When Do the Buds Fill Out?

Okay, I know this is an 8 week flowering cycle and all...

And if you check my last post, progress report you can see I have three monster girls. The tops though seem to be a little misleading to me. I am now seeing a few pistils turning red, not very many but it is beginning. Maybe 2 to 3 percent...

However there is very little bud formation. Most the weight is in the mass amounts of pistils. There is very little bud (very very little) there with just about six weeks into flowering. I have googled and read but find very little information on what to expect the past two weeks and when to expect the calyxes to swell into the bud we all know and come to love the most.

This is a last week or two thing I gather? Or could this be something else?

Can someone describe the process for the last week or two a little better.

Or if they have a link to a good detailed description of it. The two grow books (one mag and one local head shop production don't go into detail much and google turned up little)

I'm sure this may be normal, I mean the plants seems pretty damn healthy. I just like understanding each step, around when it occurs so I can react and be progressive about my adventure.

I have a good understanding of all the stages, including, cutting, hash harvesting, curing, drying, etc. Just the last couple weeks or a timeline of what to expect during flowering is hazy between pistils stretching out around 1 to 2 weeks and the actual swelling of the calyxes.

Like most thing in life it might take longer, 4 more weeks perhaps...

I understand it might take longer than normal. I'm just curious as to how each stage comes. Usually at six weeks of a typical eight week flower should I see decent sized buds? Do the buds swell the most when what percentage of the pistils have turned red? Etc. More detail please. I am pretty damn patient. I just want to know what to expect

When does it stop looking like a bunch of hairs and more like bud? Is this within the last two weeks or is it longer

well from my last grow,week 3 is when I started seein alot of hairs and little balls of bud then around week 4-5 is when the buds start to swell and you start seeing some descent bud FORMING..now in the last couple weeks is when it starts packing on the weight though and getting all hard and what not...also from what I'm told(since I didnt really pay attention to it last time) a high percentage of the hairs turn red in the last week or so...do you have any pics of your plant traxxe..this would help get an idea of what stage your at

i hear 25% in last two weeks.

you could have certain problems though... did your light cycle get interrupted?

you are 12/12 right? what light are you using?

The light cycle got interrupted twice for like fifteen seconds each early on.
The interruption wasn't an active bright light (all lights in house were off) but I figure it will tack on time for flowering, yes. In fact I wouldn't say it was brighter than natural moonlight could possibly be.

I have a 2 X 2 area with a 250 watt HPS and four CFL (100 watt, can't remember the break down to cfl wattage) side lights.

The lumens ratio on the grow guide here exceeds the needs since the space is so small. The side lighting pretty much touches the plants for the CFLs and the HPS is as close as can be just shy of burning.

Lights are on 12/12

Someone suggested I increase the darkness a couple of hours to catch up for the light interruption as this spurs more bud growth at 14 dark and 10 light. Haven't researched that yet though.

And for pics see my last post in this forumn called Progress Report.

Hmmm, you should have decent buds with those lights, maybe they will blow up real good these last weeks. did you give any blooming nutes?

Here is a pic... this as good as it can get. It looks thick but there really isn't much under the pistols for buds.

Does anyone know if cutting back the light hours more would help?

Some strains have a tendency to produce feathery buds, or buds that tend to "run" indoors.

What is the strain?
Can you see lots of glistening trichomes?

Generally on "chunky" buds, you will see the little calyxes swelling and starting to pack on bulk as ripeness nears, they sorta swell into each other creating dense, solid bud mass.....but,
Some strains may never fully "bulk" up indoors. This doesn't mean the buds won't smoke nice!

edit
Just looked at the pic above...looks like more time for bulking up!....4 to 5 more weeks....patience!

from the pic I'd say its doing a little better than you think....almost all those hairs looked white still which means you have some time before harvest...I bet its gunna start to fatten up real soon and then you'll start seeing more and more of the hairs start to turn


P.S. from that PROGRESS REPORT pic and the pic you just posted looks like it fattened some since then..maybe its just me check it out anyone and see if you see a difference

Traxxe said:

Here is a pic... this as good as it can get. It looks thick but there really isn't much under the pistols for buds.

Does anyone know if cutting back the light hours more would help?

Click to expand...

yes the yeild on these nuggets will be almost no substance only a few grams dried you can only expect so much off that wattage, explosive growth in week 2-4 determines height, at week 8-9 your buds should be fully developed size wise all about the tricromes at that point.
maturity rates vary alot . the special skunk i get takes 5 days to sex 21 days for budding to show and almost 11 weeks to finish under 1k hps

i am the last couple of weeks myself and it can seem forever,but clones can take a wee bit longer than those from seed,to finishoff,and any bending,tying down ,pruning can put them back a bit ,but it will happen,it seemed like they had done fuckall for ages,and now you can see the buds really filling out,and that was with training and supercropping ,or in my case i just bend the stem ,i had never heard of the word until i started using the net,but it put them back a bit from what i have read,not from my own records,as i dont keep any,but should fill out soon.if all else is well good luck and good harvest.

supercropping is done before flowering. that way you dont set it back..

i am glad you put that bit in,as i had read it slowed them down,but i did mine prior,first by accident,then to experiment,and the ones i have done look very,very nice,thanks for that bit of info mate,i like the look of them so much ,i may go crazy and do the lot next grow?????

Bro ur buds look absolutly fine ... but you have to wait longer at least till about 60 to 80 percent of hairs have turned color, and use a magnifying glass to see if the trichomes have changed a milky/smokey color, or even a redish amber color... thats when your buds are ready!

I am worried about the same situation. These photos were taken the twelve of january, almost a month ago (when the plant started flowering). So, starting from this point my plant has almost 4 weeks of flowering. When should I expect the buds to grow fat? Now,the tips of the pistils are begining to turn red (15% of all pistils on plant). I also notciced crystals forming on leaves next to buds (mainly hairs).

Great thread, I am so there with you guys, buds have mixed colors but no very heavy yet. The trics cover all of it, guess they fill out last week or so.

Traxxe, did your buds ever fill out? I'm in the same boat. But from the sounds of this thread, I think yours probably did and mine will too... hopefully.

around week 6-5 of 12/12..