Purple Kush Auto Harvest Day (83 days from seed)

[kingkola1]

I have two Purple Kush Auto's ready. I harvested 1 of them yesterday, 83 days old after the seed pop. The plants grew indoors to about 28 inches tall. The grow medium was 1/3 coco, 1/3 perlite and 1/3 Ocean Farms Potting soil using Emerald Harvest nutreints.The white pistals were turned 95% brown and curled in and I think the trichomes looked like there were quite a few with dark amber heads. This is my first harvest. I'm a bit disappointed that the buds turned out sort of light and airy and not dense and hard like I am used to seeing. Did I do something wrong in the grow that made them light and airy? Will they shrink up and become hard and dense after dry and cure? Or is this jjust normal for the Purple Kush Auto's? The harvest for one plant was about 2.5 ounces right after they were harvested (I understand they will be about 23% of that weight after dry and cure). See attached pictures.

 

[9fingerleafs]

Looks pretty good. What kind of light are you feeding them? Also. You wanna check the tricomes on the calyxes of the bud itself. Not the leaves

 

[kingkola1]

Thanks! In flower they are under 1000 W HPS light about 24 to 28 inches from the top of the canopy (during veg I used 1000 W MH at the same distance from canopy). Thanks for the info on the trichomes, I did not know that before. But what makes a bud light and airy rather than hard and dense? The second Purple Kush I harvested today looks better but still not real hard and dense. Do they become more dense during dry and cure? Not sure it even matters to the quality of the smoke, but it doesn't look normal to me now. Not sure if it could even be a function of the strain? I have Mazar, Northern Lights and Chocolate Cream that are not ready for harvest yet, but the buds look more normal to me.

 

[9fingerleafs]

Its hard to tell exactly. Anything from the strain to the temperatures and humidity could be the cause. Also. They will get better as they dry up. But to get dense buds you got to start with genetics. Most indicas make harder buds than sativas (as a general rule) it does not affect the potency of the bud but the yield. If you have temperature and humidity under control the light being too close can cause "foxtailing" that's the bud trying to grow outwards and up trying to get away from the heat/light

 

[kingkola1]

Thanks 9fingerleafs!

 

[9fingerleafs]

you are welcome, good luck