Big weed heads: how do they do it?

We often see American growers on Instagram or Facebook showing off their huge, fist-sized weed heads, whereas the last head we saw with our own eyes was no bigger than a hazelnut. Some varieties, such as Green Crack or the Big Bud also tend to produce bigger buds. But how do professional growers get their cannabis buds to grow to these extremes?

In the beginning were the weed heads

Cannabis buds are the parts of the plant that contain most of the THC, the psychotropic cannabinoid in cannabis. This is basically what consumers are looking for, and why they want big weed heads.

THC can also be found in cannabis leaves, but in much smaller proportions than the heads.

Cannabis buds are the plant's flowers. They only appear during the flowering stage, which follows the plant's growth stage. The vegetative stage allows the plant to grow and prepare itself to receive beautiful flowers.

Flowers appear on both male and female Cannabis plants. Same if both sexes produce THC, Females are more powerful, and when they are pollinated by males, they are no longer able to produce such powerful flowers because they spend their energy producing seeds (don't look for allegories with everyday life ^^).

Despite all the hype, males can also be consumed. Their reputation stems mainly from the fact that they diminish the potential of female plants, and are discarded once the grower is able to distinguish the first sexual signs. Males generally appear before females, with small round flowers, Females have beautiful white, hairy flowers (pistils).

Accelerate head growth

The most important rule, however obvious it may seem, is that the faster the heads grow, the bigger the heads you'll have at harvest. There are various parameters for speeding up head growth.

Pruning

Pruning covers all available pruning methods.

The first and perhaps most effective method for accelerating the plant growth once they've gone into bloom, is to remove any leaves that start to turn yellow. They won't fall off, so you'd better remove them. If you don't, they'll continue to suck up precious resources that should instead be allocated to head growth. You can also clean any leaves that don't receive direct light.

Other methods involve pruning the upper part of the plant: topping, fimmin or super cropping. Several tools are available, with different results.

Nutrients

When the plants start to flower, you should think about starting a new diet. fertilizer. Plants need more phosphorus when they flower. You can then choose a mix of «NPK 10-30-10» fertilizers.

Carbon dioxide

Carbon dioxide generally helps plants to grow faster and absorb more light. If, for example, you combine an increase in light intensity with an addition of carbon dioxide, you'll achieve very good results. Just be careful not to overdo it. While it's effective for plants, it's dangerous for humans (less so than monoxide, but still).

Temperature and humidity

The key to temperature and humidity is to always monitor them and maintain consistent values. This is important both in the vegetative phase and during flowering. Make sure that temperature and humidity are correctly adjusted for each stage of growth.

Plant genetics

As mentioned in the introduction, some cannabis varieties are more focused on bud production than others. Rely on the opinion of other fans of the seed brand you covet, and don't hesitate to ask the cannabiculturists you follow on social networks about the origin of their seeds. And why not a few tips 😉