat guano for P and don't need much K in my alkali soil.

 

[Carcass]

Would backbuilding help in a case like this?
I'm asking because I really don't know the answer.
I Read Light Addict's thread on it,but I haven't tried it yet.

 

[Elvin]

More light(-energy) is probably the number one "supplement" for that, lol.

I can affirm that; I just chopped 2 Purple Kush and 2 Cali OG Kush Haze and when I had topped them I decided to root the tops and grow them in a tent with 405 from-the-wall-watts of LED while growing the others in a tent with 240 watts of Quantum Boards (3000k).
The LED buds, while large, are "airy" as opposed to the QB buds.

 

[Weaselcracker]

Backbuilding doesn’t make the buds denser - just a blunter and stubbier shape. Some strains grow long spindly buds -sometimes with goofy looking points on the end and backbuilding gives them more ‘bag apoeal’

 

[Carcass]

Ok,Thank you,Weaselcracker, I appreciate it.

 

[Nunyabiz]

More light and then use a Sprouted Seed Tea made from Alfalfa seeds for Triacontanol.
Also coconut water for the Cytokines.

 

[Elvin]

More light and then use a Sprouted Seed Tea made from Alfalfa seeds for Triacontanol.
Also coconut water for the Cytokines.

I buy Triacontanol and water-soluble Chitosan off of eBay. . . . I'm lazy

 

[BakerT]

Spent a couple of hours talking to the local hydro shop guru and all he kept saying is light and then tried to sell me a light that's worth more then my car
Then he said the next best thing is this stuff.
Has anyone used it and if so did it work?

 

[TorturedSoul]

The next best thing to a light is... another light. Seriously, there's no "light in a bottle." That's just another flowering supplement. They're not all the same, but they're all similar. IF your plants are lacking in phosphorous and potassium, they can help.

There was a big stink about Rock (brand) back in... 2010, I think, and the company was forced to stop putting (a lot of?) the PGRs in their products. But I was never clear on whether that applied across the board, or just to the versions of the products that they sold in Australia.

It's mainly phosphorous and potassium. If you're bound and determined to get a product of this sort without first figuring out whether your plants actually need it, buy some House & Garden Shooting Powder, Canna PK 13/14, or General Hydroponics KoolBloom.

So far, you haven't told us what kind of lighting you use, how many watts of it, its distance from your plants, the size of your grow space (so we can help you figure out if you have enough light in that space), haven't posted any pictures of your plants, haven't told us what strain(s) you're growing so someone can maybe have a hope of knowing what would be considered to be a normal density, haven't clued us in on your grow space temperatures (too hot = airy buds), haven't... posted anything, really, other than that you want denser buds. You seem to be an alright sort of guy and all, but I'm starting to wonder if what you're really looking for is someone to smile, nod, and say, "Yeah, bud, get yourself some kind of flowering booster and you'll have super-dense buds."

I could do that, but with no more information than you've posted, I'd be more likely to do so if I was mad at you than if I was trying to actually help you, lol.

I've got a buddy that hadn't grown cannabis in years before this year. He grew one plant this time. He was sending me pictures about once per week. "Does it look okay?" Next week, more pictures. "How does it look to you?" Another week, another set of pictures. "Do you see any problems?" And he didn't even think there was anything wrong; he just wasn't positive and wanted another set of eyes and a second opinion. I also knew the size of the grow space, knew the exact model of light he was using (because I had asked one of our friends fellow forum member to win it for him, lol), knew the size of the container, type and mixture of the medium, type of nutrient and how much of it, et cetera because I pretty much supplied everything including the seed - otherwise, he'd have given me all that information without my having to ask, let alone having to try to pull it out of him like I was trying to extract a good deed from a politician . Do you understand what I'm getting at, here?

Go to a doctor and say, "Doc, I don't feel good. Can you fix me?" Then refuse to supply any information and see how the visit goes. I'm just saying.

Last time I threw a party, a couple of chicks were playing around with my crystal ball and it rolled right off the table and shattered. Thief got my ouija board, and I bent my dowsing rod whilst using it to scratch my back. And I'm not butchering any more animals just to haul out handfuls of their entrails; someone from PETA always ends coming around and I'm getting too old to keep digging six-foot deep holes in the yard. . . .

 

[Nunyabiz]

Yep, none of the nutrients mean much of anything if you are growing under a 20w CFL.
Assuming you have the required amount of light to create dense buds which IMO is between 600 to 800 PAR spread evenly over your canopy.
And the right genetics, many Sativas are going to be airy buds no matter what you do.
Assuming your environment is conducive to growing large dense buds.

After that, IMO theres nothing better than using a combination of Alfalfa Sprouted Seed Tea for totally natural Triacontanol and Buildabloom which is an organic blend that gives 2-10-5 .
Nothing synthetic at all.

Those two totally natural sources are as good or better than any of the bottled bloom boosters and cost pennies by comparison.

But that is literally the last thing on the list that's needed, if you dont have all the other components then it will do you no good.

 

[bluter]

light or...

press the buds for rosin.. seem pretty dense after that lol

 

[DaddyKush]

LIGHT! But buy more nutrients if that's what you prefer, it's your money.

 

[HigherTheHigh]

1 600w HPS to every 1x1m/1.2x1.2m area and you will always get a great yield with dense buds, only cost you a good £70/$90.

The rock resonator and terminator are good but they will only add extra oils, if used them before and I find the better the environment you get the same results .

 

[Elvin]

light or...

press the buds for rosin.. seem pretty dense after that lol

The big pretty buds are for smoking and the rest of them is for oil for my vape

 

[TorturedSoul]

They all look the same after they're immolated in a fire, anyway .