Huge, Fat, Dense Nugs And 4 Oz+ Harvests

[Big Smoke Dog]

During the winter time, I had quite the problem. My plants were yielding roughly 2oz per plant, and I was doing everything I could think of to make my yields increase. My buds were tall, lanky, skinny and airy. I have since started to correct this problem over the last few months, but I'm not sure how I've been doing it.

 

All of my friends can easily pull 5+ oz per plant. When I first started, I was doing 4+oz per plant.

 

I use Sunshine bails, T5 + 400w + 1000w for veg room. 1000w x 4 for flower/bud. Ionic Boost, Bloom, and Grow and moderate feeding intervals. My clones are fine, my plants are fine, there is no stretching, no spider mites, or anything else generally looked at first and for mostly when a problem arises. If anyone has any tips or questions about my grow specifics or can help me in any way, I'd be appreciative.

 

I'm bothered by the fact that I'm not pulling what I should. If anyone can help, that'd be great. I've seen 400w set ups on here that are pulling more oz per plant than I am with 1000ws, and with the summer coming, and heat issues abound, I need to correct my yielding and then worry about the cooling system after that.

[michiganmedclones]

Better be careful, around here everyone thinks if you can grow dense buds they are imported from California, this is why I no longer offer my meds on here because of all of the scrutiny of the "experts" on this board.

 

Aside from that, I encourage you to grow the biggest, most dense buds you can. In my opinion the trick is to keep your lights COOL and on top of your plants, obviously don't burn your flowers but if you run an A/C line through your hoods you can keep your 1000s 6" from the plant no problem, and you won't loose that important intensity and lumen output by having a 2' gap between lights and plants. Put your plants into flower no taller then 24", let the light get down under the top canopy and fill out the lower buds and pending on how many plants you are running, I'd probably cut back. At first when I started indoor I got 12 clones for each patient I signed on and grew them out, now I have been running 6-9 plants per patient (3 flowering on 3 different schedules, ie: perpetual) I put no more then 4 plants under 1000w, give them plenty of room so they aren't competing for the light and you WILL get more quality buds off the smaller fuller plants then the 5-7' trees where the lower half of the plant (baby buds) is used for processing.

[michiganmedclones]

another important note I didn't even mention, you have to have your nutrients and additives tuned in. That dosen't mean go out and buy the full line of one brand, that means you have to run through numerous test runs to see which of your strains respond to which additives and nutrients, its not a plug and play system growing meds what so ever like a lot of people think. There is a science and an art to it no questions asked.

[Broken]

ehh some strains don't yield well no matter what. Maybe the roots were cold in winter? To much cold air pumped on the plants maybe? Just a guess but if you have temps in check, plants look healthy perhaps it is not enough CO2? Maybe they were root bound? Another guess might be training/pruning issues. I've heard of small light leeks, even little led indicator switches from fans or timers that make the plants not want to bud as strong. Impossible to say I guess.

[Big Smoke Dog]

Thank you very much for your response. I did have 1 issue where I had cold air blowing onto the plants, thus dropping the room to about 50°. I corrected the problem when I realized it the next morning, and it produced a nice purple colored side effect for the rest of my plants. As for my packs, I am indeed running them in 4 packs per 1000w light in flowering. I'm going to try your tips of what to do upon entering flowering. Now that you mention penetrating the canopy, I do have an issue of the lower branches not producing. They will have 1 nice nug or set of nugs at the end of the branch, but the rest dries up into nothing. I started correcting this problem by trimming the base of the stalk a few good inches, but the middle area of the plant still wasn't producing what it should. I understand completely about the "plug and play" aspect, and I'm not asking for a miracle cure. All I want are tips and tricks like you guys have provided me with thus far, so I can add to my tool chest of debugging issues in my room

 

I thank you both very much for your help and I will be implementing these methods into my room as soon as possible. Any more tips, advice, etc is greatly appreciated!

[michiganmedclones]

I learned the hard way by killing off plants, harvesting plants with under 1 oz of usable product, nute burning a whole flower room one time so bad I just pulled and started over, the list goes on and on. If you have a keen eye and a passion for producing medicine then you'll be able to do it, and keep in mind that there isn't a "right" answer. My ways work for me, they work for my buddy, but then I have a friend who grows in soil and tries the same methods and he still isn't yielding what he wants but then again he has a different nute cycle and different strains, like Broken said, some strains just don't have it in em. I tried running Dr. Grinspoon from barneys, its advertised as a low yielding strain and I was worried before I ran it, went with it anyways and god what a mistake. My buddy took the 3 other seeds, ran them and had them spiraling in a tomatoe cage, kept them under 4'6" when he harvested and pulled 6oz per plant which is over 6x what I pulled of my "plants" I had, they were pathetic. If you run Co2 that's going to help fatten up your buds, there are additives that help with density, guano etc. Try a few things on a few strains, see what works, see what dosen't work, and most importantly don't get discouraged when it dosen't work out, becasue thats just 1 more thing you learned NOT to do to that strain and in some aspects thats more important then knowing what to do, if the plant gets good air, good water, and the food it needs its going to be happy, a lot of new growers go buy every nute you can find dump them all in and think they are going to have the best of the best and they end up pushing out the worst of the worst where I know a guy who feeds his girls 4 times all cycle and his bud is some of the best in the state, he dosen't yield much but he's not trying to yield much hes on a very small scale (under 12 plants total) dialing his strain of choice in to the PERFECT combination.

 

Theres 1000 ways to do it, theres 1 ultimate goal. Your job is to find out how to get there and which way you want to take, any other questions feel free to PM me I'm no expert but I can help

[Big Smoke Dog]

Thanks a lot! Another good useful chunk of info. And I agree with the "everyone is different" aspect. I could go into specifics all day, but like you said, at the end of the day, everyone is different. You cant REALLY know whats going on with the entire vibe of a room unless you're the one inside doing it all. As far as I know, I have good air. I figure Co2 weighs more than air, so as it enters the room, it should fall, thus leaving the hot air at the top of the room (and the hoods). I have 3 6" inlines running. 1 is for fresh air from outside to the room. 2 of them are hooked up to 2 hoods a piece, then ran outside the house. So 1 inlet, 2 outlet, with each outlet sucking through 2 hoods then out. I have the "Magic Stick" (cant think of the name off the top of my head. Blue stick, white caps, blue LEDs on it. Tells you water pH and if your plant is over nuted. Tells other stuff but idk what the other stuff is. Cant figure it out) I make sure my plants are nuted properly. I had deficiencies in the past and fixed it with CalMag.

 

Like you said, its all about trying out new methods and seeing what works for you. I'm still interested in any other methods people may use to obtain these qualities, as you can never have too much information

[grewett]

Veg length determines yield, in nearly direct proportion. 3 weeks veg=x, 9 weeks veg=3x.

 

To get 2 pounds take your healthiest most vigorous vegging plant, put in a shed 3.5' x 3.5' x 6' (built maybe to look like an outdoor toilet). On roof at salt-box angle to the south, cover top with white or green corrugated fiberglass (Menards 2' x 12'=$26 per sheet). (If Menards too distant, use old wood storm windows hinged in place and spray frost the glass with the Home Depot-carried product from Rustoleum ($4.98 per can). Spray 2 coats 10 minutes apart. Throw a straw bale down, mound 6 inches potting soil on top of the bale, and plant your clone. In shed wall cut side hole for vent and screen the view. Mount carbon scrubber and fan. Put on a pad lock.

Keep the straw moist, not soaked, and roots will soon deeply drive down into soil beneath the bale. (No need to add any nutrients). The tips will hit the sides of the narrow box and train themselves to grow up into the light. Clip off the botton 12 inches of stems.

 

Keep the straw bale moist; there is no need for attitional nutrients. No need for additional light either.

 

Trust to nature to cut the light back to less than 12 hours in Sept/October, or do what I do (cut lite to 12 hours artificially) and in June or July throw a black 6 mil plastic on the underside of the roof (made more convenient to do if you built the fiberglass or storm windows so you can get on a ladder and unlock the roof and lift the roof and hold it up with a prop like a car hood).

 

The yield (before it is dry and usable and puts you over) can be converted to dry-ice hash (to keep you legal, and you will need to make hash to turn that trick).

 

No matter how hard you try, winter growing can lose you money. You have to work at making trouble for yourself not to yield so much you have to make hash to stay quantity-legal.

[michiganmedclones]

Veg length determines yield, in nearly direct proportion. 3 weeks veg=x, 9 weeks veg=3x.

 

 

Not true IMO. It may work for your roof contraption (no distrespect by that term, just not sure how else to explain it) but if you don't live in the country someone may ask what you have coming off your house, and LEO is definatly going to be interested as to what you have in there. I've vegged for 3 months, got my one plant to about 4' put it into flower, gave it a 1000w light with a proper enviroment and I yield much more off 3 four foot finishing plants with nice dense colas everywhere instead of one big cola.

 

But again, EVERYONE is different, I am not trying to be combative in any way, I know sometimes things come off wrong online instead of in person, and if you way works for you stil with it my man

[kruztydj]

Add co2 and seal the grow room. Run room temp to 85 and keep the r/h to 40 and feed the snot out of them. You should be pullin 2 zips from a no veg girl right from clone and 4 to 8 if left to veg a few weeks. You said buds are airy so thats making me thing room to hot or r/h is off. Without co2 I never run temp over 78 degrees and 85 with the gas on. More co2 and more heat makes them grow more so crank them up and cut them loose.....

[The Digital Nomad]

Pot size increased my yeilds. I switched from 5 gallon pots to 10 gallon pots. This has been the best thing I have done to improve my yeilds. One Wonder Haze, a sativa that should be lanky, grew 5' like a tree. yeilded 6oz dry weight. Under a 600 watt system no less. It was just a matter of tying down the branches to expose the sides to light. It was a sucessful FIM and training that made it work this time.

 

Lollipop to remove the lower half of the plant that will recieve little light from above. On all the inside branches - remove the first two nodes - these will be too small and airy to grow. Do all your chopping before the end of the third week of flower. Never remove more than 20% of the plant at a time. Sativas can get stressed if you chop it later in to flower, it can think its under attack and hermie.

 

Temp and humdity - you should make sure your temp is consistent, plants do not like quick temp changes and erratic temps. Plant growth is effected when the 'mouths' under the leaves close and open - too much humidity, too little, too hot - the plant is not breathing to grow, its just stressing. I run 70 to 82, winter or summer. Humidity is low during winter, but certainly better than fighting 90% humidity in summer!

 

compare grow rooms with your friends - what is different. Plants are not that exact about nutes, temp, lights - so what is different between your grow and theirs? Light leakage, temp, air quality (you do have intake vent right?) - can make all the diff. All grow rooms are different, if they use the same nutes - they might prepare it differently, if they use the same ballast, they might chose a different bulb, soil mixes, temp, humidity, and air quality.

 

And lastly, if you are stressing about 1oz difference, you need to switch strains! Most growers I have seen are lucky to get 2oz per plant. I am happy to say I have reached the 5oz dried weight class myself. Just be happy to be sucessful and don't stress!

 

-DN

[Big Smoke Dog]

Well I've had a multitude of problems since I've started. From pests last summer to deficiencies, I've worked through them all. Im starting to think it comes down to genetics. I have 5 and 10gal smart pots, and those were upgraded from much smaller buckets. That gave me an increase last year. Im honestly thinking my genetics were getting down to their ending point. I've gotten rid of a lot of my old strains, due to me just getting sick of smoking them lol. I was working with some really weak strains at early last year, swapped em out, summer was great, fall was ok, winter was ok, spring was great, now im kinda dealing with summer again.

 

If you guys have any advice on a strain that has yielded consistently for you, that's be cool too. (e.g. Big Bud)

 

I'd love to hear about some solid genetics or uber elite genetics. IMHO, I believe genetics are your foundation, the starting point. All the other variables are built on top of it after that. And technically, its not even "Each grower is different" specific, but "Each strain is different" as well!

 

I have DJ Short Blueberry (who doesnt) but it doesnt like being fed as much as my other plants. You have to baby it and treat it differently.

 

Also what about genetics "vibing"? I've heard that if you grow the same type of plant (sativa, indica) next to each other, it kind of vibes off it? This is supposed to effect the growing. I dont think it'd effect the growing in adding +1 oz per harvest, but it was something one of my friends keeps saying so I figured i'd ask.

[Broken]

If you are after more dense buds the easiest way of doing it is just by cutting all of the branches off the bottom of the plant and growing only main shoots.

[Shredder]

Big smoke dog, I'm thinking your not getting enough, ventilation. You should have two to three times from passive fresh air intake to exhaust size. If this is simply not possible look into co2, veg times and pot size as the rest have mentioned. But I've seen quite a bit, and now I look for it. It really could make a difference and will also help with your summer time cooloing problems.....shredder

[Big Smoke Dog]

Yeah. I've been debating adding 8" x 2 for intake and 8" x 2 for exhaust, with the exhaust being pulled through the hoods thus sucking out a tad less air than is being pumped into the room, hoping to leave a majority of fresh air. The downside to this is the summer heat factor, in which I'd probably have to reduce 1 intake/exhaust line and add a stand alone A/C or something. I'm not sure what to do yet. Got about 2 weeks to figure it out tho

[Willy]

i went with an ac unit. but i still need to add an intake, but ,my room is far from airtight.

 

I am having the same problem but i think i have it worked out with a good defoliation plan. Seems to work for me, got another 1oz from the yeild

 

Time will tell

[mrd]

If you are growing in soil make sure that you see run off from the pot when watering. This shows that moisture is through the soil. You may not need to water for a couple of days after that. i have seen plants where the bottom third of the soil was relatively dry and the roots simply stopped. Just another trick to add to your bag Felix!

 

Also there are supplements that can help. Beastie bloom works fairly well. Also Gravity on some strains works very well. But you have to be careful. I have a strain that laps it up but blueberry gets fried. It is better to use less than more of the stuff.

[MORE COWBELL]

i personally think most is 'STRAIN DEPENDENT' the genetics pretty much control yield if you have met all other requirements for said strain/strains.

that being said-

 

our room is too hot-we know it is-we cannot afford to fix it so we deal as best we can-some of our strains do well and some do not...

we like to grow cooler weather strains(indicas) during the winter and (sativas) during the hot summer months

 

our strains grow differently thru the year and yield differently thru the year depending on temp variables(WHICH IN NATURE TAKE WIDE SWINGS)-we grow ICE strain for example: yields decent and the buds are airy sativa like to begin with but come summer she stretches way too much in the heat to be viable for meds(waste of space)

we have another strain (we just grew the mother out) and she will yield 12 ounces (DRIED) on a 3 foot high plant-she does not mind the heat(weird for Indica but in nature it gets triple digits in AFG/PAK) and the mites dont like her either-we got lucky

we popped the one seed that is amazing-we got lucky-she yields double what our best strains do(Cheese,Super Lemon Haze,Medi bud,warlock) luck of the draw-she will be our Queen she will be the darling of our breeding program- nice Indica genetics-we are awaiting on a smoke report and we are planning on growing her out a little bigger next time to eeek out that 1 lb per plant-yet the plant is worth little(only breeding for yields) if she is not potent and tastes good

that way we can stay WAY BELOW plant counts and provide meds to everyone

 

CO2 and AC(if one can afford it) will be your savior during summer months-most necessary...good luck on finding the great mother

[+budhabit]

I have converted every thing over to litro glow bulb and litro grow 1 part nuet with out having to flush or change my water the last four months. I just harvested 3 plants grown under 8 litro bulbs and estimate my yield at about 5 ounces I will know after it dries but I also got attacked by mites I will have a better average after few more grows with these lights and like More Cowbell said yield depends a lot on the strain

[Indicat]

Big smoke dog, I'm thinking your not getting enough, ventilation. You should have two to three times from passive fresh air intake to exhaust size. If this is simply not possible look into co2, veg times and pot size as the rest have mentioned. But I've seen quite a bit, and now I look for it. It really could make a difference and will also help with your summer time cooloing problems.....shredder

 

 

THIS. if you cant run gas the next best thing you can do for your plants is getting as much fresh air constantly flowing thru that room as possible.

 

if you just toss your plants in a room in your basement with no source of fresh air, your whole op is going to suffer BADLY. yield will be tinkle poor, plants will hate you.

[Robman32]

Genetics

[Ten4GoodBuddys]

limbing and lolipopping.

[Mememe]

Sounds like the room is a vacuum. Cut some more vents or get smaller fans.

[cristinew]

proper ph and Humate Acid is the key

[cujo]

Add co2 and seal the grow room. Run room temp to 85 and keep the r/h to 40 and feed the snot out of them. You should be pullin 2 zips from a no veg girl right from clone and 4 to 8 if left to veg a few weeks. You said buds are airy so thats making me thing room to hot or r/h is off. Without co2 I never run temp over 78 degrees and 85 with the gas on. More co2 and more heat makes them grow more so crank them up and cut them loose.....

everything I read said 78 degrees with co2. 72-74 without. but veg room 80 degrees.