how to get dense buds?

i just harvested and cured my first four plants. smoke report is better than i thought it would be. buds are sticky, smell like a skunk got dipped in gasoline. pretty happy with it, honestly.
however, during the trim job, i realized that the buds were fluffy AF. like, when i trimmed back leaves there was very little flower to be found. curing helped a bit with compacting it down, but still...i feel like i grew cannabis leaves vs cannabis flowers.
what are the tricks to dense, thick colas and buds?
my first grow was all auto from RQS, 3 indica dominant and 1 cbd. i ran them in FFHF with Dr Earth dry amendments, fed every 2-3 wks. lighting is ES300 x 2 in a 4x4 tent.
is it genetics? is it grow medium? will photos have denser buds?
i'm open to all advice and suggestions.

Possibly genetics. And lots of folks try autos at first because it seems easier, less mysterious, fire and forget.

wakeNbaker46 said:

i just harvested and cured my first four plants. smoke report is better than i thought it would be. buds are sticky, smell like a skunk got dipped in gasoline. pretty happy with it, honestly.
however, during the trim job, i realized that the buds were fluffy AF. like, when i trimmed back leaves there was very little flower to be found. curing helped a bit with compacting it down, but still...i feel like i grew cannabis leaves vs cannabis flowers.
what are the tricks to dense, thick colas and buds?
my first grow was all auto from RQS, 3 indica dominant and 1 cbd. i ran them in FFHF with Dr Earth dry amendments, fed every 2-3 wks. lighting is ES300 x 2 in a 4x4 tent.
is it genetics? is it grow medium? will photos have denser buds?
i'm open to all advice and suggestions.

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It's more than likely that you harvested 2 or 3 weeks early and that's why they didn't get dense.

My quess as to why you might get fluffy buds.

1) bad genetics
2) lack of light intensity.
3) generally unhealthy plants

Kola_Kreator said:

It's more than likely that you harvested 2 or 3 weeks early and that's why they didn't get dense.

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I respectfully disagree. Dense buds should pretty much be dense right out of the gate. If they aren't dense by week 5 or 6 a few more weeks really isn't going to help.

Many things could contribute to fluffy buds. Lack of light, not enough nutrients or lack of nutrients at the right time during the flowering cycle. Harvesting to soon is something so many growers do when first starting out. (myself included) Environment could play a role as well. My first outdoor grow wasn't worth sharing with others looking back at it. My first indoor wasn't much better either. Third, fourth and so on all improved. Now I research a little before starting a grow to refresh the brain and to remind myself what I did right and perhaps what I did wrong during the last run. Enjoy what you grew and move on and try harder the next time around.

Id have to guess fluffy buds maybe from too hot an environment.

Genetics definitely go a long way I feels and also little luck of the draw unless the environment is fucky.
I’ve had some fucky environments with great results and also some very subpar results in optimal environments. Some real fluffy autos and some nice thickness.
What breeder and cultivar?

Also it’s your first grow and you made it harvest so cheers bud!

Any pics either before or after harvest?

In order of likelihood for a first grow I'm thinking:

- harvested too early
- poor plant health
- too hot
- not enough light (lower on the list because you're running ~41 watts/square foot)
- genetics (last because you said it happened to 3 different strains)

weedstoner420 said:

Any pics either before or after harvest?

In order of likelihood for a first grow I'm thinking:

- harvested too early
- poor plant health
- too hot
- not enough light (lower on the list because you're running ~41 watts/square foot)
- genetics (last because you said it happened to 3 different strains)

Click to expand...

Kola_Kreator said:

It's more than likely that you harvested 2 or 3 weeks early and that's why they didn't get dense.

Click to expand...

they were hovering at 15 wks, and i noticed that they were on the cusp of diminishing odor, the plants weren't drinking water really at that point, all calyxes were orange and receded, leaves had been fading for weeks, trichomes were all cloudy, etc. i'm fairly confident that if i had let them go much longer, i would have crossed a threshold.
i've got a new run in the tent, different breeder and strains. running the same medium, lights, etc so we'll see what happens...
thanks for the reply, appreciate it.

Cookie Rider said:

Id have to guess fluffy buds maybe from too hot an environment.

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it was actually quite cool, according to the govee the avg temp was 67*. the tent is in the basement that, while connected to the house's hvac system, always stays cooler than the rest of the house.

LewberDewber852 said:

Genetics definitely go a long way I feels and also little luck of the draw unless the environment is fucky.
I’ve had some fucky environments with great results and also some very subpar results in optimal environments. Some real fluffy autos and some nice thickness.
What breeder and cultivar?

Click to expand...

RQS for all four; Fat Banana / Royal Dwarf x 2 / Fast Eddy

weedstoner420 said:

Any pics either before or after harvest?

In order of likelihood for a first grow I'm thinking:

- harvested too early
- poor plant health
- too hot
- not enough light (lower on the list because you're running ~41 watts/square foot)
- genetics (last because you said it happened to 3 different strains)

Click to expand...

i have a grow journal in my sig; lots of photos there from throughout the grow. i will upload pics tomorrow of the fluffballs; they're in different stages of curing so i'll post different examples. maybe i'm just being too harsh?

wakeNbaker46 said:

it was actually quite cool, according to the govee the avg temp was 67*. the tent is in the basement that, while connected to the house's hvac system, always stays cooler than the rest of the house.

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Where are the photos?

67° on average could be one of or the exact culprit to the fluffy buds.

Marq1340 said:

Where are the photos?

67° on average could be one of or the exact culprit to the fluffy buds.

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my grow journal is in my sig below my username. i uploaded ~ every 7 days up until i harvested the second of four plants. there is a fluffy bud pic at the end, right after my trimming and before curing.

Sweet seeds sweet afghani delicious is really dense even outdoors.

I'm growing 5 different plants at the moment....One of them has produced very chunky buds...One is almost like a tumbleweed....very weird sativa expression...One has thick stalks with widely-spaced internodes.....One is producing what appears to be small, popcorn buds all over the plant....Another has what look like golf ball shaped buds. All of them are in the exact same growing conditions...It mostly boils down to genetics. Most modern hybrids have been made to produce big, dense chunky buds...BUT the hybrids are SO complex, there is always going to be chances that a plant won't produce dense buds due to some latent genetic trait that just appears. Some hybrids have more stability than others, but the complexity of hybrids is already very deep and getting farther and farther away from the specific traits that came from the original landrace strains. If you go back in time, there are lots of old school strains that didn't produce dense buds at all. I used to get some Columbian back in the day that had somewhat dense buds, but most of it was loose and leafy and filled with seeds.

pegboy said:

My quess as to why you might get fluffy buds.

1) bad genetics
2) lack of light intensity.
3) generally unhealthy plants

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is auto mazar any good?