Growing your own cannabis is a serious investment of time, attention, and money. Harvest time should be a rewarding experience filled with big beautiful buds that are easy to trim and gorgeous enough for the ‘gram.
Small Buds suck. They’re much harder to trim and they don’t offer the same jar appeal as large chunky nugs.
My recent grow looked healthy and happy throughout the entire season, but yielded small nugs.
Expert Advice from Mr. Grow It
Mr.GrowIt is one of the most trusted growing experts on YouTube and has helped MILLIONS of people learn how to grow weed.
Mr.GrowIt is an author, video creator, and podcast host.
He’s graciously agreed to collaborate with me.
I rely on experts like Mr. Grow It and have been watching his content for years. I felt very honored that he accepted my invitation to collaborate and look forward to doing more content like this in the future.
Watch: Bigger Buds \ 7 Mistakes to Avoid
Mr. Grow It and I met up and discussed the common mistakes and problems to see why my nugs were small. He stated that the list of potential problems that will yield small nugs could be any number of things, these 7 common issues are often the culprit of lackluster yields.
Genetics
Genetics are an extremely important factor in cannabis cultivation. Breeders have put a lot of work into cross-breeding cannabis plants with favorable characteristics, like big buds. If you’re growing with good genetics, you should be pulling big buds if you get everything else right.
Lighting
Lighting is important and the lack of enough light will yield lackluster flowers. If you’re growing indoors, use a high-powered LED grow light. See my Mars Hydro Grow Light Comparison
Temperature / Environment
Cannabis plants can be grown in a variety of climates, but lower temperatures can result in smaller nug sizes and lower yields. Mr. Grow It said that my temperatures ranges of 70-87F were fine, but getting down into the 50s could have an effect on bud development.
Air Circulation & Fans
Cannabis plants need CO2 to breathe and without constant circulation the air becomes stagnant and there isn’t enough CO2 for ideal bud development. Maintain some form of air circulation and ventilation to keep CO2 levels high enough for the plants to grow big nugs. A lack of air movement could result in smaller nugs.
Nutrition Problems
A flowering cannabis plant has very specific nutritional needs and any deficiencies can be detrimental to the yield. Mr. Grow It warned that Nitrogen toxicity in the early flowering stage is a common problem that often results in problems like small nugs. As the plant matures, less nitrogen is needed and additives like Cal-Mag also contain additional Nitrogen that’s often overlooked.
Plant Training & Optimization
This one is extremely important. Cannabis plants will naturally grow in the shape of a Christmas tree if left untrained. Cannabis plants in cultivation are often topped so the plant puts energy into the rest of the branches rather than the main top cola. The rest of the branches are trained into a flat canopy using a trellis so all of the flowering sites get their share of the light.
The underside of the canopy where light doesn’t reach must be trimmed away very early in flower so the plant can focus its energy into the flowers in the canopy where the light hits.
Leaving the underside untrimmed will suck massive amounts of energy from the plant and waste all of its growth potential. If this waste is too much, even the top colas in the light won’t have enough energy to bulk up to their full potential.
Over Watering
Mr. Grow It didn’t push too hard on overwatering being a major problem, but he wanted to mention it just in case because he knows overwatering is a very common problem.
Want to see more from Mr. Grow It?
Let me know what you think in the comments please! I learned a lot from Chris and would love to reconnect with him to make more content. Maybe I could even send him a ball vape to try and get it all on video?
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