buds

[homegrower65]

I was wondering if anyone could help me out. I am new to growing and I am sure you guys will know where I am making my mistake. My buds are fluffy-spongy.

My grow room is a spare bedroom, I am using advance nutraints, I am using two 1000w lights, I am venting and adding new air to the room in the amount required. Using 750 plus cfm. I have rotating fans in the room to move the air around. My plants are healthy and happy... most stocks around the width of your thumb. no bugs etc. Do a proper flush. I veg till the plants are about 4 foot high before going into flower. My room temps run between 72 and 78 with lights on and off.

Flower times are running between 8 and 10 weeks depending on strain. Every harvest "4" different harvest and everytime my buds are fluffy or spungey

[homegrower65]

Sorry forgot to tell you which strains. I am growing skunk1, killawatt, violator, og, and trainwreck. my ph and temps are all in check. I get very little stretching. The lights are placed just above the plants so the back of my hand does not get to hot. I have tried different hights I would guess between 9/10 inches to 20 inches. I am using air-cooled light and have the lights hooked to a large vortex fan that vents through my attic. Even the main coala gets spungey.

[keylime]

Well, from what I see, you're doing everything right. There are a lot of strains that like to stretch, my advice to you is to slow it down, by bending the tops, while in flowering, making them grow more "sideways", another thing is to spread the tops while in vegging mode, that is to chop the tops off so that you end up with several (somewhat smaller) top colas.

keylime

[headshake]

one of your problems is that you are vegging your plants way too long. even a 1000W HID only has about 2.5-3' of canopy penetration. you want to suit your style to maximize your plant/bud ratio. more, small plants that have buds all the way down. keep in mind that your plant will double or triple in size when you put them into flower.

-shake

[Farmer Rich]

Sounds like we have similar setups.

I personally have good consistent success vegging plants quite large before moving them to flower. 3-4' for a couple of strains I have is common for me. I do a bunch of pruning/topping in the process to remove foliage at the bottom and increase the number of branches at the top. One strain stretches to 6' + in flower..

Also use Advanced, 2 x 1K hps, 2 x 8 tube T-5 in flower, all mounted fairly high giving me 82" from the floor to the bottom of the lights. Maintain temps in the mid to upper 70s with the lights on... the results are unbelievable.. giving me 16-20 oz a month from 4 plants (I have room for 8 and harvest monthly) the buds are really tight and dense as well, which I attribute to Advanced stack, especially Connissieur (sp?). My biggest problem is having to use bamboo sticks to tie up my stuff that tends to fall over from the weight of the buds..

What are you doing with your nutes? I run about 2ml per liter on base and 1 ml per liter on additives. For example, 40 liter (approx 10 gal), I'll use 80 ml of both A and B, 40 of Sensizyme, 40 of Big Bud and 40 of Bud Candy.. I vary the strength through the cycle, but the ratio of base nutes to additives always is the same... I also flush every week as well.

Peace, Farmer Rich

[homegrower65]

Sounds like we have similar setups.

I personally have good consistent success vegging plants quite large before moving them to flower. 3-4' for a couple of strains I have is common for me. I do a bunch of pruning/topping in the process to remove foliage at the bottom and increase the number of branches at the top. One strain stretches to 6' + in flower..

Also use Advanced, 2 x 1K hps, 2 x 8 tube T-5 in flower, all mounted fairly high giving me 82" from the floor to the bottom of the lights. Maintain temps in the mid to upper 70s with the lights on... the results are unbelievable.. giving me 16-20 oz a month from 4 plants (I have room for 8 and harvest monthly) the buds are really tight and dense as well, which I attribute to Advanced stack, especially Connissieur (sp?). My biggest problem is having to use bamboo sticks to tie up my stuff that tends to fall over from the weight of the buds..

What are you doing with your nutes? I run about 2ml per liter on base and 1 ml per liter on additives. For example, 40 liter (approx 10 gal), I'll use 80 ml of both A and B, 40 of Sensizyme, 40 of Big Bud and 40 of Bud Candy.. I vary the strength through the cycle, but the ratio of base nutes to additives always is the same... I also flush every week as well.

Peace, Farmer Rich


My base nutraints increase every week. I use connoisseur A and B for my base. I start off at 3ml per L for week one and by the time I am ending flower I am up to 4.5 ml per L.

I also use a number of other during the same time as in. B-52, Big Bud, Bud Candy etc.

I just cannont seem to get rock hard buds. The are more spungy and fluffy. Every strain I have tried turns out the same way. I can see the lower buds not being rock hard due to the distance away from the light. However, the upper buds are getting plenty of light.

[homegrower65]

Are you use air-cooled hoods? If so how far above the top of the plants are you placing the lights?

I am using air-cooled and draw the heat of throught the light with a 8 inch vortex fans. When I first started using the fans I thought it was going to suck the paint off the walls...LOL

[Farmer Rich]

I'm not mixing the nutes nearly as strong as you are and top out around 1300 ppm max.. I also ramp up during weeks 2-5, dial it back in week 6 and use nothing but water (around 5.8 ph) in the final 2 weeks.. basically mimic the new nutrient calculator, but not as strong.


I used to practice dropping the lights closer to the plants.. after burning the shit out of them I stopped and reverted to uber simple and fixed mounted the lights.. so in week 1, my plants are typically 3 - 3.5' below the lights and everything ends up stretching enough during the first 2 weeks they end up as close as 12" from the lights on some strains.

Since you're spending all the $$ on Advanced.. have you tried calling the toll free help line? The person that answers is VERY knowledgable and typically starts answering the help line about 12:00 Pacific..

Hope you work this out!

Peace, Farmer Rich

[homegrower65]

I'm not mixing the nutes nearly as strong as you are and top out around 1300 ppm max.. I also ramp up during weeks 2-5, dial it back in week 6 and use nothing but water (around 5.8 ph) in the final 2 weeks.. basically mimic the new nutrient calculator, but not as strong.


I used to practice dropping the lights closer to the plants.. after burning the shit out of them I stopped and reverted to uber simple and fixed mounted the lights.. so in week 1, my plants are typically 3 - 3.5' below the lights and everything ends up stretching enough during the first 2 weeks they end up as close as 12" from the lights on some strains.

Since you're spending all the $$ on Advanced.. have you tried calling the toll free help line? The person that answers is VERY knowledgable and typically starts answering the help line about 12:00 Pacific..

Hope you work this out!

Peace, Farmer Rich



I have talked with advance. They are the ones that gave me the feeding schedule and the amounts. You are right they are very friendly and they are very $$$$$$