So, you desire bigger fleshy buds… amazing! The good news is that there are several ways that you can tremendously increase the overall product when you are dealing with cannabis. To get the most of your yields, you need to know how to fatten the buds when they are flowering. It doesn’t matter if you’re growing them outdoors or indoors; you can have healthy and dense buds with many impressive cannabis benefits. The secret is to know the best strains with high yield to ease the work for you. That said, let us discuss the ins and outs of fattening buds during the flowering stage. Shall we?
- The Importance Of Getting Big Buds
- How To Get Bigger Cannabis Buds During The Flowering Stage:
- 1. Proper Pruning
- 2. Don’t Use Male Plants
- 3. Use Felt Pots
- 4. Sprinkle Molasses On Your Buds
- 5. Use The Low-Stress Planting Method
- 6. Controlling Levels of Humidity and Temperature
- 7. Adequate Usage of Nutrients
- 8. Use Hydroponics
- Final Say On Bigger Buds
Let’s learn how to get bigger buds during flowering this season!
The Importance Of Getting Big Buds
Needless to say, growers know that the flowering stage is the primary time to increase the size of your buds. The vegetative and flowering stages will highly determine if you will have excellent yields or poor scathing cannabis grows. You need to organize things and know that if your buds don’t look robust right from the vegetative stages, then you can improve the size of your buds, but you’ll have to act fast.
When thinking about improving the size of yield of your buds, it is important to start with the highest quality seed available. High quality seeds will bring bigger buds and a higher yield. This is why we only recommend you shop from the best cannabis seeds available. You can learn about our recommendations by reading our Best Seed Banks article, our Best Autoflower Seed Bank article, and our Best Feminized Seeds article.
You should focus to maximize size during the flowering stage. During flowering stages, the plants are going to bloom and boom, giving you impeccable density and bud size. Without further ado, let us talk about how to increase bud size during the flowering stage.
How To Get Bigger Cannabis Buds During The Flowering Stage:
1. Proper Pruning
Immediately your plant graduates to the flowering stage, you need to start caring and maintaining it properly. One way to care for it is by pruning. Pruning ensures that the most robust buds get a lot of nutrients and energy. This is achieved by getting rid of the weaker undesired leaves and buds. Failure to prune your plants will divide the energy throughout to the more fragile buds. The lost energy goes to the less critical part hence reducing your buds’ thriving potential. All you need to do is take some scissors or secateurs and start at the top, and cut off discoloured and brown leaves that might use up energy that is important to fatten the good buds. Do not use your hands to remove the dying leaves to alleviate tearing the stems.
Feed and water the plants during the flowering and vegetative stages to increase their viability. To even raise the excellence of your plants, you can remove young leaves that aren’t dead yet. Your plant will forcefully recover by growing back better. It would be best if you started doing this to train the plants through pruning. This is called the high-stress method because it isn’t gentle to the young leaves. Regardless, the buds come back bigger and stronger.
2. Don’t Use Male Plants
Ideally, female plants have buds that contain THC, but the male counterparts disturb their growth. If a male pollinates the female buds, they’ll become seedy and stunted, making the plant entirely useless. Male plants can be caught in the primary development stages. The male plants possess flowers and seem to be taller compared to their female counterparts. Females have pistils on their leaves and even buds. You, as the grower, should separate the female plants from their male counterparts during the vegetative stages to prevent pollination. The female plants need to grow healthier, bigger, and more robust.
3. Use Felt Pots
Other growers usually use plastic or clay pots, but the best alternative potting method is felt pots that accelerate growth and produce excellent robust buds. These felt pots are also good at saving time as well as enhancing yield. There is no way you can overwater those plants courtesy of felt base. Your plants’ roots will get a lot of oxygen through the ventilating felt materials that can’t be found in other potting methods. Also, the roots won’t chock or root bound because they can air prune themselves. Thanks to felting pots, you will save a lot of time growing your plants and focusing more on the bud quality without worrying about overwatering or bounding.
4. Sprinkle Molasses On Your Buds
When you sprinkle molasses on your buds, they become healthy and more extensive. Do not get it wrong. They are not the magical fairy tale elixirs used to bombard your flowers overnight. Still, you will be pleased with how your buds will become larger with time. Should you want only to have organic cannabis plants, then you are best advised to use molasses. Apart from keeping the plants robust and healthier, molasses enhances the soil structure of your plants. It also increases the water retention capabilities and safeguards them from hazardous pests and pathogens. It prevents the build-up of salt in soil structure and content that could otherwise destroy the vital nutrients. It is best to use molasses regularly when you are preparing your soil. You can alternatively use it as a foliar spray. There are significantly lower risk chances of overusing them, but you still need to take precautions with the intake of the molasses.
5. Use The Low-Stress Planting Method
If you want bigger buds, you should focus on a low-stress type of training for your plants, which is more natural. With it, you can control your plants’ shape and height while growing great buds. You can also maximize the space and light intensity on where you’re growing your plants.
Naturally, cannabis plants grow and take the shape of Christmas trees or what is biologically known as apical dominance, and that is not ideally good when you want big budded plants. It is a result of how light dispersion works and the total surface area in the branches. Low-stress plant training is also known as LSPT and tremendously motivates plants to grow while ensuring that the branches get equal and sufficient light amounts. This method is gentle, unlike the high-stress plant training method, and it is worth considering when you want to achieve impeccable big-budded yields that are overwhelmingly pleasing.
There is a plethora of equipment you will require if you want to do LSPT, including duct tape, hand drill, plant ties, and wooden dowels. Firstly, you’ll need to drill holes all around the plant holders’ rim. This way, you can loop those plant ties around the branches via the holes to ensure a flattened position. Branches might break because accidents are imminent, but you can quickly patch it up using duct tape. Should the stem require additional support, then use wooden dowels for uplifting the branches. All you need to do is break that Christmas tree cannabis shape via bending branches outwards from your main stem.
It is noteworthy that the low-stress training method isn’t a one thing method since your plant is continually growing. Therefore, there is a need to provide maintenance and care for the plants regularly. The advantage of this method is that you can use it both outdoors and indoors. However, this method only works when it is only in vegetative stages and not any later.
6. Controlling Levels of Humidity and Temperature
It is essential to always consider and remember the crucial factors for growing cannabis. Why sabotage all the hard work you had done by not factoring in the easy things. There should be constant air circulation if you’re an indoor grower. The humidity must be replaced constantly by fresh air without fail lest they become prone to pests, disease infections, and infestations.
Another vital factor is adequate temperature if you want to produce healthy plants. Ensure that the habitat’s temperature is continually monitored. The temperature should never be below 20 degrees Celsius or 68 degrees Fahrenheit because it will result in rotten buds. On the other hand, it should also never be above 27 degrees Celsius or 80 degrees Fahrenheit because it will damage the entire plant.
7. Adequate Usage of Nutrients
Nutrients are a vital element when you want to grow cannabis. To obtain voluptuous and voluminous buds, it is crucial to comprehend the nutrient amount needed to alleviate underfeeding or overfeeding the plants. Nutrients can be found underground or can be provided directly as a fertilizer. You need to know when the plants require these nutrients. In the initial stages of the plants’ life, the typical soil provides nutrients for the young plants. When they are in their flowering stage, you need to give the plants nutrients to amplify their production and growth excellently.
Fertilizers comprise three crucial nutrients that aid in the robust growth of plants in their vegetative states. These nutrients are inclusive of Potassium, Phosphorus, and nitrogen. Nitrogen is responsible for successful photosynthesis and the production of adequate chlorophyll, and lack of it will lead to stunted growth and eventual death of the entire plant. Should the soil holding your plants become cold, that indicates nitrogen deficiency, and you should act very fast before you lose the whole plant. We also have Phosphorus which enhances the germination and stability of roots. The plant’s overall life is highly dependent on Phosphorus. Inadequate Phosphorus causes slow growth and weak plants.
Lastly, there is Potassium. Potassium greatly helps with healthy metabolism in the flowering state. With sufficient Potassium, you will achieve bountiful bud clusters. Inadequate Potassium will result in poor suffering plants of low quality. All in all, your plants must have all three nutrients for excellent prosperous plants. You can also feed your plants with micronutrients such as magnesium, Sulphur, and calcium that are also useful.
Think of these nutrients like the vitamins you need to grow and become healthy. However, it would help if you didn’t overfeed your plants with these nutrients to prevent detrimental results. They will burn the plants, and you’ll see yellow leaves that have burnt tips. It would be best if you balanced the nutrients adequately. If you are not sure, you can ask a plant nutritionist to guide you.
8. Use Hydroponics
Growing your plants in the hydroponic method will achieve unequivocally satiating yields compared to growing them the organic way. The hydroponic process is the growing of plants wherein they’re based in nutrient-wealthy water solutions. This method helps the plants’ roots achieve contact with oxygen and nutrient solution that is important for the growth of plants. Should you want to go the hydroponic way, you are guaranteed up to 25% growth speed of the plants and up to 30% richer yields, unlike the organic method. With this method, plants do not labour looking for nutrients; however, less water is required here compared to soil-grown plants.
Should you decide to go the hydroponic way, you can utilize existential tools like LED lighting, hygrometer, grow tent, suitable ventilation system, and an oscillating fan. Other tools needed are carbon filter, pump, air stone, hydroponic tray and reservoir, clay pebbles, coco coir, hydroponic nutrients, and net mesh pots. For newbies, the most suitable hydroponic system is deep water cultures, wherein you place the plants in buckets with nutrient solutions. This system also requires air pumps to provide constant oxygen to your plants. It is noteworthy that your solution should always be clean and you are highly recommended to change solutions fortnightly to ensure rich growing plants continually.
Final Say On Bigger Buds
Bud size is essential when referring to cannabis buds. The tips above are all-natural and proven to be safe for growing bigger buds. It is also best advised to use low-stress training because it gently trains the plants to magnificently produce voluptuous buds and the overall shape of a canopy. Apart from that, be assured of increased light intensity courtesy of light exposure courtesy of the canopy shape. It is the simplest way to have higher yields.
Pruning method can be done either earlier or later in the plants’ lifetime. With hydroponics, you are assured of up to 30% increased yields. Remember also to feed the plants with the correct amount of nutrients. That said, how you care for the plants overall will determine your success as a cannabis grower. The best time you can maximize that is during the flowering and vegetative stages—Good luck with having impressive yields with your cannabis plants.