How to stop buds from popcorning in the heat

Hello all,
It seems every time I do a grow the flower period always happens either right around the beginning of summer or right in the middle of summer and where I live it gets hot very early in the year. For instance the past few weeks it has been in the high 90s and this last week it has been 100+ on more than a few days and it's not even summer yet.
This time I thought I was going to be smart and start early, but the zipper failed on my tent and delayed flower by three weeks (while I argued with the tent maker), which put the flowering back three weeks.

So during that time the plants grew taller then I was intending and now while in flower they are getting too close to the lights and I am afraid I will end up light burning the buds...

Technically I should have harvested by now, but I still have three weeks to go and my buds just refuse to get any height.
I am not looking for a pound per plant as I only grow for my own use, but I would like the buds to grow a bit taller, if anything to make me feel better.

I have tried silica, I have tried adding calcium nitrate during flower (to be honest the plants looked better when I did), restricting calcium nitrate during flower, nothing seems to work to be honest... Except I suppose I could put an A/C or chiller on their reservoir.
They are being grown in a modified Dutch Bucket system, which the plants love (the roots always look so healthy), but budding has been an issue.

What buds I do have look good, they are just tiny and always very packed with trichomes, they just lack height...

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thank you!

At least bend them over away from the light. I harvested and dried a crop last year in a 90 degree heat wave. The weed turned out lousy; first time I ever lost a whole crop. I will buy an ac unit this year if we have another heat wave during my harvest. I am trying to time it so I won't be harvesting in August. If you have too much heat now you really need ac.

@70's natureboy, Thanks'
That's what I was afraid of...
I will try planning the next grow so even with some wiggle room, the flowering period starts earlier so I am not harvesting in summer or winter.

Chris Edward said:

every time I do a grow the flower period always happens either right around the beginning of summer or right in the middle of summer and where I live it gets hot very early in the year.

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I feel your pain.

Some of your options for dealing with the heat are as follows:
1. MOVE the hot air with fans.
2. COOL the hot air with AC.
3. SUPPLEMENT the hot air with carbon dioxide.
4. GROW only those strains that have demonstrated a proven ability to withstand high heat.

The bottom line is that if the heat is high enough, you're just going to have to bite the bullet and get an AC unit for your grow space.

Agree Wil. Just make sure you get the right one. Always get plenty more than you need. Don’t cut yourself short and don’t skim by. Go big. Also make sure the exhaust of the unit is some where it will vent extreamly well. I don’t think a lot of us do enough research on a/c’s before the first one. I have bought and sold three when I should have just went big in the beginning. Just my opinion gl

Question that is somewhat related, that I don’t think required another thread.


This go around, I kept my plants really short. I’m now in week 4 of flower, and could raise my light 9-12” more.

At this stage, my plants are done ‘growing’ and are working on ‘flowering’, right?

Should I raise my light?

tyke1973 said:

I would raise the lights after week 5 ,this is normally when they stop stretching .But if you think by having the lights higher,not too high you will get better Cover of the area then higher them .

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Thanks.

Wilksey said:

I feel your pain.

Some of your options for dealing with the heat are as follows:
1. MOVE the hot air with fans.
2. COOL the hot air with AC.
3. SUPPLEMENT the hot air with carbon dioxide.
4. GROW only those strains that have demonstrated a proven ability to withstand high heat.

The bottom line is that if the heat is high enough, you're just going to have to bite the bullet and get an AC unit for your grow space.

Click to expand...

Thank you Wilksey,

I suppose the best plan would be for me to plan my grow for when it's not as hot out...
It just seems that no matter what I do, the grow always gets delayed and the flowering always takes place in summer.
So this time I am going to start a grow at the end of summer with the idea that it will be finished hopefully before winter...

psblunt said:

Agree Wil. Just make sure you get the right one. Always get plenty more than you need. Don’t cut yourself short and don’t skim by. Go big. Also make sure the exhaust of the unit is some where it will vent extreamly well. I don’t think a lot of us do enough research on a/c’s before the first one. I have bought and sold three when I should have just went big in the beginning. Just my opinion gl

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Hello psblunt,
An A/C isn't really an option because it would have to run 24/7, once summer hits here it's hot all the time...
So I am just going to plant to grow at a cooler time of year.

tyke1973 said:

It's not the heat why you are getting pop corn bud,it's the lack of light.Either pull the Plant apart and tie the sides down,so more light can get to the middle .Its pretty hard to get real good buds right down to soil level,un less you start flowering really small.Your best bet if you don't use them is take all the bottoms off,this will put more effort into those big tops.I don't mind the odd pop corn bud,I just cut them of and just make oil from them.

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Hello tyke 1973,
It must be the heat, it's not even officially summer yet and we're getting 100+ degree days and the room gets to be 85-90 degrees.
The light is pretty intense, I have done the math for the area and the light more than takes care of the area.
It's only a few plants so getting into the middle isn't a problem either.
It's not a question of "a few" popcorn buds, they are all popcorn buds.
I will just plan to grow during a cooler time of the year.

@tyke1973, Thank you.