airy buds? what causes it?

I tried a few varieties outdoors this year that frankly I am very disapointed with. I planted a few Ice, Arjans Haze and other varieties. But those two strains had extremely light and airy buds that where completely unusable for smoking purposes. I will probebly make edibles or hash out of the resulting flowers. I planted them in a compost/worm castings base that was amended with blood and bone meal, pearlite, azmax ( trace elements ) and composted cow poop, and fed a worm castings tea throughout the grow. Some where directly in the ground and others where in 45 gal. smart pots.

My concern is that this not happen again and am wondering if it was the strains, or something else that causes such a airy bud to form. Lighting was good to very good as I had at least 6 to 8 hours of direct sunlight throughout the grow. I can cut a few trees down if needed to supply more light if it is deemed neccessary.

This is not the first year I used Worm casting tea for my grow. I did the very same regime last year and had much better results. Maybe the 'brand' of worm castings wasn't up to par.

The only thing I did any different was in using the composted cow poop that I got for free from a neighbors farm. Can cow poop be bad for pot?

I'm stumped as to the cause, and I just know that somebody, out in the great beyond, knows why this is happening to me.

Thanks in advance for any input.

low/high temps, ph problems, neuts? humitiy levels, over/underwatering.. is only to name a few problems that cant can cause this up to you?? my personal thinking is heat stress

Have you grown many sativa dominant plants? Did they finish out completely?

The word Arjan say's it all .. Greenhouse seeds are notorious for there Hemp traits , Sure you can find keepers within there gear if your lucky but for the most part there genetics are weak and very unstable as well ......

My first guess would be light.
If you can do the tree thing so you have access to 8A.M.-6P.M. direct sun, that would be great.

with all the thinking you named. im not seeing enough p in your soil. with alot of n. not surte if you grow the same strain every yr. but they all like getting feed dif ratios. you have to learn what they want. iv always found that more magnsuim i us miolasses always helps with filling them out. also using a early harvest strain outdoors i find they get alittle fluff i think its from the blue light from the sun. and the red spectrum dont really kick in tell there almost done.

the word is haze, all sativa doms will be airy it is just the way they grow.

imchucky666 said:

My first guess would be light.
If you can do the tree thing so you have access to 8A.M.-6P.M. direct sun, that would be great.

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agreed,dont really have expierience with those strains but in my opinion that is not enough light

Thanks for the responses, I appreciate it.
I'm thinking that basically the fault is strain related. I should have known better than to run unknown / untested strains. I believe that both the strains that are doing this are either sativa dominant or sativa/indica crosses. It could be that I just should have let them go longer as well. I had to harvest due to weather conditions.

I was feeding the same thing to these strains as I was to my other strains. Basically worm casting tea ( worm castings + molassas + flowering ferts).

Where they where planted is the same place that I grew other strains last year. And I had no problems with those plants as far as resulting hard tight nugs, so I really don't think it is a light issue, but I will be working to get more light there for next year. I have two big oak trees that I really don't want to cut down, as they give a bit of security to the grow area. They do however cause a bit of shading in the after noon.

No more untested varieties and no more going by the breeders hype on the seed sites.

Any suggestions on good strains for an outdoor nor cal grow for next year???? Something that will be mature by the end of Oct at the latest???????????>???

Thanks again to all who replied. I've only been growing for three years and can take all the input I can get from those who have more experience.

I've only been growing 2 year and both years my smoke ends up being nice and dense if not overly so. My plants pretty much get light sunup to sun down and I think that makes a huge difference.

Where in cali are you ?
I grew Double dream (75% blue dream 25%chemdogg) and that turned out super dense nugs and an incredibly heavy yield for the plant size.

If you're in an area where its hot I would say not to grow a GDP as mine did miserably this year and I blame this heat. Mind you I also keep a big ass fan blowing in my garden when its hot so the air doesn't stagnate.

I suggest you find out what the locals are growing and having success with and doing something similar.

yep. im in a hot ass part of socal and my sativa doms came out airy also. Stink and potency aint a question bout it though.

mwooten102 said:

I've only been growing 2 year and both years my smoke ends up being nice and dense if not overly so. My plants pretty much get light sunup to sun down and I think that makes a huge difference.

Where in cali are you ?
I grew Double dream (75% blue dream 25%chemdogg) and that turned out super dense nugs and an incredibly heavy yield for the plant size.

If you're in an area where its hot I would say not to grow a GDP as mine did miserably this year and I blame this heat. Mind you I also keep a big ass fan blowing in my garden when its hot so the air doesn't stagnate.

I suggest you find out what the locals are growing and having success with and doing something similar.

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I am not a big fan of blue dream, although I do know a lot of the 'big boys' grow it around here. I did have good luck in previous years with O.G. Kush ( the original from clone ) White widow,, and Nirvanas Pure Power Plant. The best I did this year was with Mr. Nice ( from clones ) as I got around 2 lb. per plant. Not as strong as I would have likes though the buds where nice and compact, though a bit on the smallish side.

Im in the Sierra foothills at around 3000 ft. leval if thats any help.

I guess I'm going to have to pay more attention to the time to maturity when I pick my plants for next years grow, rather than on potential yield.

I also had very good luck last year with c99. A very quick finisher that produced around 1 1/2 lb. of nice buds. Unfortunately the patients that I grow for lean more toward the couch lock and pain relief varieties and c99 wasn't so good for that as its more of a wake and bake variety.

Oh well, live and learn...

I'll check out that double dream strain. Is that a clone only or can seeds be had?

http://caitlinpodiak.tumblr.com/post/18075204308/double-dream-is-a-sativa-dominant-hybrid-of-blue

Unsure I got my clones at harborside. You sound like you're fairly close to me and in all honesty I bet you'd probably do well with something like Bubba kush or hybrids there of. Maybe try something intended to be grown outdoors like blueberry ?

mwooten102 said:

http://caitlinpodiak.tumblr.com/post/18075204308/double-dream-is-a-sativa-dominant-hybrid-of-blue

Unsure I got my clones at harborside. You sound like you're fairly close to me and in all honesty I bet you'd probably do well with something like Bubba kush or hybrids there of. Maybe try something intended to be grown outdoors like blueberry ?

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Yeah, I've got some seeds on the way that I have some high hopes for. Budda Tahoe OG, Skywalker, Sour Kush, Kandy Kush, og kUSH # 18 and Chem 91. I will be trying them in an indoor grow first and then the best will go outdoors if the flowering time seems short enough. Also have a mother that I am currently cloning of a lemon Haze that the guy I got it from says is a short flowering time variety. I suspect it is a varient of the c99.

I'll just have to pay better attention to which have the shortest growing season and go with them.

I love c99 it's one of my favorite strains. I try to keep away from OG strains as they seem like they're geared more for indoor growing and remain smaller in comparison the other strains I've grown outdoor.

mwooten102 said:

I love c99 it's one of my favorite strains. I try to keep away from OG strains as they seem like they're geared more for indoor growing and remain smaller in comparison the other strains I've grown outdoor.

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So what strains did good for you? Small is not a real problem as I've had giants befor and they can be a pain to tend to. Last time I grew OG they got about 5 ft. tall and just as big around. Nice colas and buds where good. Thats about the ideal size for taking care of.
I had several plants that where over 11 ft. tall and you need an orchard ladder to care for them I bent them over so as they where running parralel to the ground. worked ok I guess, didn't see much improvement in quantity with them. I prefer them to be a manageble size though. As long as I can pull some quality smoke from them I'm happy.

If you click the links in my sig you can see last year and this years grow. If you go through them you'll see exactly what I did and how my plants grew.

I did really well with most every thing this year except my Gdps and I pulled a minimum 2 pounds off of every plant in the ground and upped my potted plant yield X6. My highest yielding was Romulan with 5 pounds off of a single plant.

Last year My OG ended up just like my GDP this year. and I pulled around 2.5 pounds per bubba kush plant and 2 pounds per Grape ape.

My issue up here was the temps got too cool before the sativa finished..not growing it outside again.

That grow journal looks great! I wish I could do half as good. I'm definately checking out the blueberry for my next outdoor grow. I've heard mixed reviews on Romulan. Did you start them from seed or from clones? The reason I ask is I have a pack of seeds around here somewhere, and am hesitant to try out a new strain as I am kind of cramped for space and have too many strains growing now as it is.
I do have GDP but that will be an indoor grow. I'm glad you waned me on not growing it outdoors, thanks. I've got some tahoe kush that I haven't sprouted yet, do you think that one would be a good outdoor selection for the norcal foothill area???