Keep the lights right on top of your plants from their 2nd week of life on.
If you do so the node spacing will remain tight which'll result in a more compact plant. Indoors, compact is what you want.
You also need to start training your plant at around 5/6 nodes tall. There are several different things you can do, just put some work and it look for things like topping/F.I.Ming/LSting/Super cropping.
If you're using CFLs you need to have the plant surrounded by them, and have them no further than 2" away at all times.
Using HPS will put you WAY ahead in that battle tho. But I understand using CFLs no doubt.
HPS will get you dense buds with much effort.
But yeah, IMO the best way to get dense buds it to:
-train your plants early and often to keep node spacing tight
-keep them as close to the lights as possible to help keep node spacing tight
-Use HPS if you can cool it, if not, use CFLs and surround your plants with them at no futher than 2" away
-Let your plants finish..Most ppl I see pull early for whatever reason. If you let you plants go at the end of flowering, as watch the yellow pistils vs. the red, you plants will let you know when they're done growing. Seems to me they fatten up the most in the final days of the prime "harvest window".
Letting you plants finish is a big one tho..They really grow A LOT in the end.
Just when you think they're ripe, they'll have a grow spurt. Like 2-3 of em
