elliotgreen
New Member
so my plant has been in flower for 28 days now and i was expecting them to be bigger than they are, i have decided to move them closer to the light and train the colas closer to centre if the lamp, will this help
Are my buds small for day 28?
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elliotgreen
New Member
its laughing buddha from barneys im using a 300w led lamp in a cupboard and next feed will be bloom big bud (for last time) and pk (first time) with some molasses used every water
Some strains take longer to start budding then others.. Your buds look good for 4 weeks.. I think your good to go, No worries.. They look like where they should be..
dc534
Well-Known Member
I was wondering the same thing. I am glad someone else in these forums asked this question. I guess I was expecting the bud growth to be as robust as the vegetative growth. I am about 2.5 weeks into flowering my girls (both are 8-9 week flowering).
I think what we both have to remember is the light cycle switch does not mean the plant instantly starts producing buds, while a lot of its energy is directed to bud formation there is also a lot of energy directed to strengthening the branches, stretching so the flowers are spread out further, adding as much vegetation as the plant can store. This is my first grow and I am beginning to understand you have to be patient. I too want more buds, compact, dense buds. My plant is 2 weeks behind yours and my buds are much smaller than that. Remember you are only about halfway through the flowering process.
I think a lot of the buds mass is still yet to come. Remember the first 2 weeks of flowering much of the plant's energy is geared towards preparation of the flowers. The main stem grows thicker, all the branches thicken, strengthen, and stretch, more vegetation is added to store as much energy as the plant can muster. I break the stages of flowering in multiple stages. Stage 1: Is really like an extension of vegetative growth where the plant adds to its robustness in preparation for the hopefully heavy, dense flowers (buds). Stage 2: Is bud formation. Stage 3: Is bud maturation Stage 4: Final stage is complete maturation which could be days or weeks depending on the strain.
I put you at about early mid-stage 2 according to my staging chart. 4 weeks down and your strain says it takes 10-12 weeks flowering time. That means you are not quite mid-way yet. Your buds look really good for having another 6-8 weeks left still. For instance I am almost 3 weeks into flowering and my plant strains are 8-9 weeks flowering time, I am about at the same stage you are at in flowering and your buds look similar but a little more developed than mine do right now.
Anyways sorry for such a long post.
TL/DR:
Your buds look fine. You are not even at the mid-way point through flowering yet for that strain. Your doing an amazing job. Be patient. Good luck. Have a nice day!
I think what we both have to remember is the light cycle switch does not mean the plant instantly starts producing buds, while a lot of its energy is directed to bud formation there is also a lot of energy directed to strengthening the branches, stretching so the flowers are spread out further, adding as much vegetation as the plant can store. This is my first grow and I am beginning to understand you have to be patient. I too want more buds, compact, dense buds. My plant is 2 weeks behind yours and my buds are much smaller than that. Remember you are only about halfway through the flowering process.
I think a lot of the buds mass is still yet to come. Remember the first 2 weeks of flowering much of the plant's energy is geared towards preparation of the flowers. The main stem grows thicker, all the branches thicken, strengthen, and stretch, more vegetation is added to store as much energy as the plant can muster. I break the stages of flowering in multiple stages. Stage 1: Is really like an extension of vegetative growth where the plant adds to its robustness in preparation for the hopefully heavy, dense flowers (buds). Stage 2: Is bud formation. Stage 3: Is bud maturation Stage 4: Final stage is complete maturation which could be days or weeks depending on the strain.
I put you at about early mid-stage 2 according to my staging chart. 4 weeks down and your strain says it takes 10-12 weeks flowering time. That means you are not quite mid-way yet. Your buds look really good for having another 6-8 weeks left still. For instance I am almost 3 weeks into flowering and my plant strains are 8-9 weeks flowering time, I am about at the same stage you are at in flowering and your buds look similar but a little more developed than mine do right now.
Anyways sorry for such a long post.
TL/DR:
Your buds look fine. You are not even at the mid-way point through flowering yet for that strain. Your doing an amazing job. Be patient. Good luck. Have a nice day!
iampalmetto
New Member
You should try backbuilding! It helps produce dense, thicker buds.
dc534
Well-Known Member
Follow up:
I would watch them if you do move them closer to that light. LED's are no joke when it comes to light intensity. Although they do not get hot they produce intensely bright light. Light burn does not come from heat so much as it comes from the intensity of the lights and how close they are to the plants. One of the big mistakes is that many people confuse light burn having to do with the light being hot.
Remember you are not trying to stress the plant and want to refrain from making too many changes.
That being said its a decision you have to make on what you think will work best. I would just watch them and note any changes. First signs of any looking stressed at all you may want to back off the lights a bit.
I would watch them if you do move them closer to that light. LED's are no joke when it comes to light intensity. Although they do not get hot they produce intensely bright light. Light burn does not come from heat so much as it comes from the intensity of the lights and how close they are to the plants. One of the big mistakes is that many people confuse light burn having to do with the light being hot.
Remember you are not trying to stress the plant and want to refrain from making too many changes.
That being said its a decision you have to make on what you think will work best. I would just watch them and note any changes. First signs of any looking stressed at all you may want to back off the lights a bit.
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elliotgreen
New Member
it was just concerning when i looked at other peoples online at same time frame and mine seemed small but i have been reassured now thanks for the reassurance i dont know what i would do without forums lol and yeah i think im going to put it back in its original position when i finally get back from work .
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elliotgreen
New Member
i have heard good things about back building i might look into it.... when is it recommend to back build?
dc534
Well-Known Member
In time, with enough patience, you will become a better grower. Your girl looks like it has many branches. Some growers opt for having just a few main branches which they intentionally keep short with various pruning/fimming/lst/scrog techniques during the vegetative stage. They might do this for several reasons.
One reason would be space constraints. The main reason however could be that many advanced growers are controlling how many flowering sites the plant will have and where on the branches those flowering sites are. I think I understand the reasoning for this now. But first let us understand the question. Is it better to have many branches or have just a few branches? I went into my grow not even thinking of this question. I obviously jumped to the conclusion early on in my grow many branches are better, as many as I can get, that means more sites for buds to grow obviously. And that is true, there are more sites for buds to grow on the plants I am growing. I topped/fimmed/lst'd and now have 7-8 branches on each of the 2 plants I am growing. Success, I got what I wanted but did I really? Is that too many branches? Not enough? Now that I am in flowering like yourself, and after reading posts I now am thinking about this a lot more.
Is it better to have more branches? Maybe not after just thinking about it. Maybe if I would have controlled how many flowering sites there are, and where they are, maybe I could have steered the plants into where the plant will use its energy. Maybe I have more control over how this plant grows than I initially was thinking. Maybe I could have kept the branches shorter, the leaves closer together and therefore many of my flowering sites closer together, leading to a compact dense plant instead of a big branchy bushy plant. I do not know but this is a question I will look to answer during my next grow. I am not about to start cutting some of the branches during flowering, unless I turn them into clones, but I want to try a new strain next grow, so likely I will not be cloning.
This is likely what you are seeing, you are seeing many advanced growers and are wondering what I can do to be like them. This is a good thing. Just remember it takes time and patience to get that good at something. You are going to live, learn and make mistakes. The easiest mistakes people make have to do with patience, and not having enough of it. They want bigger buds so they try to change a bunch of things and look past the fact that they already have a nice, healthy plant that is producing buds. It might not be quite like they picture in their heads but they look past that fact. It is great to wonder how to get bigger buds, after all that is what we are all after, but its not always the best time to experiment mid-grow. You live and you learn and during the next grow you make those changes. At the stage we are at in flowering there is little we are going to change now that is going to drastically change where we end up in the end. Except for the stupid kinds of changes that stress our plants and change the focus of our plant for forming buds, to repairing the damages we are causing. Something to think of before making a bunch of changes this late in the game.
TL/DR:
Basically the question you, and I, should ask ourselves, next grow, not this grow. Can I control the flowering sites? How can I do this? Basically what I am suspecting is happening with both of us is, in shorter words, we have too many flowering sites. Buds are forming everywhere but they are not very large or dense. I suspect this to be that the plant only has limited resources it is working with and we have grown our plants so the resources spread out over many multiple branching areas. There is not just a couple of particular sites the plant is putting its energy into. It is just spreading all its resources out over all the branches we chose to grow.
Can we change this now? Not likely. I do not suspect it to be a good idea to cut branches to try and redirect energy, doing this would direct energy sources from developing buds to repairing damages we are causing. The only thing I could possibly see working is possibly adding more nutrients, but again my techniques are not that advanced to know if that would be a good idea or not. In theory it makes sense in my head. We could give more nutrients to our plants and hope they use those nutrients in developing buds. I however am strongly discouraged by nearly killing one of my ladies with nutrients early on in my grow that I do not think I will be experimenting this late in the game. I have 5-6 weeks to go till harvest and you have 6-8 weeks. You have more time to recover so you have to weigh the risks/rewards. The rewards are you could form more buds with more nutrients. The risks are pretty obvious, if your plant cant uptake anymore nutrients you could have a lockout/deficiency and spend the rest of your grow trying to recover.
One reason would be space constraints. The main reason however could be that many advanced growers are controlling how many flowering sites the plant will have and where on the branches those flowering sites are. I think I understand the reasoning for this now. But first let us understand the question. Is it better to have many branches or have just a few branches? I went into my grow not even thinking of this question. I obviously jumped to the conclusion early on in my grow many branches are better, as many as I can get, that means more sites for buds to grow obviously. And that is true, there are more sites for buds to grow on the plants I am growing. I topped/fimmed/lst'd and now have 7-8 branches on each of the 2 plants I am growing. Success, I got what I wanted but did I really? Is that too many branches? Not enough? Now that I am in flowering like yourself, and after reading posts I now am thinking about this a lot more.
Is it better to have more branches? Maybe not after just thinking about it. Maybe if I would have controlled how many flowering sites there are, and where they are, maybe I could have steered the plants into where the plant will use its energy. Maybe I have more control over how this plant grows than I initially was thinking. Maybe I could have kept the branches shorter, the leaves closer together and therefore many of my flowering sites closer together, leading to a compact dense plant instead of a big branchy bushy plant. I do not know but this is a question I will look to answer during my next grow. I am not about to start cutting some of the branches during flowering, unless I turn them into clones, but I want to try a new strain next grow, so likely I will not be cloning.
This is likely what you are seeing, you are seeing many advanced growers and are wondering what I can do to be like them. This is a good thing. Just remember it takes time and patience to get that good at something. You are going to live, learn and make mistakes. The easiest mistakes people make have to do with patience, and not having enough of it. They want bigger buds so they try to change a bunch of things and look past the fact that they already have a nice, healthy plant that is producing buds. It might not be quite like they picture in their heads but they look past that fact. It is great to wonder how to get bigger buds, after all that is what we are all after, but its not always the best time to experiment mid-grow. You live and you learn and during the next grow you make those changes. At the stage we are at in flowering there is little we are going to change now that is going to drastically change where we end up in the end. Except for the stupid kinds of changes that stress our plants and change the focus of our plant for forming buds, to repairing the damages we are causing. Something to think of before making a bunch of changes this late in the game.
TL/DR:
Basically the question you, and I, should ask ourselves, next grow, not this grow. Can I control the flowering sites? How can I do this? Basically what I am suspecting is happening with both of us is, in shorter words, we have too many flowering sites. Buds are forming everywhere but they are not very large or dense. I suspect this to be that the plant only has limited resources it is working with and we have grown our plants so the resources spread out over many multiple branching areas. There is not just a couple of particular sites the plant is putting its energy into. It is just spreading all its resources out over all the branches we chose to grow.
Can we change this now? Not likely. I do not suspect it to be a good idea to cut branches to try and redirect energy, doing this would direct energy sources from developing buds to repairing damages we are causing. The only thing I could possibly see working is possibly adding more nutrients, but again my techniques are not that advanced to know if that would be a good idea or not. In theory it makes sense in my head. We could give more nutrients to our plants and hope they use those nutrients in developing buds. I however am strongly discouraged by nearly killing one of my ladies with nutrients early on in my grow that I do not think I will be experimenting this late in the game. I have 5-6 weeks to go till harvest and you have 6-8 weeks. You have more time to recover so you have to weigh the risks/rewards. The rewards are you could form more buds with more nutrients. The risks are pretty obvious, if your plant cant uptake anymore nutrients you could have a lockout/deficiency and spend the rest of your grow trying to recover.
iampalmetto
New Member
Now! Snip a lil bit of the tips of your colas off and watch your buds thicken up! It's just like topping, or fimming, except with your buds in flower mode. Basically it tells your plant to stop focusing on growing taller and to produce more from the top down.
Happy 420 man and good luck!
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elliotgreen
New Member
woah you do go on a bit mate dont you lol i think in 5 years time when you've got more experience you'll be writing a book on growing weed. You make some solid points though its all a learning curve for us both and in looking forward to taking the knowledge i have learnt this time round and using it for the next grow! i would definitely reduce the amount of colas i have next time around i wasn't expecting it to grow like this! but soo far ive got it under control (touch wood)!
iampalmetto
New Member
Most thorough, explanatory, and poetic piece of advice I've seen on 420 Magazine. Thank you.
MrCanada
Well-Known Member
Going into my third grow, this is a wonderful piece of advice. Wish I could have come across it sooner
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