Growing small cannabis plants with big buds is a pretty effective way to maximize yields in small spaces.
To be a cannabis grower, you know that your primary aim is to produce the most prominent and healthiest buds possible. You have probably felt the disappointment of not getting the thick, sticky buds you would hope for from a strain you have been cultivating. You should be able to get high-quality cannabis even if you are working with low-yielding varieties if you take the appropriate measures.
Fortunately, increasing the size of your buds may be accomplished in various ways. You can control how your plant grows by pruning cannabis, training, feeding, and light.
Tips for Growing Bigger Cannabis Buds Outdoors and Indoors
If you want to learn how to grow small cannabis plants with big buds, the following are a few pointers:
Pruning
Most of the plant’s nodes will produce buds. The point at which a leaf or a branch emerges from the stalk is referred to as a node. There are more nodes as the plant expands, implying there are more places for buds to grow.
There is a common misconception that more nodes equal more buds; however, this is not the case. Because they do not get enough light, nodes with buds lower on the plant away from the canopy will attempt to grow in blooming but will never ultimately form.
Pruning away any plant growth that isn’t getting enough light is the most excellent strategy to increase your plant’s productivity. When lollipoping a cannabis plant, remove the buds and leaves found under the canopy. Using this method, you’ll get small cannabis plants big buds since it directs all of your energy to the top of the plant, where the bigger buds get the most light.
Training
You may also teach your cannabis plants with buds to produce more, which is a simple method. If left to their own devices, plants tend to form a single giant stalk with a ring of smaller stalks around it. The extensive primary stem of a cannabis plant will take on the form of a menorah as it grows, with the central candle at its tallest point. To grow inside, the height of this one colossal stalk will limit the placement of the lights. Due to the uneven canopy, the lowest branches get much less sunshine than otherwise.
As long as you use LST tactics like tying down the top branches, you may encourage the remainder of the surrounding stems to grow, resulting in an even canopy. When you train your plants, the growth hormones concentrated on the central stalk are redistributed to the surrounding branches, resulting in increased growth for the plant as a whole. Evenly distributed branches will produce a huge cannabis bud with equal distances from the light source as a consequence.
Feeding
Large buds can only be grown by feeding your plant correctly. On the other hand, phosphorus is intimately related to blooming plants, whereas nitrogen is associated with vegetative development. You can achieve increased yields by feeding plants nitrogen while still in the vegetative stage.
As soon as your plant enters blooming mode, you should reduce your nitrogen levels and raise your phosphorus levels. If you are growing in soil, top-dress the soil with bat guano or worm castings to boost phosphorus levels while you liquid-feed your plant with other nutrients when your plant transitions from vegetative to blooming development.
You can feed compost tea to your soil regularly to help it produce larger cannabis buds. The use of compost teat may facilitate Soil-mycelium mycorrhizal symbiosis. The plant will absorb more nutrients and grow huge cannabis nugs if there is more mycelium in the soil.
Lighting
Huge lights are necessary if you want to cultivate big buds. You can find the highest-quality cannabis in shops or dispensaries since the farmers use the best possible indoor and outdoor lighting conditions. When it comes to lighting your grow space, you can’t cut shortcuts. To put it another way, 100 watts of light can typically illuminate an area of one square foot. A 600-watt bulb, for example, can illuminate a 6’x6′ space.
The sides of your plants should be able to get full sunlight if you’re growing them outside. Grow your plants on a south-facing slope to get the lightest exposure possible.
Tips for keeping the plants small with big buds
If you want to know how to grow small plants with big buds, you must pay attention to the following tips:
Genetics
It’s best to go with a strain that’s naturally tiny in size. In today’s society, you can access practically any genetics almost anywhere. Autoflowering strains with a short flowering time are frequently the best option for growing tiny plants; however, photoperiod strains with a shorter flowering time also work.
Garden Setup
- Use the right grow light
Small grow rooms benefit significantly from using fluorescent lights (such as CFLs or T5s) or even LEDs.
- Light spectrum
Blue grow lights keep plants short, while red ones might stimulate growth.
- Root space restriction
In large pots, a plant may grow to the size of a tree! As long as the plant receives enough light and nutrients, growing plants in smaller containers may prevent them from becoming as large as a bonsai tree with constricted roots.
- Choose a “short” growth style.
“Sea of Green,” “Screen of Green,” “Manifolding,” and other sorts of plant training are all standard methods for creating short plants, which are often grown in tiny pots or on a screen (more on that below).
Growing Practices
- The closer you can keep growing lights to your plants, the better.
It is ideal as near as you can get your grow light to your plants without straining them. High-intensity light promotes shorter plants.
- “Top” your plants
When the plant is just a few weeks old, take the very top off of it and discard it. Instead of growing tall and conical like a Christmas tree, plants that have been treated with this procedure, known as “topping,” become bushy and spread out. As an additional perk, you get to set up more bud locations.
- Plant training
You can use “plant training” strategies to get any plant to maintain the height and form you want. When you have a lot of plants, this might be a great aid. If you need to modify the general state of your plant or lessen its height, procedures like LST (low-stress training) and super cropping (severe bending) might be helpful.
- Initiate flowering as soon as possible.
If you are cultivating a photoperiod (regular) plant, begin the blooming stage when the plant reaches half its ultimate size. It does not apply to auto-flowering strains. After getting a 12/12 light cycle, plants often double in growth. If you wait too long to prune your plants, their heights may quickly escalate. Ensure you learn how to make buds bigger during flowering.
Most gardeners’ lifetime goal is to have larger buds. However, the growth of larger buds will not occur immediately. You can’t speed up the development of a plant; thus, it takes time to perfect the art of gardening. If you have a good harvest, you may go back and see what you could have done differently in your garden and reproduce it in future grows by writing down what you’re doing to your grows every day.