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When you know how to fatten up buds before harvest, you will achieve better results. The good news is that many practices can help make your buds grow fatter, including adding compost tea to your soil. However, most of the techniques you have to do call for a certain level of accuracy.
This guide explores some of the ways to make your flower buds grow bigger. Remember that the kind of harvest you get depends on how much care and attention you give your plant. As long as you have the right equipment, the rest is easy.
That said, let’s get started.
How to Fatten Up Buds before Harvest Like a pro
Before finding out how to fatten up buds before harvest, it’s essential to understand what it will take. Factors like nutrients, light and the general growing conditions play a significant role in the health of your buds. So let’s review some of the things you can do to fatten your buds.
1. Increase Carbon Dioxide Supply
Your plants, like any other green plants, use carbon dioxide to combine with light to make the sugars used in bud fattening. Combining a lot of light with a lot of carbon dioxide promotes adequate sugar production.
The amount of CO2 in the outdoors is abundant enough to make your plants grow big enough buds. If you have the choice of ventilation, you can use CO2 to get even a higher yield. Use generators to increase the amount of carbon dioxide.
When doing it, ensure that you seal off the grow area with the light adjusted inside your grow area. Next, pump CO2 into the room and watch as your plants grow. Finally, ensure you match the intensity of CO2 with that of light.
The best way to apply more CO2 is above the plants. Doing so ensures that it hits the leaves correctly and utilizes most of it to lose very little. Keep in mind that CO2 is denser than air, thus the need to seal off the growing area sufficiently.
2. Ensure You Get the Proper Nutrients
Nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium are the essential nutrients for a flowering marijuana plant. Phosphorus, in particular, stimulates the buds to grow to full sizes, while potassium makes the plant stronger to resist environmental conditions.
At the flowering stage, the plants need NPK in the ratio of 10:30:10. You then have to increase the amount of potassium to make the buds more dense and healthy.
Besides phosphorus and potassium, ensure that you mix water with molasses. They are rich in essential minerals that are important for bud development. However, don’t mix water with molasses every time.
Your plants also need clean plain water to dissolve the nutrients. The products of doing this are soft buds, and you get to avoid nutrient burn.
You can learn to apply other nutrients appropriately to ensure that your plants get the most out of them. However, keep in mind that too much or too little nutrients could end up destroying your plant.
3. Adjust Grow Light Intensity
All plants need light to grow. For marijuana plants, light is essential when it comes to fattening buds. In addition, sunlight provides the plant with the energy necessary for growth.
Light for plants works the same way that food works for humans. It activates photosynthesis and pushes metabolism levels higher. So when it comes to adjusting light, here is a way you have to go about it.
You start at the vegetative stage, where you have to apply high-powered HID light. It should be around 400W, a level that is suitable for your plant.
Next, you change the HID light to 1000W, which is suitable for bud development. The increased light intensity has a positive effect on the rate of photosynthesis. However, HID light tends to consume a lot of energy.
You can switch to LED lights if you are trying to save on power bills. Go for LEDs that can offer the highest watts. Also, ensure that you don’t compromise by getting lower proceed LED growth if you want good results.
The reason it’s better to use grow-light rather than relying on natural light is that you can pick the kind of light getting to your plant. Also, you get to adjust the angle that the light hits your buds. Besides light intensity, the distance you place your grow lights from your plants also affects the growth and development of the buds.
Place the 1000W HPS light 40cm above the canopy, don’t move it any closer since three is potential for a light burn. A fluorescent light should be at least 30cm above the plant and not above that since the light would be inadequate.
The goal of positioning and adjusting light is to ensure that the plants don’t stretch in search of light. Stretched plants have reduced photosynthesis and develop popcorn buds.
4. Practice Plant Training
When the cannabis plant grows, it grows on one main branch and a few single branches. This growth pattern might not favor you if you want to make the most out of your equipment.
You can turn to plant training techniques like LST and HST to get control of your marijuana plant. Plant training reshapes the way the marijuana plant grows.
These plant training techniques open up the branches and canopy so that the planet receives maximum light and airflow, which ultimately translates to fatter buds and better yields.
Low-Stress Training (LST) ensures that you don’t mutilate your plant. All you do is bend the branches and stem horizontally. Doing so maximizes light usage, which motivates bigger buds to grow.
With High-Stress Tainting (LST), you have to mutilate your plant by topping or firming, cutting the marijuana plant just like with LST. The only difference here is that you take less time while stressing your plant more.
If you apply this method skillfully, you have the potential to ensure high yields. You can even combine both if you are feeling confident.
5. Keep an Eye on Humidity and Temperature
Cannabis plants grow best in temperatures ranging between 18-26 degrees Celsius and humidity at 30 percent. However, in the last weeks of flowering, the humidity can go as low as 45 percent.
Humidity and temperature are the two most critical elements that you should always have your finger on. Marijuana plants are most vulnerable in the flowering stage. That’s when pests and botrytis are more likely to attack. High humidity aggravates these attacks when they occur.
A drier grow room guarantees denser buds. If you fail to maintain the optimal conditions, the buds end up airy like popcorn.
The best way to ensure you get the conditions just right is by buying equipment like fans, heaters, and AC units. Indoor growing gives you more control over these conditions than you would when growing the plants outside.
6. Plant the Right Strain
When learning how to fatten up buds before harvest, one of the most important factors to consider is the kind of strain you are growing. Some strains naturally produce fat buds even without you having to put in any extra work.
There have been discoveries that different strains have different effects, aroma, flavor, and structures besides bud size. If you are looking for fluffy buds, then it’s best to look into Sativa strains. They are lighter but strong.
Indica strains, on the other hand, have thicker, denser flowers. You can choose a strain, and it still produces fat buds even after applying all the necessary conditions required for growth.
If you want an increased chance of getting suitable strains, you can look into cultivating hybrids. Hybrids tend to have the right genetic mix to ensure that you have fat buds.
A great example is the Purple Lemonade Auto which has Sativa and Indica characteristics. It produces solid and dense buds that you will love.
There are some things that you have to do without mentioning if you want big buds sometimes. You might still get tiny buds even after using the techniques discussed above. Ensure that you do the following properly
Ensure that you feed the plant adequately in the flowering stage
The buds start developing at this stage. The kind and amounts of nutrients you provide to your marijuana plants affect the density of the buds.
Keep nitrogen levels at a minimum from when the flowers start forming
Nitrogen mixed with water generally poses a nutrient burn threat to your plants. Too much nitrogen in the budding stage affects the density of the bud.
Keep an eye out for plant deficiency
When it comes to essential nutrients like phosphorus and potassium, you must ensure that the plants get them in the right amounts when budding. Do so, and you are more likely to have fat buds.
Conclusion
A lot of factors have to apply when you are learning how to fatten up buds before harvest. It’s important to note that you may not always get the result you want even after doing everything right. Know how to care for your marijuana plants in different stages to be at a better chance of getting fat buds. Sometimes it takes a little trial and error to get it right.
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