Soft airy buds

Compatak

Compatak

Member
Hello, I have been growing for a couple years and have had the same problem with every grow.
Plants always have good color, always seem to look good with many, many good size buds but the buds are always soft and airy.
And it's always been very good quality smoke (blue cheese) but I feel if the buds were more dense I would harvest more than 12 - 15 oz's with 2 plants.


In flower;
I use a hydro system with two 5 gal buckets.
6" baskets and 4" rockwool blocks.
Water change every 7 days.
Water level stays about 1/2" below the basket.
In the rez I have a float valve to keep the water level contestant and a small recirculation pump that is on for 15 min's every hour.
Using Flora Series (hard water) nutes at half the recommended strength. and cal magic because I'm using RO water. (well water)
I keep the PH about 6.0 - 6.10.
1000 watt Hortilux HPS bulb with Quantum electronic ballast.
room temp about 77 - 80.
water temp about 76 - 77.

I was hoping someone might have some ideas.
Thanks
 
GroErr

GroErr

Well-Known Member
Just wondering, you mention one strain, have you been running the same pheno from that strain or different phenos/strains? Reason I'm asking is I run a variety and keep the best phenos when I come across something exceptional. Same strain/seeds can generate airy bud or dense bud phenos, huge differences sometimes.
 
hellmutt bones

hellmutt bones

Well-Known Member
Could be you just let your plant grow normal with out lst,topping ect.
When you grow maybe you leave the buds all the way at the bottom grow freely?
Or your chopping too early?
If you leave it 1-2 weeks more ur buds might be dence.
Also how far away is your light?

Also pics might help.
 
nomofatum

nomofatum

Well-Known Member
1. Nutes, Why the fuck do you have hard water nutes and run RO water??? Why half strength? Do you have a PPm meter, what PPM are you running?

2. PH, you are running the range you should be running if you were in soil for flower. Go down to 5.5 and let it drift from 5.5 to 5.8-6.0 then reset to 5.5.

Your plants probably have a hard time getting rid of excess water if you are running 1/2 strength nutes. it's limiting their access to nutes. More nutes at the correct PH. 1200-1800PPM and 5.5 drifting to 6.0 PH.
 
Compatak

Compatak

Member
GroErr said:
Just wondering, you mention one strain, have you been running the same pheno from that strain or different phenos/strains? Reason I'm asking is I run a variety and keep the best phenos when I come across something exceptional. Same strain/seeds can generate airy bud or dense bud phenos, huge differences sometimes.
Click to expand...
Thank you for your response.
I have also grown Lemon Kush, Big Bud and some others. Always good quality but soft buds. I have been staying with the Blue Cheese for the last few grows. Very good yields. And the same good quality.
 
GroErr

GroErr

Well-Known Member
Compatak said:
Thank you for your response.
I have also grown Lemon Kush, Big Bud and some others. Always good quality but soft buds. I have been staying with the Blue Cheese for the last few grows. Very good yields. And the same good quality.
Click to expand...
@hellmutt bones has a good point there, I don't grow hydro but regardless of medium letting the strain go to it's optimum time before harvesting can make a big difference in density. I run a couple of phenos that put their weight on and density all in the last 7-10 days, if I pulled early they'd be fluffy.
 
Compatak

Compatak

Member
hellmutt bones said:
Could be you just let your plant grow normal with out lst,topping ect.
When you grow maybe you leave the buds all the way at the bottom grow freely?
Or your chopping too early?
If you leave it 1-2 weeks more ur buds might be dence.
Also how far away is your light?

Also pics might help.
Click to expand...
I've tried not topping but they get so tall I can't get up there to raise the light from a 6 foot ladder. And I have 9 foot ceilings out there. As far as chopping to early I watch the trychomes and start flush after they show a few amber color and the tips kinda mushroom out. Right around week 13 of flower.
I keep the light about 12" from the tallest. That's a little close to the tallest bud but works out to be a good compromise.
 
Compatak

Compatak

Member
nomofatum said:
1. Nutes, Why the fuck do you have hard water nutes and run RO water??? Why half strength? Do you have a PPm meter, what PPM are you running?

2. PH, you are running the range you should be running if you were in soil for flower. Go down to 5.5 and let it drift from 5.5 to 5.8-6.0 then reset to 5.5.

Your plants probably have a hard time getting rid of excess water if you are running 1/2 strength nutes. it's limiting their access to nutes. More nutes at the correct PH. 1200-1800PPM and 5.5 drifting to 6.0 PH.
Click to expand...
I just started using the hard water nutes because I do have hard water and was hoping it might help. I can lower the PH to 5.5 - 6.0 and see how that goes. As for the PPM... after a water change it's about 600 right now.(week 8 of flower) When I ran full strength I was getting a lot of burnt leaf tips. After I cut back to half it got much better.
 
hondagrower420

hondagrower420

Well-Known Member
Compatak said:
I just started using the hard water nutes because I do have hard water and was hoping it might help. I can lower the PH to 5.5 - 6.0 and see how that goes. As for the PPM... after a water change it's about 600 right now.(week 8 of flower) When I ran full strength I was getting a lot of burnt leaf tips. After I cut back to half it got much better.
Click to expand...

RO is not hard water...

Hard water is like .8ec and up. RO is 0.0ec.

You shouldn't be using hard water nutes.
 
nomofatum

nomofatum

Well-Known Member
Compatak said:
I just started using the hard water nutes because I do have hard water and was hoping it might help. I can lower the PH to 5.5 - 6.0 and see how that goes. As for the PPM... after a water change it's about 600 right now.(week 8 of flower) When I ran full strength I was getting a lot of burnt leaf tips. After I cut back to half it got much better.
Click to expand...
600 PPM is crazy low. I feed seedlings at about that rate.

You can't have both hard water and RO water at the same time. RO/Distilled is as soft as water can ever get.

The 60 RH is pretty high, I wouldn't go over 50, ever. I try to stay in the 30-40 RH range myself.

I would get some different nutrients if they burn at 1200 PPM or less. You should never see burn at 1200 PPM, 1400-1600 is the lowest I ever see burn. I tend to run in the 1200-1400 PPM range myself.

Maxibloom
Dynagro
Jacks Hydro
GH 3 part
...

Any of these or a number of others will all work fine and have never burned a plant at 1200 PPM or below in my experience.

What PPM is your water directly from the tap/hose without using RO?
 
Compatak

Compatak

Member
My water PPM is about 7.3 right out of the tap. My mistake... My PH is at 7.3 the PPM is 120
 
Last edited:
nomofatum

nomofatum

Well-Known Member
Compatak said:
My water PPM is about 7.3 right out of the tap.
Click to expand...
That sounds like your PH, not PPM, but 7.3 PH isn't likely to be very hard. My well water comes out with 230 PPM at 7.8 PH, it works perfectly with most nutrients without any extra filtering. It's effectively 200 PPM of calcium and 30 PPM of useful trace minerals. I never need calmag because I leave my calcium in the water...
 
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