Grow Bigger Marijuana Buds Outdoors and Indoors

As any proud marijuana grower knows, the main goal is to harvest the biggest and healthiest marijuana buds possible. So it’s incredibly frustrating when you’ve spent months taking care of your plants only to end up with a mediocre crop.

Keep in mind that not all cannabis strains are created equal when it comes to yield. The following strains typically have high yields:

• Cheese Quake
• White Widow
• Critical Kush
• Blue Dream
• Purple Trainwreck

Aside from genetics, there are many ways you can make your marijuana buds grow larger. Some of these methods may depend on whether you’re growing your plants inside or outside.

EDITOR’S CHOICE – Homegrown CannabisCo

Homegrown CannabisCo’s experts are the pros when it comes to seeds. This business not only offers high-quality alternatives, but it also provides comprehensive growing information for individuals looking for guidance on how to become a cannabis farmer.

Why Should I Care About My Cannabis Bud Size?

Marijuana buds are the source of THC, the psychoactive component in marijuana. They also include a variety of other cannabinoids that may be useful in medicine.

In straightforward terms, the bud is what appears during the flowering stage. Growers that have done it before know that this is a critical time since it suggests that harvest will soon be upon us.

The trichomes on the sugar leaves of the cannabis plant are covered in THC, however there is a far greater concentration in the marijuana buds. This is why experienced growers take pleasure in the resinous buds their plants produce after many difficult months of effort.

Male and female marijuana plants produce different looking marijuana buds, but both sexes are capable of producing potent weed. Male plants might not create as strong weed as females, but their buds can still pack a punch.

The main problem is that when males and females are grown together, they pollinate one another. Your ladies will begin producing seeds and generating less THC as a result of this. Most growers just utilize males to make seeds since keeping them away from the females is critical.

For the record, female marijuana buds appear approximately two weeks later than males. In this guide, we show you how to prune, feed, light, and train are vital to growing large marijuana buds.

Pruning Your Marijuana Buds

A plant’s node is where a branch or leaf grows off the stalk, and it is also where you’ll find your cannabis buds. The bigger the plant, Node size does not always mean that there will be an increase in nodes automatically meaning more abundant and bigger marijuana buds though.

Too many nodes can be a severe issue. During the flowering period, a plant with many nodes and buds near the bottom will attempt to develop. However, since they don’t get enough light, they won’t be able to grow large in any case. As a result, it’s important to cut down on the plant life that isn’t getting adequate sunshine.

Pruning, or cutting off the small shoots between the tree and branches, helps marijuana plants develop large buds. What is it that you like about growing marijuana plants? Is it their lush beauty, the potency or aroma of their buds, or another aspect of the experience?

We recommend pruning during the vegetative stage to give your plant time to recuperate and develop larger leaves. After cutting, wait at least 72 hours before forcing your plants into the flowering stage.

When the plant reaches the flowering stage, remove any dying leaves. These yellow leaves are easy to spot and take away essential resources from the plant. However, don’t toss these sugar leaves just yet – if dried and cured correctly, they contain a high enough THC content to make cannabutter.

The larger fan leaves at the bottom of the marijuana plant, too, are best left untouched. You may improve ventilation and enhance the amount of light that lower nodes receive by defoliating the fan foliage. Naturally, removing the fan leaves will allow for extra energy to be sent to other areas of the plant, including the marijuana buds. If you want to boost the size of your marijuana plant’s buds, one of the simplest ways to begin is with defoliation.

How to Feed Your Marijuana Plants for Bigger Buds

Your marijuana plants need varying levels of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K)depending on what stage of growth they are in. Usually, during the vegetative stage, your plants will need more nitrogen, and during flowering, they will need more phosphorus and potassium.

However, if you want your cannabis plants in your grow room to flourish, you’ll need to provide them with a well-balanced combination of micronutrients. Make sure the supplements include enough iron, calcium, magnesium, zinc, copper, boron, manganese, and sulfur.

Though all fertilizer contains nitrogen, many knowledgeable growers believe special attention must be paid to supplying this macronutrient during the vegetative stage. The controversy lies in how much is necessary. Some suggest that larger dosages of nitrogenthan phosphorus and potassium create a healthier plant. Others argue that providing an equal level of each – what’s known as a 20:20:20 ratio – is ideal for cannabis growth.

Whatever school of thought you follow, it’s critical that the cannabis plants get adequate nitrogen in the vegetative stage to grow bigger and stronger.

How to Make Bigger Buds During Flowering

You will want to use more phosphorus and potassium if you are desiring bigger buds during the flowering stage. The key macronutrient for growth during the vegetative stage is nitrogen, though when your cannabis plants move into flowering, it becomes essential to reduce nitrogen consumption. If you do not make this change, problems such as nitrogen toxicity may occur. Some outward signs of nitrogen toxicity in marijuana plants are dark green leaves with yellow tips that curl downwards, weak stems, and slow plant growth overall.

Cannabis plants must receive more phosphorus than potassium during the flowering stage.

If you add 30% phosphorus, 10% potassium, and 10% nitrogen (NPK 10-30-10), the marijuana buds will thrive.

When you increase the amount of phosphorus early in the flowering stage, it aids in the complete development and density of the buds. If you’re using soil as a growing medium, add a layer of worm castings or bat guano to enhance nutrient levels. During flowering, add a compost tea solution to the dirt. This procedure activates mycelium growth in the soil, ensuring your plant gets more nutrients.

Increase potassium and decrease phosphorus towards the end of the blooming period when feeding. During the late flowering stage, potassium is a key macronutrient since it is required for proper plant metabolism and flower formation in female plants. A potassium deficiency might cause marijuana plants to grow slowly, which will naturally influence bud development. Leaves that are curled with brown tips and edges are signs that your cannabis plants need more potassium.

Growing Bigger Buds – The Essentials

The Importance of Soil pH

The pH level of the soil is vital to a plant’s nutrient absorption. Cannabis plants are no different. If you provide your marijuana plants with the perfect amount of nutrients but have incorrect pH levels, it will result in deficiencies. For example, magnesium isn’t absorbed well by cannabis plants when the pH level is too low. Maintaining a pH around 6.0 should be sufficient for growth in soil while reducing hydroponically to 5.5 is recommended by experienced growers .

Carbon Dioxide

Most people know carbon dioxide (CO2) is essential for growth, but few realize that cannabis plants are no different. In fact, more CO2 is almost always better – to the tune of 350-400 ppm. By combining increased levels of CO2 with light energy, your plant will create the sugars it needs to grow bigger buds faster. If you only increase CO2 without also increasing light intensity though, you’ll be disappointed with smaller yields come harvest time. To produce huge cannabis buds and obtain high yields, you must simultaneously increase CO2 levels and light intensity. Some growers claim that raising both CO2 and light intensity by two times can double their yield from one harvest.

Register this in your mind- if you’re planning on adding more carbon dioxide to your grow room, take care because high concentrations can be dangerous for people.

Temperature & Humidity

The temperature and humidity in your grow room must also be correct for your cannabis plants to develop at their maximum potential, as well as to avoid issues like bud rot.

When the lights are on, seedlings should be kept at a temperature of 68 to 77 degrees Fahrenheit with 70% humidity. Set the temperature to between 59 and 72 degrees Fahrenheit when the lights are off. Also, make sure there’s a difference of at least 18 degrees between day and night temperatures. Plants can survive up to 82 degrees Fahrenheit when they’re in flower. Also, reduce humidity by 5 percent each week until it reaches 40%.

The Right Lighting for Your Cannabis Plants

When it comes to cultivating cannabis, there is no overstating the importance of light. Marijuana plants (and other green plants) need illumination in order for photosynthesis to take place, i.e., the process by which they convert light energy into chemical energy.

The light intensity that your plants are exposed to will largely determine the size of the buds. Premium quality cannabis strains have typically been exposed to an optimum amount of light, regardless of whether they were grown indoors or outdoors.

If you want to grow large cannabis plants that give high yields, then selecting the right type of grow lights for your indoor space is key. Many indoor growers recommend HPS grow lights, but fluorescents also work well; just note that they are more expensive.

A good rule of thumb is that during the vegetative stage, you’ll need 400 Watts of light for every 13 square feet of growing area. Once your plants enter the flowering stage though, increase the wattage to 600 Watts to cover the same space.

When plants do not receive an adequate amount of light, they produce small buds. They may become tall and thin as they ‘stretch’ to find the light source. Poor lighting during the vegetative stage means your plants will grow uneven colas which makes it difficult to evenly distribute light from that point on.

As a result, it is critical to ensure that your lighting is set at the proper height from the start. Otherwise, heat stress might harm your marijuana plants. If you’re growing cannabis indoors, you may move your lights closer to the plants. It’s okay as long as the temperatures your plants are exposed to do not exceed 80 degrees Fahrenheit indoors.

When growing plants outdoors, make sure to leave space between the pots. This way, each plant will get an equal amount of sunlight.

Training Your Cannabis Plants

If you leave your marijuana plants unattended, they generally develop a tall stem with several smaller stems sprouting from it. The huge stalk will produce a spectacular cola. However, the plant’s height restricts where the lights may be placed when growing indoors. As a result, lower branches receive significantly less light, which has a negative influence on growth.

If you’re looking to train your cannabis plants without having to cut them, Low-Stress Training methods (LST) are available. With LST, you can teach your plants to grow wider and flatter instead of tall and thin. One great LST tactic is tying down the top branches – this allows the surrounding branches room to develop.

By training your marijuana plants, you’re instructing the hormones in the leaves to better distribute themselves throughout the rest of the stems. This leads to a more balanced and uniform growth for your plant. You also receive a bigger-looking plant with big colas because they are all at equal distance from the light source, as a result of this balance.

How to Make Buds Swell up

Perfecting your cannabis grow room involves more than just keeping the plants alive– you need to create conditions that will allow them to flourish and produce large yields. To do this, you have to adjust different elements within your space. For example, the pH level fluctuates depending on what type of growing medium you’re using (soil or hydroponic). The nutrient levels in soil or water must also be monitored carefully during early vegetative growth stages ( when lots of nitrogen is required) and flowering stages (phosphorus should be increased at the beginning; potassium near harvest time).

You must maintain the appropriate temperature and humidity in the grow room throughout the growth cycle from seedling to harvest. If you want to produce huge buds with high yields, you’ll need to increase light intensity and C02 levels during the flowering period.

Harvest at the Right Time

Harvesting at the proper time is one of the most crucial aspects of producing larger buds. Harvesting too early can undo all of your hard work, so you must be patient. Cannabis buds can increase in size by up to 25% during the final two or three weeks of flowering. By taking a marijuana plant and examining its trichomes under a microscope, you can determine if the cannabis buds are ready to be harvested. If the trichomes appear clear and transparent, that means it is too early. However, when they start to turn milky white or cloudy, that THC within them becomes potent–which is exactly when you want to harvest the buds.

Final Thoughts on Growing Bigger Marijuana Buds

If you’re hoping to produce high-quality marijuana, then your primary focus should be on cultivating large buds. Keep in mind, bigger buds usually mean more THC and other cannabinoids – meaning better weed overall. However, it’s important not to get too ahead of yourself; simply following a guide won’t necessarily guarantee bigger buds anytime soon. Learning how to grow larger cannabis takes time and practice.

Growing marijuana is challenging, and it will take time and effort to get it right. Don’t worry if you don’t see results immediately–even the most experienced growers sometimes have issues yields.

Keep a good journal of your cannabis’ growth cycle, which should detail what you’re doing each day. When you’ve got a bumper crop, refer to your diary to find out what you did correctly. Then you may apply this knowledge again and again to produce greater buds and consistently high yields.