You need to use top-shelf genetics if you want massive buds. You can grow various strains from either clones or seeds. Use bloom boosters – When you give your plant a proven, cannabis-specific bloom booster, you're giving it the extra elements that help it grow bigger, denser, heavier and more potent buds.
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.
Paclobutrazol impacts a plant cell's ability to elongate, which in cannabis means cells pack much tighter and denser on the flower.
Dense/Fluffy
Every grower hopes for dense and heavy buds at the end of the growing season. These flowers simply hold more mass, look much healthier, and smoke smoother. Grinding up dense cannabis flowers seems to almost double their size.
Weeks 4-6: Buds Fatten Up
At this stage of cannabis flowering, your buds are getting bigger. They'll still have all the white pistils sticking out, but you'll be able to see the buds getting bigger every day.
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.
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.
Bud structure
High quality, developed flower from a healthy plant has a sturdy, fully three-dimensional structure. The buds should be solid, with no gaps that you can look through. It's properly cured: not too soft, but not so dry that it grinds down to dust. Flower with poor structure will appear flimsy and flat.
When the flushing process has reached the fan leaves, they will begin to yellow and turn lighter as they send the stored nutrients to the flowers. The flowers will fatten up during these last few weeks while flushing; this can be up to 25 percent of the final weight.
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.
A bud hardener is an additive you can use at the end of the flower cycle to tighten up your flowers and pack on weight. They are typically used in the final 3 weeks or so of the grow cycle and contain a mix of macronutrients, micronutrients, minerals, essential oils, etc.
Topping to increase the number of colas
Prune to clear off dead leaves to help your plants focus their energy on the live parts of the plant. Prune large leaves which get in the way of light reaching the colas. Topping is a form of pruning and involves pruning off the branch tip of the main cola.
After a sugar application, the resulting sugar-like crystals are the flower's trichomes, which are believed to double in production after the plant is treated with sugar.
In the last two weeks, the buds will mostly be ripening and not really growing much more in size. At this point, the previously white pistils on the buds will now slowly turn amber-brown.
Beware of overripe cannabis buds
Plants given a little too much bloom time may have a general appearance of overripeness. Trichomes may be all amber, the terpene profile may be past it's best (possibly with a light aroma of fermentation) and the buds/leaves may take on a browner, less inviting, appearance.
High quality buds will be dense and thick, having grown to a heavy weight during the flowering period of the plant's life cycle. These dense buds signal that the plant received adequate nutrients and light throughout its lifecycle, resulting in a flower rich in cannabinoids and terpenes.
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.
Week 7: The calyxes in the seven-week varieties swell to near bursting as THC is produced in the glands. At the end of the week they will be ready. The trichomes stand more erect and the caps swell with newly produced resin. At the end of the week the flowers reach the peak zone.
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.
In week 5 of flowering, you can observe the buds all over your plant becoming thicker. You may also spot new buds growing in new places such as along the main cola. With buds abounding, your cannabis plants will get fatter every day. This is a surefire sign you are in full flowering mode.
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.
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.
If the pH of the growing medium becomes too low or too high, plants lose the ability to absorb nutrients. Low levels of molecules such as iron and magnesium—important for chlorophyll formation and enzyme synthesis—can lead to crispy, dry leaves. A nutrient surplus can also cause dry and damaged fan leaves.