Cause of overly light and fluffy buds?

I just harvested most of my first grow, and I have to say im a little disappointed. I thought my yield would be much higher. So far I've gotten 38 grams off of my 2 pitbull plants and 58 grams off of 4 yoda OG's. I know this is quite a broad question, but I really dont see what I did wrong.

I have a mentor, he checks my plants on a weekly basis. And every week he tells me it smells great, and everything looks good. But these yields leave a lot to be desired. When the bud was on the plant, it looked great, everything looked like it was going to be awesome. But I just clipped them off their stems an hour ago, after hang drying them for 7 or 8 days (until the stems snapped instead of bending) and they look pathetic compared to when they were on the plant and actually growing. Is that normal?

The only thing I know that I should improve for next time is move my light closer to the plants. When I first installed it i just hung it and left it. I didn't really think too much about it, because the room gets warm and i didn't want the plants to get burned by getting too close to the light. But I see now that i should've adjusted it more. Other than that, I really dont see what went wrong. I read all kinds of threads about people who had 90 day plants the same as me pulling at least an ounce per plant no problem. Though I haven't cured yet I dont expect them to look much better by the time their done.

A list of what I have going on if it helps

600 watt MH/HPS
100% Fox farm's ocean forest (should've cut this with something. currently considering alternative medium)
5 gallon pots
1 month veg
~9 weeks flower (until my mentor told me they were done. All these clones are premium strains coming direct from him, his finished product looks great)
General hydroponics maxigrow / maxibloom


Any advice appreciated. Let me know if i forgot to provide any important info.

If you weight your trimmed, wet buds, they will weigh about 75-80% less when dry. So that is part of it. They do suck up and become smaller as the water is evaporated out. If it was kind of a running bud anyway, it will seem even more runny when its dry.

Try different strains and training methods and you can get what you want. Try vegging longer. Goodluck

What were your temps compared to his?

did you go one month from seed or actual vegetative growth? How tall are the plants? What were temps? My guess is if your light was high temp was alright but anything over 79 can be harmful. If your plants were small and untrained you didn't yield so bad size wise, I grew an amazing og smooth grow and it yielded around 18g at 3 ft tall while the other strains were putting out 2-4 ounces. Unfortunately though you made a common beginner mistake that had likely ruined your crop and that's why it just doesn't look "right" even if it was grown well and temps and all were fine... You've over dried and it is now impossible to cure plus you won't get that density you get from your bud sitting on each other while they cure. In the future trim the plant fully to the bud at harvest and dry them for only about three days until a bit prickly on the outside and then in the jar for hours and out overnight at first slowly tapering down to where they can stay in the jar without molding. Once they are crispy outside they go in, wet outside back out of the jar.. Over and over until the stems are snappy and the bud looks great and "normal"

i ruined my first grow drying full branches as well will never do it again.. Plus it brings in the smell of the decaying leaf matter.. Why keep and dry waste, chop it down to product right then and there and keep that nasty smell away from the bud ! Think about it, by the time those thick branches snap, the bud is long dried out!

Heat - in my experience and get your light as close as possible

Well at least one person answered your question with a partial answer...

He's right....The first thing I was going to list is heat. The next would be.....Low C02 levels in the grow area..
How often do you draw fresh air INTO the grow area?
You must roll over the CFT of the area about once an hr to remain effective at larger dense budding.....

So how often do you exchange or roll over the air ?
How big an area?

The last thing I am going to ask is what are you feeding them?

Doc

Antman15 said:

What were your temps compared to his?

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I'm not sure what his temps are. probably lower because i think most of his lights are enclosed and cooled. My temps can get a little high because we've had quite a hot summer. I have highs of about 82 at the most. but on a cooler day like yesterday i dont have a problem maintaining a nice 77.

kermit2692 said:

did you go one month from seed or actual vegetative growth? How tall are the plants? What were temps? My guess is if your light was high temp was alright but anything over 79 can be harmful. If your plants were small and untrained you didn't yield so bad size wise, I grew an amazing og smooth grow and it yielded around 18g at 3 ft tall while the other strains were putting out 2-4 ounces. Unfortunately though you made a common beginner mistake that had likely ruined your crop and that's why it just doesn't look "right" even if it was grown well and temps and all were fine... You've over dried and it is now impossible to cure plus you won't get that density you get from your bud sitting on each other while they cure. In the future trim the plant fully to the bud at harvest and dry them for only about three days until a bit prickly on the outside and then in the jar for hours and out overnight at first slowly tapering down to where they can stay in the jar without molding. Once they are crispy outside they go in, wet outside back out of the jar.. Over and over until the stems are snappy and the bud looks great and "normal"

Click to expand...

I vegged for about 5 possibly 6 weeks. They didn't start as seeds, they came to me as small clones in solo cups. Plant height is about 3.5 maybe 4 ft if you measure from the floor. I'm not inclined to think that i've over dried them, and i'll tell you why. My mentor says he hang dries all of his strains for about 7 days. and the general consensus when i read around seems to be about 5-8 days as well. The buds didn't feel crispy when i finally took them down. I just waited for the stems to start snapping. As far as i know, im doing almost the same thing my mentor is, doing it amateur style of course, so im bound to make mistakes.

Dr. Who said:

Well at least one person answered your question with a partial answer...

He's right....The first thing I was going to list is heat. The next would be.....Low C02 levels in the grow area..
How often do you draw fresh air INTO the grow area?
You must roll over the CFT of the area about once an hr to remain effective at larger dense budding.....

So how often do you exchange or roll over the air ?
How big an area?

The last thing I am going to ask is what are you feeding them?

Doc

Click to expand...

I'm drawing fresh air into the room almost constantly as long as the the light is on. My supply air comes from outside, but when its time for lights out, I have to close the window because of humidity. It seems that my clones (once they start flowering) do not care for the humidity, i've heard humidity is ok in veg, but im not entirely sure. The room is about the size of a smaller childs bedroom. maybe 10x10. possibly 10x8. And im feeding General hydroponics maxigrow and maxibloom.

after going over the numbers again, im not as disappointed on the yield, im mostly disappointed at the way the bud itself looks. It looked much tastier while growing than it does cut and trimmed. as for actual potency, we will have to wait a week or two and find out.

And the heat is? Lights on and off temps please...

Dr. Who said:

And the heat is? Lights on and off temps please...

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about 82 for a high with lights on. the lights out high can differ, depending on whether or not im using the dehumidifier. The dehumidifier makes the room quite warm, so about a high of 81 ( i need to find a way to cut that down) without probably about 74ish.

People make a big deal about heat, and i wont say it doesn't affect anything, but I dont see how it could be THAT big of a deal that i break the 80 mark when the outdoor plants this season look great even though they've been sitting in 85-90 degrees almost all august.

edit: also that 82 with lights on is an absolute max. thats when its 90 degrees outside. I can usually keep a decent 77-78 on a cooler day, less depending on the weather outside

Heat is a big deal and you cant compare indoor to out.
You need to get and indica (not some tall spindly sativa) and train it in veg. Im about to harvest a G13 that looks about 14-16 oz and 2 others about 12 oz. I have cooltube over the lights 600w. To maximize the bud sites i train the plant in a pot in veg and flower with a wire cage around the pot up about 3 feet and the growing shoots are pulled thru the cage holes and tied to the cage. Also make sure you let them go till there is little to no hairs left.
Get a cage with holes about this big.

papa canna said:

about 82 for a high with lights on. the lights out high can differ, depending on whether or not im using the dehumidifier. The dehumidifier makes the room quite warm, so about a high of 81 ( i need to find a way to cut that down) without probably about 74ish.

People make a big deal about heat, and i wont say it doesn't affect anything, but I dont see how it could be THAT big of a deal that i break the 80 mark when the outdoor plants this season look great even though they've been sitting in 85-90 degrees almost all august.

edit: also that 82 with lights on is an absolute max. thats when its 90 degrees outside. I can usually keep a decent 77-78 on a cooler day, less depending on the weather outside

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Why are you talking about right now. Those things didn't grow yesterday they grew in the heart of the summer.. how hot did it get when it was a hundred degrees?

mr sunshine said:

Why are you talking about right now. Those things didn't grow yesterday they grew in the heart of the summer.. how hot did it get when it was a hundred degrees?

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yeah I didn't get any of that..

papa canna said:

about 82 for a high with lights on. the lights out high can differ, depending on whether or not im using the dehumidifier. The dehumidifier makes the room quite warm, so about a high of 81 ( i need to find a way to cut that down) without probably about 74ish.

People make a big deal about heat, and i wont say it doesn't affect anything, but I dont see how it could be THAT big of a deal that i break the 80 mark when the outdoor plants this season look great even though they've been sitting in 85-90 degrees almost all august.

edit: also that 82 with lights on is an absolute max. thats when its 90 degrees outside. I can usually keep a decent 77-78 on a cooler day, less depending on the weather outside

Click to expand...

Do you run co2.. If you do then 85 is fine. If you don't then you shouldn't compare the outdoors to the inside of your house.

papa canna said:

yeah I didn't get any of that..

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How hot did it get in your room when the outside temps were hitting 100 degrees. .several weeks ago or whatever. What's the hottest it's ever hit while they were flowering. . Not yesterday.. from week 1 of flower till chop, what's the max temperature?

mr sunshine said:

How hot did it get in your room when the outside temps were hitting 100 degrees. .several weeks ago or whatever. What's the hottest it's ever hit while they were flowering. . Not yesterday.. from week 1 of flower till chop, what's the max temperature?

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82 for a max. I dont run co2, but my air supply is outside air. isnt that pretty close to actually having a plant outside in the open air?

papa canna said:

82 for a max. I dont run co2, but my air supply is outside air. isnt that pretty close to actually having a plant outside in the open air?

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No its not the same. 82 isn't bad though. Did you overwater maybe?


So far you've cropped roughly 100 grams. How many more do you have to harvest?

papa canna said:

about 82 for a high with lights on. the lights out high can differ, depending on whether or not im using the dehumidifier. The dehumidifier makes the room quite warm, so about a high of 81 ( i need to find a way to cut that down) without probably about 74ish.

People make a big deal about heat, and i wont say it doesn't affect anything, but I dont see how it could be THAT big of a deal that i break the 80 mark when the outdoor plants this season look great even though they've been sitting in 85-90 degrees almost all august.

edit: also that 82 with lights on is an absolute max. thats when its 90 degrees outside. I can usually keep a decent 77-78 on a cooler day, less depending on the weather outside

Click to expand...

Are you saying that your night/ lights off temps get as high as 81? Did I read that right?

Aeroknow said:

Are you saying that your night/ lights off temps get as high as 81? Did I read that right?

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yes, it can get that high when im running my dehumidifier. I dont have any good way to cool it down. I have to turn my supply fan into an exhaust to cool it down a little, but i can't let it be a supply fan because it would just be making it more humid.

mr sunshine said:

No its not the same. 82 isn't bad though. Did you overwater maybe?


So far you've cropped roughly 100 grams. How many more do you have to harvest?

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2 plants left, 1 obsession, 1 cotton candy. The cotton candy is small so im withholding judgement until I break it down, but I have high hopes for the obsession, it always looked like the dankest one in the bunch.

papa canna said:

yes, it can get that high when im running my dehumidifier. I dont have any good way to cool it down. I have to turn my supply fan into an exhaust to cool it down a little, but i can't let it be a supply fan because it would just be making it more humid.


2 plants left, 1 obsession, 1 cotton candy. The cotton candy is small so im withholding judgement until I break it down, but I have high hopes for the obsession, it always looked like the dankest one in the bunch.

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I like your lights on temps. No prob there. I don't like the lights off temps though. Try and get that shit down closer to 70.