How to get more dense & high quality buds outdoors

Jonwayne

New Member
As outdoor season is upon us in my neck of the woods. I have a few questions regarding how to get heavier, more dense buds out of my future crop.
Have a few years under my belt growing outdoors, so I know the basics and fundamentals of it.
Ok. . . Usually I start my plants in jiffy seedling pods or simply sow my seeds in large pots. (Seems to work fine for me) after my plants reach 6" to 1 foot I transplant to the ground and final resting spot for that plant.
Don't add any nutrients until there a couple feet tall and healthy. Even then I mostly only use a Comercial amonia nitrate blend ferry and or just simple miracle grow mix's such as bloom booster, flowering mix. And that's it other than topping them a couple times. I grow from bagseed collected during the year also, misc. Strains.
I harvest when 80% of the white hairs mature/darken in laterms sept- early oct usually. Dry on the stalk after cleaning them up (green). So dry, jar and cure 2-4 weeks. My problem is the product is always light and fluffy, not good weight or as dense as I'd like.
Does anyone have any tips or pointers to get heavier dense buds outdoors. Is it my nutes, my strains or techniques? They get plenty of light and are grown in proven good dark healthy soil. Thanks for any input ahead!
 
re: How to get more dense & high quality buds outdoors

Yes, drop all the nutrients you use, and stop fertilizing your crop at all. Replenish your soil with more organic calcium and magnesium via calcium carbonate, oyster shells, egg shells, lithothamnium, dolomite lime. You need to pull out the excess of potassium, phosphorus and nitrates which you definitely injected there using above mentioned products, which means no fertilizing with NPK rich ferts under any condition! You also need to create more microbe friendly environment so they can help restore the balance. Make compost tea with worm castings or your own compost, start using mycorrhizae and teas containing other useful microbes. Use the right strain for your climate and try to use your local stuff to support it. Then it will be just magic :thumb:
 
re: How to get more dense & high quality buds outdoors

Ok I see, one thing I was gonna to is try and order some seeds this year, most likely a huge high yielding strain because we have the climate and area to do that here, what I've done for soil so far is our farm has barn stalls with a great black rich soil, that I get from there and dig out and replace the soil with it where I plant. It seems like good soil, because I've grew some monsters using it. My biggest being a little over 12' couple years back, thought about posting a picture of it in this thread but im in the picture ya see. Do some photo shop maybe. Had almost a pound from it but it was mediocre smoke and had no real weight. Thanks for your input, so get better seeds, more organics less chemicals, I will have to study up on the tea and worm casting and such. As for buying local I wish I could but around here all I can find is MG products and the cheap organic soil. I Will have to order all the organics, im back in the country a bit. My season usually starts around the 1st of march and harvest in late Sept. Early Oct. So I have a decent window to work with.
 
re: How to get more dense & high quality buds outdoors

2016-01-03_19_19_39.jpg

This was two years ago, 12' 15.5oz cured
This was took end of july, two months before harvest
 
re: How to get more dense & high quality buds outdoors

Yep more organics, but not too much either, and building the soil to be able to recycle nutrients with thriving microlife is the secret to quality buds. I've been always getting rock hard nuggets from almost all strains except few pure sativa varieties, and outdoor it's almost easy with the right approach. But remember that the more you'll go for heavy yielding strains it'll be much harder to churn out quality as hybrids that yield a lot are considered commercial so there's not a lot of keeping the quality up efforts on the side of the breeders. What have you been growing specifically?
 
re: How to get more dense & high quality buds outdoors

I generally just pop ton's of bag sees to start with an sort them out, the last couple years I've grew the from the same plant that was decent smoke, we pollinated it. And got some seeds off her. Really all unknown thought, I've always been on the fence about ordering seeds. This year im gonna try it, I've got a small list saved that im gonna order here soon. Mostly nirvana strains I hear good things, and gonna be mostly indica dominant. Up until now just bag seed saved through out the year.
 
re: How to get more dense & high quality buds outdoors

Ok, let us know what happens next :thumb:
 
re: How to get more dense & high quality buds outdoors

Ok I'd like to get some more attention and detail goin in this thread. I'm starting to prepare my outdoor growing spots for this season. And don't have everything figured out yet. So far I have space to grow 10 or so plants. I don't need a ton of smoke @ harvest, just enough to supply me, my wife and maybe a friend or 2. Im looking for quality over quantity. Anyways enough with the rambling.
Ok here are some things I know Im gonna do/use.
I will be using AN's 3 part nutrients
Smart pots- 7 or 10 gallon? (I only want to water once weekly, if those sizes won't allow only once a week I can go bigger)
3'x3' holes are gonna be dug to fill with soil, I wanna do 5 smart pots and roughly 5 holes. I want these holes to be low maintenance, minumum watering/feeding.
That's the outline of kinda how I want to lay this out.
Things I'm not certain on yet
I need a good soil for my holes and bags, would prefer it was the same soil.
I've not chosen a strain just yet, leaning towards some clones off a few strong bagseed strains I have inside, and or simply bagseed. Not sure if I'm gonna order any or not yet, if I do it will be some northern lights, or an afghan hybrid strain.
Some ideas on soil I should use would be great, plan to shop local, walmart, lowes, HD etc.
And any hints or tips on things I should change or look for are greatly appreciated.
I'd like to fill this thread with some good outdoor growing experience and knowledge.
Goin to dig a few holes in the morning, I'll report back what exactly the soil there is like and what the surrounding environment is made of. Will be tons of blackberry and rasberry bushes I know that are in there. It's mostly a grown up hillside that turns into heavily wooded area on to the top of the mountain. Thanks ahead
 
re: How to get more dense & high quality buds outdoors

Try ProMix if you're after commercial mix, but you could just use native soil if it's fertile and too compact.
 
re: How to get more dense & high quality buds outdoors

I think in 75% of my spots I'll be able to use native soil, soil around here changes from one hillside to the next. I'm gonna use what native soil I can and just add amendments to it as needed. But that still leaves me having to full up those bags, I've read about a soil brand Kelloggs that's good for outdoor, they say it only needs little added to it. I was quite surprised how rich, dark and loose the soil was in a few of my spots. I may have to kick the smart pots idea completely though by the time it's time to start. I'm extremely busy with work, not had a day off this year. Gonna make it rough giving the plants the care there gonna need. Thanks though bud, I'll look into pro mix, I actually think I may have a partial bag of it already some where.
 
re: How to get more dense & high quality buds outdoors

I've not decided if I'm gonna document this year's outdoor grow or not yet. Between work, play, and grow, and working even more. I just don't know if I'll have the time or not. But the point behind this grow is to grow several different strains, in several different kinds of soil, in ground, and in pots. Also all of them are gonna be in slightly different environments, to see witch combination gives me the densest, largest, most potent nugs. With a good yeild. I will try to keep a journal if there is time, but I will definitely post an overview of my results if everything goes well.
 
re: How to get more dense & high quality buds outdoors

Got 3 2x3" holes dug yesterday, 2/3 had good soil that I'm just gonna add stuff too. But one hole in a spot I really wanted to use is hard compact clay. I'm afraid it will turn into a pond. Anything you can do to help it stay drained this summer, or should I chalk it up and dig some where else? I've kicked the smart pot idea and just gonna grow in the ground. I plan to get 10 12'+ clones of a great bagseed strain Ive kept soul for this outdoor season. It's sativa dominant, grows tall, wide, and very fast. It's also one of the toughest I've grown indoors so far, so hopefully that will be the same outside. All my plants will be in the center of blackberry, thorn patches. No one around here is as dumb as my to tunnel through to the center of one. So they should get plenty of open sun, and no unwanted visitors, besides maybe a rabbits.
 
re: How to get more dense & high quality buds outdoors

I know the feeling...
Less need to share... or Argue...
Been there ( I hate that saying !!!)

I'm growing on Slopes...
Good draining and plenty of Sun
Guerrilla growing on our own land
I'll leave a cylinder of loose Coco , Sand and my Organic mix
and let the roots dig in from there.
I'll add Fish "Teas" later during Veg...
and a Kelp tea and Bloom tea during Flowering
 
re: How to get more dense & high quality buds outdoors

Got 3 2x3" holes dug yesterday, 2/3 had good soil that I'm just gonna add stuff too. But one hole in a spot I really wanted to use is hard compact clay. I'm afraid it will turn into a pond. Anything you can do to help it stay drained this summer, or should I chalk it up and dig some where else? I've kicked the smart pot idea and just gonna grow in the ground. I plan to get 10 12'+ clones of a great bagseed strain Ive kept soul for this outdoor season. It's sativa dominant, grows tall, wide, and very fast. It's also one of the toughest I've grown indoors so far, so hopefully that will be the same outside. All my plants will be in the center of blackberry, thorn patches. No one around here is as dumb as my to tunnel through to the center of one. So they should get plenty of open sun, and no unwanted visitors, besides maybe a rabbits.

Fast way is to dig it up and cut it with sand and biochar or both. Slower but better for building it up for future grows is to use limestone and compost mixing it one feet down, and let the plants loosen the structure with roots while they grow.
 
re: How to get more dense & high quality buds outdoors

Gypsum is also great for loosening soil - even clay. However, like conradino's suggestion it takes more time.

Happy Growing!
 
re: How to get more dense & high quality buds outdoors

So far I've got 3 holes dug and filled. It's right now time to plant here. So I'm cutting it close, but I'm using clones for everything so that will put me about right on time to finish in oct. The 3 holes are filled with in the lowest level compost with gypson, middle layer is just mostly compost/manure mix. And topped them off with a good layer of top soil, also I put a good layer of wood chips on top to blend it in a little better with the surrounding soil/leaves and sticks. The big perfectly round black hole in the middle of the lighter brown clay stuck out like a sore thumb. So that took care of that. I'm hardening the first half my clones right now, on day 3 of being outside 4+ hours a day in the sun. I'm plan to have 11 total outside when it's finished. The first 5 will go in the ground this weekend some time. While the final 6 are working on getting roots. And I'll get some pictures with these post so everyone can get a better idea of the layout. All the soil I bought and used was on sale from last year I assume. So with my budget I got alot more soil for my money than I originally thought. So that means more, bigger and deeper holes for these girls. That I could possibly even use for a few years to Come if no one finds them. Thanks for all the help here:thumb:
 
re: How to get more dense & high quality buds outdoors

In my best Duke voice, Well I wanna tell ya little fella :rofl:
Light, a good composted soil helps, nutes from worm castings, bat guano, chicken crap and the like, fish bone meal, and a consistent watering schedule are the basics for good growing. There is so much others can suggest and it can be confusing, but do what works for you! I try to keep them low and bushy with LST and supercropping AND you need to be there. So much can happen in just one day! I have gleaned as much as I can from the growers here at 420 and I am learning something new every day. So many journals, so little time! Good luck with your grows!
HOZ

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re: How to get more dense & high quality buds outdoors

I did add worm castings, left that out. I plan to get out to the once or twice a week to water if need be and train. I put 2 clones out ao far and checked on them 2 days later, all was good. I was afraid I might not have hardened them long enough but they did fine for 2 sunny days. I'm trying to hold off a little longer on setting any more out, because we are having some really cold nights still yet. The first 2 might freeze it's 35° out there on them tonight. Crazy weather in these parts this time a year, you never know when the cold spells are over untill there over.
 
re: How to get more dense & high quality buds outdoors

Hello,sorry for responding to an old post,oh well maybe someone could still use the advice,,,when you pull the entire plant at one time,your losing 70% of your buds,because the plant finishes in different stages and sections, usually from the top down, or where ever light is most dominant,the best way to ensure all your buds are EXACTILY the same,from densness and potency,from top to bottom Is to harvest all the ripest buds first,the safest way to be sure is some type of microscope,i use the active eye 100xs,20.bucks,once you harvest the ripest buds from the top,p.s.some times a few lower buds will be ripe also,harvest those too,once you've pulled all the ripest and hardest buds,wait a week or 10 days before working your way down the plant,clipping the buds as the ripen,ill harvest in 3 sections,top,middle,and bottom,each section takes about 7 to 10 days each,ensuring you get the most out of all your hard work and paitance..good luck.Happy Growing.
 
re: How to get more dense & high quality buds outdoors

I forgot,once you remove the first set of buds,try using organic food,and feed your plant lightly to make up for the nutrients you just removed from the ripest bud,that way the second group of buds can feed a little, And add on some more weight,and repeat the process with the last buds,the plant will feed much less,as you remove the buds,that's why it's best to feed them lightly. I pull the entire staulk out once the bottom is ready,and dry them on the staulk..good luck,HAPPY,GROWING.ps,you don't need to flush pure organic nutrients.their organic,but I still do,i use only water the last 5 to 10 days,befor clipping.
 
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