What strain and growing method has produced your 'dense-est' buds? Looking for rocks

I am using a couple 600 watt HPS lights over aero/hydro systems and want to increase bud density. Have run Pineapple Chunk, Sensi Star, G-13 Haze, Sweet Tooth, Amnesia and Holy Grail and have grown some very nice buds, but even the best results were not really hard buds. Using Botanicare nutes and growth rates and bud size are good, just not quite dense enough. Just started some White Widow seeds, so maybe it's the genetics more than anything else? Also picked up a product called "Resinater" at a grow expo, it is an additive for weeks 5-8 of flowering that claims to increase density and I'll add it to a current multi-strain grow starting next week.

Can anyone offer any other things to try?peace:

Only certain strains will produce rock hard flowers and the Kush family is most notorious for such along with there Hybrids .. Afghanis will follow in solid formation and they really pack it heavy and huge compared to Kush and as well there are some sat doms such as Jack Herer that produce solid nugs ..

My advice is maintain proper temps and if they are on the high side use Co2 to your advantage .. Feed according to plant and not schedules and labels . You ll find that often just the basics will outperform when one applies themselves and maintains a optimal environment .. PotSnob

Thanks for tips Mr. Snob. I'll get some seeds and give 'em a go, been wanting to try the Jack Herer anyway, so now I have an excuse to place another order. My temps run from 71f at night to 79f at the end of the day. I have been learning to read the plants and have been working the balancing act to keep them happy when there are mixed strains sharing a reservoir. CO2 is not an option at this time, but that is in the long range forecast.

Let them go longer and get a couple of 1000w HPS, you cant beat a 1000w for bud density.

ProfessorPotSnob said:

Only certain strains will produce rock hard flowers and the Kush family is most notorious for such along with there Hybrids .. Afghanis will follow in solid formation and they really pack it heavy and huge compared to Kush and as well there are some sat doms such as Jack Herer that produce solid nugs ..

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I was going ro say, a buddy of my brought some master kush, trainwreck and purple kush to work the other day.

BY FAR, the purple kush looked like rocks man. I swear if you were to throw it, it would leave a mark, it was that compact. Gotta buy me some beans.....

Honestly check this out. Get that osmocote 14-14-14 at Home Depot put 1 tbsp per gal top it and finger it in. Your shit will be dense as fuck

I grew a landrace afghan kush from world of seeds a few years ago because I wanted to grow a real kush, not what most people call "kush". That plant was 100% indica, and after about 2.5 months of veg it only finished at about 24-27 inch tall. The nodes on it were very tight, and the buds ran all the way up the branches. The buds were not large by comparison with my white widow and the sativas I had growing at the time, however the density was insane. It was the kind of bud you almost have a hard time breaking up by hand. The pile of bud looked small by comparison again, but the weight was actually there due to how dense it was. That was grown in soil with fox farm nutes, including the solubles, and under a 1000w hps, though the kush didn't get center stage under the light that went to my WW.

Tomselik said:

Honestly check this out. Get that osmocote 14-14-14 at Home Depot put 1 tbsp per gal top it and finger it in. Your shit will be dense as fuck

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Looks like this is a slow release soil fertilizer, might clog up the sprayers in my hydro system, but thanks for the tip. I have read from several informed posters here that the ferts from the local stores will work just as well as the overpriced specialty stuff. Planning to use Peters line when my Botanicare inventory runs low, about a month from now.

To consolidate what has been suggested so far to grow rocks:

Kush, especially Afghanis, Purple Kush and Jack Herer strains.

Keep the temps down.

Add CO2.

Upgrade to 1000 watt lamps.

Any other ideas?

Anyone try this Resinater product?

Deep Purple threw some nuggets the size of a quarter ($.25) that weighed over a gram for me!! Super solid buds, but the yield is on the low end. Quality and terpenes definitely make up for it, though.

Also, Soma has a famous strain that used to go by the name Soma A+, now it is rename Soma Rock Bud. I've heard the same thing about it...It throws little yields, but chunky, hard nuggets.

bamacheese said:

Deep Purple threw some nuggets the size of a quarter ($.25) that weighed over a gram for me!! Super solid buds, but the yield is on the low end. Quality and terpenes definitely make up for it, though.

Also, Soma has a famous strain that used to go by the name Soma A+, now it is rename Soma Rock Bud. I've heard the same thing about it...It throws little yields, but chunky, hard nuggets.

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TGA Subcool got this by crossing Purple Urkle and Querkle. Soma's Rock Bud is the A+ and again from Afghani. This gives me an idea to try a run of just these dense bud indicas. It would make managing the reservoir easier than the cluster that I am doing now with a variety of strains. At least these would all be short and probably like the same nute load. Just got my utility bill and can't consider upping the lights to 1000s right now, perhaps tipping the 2 - 600s... Thanks for the ideas!

Pure Indica varieties tend to produce denser buds. One strain I can recommend is the Mandala Hashberry.

Other than genetics, cooler temperatures and more intense lighting. You might try a lamp with a fuller spectrum, or with a more blue-green light. Some people prefer to bloom under metal halides, or use both halide and sodium lighting for a more balanced spectrum.

420circuit said:

TGA Subcool got this by crossing Purple Urkle and Querkle. Soma's Rock Bud is the A+ and again from Afghani. This gives me an idea to try a run of just these dense bud indicas. It would make managing the reservoir easier than the cluster that I am doing now with a variety of strains. At least these would all be short and probably like the same nute load. Just got my utility bill and can't consider upping the lights to 1000s right now, perhaps tipping the 2 - 600s... Thanks for the ideas!

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I would highly recommend the Deep Purple, man...here are some shots of it:



The nugs retain their weight very well....That plant on the left was about 20 inches tall when she finished, and yielded 22 grams dry. That was with 4 weeks of veg, which is TOTALLY inadequate for this strain. If you veg her for the proper 2 months, I'm sure she would throw off an easy 2-3 ounces. My pots are also quite small, only 5 gallons. So for the conditions she was grown in, I highly approve. And the smell and taste...FUCKING WOW. Grape Candy Heaven. Good luck not having everybody you know that smells it beg you for it. I've had people offer me $30 for a gram of it. My reply...."Sorry man, but this is my MEDICINE." It's the only variety I have at the moment with high CBD and CBN levels, which work wonders for anxiety. I wouldn't sell this shit for $600 an ounce, and I mean that.

Agreeing somewhat with what others have stated, genetics are in my experience the #1 factor in bud density. In perfect conditions under 1000w lights, some strains just always produce light popcorn for me, and some the "rocks." Having done about a dozen different strains, the one that actually produced the densest for me by far was "Master Kush." I believe from whatever bank I used it was the Nirvana version of it. It's actually well known for being very dense, to the point it is actually very high mold risk, which I ran into one time on a couple of my giant tight nugs, and now I top the shit out of it to keep the buds smaller. Still super dense though. It is actually a great indica smoke, and some people do love the bag appeal of super dense buds, where I've had some super dank popcorn type buds and the bag appeal of the loose buds turned them off so I keep master kush in rotation. I got 5 of those seeds by the way, and I think the strain must be pretty stable, as it is kinda older. Normally when I pop half a dozen seeds I get pretty big pheno variances, usually smell and internode size. With this strain they all produced super solid nugs, and the only variable I had was slightly with the spacing and overall height, which really didnt matter because the plant doesnt grow too tall. When I finished these girls I was nervous because the buds only produced at the very top of each bud site with little to no activity on the lower branches, and not overly huge compared to some of my other strains, but in the end they weighed out comparable or more to my other strains due to the heavy density. Like I said before tho, you have to watch out for the mold and keep your humidity down and airflow through those buds. If you google search on this strain I think it's a pretty common issue.

Critical Jack under a 1k hps. The buds were like gooey, sticky rocks.

It is about the strain like alot of people have mentioned BUT there is some nutrients that help is harden them up aswell! I use the humboldt nutrients full line and one nutrient that has really help me buds dense up was the deuce deuce! Its a potasium feed thats u give it 3-2 weeks before u harvest, it really helps, i had really dense nugs everytime ive used it! Now they have a hydro deuce that u can use for your hydro set up! Look into it and try it out for urself, plus im sure there is other potasium feeders out there that do the same thing!

Thank you for the great suggestions, I will post up a grow thread of my high density grow. There are a couple grows in line ahead of this, but I will be testing out lower temps, additives and higher lights with the current run and get things organized and seeds ordered to grow rocks. Please Stand By, This Is A Test This Is Only A Test.

i hope my purple kush bag seed grows in to rock solid nugs here 2 pics i took yesterday 16 days of 12/12

u cant beat a bit lst to keep the buds dense and u dont get shitty scrag on the bottoms

heres a couple of my last lot i had down with lst all through veg

Yep as most always the genetics is the most important factor then total environmental control to fully express the genetic code