Increasing the amount of CO₂ in your grow room can help you grow bigger, denser buds. By doing so, you'll help plants photosynthesise faster and encourage them to take up more nutrients and water.
Making Weed Stronger: It's Possible!
Besides strain choice, it mostly comes down to being a competent and attentive grower. Master growing, harvesting, drying, and curing, and you'll be rewarded with highly potent buds.
Potassium makes the plant hardier and stronger, better able to withstand hardship or disease. All of these are vital for growing large marijuana buds, but you have to use them wisely. Sulfur is another nutrient that, like potassium, helps the plant absorb other nutrients and water.
Lack of light is perhaps the most common reason that cannabis produces fluffy, light buds. You may have noticed the lower, puny 'popcorn' bud sites that form below the main canopy. Often these buds are discarded by growers allowing the plant to focus biochemical energy on the main blooms.
Light intensity
To some degree, more light translates to fatter buds and higher yields (you'll need to pay attention to the distance between your grow light and plants or your plant may suffer from light burn). Increasing light intensity is the most effective way to fatten up buds.
General Hydroponic KoolBloom
Available as Liquid KoolBloom or Dry KoolBloom, this additive is widely regarded as the best bud hardener out there.
Are Small Buds more Potent? Small buds are generally the same potency as large nugs of the same strain. Small nugs come from the same plants as large nugs, they're simply pieces of flower that tended to get less light and thus didn't grow as large.
Buds get less dense when it's too hot. Look at the loose structure of this bud grown in extreme heat. Another thing about temperature: cannabis plants in the flowering stage like it to be a little warm in the day, but cool at night. Warm nights are also associated with airy buds.
Fluffy buds don't only look less appetising, but you'll need to use more of your harvest every time you roll a blunt or hit a bowl. Dense buds will offer some resistance and spring back to their original shape. Airy buds will almost collapse in on themselves, and feel much more feeble to the touch.
The last three weeks is when your buds can actually gain the most weight – that is if you feed them Overdrive®. After your peak bloom phase, your plants enter their late bloom phase (the precise timing and length of which depends on the strain of cannabis you're growing).
Paclobutrazol impacts a plant cell's ability to elongate, which in cannabis means cells pack much tighter and denser on the flower.
Buds not dried properly. Improper drying after harvest is the #1 reason for harsh weed. Buds may become harsh from drying unevenly, drying in poor conditions, or the formation of mold/bacteria/microrganisms (often you can smell it but can't see it).
Instead, utilize organic fertilizers like worm castings, blood meal, fish meal, or bat guano for nitrogen; bone meal or rock dust for phosphorus; wood ash or kelp meal for potassium; and dolomite lime for calcium or magnesium.
Godfather OG is quite possibly the highest THC strain. Labs put the strain's THC levels at a tremendous 30-35%. In fact, Godfather OG is touted as the world's strongest marijuana strain. This potent strain is an Indica-dominant hybrid and hits within minutes of taking the first smoke.
Guideline #2: Harvest marijuana when 70% of the pistils have turned brown or orange. Most cultivators who base their harvest date on the Pistil Method take down their plants when 70% of the pistils have changed color and curled inward. If 90% of the pistils are brown/orange, the plant is past its peak.
Higher THC
The reason why weed is sticky is the overabundance of trichomes, which also makes the product more potent. Trichomes are tiny hair-like appendages that collect THC on their tips. Trichomes are present on all marijuana plants, but sticky plants have the most and therefore generate the most THC on their tips.
In general, your bud is ready to start the curing process when the stem at the base of the bud easily snaps when bent, and the bud feels dry yet spongy. Here are some of the basics when it comes to how to cure weed. Glass is the ideal container when curing cannabis, as it will leave no aroma on your flower.
Cannabis plants are happiest when they get between 10–12 hours of direct sunlight per day. As you'll likely have witnessed with your own eyes, weed plants grow really vigorously, and hence need a ton of solar energy to fuel their growth.
The more trichomes a bud has, the more potent the marijuana will be. Trichomes are the medicinal crystals of the plant and form as the bud yields into its final stages. These crystals peak during the plant's drying and curation process, and the more frosty your nuggets become determines how strong your highs will be.
Light burn may also cause loose and airy buds. That's because the excess light causes nutrient deficiencies as plants struggle to overcome their heat and thirst. Fortunately, you don't have to wait for these symptoms to emerge to know whether greenhouse lighting is too strong.
Popcorn buds are useful, but still often unwanted by growers. That is why smaller flowers are often trimmed off the plant and sold to dispensaries at a more affordable price.
Molasses adds sugars to the plant and will help it to bud. Like us, plants need salts, nutrients, and sugars daily. Feeding your plants molasses, what could be considered the equivalent to our eating junk food sugars, will pack on the weight to your marijuana buds.