Harvest & Curing Buds losing so much size since switching to hydro

[DevonDank]

Morning everyone, hope you are all well.

I switched from Coco to hydro about 6 months ago and am having good results with the potency etc but am noticing that the buds which are HUGE while the plant is alive are shrinking back so significantly while drying that i am left slightly confused and bewildered.

Fist-sized colas end up thumb sized buds and i am wondering what i am doing wrong.

I've been growing 3-4 years and never had these issues with the coco plants, sure they reduce in size but nothing quite this dramatic. Same harvesting, drying, trimming, curing process as before...its soul destroying to see such an exaggerated shrivelling of all my hard work so i wondered if anyone has any tips please?

I have XL Daiquiri Lime Auto that i harvested a week ago, the plant would have killed someone had it fallen on them it was so heavy when hung up (joke but she was MASSIVE) , now it looks like some whack roadman skunk that you'd get on the street, not a plant thats had 1 hour of attention daily for 3 months.

Any thoughts appreciated, thank you !

 

[Cannaficionado]

Morning everyone, hope you are all well.

I switched from Coco to hydro about 6 months ago and am having good results with the potency etc but am noticing that the buds which are HUGE while the plant is alive are shrinking back so significantly while drying that i am left slightly confused and bewildered.

Fist-sized colas end up thumb sized buds and i am wondering what i am doing wrong.

I've been growing 3-4 years and never had these issues with the coco plants, sure they reduce in size but nothing quite this dramatic. Same harvesting, drying, trimming, curing process as before...its soul destroying to see such an exaggerated shrivelling of all my hard work so i wondered if anyone has any tips please?

I have XL Daiquiri Lime Auto that i harvested a week ago, the plant would have killed someone had it fallen on them it was so heavy when hung up (joke but she was MASSIVE) , now it looks like some whack roadman skunk that you'd get on the street, not a plant thats had 1 hour of attention daily for 3 months.

Any thoughts appreciated, thank you !

When its growing, how dense are the buds? When you give them a squeeze is there a lot of give, or are they still just as dense as when you were using coco?

 

[Talonxracer]

Different strains produce different density of buds, in my last grow the 3bog had immense buds that shriveled up a bunch as they were a bit airy.

 

[Jackson]

My opinion is that’s normal as you lose upwards of 75% of wet weight. I just finished drying 250 grams of wet Bruce Banner auto and have 95 grams of dry weed. Makes me wanna cry

 

[DevonDank]

When its growing, how dense are the buds? When you give them a squeeze is there a lot of give, or are they still just as dense as when you were using coco?

When on the plant they are like rocks, hard and large, much better density than the coco, which is why i am slightly confused!

 

[Cannaficionado]

When on the plant they are like rocks, hard and large, much better density than the coco, which is why i am slightly confused!

I think its like others said then. Just how its going. I know that 2 of my 4 plants I just finished harvesting only had the very tops be dense. Anything 4-5 inches underneath was basically larf even though some felt like they were pretty solid, after a trim and a couple days of drying they shriveled up to pea sized nugs from a golf ball sized nug. They had a little squish to em but now I can squeeze them like 2d flat.

 

[DevonDank]

I think its like others said then. Just how its going. I know that 2 of my 4 plants I just finished harvesting only had the very tops be dense. Anything 4-5 inches underneath was basically larf even though some felt like they were pretty solid, after a trim and a couple days of drying they shriveled up to pea sized nugs from a golf ball sized nug. They had a little squish to em but now I can squeeze them like 2d flat.

Thanks guys, i appreciate the responses. The plant itself despite supercropping and training to fill the space was still very bunched up/centred. Perhaps this has affected the light penetration and like yours, the lower stuff has just noped out.

Hoping the Cinderalla Jack is a bit better as those nugs were even bigger but is further behind in drying time.

Appreciate all the replies, thank you.

 

[Cannaficionado]

Thanks guys, i appreciate the responses. The plant itself despite supercropping and training to fill the space was still very bunched up/centred. Perhaps this has affected the light penetration and like yours, the lower stuff has just noped out.

Hoping the Cinderalla Jack is a bit better as those nugs were even bigger but is further behind in drying time.

Appreciate all the replies, thank you.

Thats probably exactly what happen as I lst'd very late and couldnt spread the plants open and after they over grew the space the issue was compounded. From now on im limiting my tent to 2 photoperiods or 4 autos, and getting on the lst right away. A good healthy defoliation will help with that too. You can take off a lot, but I assume you know that, as this isnt your first go around.

 

[BII]

You've got airy buds, presumably meaning a lot of independent not-fused/non-gunked together sepals, the leaflets that composes buds. But is this really a problem? How have potency, quality and dry yield changed (or not)?

Despite the unsupported bias (???; please comment if you know about the subject) favoring hard buds, fluffy non-fused-together sepals and buds have much much more surface area for light exposure, air exchange and supporting trichome growth than hard buds. Theoretically if anything, there could well be less THC with hard buds, with all that inner resin glued-together tissue less active or even dead.

 

[logangrowgan2020]

I think there's something about nutrient density, like lower ppm plant ends up drinking more water so buds look huge but are just swole.

Not sure if this is something I'm misremembering, an "old wives tail", or if there's some truth.