Small sized buds

S

Sippy69

Active Member
Hey all,
This is my third soil grow and currently I am only in the vegetative state for my current grow. Anyways, I'm growing 3 female white widow plants and am very nervous about the flowering phase because on my last two grows, the buds turned out small and not much "meat" to them. They were very airy and not very big.

Ph has always been between 6.3 & 7
Temp varies between 72 & 80
Humidity is approx 30% with the light cycle at 12/12.

I have a 39 x 39 x 72 grow tent and the plants were about 4.5 ft tall on the last grow before harvest time. I am using a 2ft 4 bulb T5 (8,000 lumens each bulb) fixture and all the Fox Farm nutrients as per their schedule. I've even tried the BigBud product but haven't seen much change in the bud size.
(sorry no pics yet of the latest grow)

Any ideas of what can cause small bud growth?

Thanks in advance!
 
earlymorninstonepeomp

earlymorninstonepeomp

Well-Known Member
light, light, light. intensity is everything. you can have perrrrfect conditions but you gotta have good light. that big bud and the other overpriced nutes are just that, overpriced and unnecessary.
 
jesus420

jesus420

Well-Known Member
not enough light

5000 lumens sq/ft

i think you're done with fluoro, you can use them during veg just fine but for flowering you need an HID light, HPS is perfect for flowering and puts out the most light per watt.
 
S

Sippy69

Active Member
So the light is not enough? Each bulb is 8,000 lumens and there are 4 bulbs making 32,000.
So will i need to get another 2ft T5?

I usually keep the light about 3 inches above the canopy also to ensure max light but I may have to get another one. LOL...DAMNIT!
 
S

Sippy69

Active Member
bubadapothead said:
u can use the t5 for side lighting and hps for the top canopy should work out ver well for you
High Tech Garden Supply good place for hps and fairly cheap
Click to expand...

Cool... I'll try that! It'll be a few weeks before flowering phase, but I'll put up some pics when I can.

I think you guys are right because I just checked on the lumen output of the bulbs I am using and they are only 2,000 each so my current fixture is only at 8,000 total.
Time to buy some more lights!
Thanks again all!

Happy smokin'...
 
N

NoDrama

Well-Known Member
An HPS light will make a HUGE difference, you will definitely be able to tell how much denser HPS gets them.
 
blacksnow

blacksnow

Well-Known Member
Sippy69 said:
Hey all,
This is my third soil grow and currently I am only in the vegetative state for my current grow. Anyways, I'm growing 3 female white widow plants and am very nervous about the flowering phase because on my last two grows, the buds turned out small and not much "meat" to them. They were very airy and not very big.

Ph has always been between 6.3 & 7
Temp varies between 72 & 80
Humidity is approx 30% with the light cycle at 12/12.

I have a 39 x 39 x 72 grow tent and the plants were about 4.5 ft tall on the last grow before harvest time. I am using a 2ft 4 bulb T5 (8,000 lumens each bulb) fixture and all the Fox Farm nutrients as per their schedule. I've even tried the BigBud product but haven't seen much change in the bud size.
(sorry no pics yet of the latest grow)

Any ideas of what can cause small bud growth?

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...

Reading before you buy is a key factor. That light your using only produces 8,000 lumens total! 2,000 lumens per bulb!

High Tech Garden Supply

=[ sorry m8

not to mention no t5 can penetrate 4.5ft down.

I am using t5's and plan on only growing my plants to around 18-24" tall. keeping the lights only 2-3 inches away from the top of the plants.

better luck next time =O
 
S

Sippy69

Active Member
blacksnow said:
Reading before you buy is a key factor. That light your using only produces 8,000 lumens total! 2,000 lumens per bulb!

High Tech Garden Supply

=[ sorry m8

not to mention no t5 can penetrate 4.5ft down.

I am using t5's and plan on only growing my plants to around 18-24" tall. keeping the lights only 2-3 inches away from the top of the plants.

better luck next time =O
Click to expand...
Good point Blacksnow! I will have to stick with the T5's as I am in the US and don't want to have a huge power increase. LOL...

I did find a T5 2ft fixture on HTGsupply.com that promises 10,000 for the entire fixture. I think I may get two of these and use them vertically in my grow tent in conjunction with my existing T5 as the canopy.
Do you think 28,000 lumens would be enough?

I think another problem I had is that my first two grows were in a homemade wooden box. (2' x 2' x 5') I used an eggshell sheen white paint for the walls instead of the black/white poly.
And you're right, the T5 didn't get down to the bottom of the cabinet much.
Strangely enough though the plants did grow very well during the vegetative phase, but I've read where the flowering phase needs more light during the light cycle? Not sure if that is true but I hope this will fix the prob.

This is my first grow in this new grow tent and they seem to be growing quite well so far. (keeping my fingers crossed! lol).
 
blacksnow

blacksnow

Well-Known Member
Sippy69 said:
Good point Blacksnow! I will have to stick with the T5's as I am in the US and don't want to have a huge power increase. LOL...

I did find a T5 2ft fixture on HTGsupply.com that promises 10,000 for the entire fixture. I think I may get two of these and use them vertically in my grow tent in conjunction with my existing T5 as the canopy.
Do you think 28,000 lumens would be enough?

I think another problem I had is that my first two grows were in a homemade wooden box. (2' x 2' x 5') I used an eggshell sheen white paint for the walls instead of the black/white poly.
And you're right, the T5 didn't get down to the bottom of the cabinet much.
Strangely enough though the plants did grow very well during the vegetative phase, but I've read where the flowering phase needs more light during the light cycle? Not sure if that is true but I hope this will fix the prob.

This is my first grow in this new grow tent and they seem to be growing quite well so far. (keeping my fingers crossed! lol).
Click to expand...
Which bulbs did you use during flowering? Did you stick with the 6400k or switch to the 3000k?

I used the 6400k bulbs during my veg, but switched to the 3000k bulbs during flowering.

I am using 2 of the lights your speaking of High Tech Garden Supply

They are qiute nice for the money. I use 2 of them in my cabinet which is 36" W 48" T 24" D.

I will be growing 8 plants total in 7" square pots once I finish sexing. Right now I have about 14 plants in dixie cups. Seeing more females by the day. Hopefully by this weekend I'll have 8 of them and rid of the rest. My plants need some room to breathe.

My lights just came on and I had to pinch the tops of some plants as they were growign much taller then the others.

Check out my grow journal

best of luck!
 
S

Sippy69

Active Member
blacksnow said:
Which bulbs did you use during flowering? Did you stick with the 6400k or switch to the 3000k?

I used the 6400k bulbs during my veg, but switched to the 3000k bulbs during flowering.

I am using 2 of the lights your speaking of High Tech Garden Supply

They are qiute nice for the money. I use 2 of them in my cabinet which is 36" W 48" T 24" D.

I will be growing 8 plants total in 7" square pots once I finish sexing. Right now I have about 14 plants in dixie cups. Seeing more females by the day. Hopefully by this weekend I'll have 8 of them and rid of the rest. My plants need some room to breathe.

My lights just came on and I had to pinch the tops of some plants as they were growign much taller then the others.

Check out my grow journal

best of luck!
Click to expand...
Yes I switched to the flowering bulbs at the beginning of the flowering stage. I think I may have had bad box syndrome as well because the white paint I used didn't reflect the light nearly as well as the black/white poly does.
I'm only growing 3 plants for now as I'm down to my last 3 white widow seeds.
 
blacksnow

blacksnow

Well-Known Member
Sippy69 said:
Yes I switched to the flowering bulbs at the beginning of the flowering stage. I think I may have had bad box syndrome as well because the white paint I used didn't reflect the light nearly as well as the black/white poly does.
I'm only growing 3 plants for now as I'm down to my last 3 white widow seeds.
Click to expand...
Should try to take some clones of your plants this time around so you dont have to worry about seeds.

or if you get a male plant read up on pollinating one of your plants so you have plenty of seeds
 
S

Sippy69

Active Member
blacksnow said:
Should try to take some clones of your plants this time around so you dont have to worry about seeds.

or if you get a male plant read up on pollinating one of your plants so you have plenty of seeds
Click to expand...
I know I do need to clone this time. I tried to clone last time during flowering phase and it didn't work too well. There are some forums out there that give shitty advice on cloning. I like this forum so far. Many of the growing and other tips have been good ones.
Many users say you can clone during flowering phase but I will try during the veg phase this time.
Maybe some strains can clone during flowering but I'm not sure if white widow is one of them.
Cool grow journal!
 
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