What determines the strength of the resulting buds?

My first grow went so so … white widow and gg4. I’m a lightweight so for me they are ok but Ive been told by a couple of friends they turned out on the weak/mild side. One claims its due to being an auto and I should try photo period. Is that what you guys have found?

I was careful not to chop before trichs were cloudy, but they were mostly airy buds.

I am thinking it was just novice goofups that resulted in weaker buds, but I dont know.

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I don’t think there as big of differences between autos and photos, as there are between strains. But generally speaking, airy buds are usually a sign of not enough light intensity during the first 5-6 weeks of flower.

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Lights make airy. Have to hit those auto hard i found. Photo not so much. I get both airy and solid on auto. Depending on strain. I do notice denser flowers on photo.

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Depends on what strain. Your homies may be used to sativa and you grew indica for example. White Widow is 60/40 Indica/Sativa and effect also depends on what the trichomes maturity was at harvest. You mentioned trichomes were ready.

P S I’m a lightweight too. :grinning:

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so if I wanted a strain for someone with high tolerance, what would I try? They also think they lean towards sativas…

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Are you mainly growing for yourself or for others or both?

I personally grow for myself and some for my daughter and her husband when they visit… Best indica for me for sleep is Northern Lights. Zzzz…

Best sativa energy strain for working in the yard is Amnesia Haze. Yowza… that shit is good,!!

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Gg4/gelato and a few others. Gg4 can be very strong grown correctly. Mine is always 1 to 2 hit stuff.

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So what lights are you using??

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i smoke A LOT lol, like an oz every 3 or 4 days, my 1st grow was the gg4 auto and lemme tell ya, it was awesome, theres a lot of factors that determine the end result, i just got lucky my 1st time bc my 2nd grow i botched a lil and harvested too early

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@goldiemouth270

You smoke an oz. ever 3 or 4 days?? Really? I can’t even wrap my head around that much.

I only smoke an oz every YEAR… If that at all

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I will said light but like @Audiofreak @VirginiaGrowBoy @Storm said is :100:
Should see what strain it is dominant of sativa or indica dominant so i grown autos
and i started with sour diesel sativa air bud
Is on sativas so i started grow son indicas
So far dense but still a little air and i had just 150w

Went harvest next time try more amber thricomes maybe help all you friends and you to be sleep on the couch :grin::metal::+1:
Went all thricomes are cloudy the effect is more euphoric hit

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The only difference would be that autos have a bit more CBD. I grew a Northern lights auto, made brownies from it and several regular users that I shared the brownies with, said WOW very very strong. That’s 1 oz. per pound of canna butter. Fairly standard.
Light intensity is KEY! Also precision stressing the plant so it defends itself by producing more cannabinoids (THC, CBD etc…) is the strategy behind Super Cropping. Look that up and try it!

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I did gg4’s… hmm… Thing is I cant tell strength because everything is a 1 or 2 hit for me.

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I actually had what appeared to be light stress towards the end… I have viparspectra P1000 full spectrum in a 32 inch X 32 inch tent. Just picked up a stronger lefreshinsoft 1000w led etc… which I accidentally bleached my seedlings with. (Im cursed lately)

Also @stevenewbie , friends can be swayed by market perception. My neighbor thinks buds have to be “rock hard” like he gets from the dispensary. Then he proceeds to break them up to make them airy in order to smoke them…what! I don’t think rock hard necessarily means more potent. Airy buds can buzz your world too. A gram is a gram. I’ve TLC tested bud and found airy buds more potent than more solid ones, in some cases.

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Insufficient light will turn out airy flower but genetics plays a big role too. Autos used to be lower potency but that isn’t a real problem now. Sativas tend to be more airy as well.

Your light is in all likelihood the culprit. 100 watts output is enough for veg but not enough for dense flower.

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Organic vs Synthetic Fertilizers, Flushing, Plant Lighting & More! (Garden Talk #46) - YouTube
In this interview at @59 min. Dr Bugbee explains how light spectrum helps determine bud density. So, genetics, light intensity / nutrients, light spectrum, stress, and…wait for it…harvest timing. These seem to be the factors that most influence bud quality

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lmao yea and im really not exaggerating 1 bit, i consume a lot of mj, might i add tht i dnt have friends so i use this much alone lol

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What i found with white widow auto is that you have to let them go for a bit longer then normal mine ended up with airy buds aswell but in saying that it also depends on ur light and temps and rh of ur grow tent but how ever i found the buds do tighten up alittle when drying and curing

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So autos can be just as strong as photos, however…
From my experience, autos do not produce the terps photos do. And for alot of people taste and smell is a huge part of the “is it good or not” its mostly a physiological thing imo…

Light intensity will absolutely have alot to do with airy buds for sure, but i do believe with autos sometimes the ruderalis genetics are strong in a plant and nothing will stop it from being a scraggly plant.

I could be wrong as I’ve got little experience with autoflowers and i went back to photos…

But I grew 3 girl scout cookies and 3 Gorilla glue under same conditions and 1 of the gsc was super small and airy compared to the others all being pretty dense.

All got me high but none had smell or flavor like I’m use to with photos…

Just my 2 cents :grin:

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