Maximising Bud Size – Growing Cannabis Indoors and Out

Obviously, if you are investing the time and expenses necessary into cultivating your own cannabis crop, you want to maximise the results of your efforts. Bud size, density and quantity are quite possibly the best measures of your success. Lucky for you, there are many techniques you can employ to boost the outcome of your indoor or outdoor grow operation.

However, big buds are far from guaranteed. To augment your chances for success, it’s important to be well prepared. This means you have to carefully plan your grow area and take good care of your plants throughout the entire process.

Cannabis plants are fairly hearty, but even they can get stressed out. Stress is caused by a number of conditions that the conscientious canna-farmer can at least mitigate, if not avoid completely.

These include too much heat, as well as too much or too little water. The kinds of nutrients you give your plants are also critical to overall health and yield. The same goes for the amount you feed your crop as it is possible to both under and overfeed plants. Here are a number of steps you can take to ensure higher yields of danker bud.

PRUNING

Cannabis buds form at the plant’s nodes. A node is where a branch grows off the stalk. As the plant grows larger, more nodes will appear. This increases the amount of viable bud sites. As exciting as this may sound in theory, too many sites is not a good thing. This is one of the main reasons some plants produce small or loose nugs. These “popcorn buds” can be a major downer. While they have the same potency as other nugs, they are less compact and lead to a reduced yield.

To prevent this, trim the early developing buds from the lower branches. This is a process known as “Lollypopping.” Essentially, you want to force your plant to focus all of its energy on growing the densest buds at the top.

TRAINING

Another easy way to increase yield is to train your plants as they grow. Left to their own devices, cannabis will grow kind of like menorahs. By training them to grow in a certain way, you can stimulate powerful bud growth. One such example is referred to as the ScrOG method.

Known in full as the “screen of green” technique, this process involves setting up a platform of mesh wiring above your plants. The ideal mesh net size is about 5cm. You then train your plants to grow through the openings. This ensures that your plants will grow straight and not overcrowd each other.

Other methods, such as super cropping or tying down top branches, help create an even canopy. The former is a higher stress approach on the plant, but allows all the plants to develop properly with enough light. It will also maximise the density of the buds at the top of the plant. This is why training and pruning are often used together.

FEEDING

Feeding can be a tricky event, particularly for novice growers. The instinct to feed your plant more than it needs is a recipe for disaster and an all too common occurrence. Both under and overfeeding plants will impact the quantity and quality of resulting buds. A proper diet, just like any growing thing, makes a huge difference.

For instance, feeding nitrogen to plants is known to spur vegetative growth and thus, contribute to heavier buds.

However, it is also very important to know when to switch nutrients. As your plant begins to flower, you may want to reduce the nitrogen and increase phosphorous levels. This helps the buds become dense. It also helps, when growing in soil, to add bat guano to boost phosphorous levels.

Some growers find that adding tea to the soil helps increase bud size. As tea composts, it stimulates healthy relationships between the soil and surrounding bacteria, particularly mycelium. The more mycelium in the soil, the more receptive the plant becomes to nutrients. All this of course results in much bigger buds when carried out correctly.

LIGHTING

Lighting is one of the most essential aspects of your constructed grow space. It absolutely sustains a major impact on yield. Crops depend on strong lights, which is why this is an area where you should not cut corners when planning an indoor grow. The average rule of thumb is that a 600 watt light can cover about a square metre and half of grow space.

The distance between lights and the top of the canopy is another area where growers must be very careful. It is important to place your lights properly so they do not put undue stress on the plants. This is one of the reasons it is important to aim for an even canopy height.

It goes without saying that the right colour of lighting is very important as well. So is enforcing strict light and dark curfew times. The easiest way to make sure you comply with this is to set your lights on an auto timer.

If growing outdoors, it is integral to make sure your plants are properly spaced. If they are too close together, they will not receive enough sun. Growing on a south-facing slope is one of the best ways to make sure your plants are getting enough light.

PRACTICE

Of course, maximising yield and bud size is a top priority of every grower. Growing cannabis is not hard to do, but it takes time and practice to refine. Even the most experienced growers are constantly trying out new techniques to help boost their yields.

Start with the basics first: get to know your grow space. Set up a good lighting system and be attentive to your plant’s needs. That should go far in creating the best grow conditions possible. Tweak and experiment from there. By the time harvest comes around, you may be surprised by just how packed with nugs your plants are!