Bigger buds

I'm a first time grower I have a plant right now that is getting close to harvest time .but I was wondering if I would have defoliated a little better maybe the main bud sites would have gotten more energy to grow bigger. because the plants that I see on this site have bigger buds . I was just wondering if defoliating makes a difference in the size of the colas I have a par meter and they are getting the right amount of light and the conditions in my tent are perfect so Im just trying to figure out why they are not bigger . Thank you for your help in advance best wishes.Ted

UDTghost840 said:

I'm a first time grower I have a plant right now that is getting close to harvest time .but I was wondering if I would have defoliated a little better maybe the main bud sites would have gotten more energy to grow bigger. because the plants that I see on this site have bigger buds . I was just wondering if defoliating makes a difference in the size of the colas I have a par meter and they are getting the right amount of light and the conditions in my tent are perfect so Im just trying to figure out why they are not bigger . Thank you for your help in advance best wishes.Ted

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So many different variables go in play. Genetics is a main factor. Then you get to growing style, (hydro, living soil), after that you have growing conditions. (environment, temperature, relative humidity, fresh air supply, co2 if you are pushing the lights hard). How well or how poorly you maintain your grow. Any issues you came across in the grow, how fast or slow did you discover and how long it took to fix said issue. And finally there is NO substitute for experience.
If these are your pictures of your 1st grow, it looks nice for a 1st grow. You will continue to learn off every grow. Looks like your on the right track. Happy growing!

One other thing. You are not as close to harvest as close as you think. Early harvest is a no no. They will fatten up more, be patient my friend. Don't put all the effort in just to harvest too soon.

420 Garden said:

So many different variables go in play. Genetics is a main factor. Then you get to growing style, (hydro, living soil), after that you have growing conditions. (environment, temperature, relative humidity, fresh air supply, co2 if you are pushing the lights hard). How well or how poorly you maintain your grow. Any issues you came across in the grow, how fast or slow did you discover and how long it took to fix said issue. And finally there is NO substitute for experience.
If these are your pictures of your 1st grow, it looks nice for a 1st grow. You will continue to learn off every grow. Looks like your on the right track. Happy growing!

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Thank you that's great advice. I didn't realize their are so many factors in growing these amazing plants I should be happy that she I growing and growing well . Thanks for bringing me back to reality practice makes perfect so I will keep learning .thanks again.

Re defo for bud size:
- im not a fan of general defo but lolipopping and cleaning out sucker growth at the bottoms helps a lot to concentrate growth to top buds.

If you really are in perfect conditions, ppfd and vpd, then just try giving a bit more light and food in mid flower. Though check ec of runoff to control your media.

Good that you've got a PAR meter. What light are you using and what are your light levels?

"I would have defoliated a little better maybe the main bud sites would have gotten more energy to grow bigger. because the plants that I see on this site have bigger buds . I was just wondering if defoliating makes a difference in the size of the colas"
I've seen nothing that demonstrates that removing healthy plant material from a cannabis plant increases the crop yield. Going back to basics, when healthy plant material is removed from a plant, the plant will attempt to regrow what's been cut off. I am at a loss to understand how that could possibly result in a larger yield.

Similarly, by removing plants to expose bud sites to light results in removing leaves that have been using light for photosynthesis and you are exposing parts of the plant that aren't used for photosynthesis to a reduced amount of light. In three (now 3 ½) years of reading as much as I can find on cannabis grow lighting and cannabis growing, I haven't come across anything that explains why bud sites would grow larger when exposed to light. I understand that it's part of cannabis grower lore but lacking any sort of substantiation nor understanding how removing canopy leaves could benefit the plant, I'm hard pressed to agree that it's a good idea.

Rather that remove leaves, I encourage growers to improve their crop in a very simple way — give your grow more light.

What's common across all evidence-based sources of information on cannabis growing is that crop yield increases as light levels increase. It's an almost linear relationship. On that basis, I've been growing cannabis at high light levels (>1kµmol when possible) and have a found that cannabis will generate prodigous yields.

In sum, give your plant as much light as it can tolerate, give your grow as few nutrients as are needed, grow it in favorable temperature and RH values (a VPD of 1.0 in veg and 1.2-1.5 in flower), remove as few leaves as are necessary for the health of the plant, and you'll end up easily exceeding the yield values that seed sellers publish.

Having said that, my practice is to remove damaged or heavily senesced leaves and, since my plants usually grow quite large (I grow one plant in a 2'2 x 4' with a res that holds 28 gallons of nutrient solution), I remove branches at the bottom of the plant that are thinner than a pencil. At that size, those branches will generally no flower of any appreciable size so, rather than futz with it at harvest time, I just get rid of them.