Popcorn Buds: How to avoid them in your grow
Table of Contents
- What are popcorn buds?
- What causes popcorn buds?
- How can I prevent popcorn buds from growing?
- Can I use popcorn buds?
Introduction
When it comes to cultivating cannabis at home, we all just want the best for our plants. Unfortunately, things can sometimes get in the way of their progress. With stunted growth comes “popcorn buds or nugs”. While a relatively small issue, let’s take a deeper look into their causes and what we can do about it. Read to the end to see how to use any popcorn nugs that do grow.
What are popcorn buds?
Marijuana buds can be classified into three main categories: cola, mid-size, and popcorn bud.
Marijuana buds are categorized depending on their size. Larger buds, called colas, usually contain more of the desired cannabinoids and terpenes. Popcorn buds are smaller in size than cola-type buds. They usually grow close to the stem on the lowest branches of the plant. Popcorn nugs look nothing like the usual dense and tight nugs of other strains. Instead, they have a light, fluffy appearance, and can resemble a piece of popcorn.
If you find yourself with a few popcorn nugs here and there, don’t worry about it. They won’t affect how well your bud tastes or smells (and they actually taste pretty good!). The only negative thing about them is that they can cause extra work trimming up your buds. Another consideration is they will usually dry faster than the big dense buds.
What causes popcorn buds?
Many of the problems that marijuana growers face are caused by stress. Stress is a powerful force in nature, and can quickly affect the growth of a marijuana plant. There are a few things that could be contributing to your plant stress causing the popcorn buds.
Heat/Humidity Stress:
Too much heat or humidity can cause your plants to produce fluffy and light buds to fend off pests and mold. The temperature in your grow room should be between 70 F and 80 F during the light cycle, and anywhere from 60 F to 75 F during the dark cycle. If you notice that your cannabis plant is producing popcorn buds, it’s time to check the heat and humidity levels in your growing space.
Light Stress
Like all plants, cannabis requires light to grow, and too much or too little light causes stress. As a cannabis plant grows and the canopy spreads out, lower branches can be blocked from the light source. Blocked light inhibits their ability to pack on mass, ultimately limiting your yield. Overcrowding your plants in the grow space is another way that blocks light from reaching the entire plant. Light not penetrating the canopy and overcrowding are two main causes for plants growing popcorn buds.
Feeding Stress
As you know, to achieve good results in your garden it’s important that your plant’s basic needs are met throughout its growing cycle. It’s important to understand the difference between too much and too little so your plants have the right environment to thrive. All in all, I believe that the best solution is to give them just enough water and food so that they can grow normally.
Pest or Disease Stress
Unfortunately, cannabis is like most other organisms in the kingdom of life: Insects love to gnaw on its leaves and suck the life out of this beautiful plant. Left unchecked, plants that are late into the vegetative state or early flowering stage will never be able to produce an abundance of dense flowers. This ultimately lets down the grower who may have invested lots of time and energy in growing that plant.
Transplant or Training Stress
Plants are living things, just like us. Moving them to a new place or pruning them can have a big impact on their growth. Any time a plant is physically changed, it needs to recover. Plants expend their energy and resources to recover instead of growing dense buds. When you’re transplanting or pruning a plant, make sure you’re gentle and cautious. It’s important that the plant doesn’t focus on recovering from your actions instead of growing.
Read more about training your plants in our article “Growing Cannabis, Beginner’s Guide: A Blog About All The Basics Of Growing Cannabis”.
How can I prevent popcorn buds from growing?
Knowing what to do with popcorn buds may be helpful. But, more important when you’re wanting to grow top-shelf cannabis is: how can you stop popcorn buds from growing? You can take a few steps to ensure your buds don’t have popcorn buds.
What to avoid
First, avoid obvious light, heat, and nutrient problems. Apply preventives against pests and diseases, especially in vegetative growth. Avoid transplant or trimming shock too close to flowering to ensure continued growth.
While avoiding stressors is an effective step to prevent popcorn buds, it’s not the only way. You can prevent them from happening by doing a little manipulation of the plant.
Train your plants
Low-Stress Training (LST) is a simple method of bending your marijuana plants in the direction you want. It’s flexible enough to work on a lot of different setups. As the plant is opened up, all of the flowering sites get an even amount of light. This helps for dense nugs but not necessarily big buds like the cola buds you see.
The Screen of Green (ScrOG) LST method can boost the production and quality of your plants. By pruning the lower branches and removing tall leaders, the plants are forced to grow through a net. This creates an even canopy that stretches over the entire enclosure and ensures you will maximize light exposure, with no bud shaded.
![sea of green [scrog] cannabis growing in trellis to direct growth](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/ZZhLq1mOe_xQB6RAVLrdjpQoGAiN9XaEFiA1PwUc923AowjcXwhvYyQs7YZK4vtoaanGAlwEmkdxECRwYfTKB3YHMxgsF8K7TxLWB3Hs5bsi6bvfqBQvpQh9xJtduKDVSmM9nkUfzYBYn3ORNwARNu6xdhILoiaryP7OnD-wDR4xyRHWJ7MGmSFfYtfaBA "sea of green [scrog] cannabis growing in trellis")
Besides LST, another way to manipulate your plant’s growth is called lollipopping. The term refers to the pruning of lower growth after the plant has leafed out. This can help focus energy on the upper branch sites, increasing overall bud production. Lollipopping is especially good if you want to grow more bushy plants. The lollipop shape is a very solid structure to the plant. A solid structure means your plant can handle the larger amounts of nutrients that large colas eat up.
Read more about training your plants in our article “Low Stress Training of Your Cannabis Plant.“
Can I use popcorn buds?
Popcorn buds are small, wispy buds that may not have as much THC as higher-quality buds. These small buds may not go as far but will still provide a high for less money. Just make sure to give them a proper dry and cure, and don’t have wild expectations.
However, there are a host of other ways to truly get the best out of your humblest flowers.
Making Edibles
It almost sounds too good to be true. Yes, you can convert your leftover popcorn buds into edibles. These popcorn buds are aesthetically displeasing, but they enhance the product’s potency.
There are a number of recipes online that you can easily and cheaply transform your pile of popcorn buds into delectable treats. Cookies, brownies, and other baked goods come out tasting just as delicious as their namesakes, but with a little extra kick!
Extracts
You don’t want to waste any part of this attractive plant, so you make great concentrates or hash. It’s well worth the effort of using more plant material than if you were using a bigger bud because you aren’t wasting any of your precious grow.
Sure, we all wish we had 24/7 access to huge buds like the ones they show off in magazines, but in reality, this isn’t always the case. The good news is that there are plenty of ways to make your harvest work for you. You can roll them up and smoke them, bake them into your next batch of brownies, or even make a tincture. It all depends on what kind of person you are.
Conclusion
Now you have a better understanding of the issues surrounding popcorn buds. You should be able to make informed decisions about how to avoid these problems. Uncle Herb’s Rules of Thumb: 1. Make sure the proper amount of light is hitting the budding sites directly. 2. Limit the number of flowering sites in general. By being aware of the factors that cause popcorn buds and by taking steps to minimize the risks, you can increase your crop quality and overall yields. And isn’t that what we’re all after?
