If you harvested around the time of that first picture you harvested way too early. It's amazing how much the buds fatten in the last several weeks of a properly ripened plant. I thought I was going to harvest a couple of weeks ago but decided they weren't quite ready. Today they look sooo different. Plump, round instead of spiky, heavy buds. Seems like you did a good job but you likely harvested too early. Forget about any timing that the seed vendor gives you, wait until they are ripe then wait a little longer.
nah didnt harvest at that time. its just the only pics i have lol. i harvested according to the tricomes using a magnifying glass. most were cloudy and some orangey ones. i had 2 mars hydro 48 led lights on her but the only training i done was tied the branches down.
Maybe just focus on training to get light where you need it or bring the lights closer or add more. It's hard for anyone to give advice on what to change without all of your grow info but more light makes a big difference.
I use this pretty much throughout the grow. Mostly to keep the microbe biome healthy and fed. It does add weight and sweetness to the final product. Pretty cheap too. About 12 dollars a gallon. You can use regular blackstrap molasses unsulfered. Same results.
@MrFooey injects it directly into the branches of the plant, using that needle sitting next to the jug.
Definitely look into COB. I personally run one of the only blurple lights that I have had do work on par with with my HID setup and that is my CLW Solar Storm 440. It's old and outdated but damn does it grow plants. But I spent WAY too much on that light 4 years ago. If I spent that same money now on COB I'd have a sick light. If you're good with basic wiring you can build one for a very reasonable price that will vastly outperform what you have now. That being said that is a very nice looking first grow!
Ya, that blurble Chinese stuff sucks. Better buy the COB Chinese stuff cause this is all I was able to do on my first grow with the blurble garbagio.
To be fair, I never said blurple was garbage... I just said that I've never had one hold its own with HID in terms of production other than my SS 440. I'm sure some of the more modern blurple are even better, but I haven't had good experiences with the cheap ones.
My Mars II 1600 seems to do well in the tent, for the money. I think many young stoners were told fables about LEDs early on (and still) and they bought underpowered fixtures for their grows and their grows suffered. I get that folks are on the COB kick right now and I'm sure they're great, I just haven't seen the results myself. They are very spendy so I'd have to be pretty stoked on the results to go for that over HID or my current LED. I'm interested in making my own fixture with COBs someday but more out a hobby than any cost/benefit.
I think LED got a bad name because some if the less reputable companies made a lot of 'equivalency' claims that were way out of line. I distinctly remember lights claiming to replace a 1000 watt HID that only pulled 175 from the wall and came nowhere near what what a 1000 would do. my SS 440 was designed to replace a 600 watt HID and pulls 350 from the wall. the difference is it actually does do as well as well as a 600. I think now that the consumers are more educated and the companies are area little more honest people are starting to see what a well made LED can do and the difference between a good light and a bad light.
Burple isn't as bad as some people think. I've done at least as good as HPS, if not a slight percentage better when you add up all my electric usage. I don't have super cheap burples though so I don't know if that's the difference. So, you want bigger buds? Are you growing hydro? Changing to DWC hydro and learning it well is probably the best thing you could do to increase your yield as long as your light is up to par. I've grown soil and DWC hydro side by side and there's no comparison. I have a nice White Widow in promix with beer bottle size colas 5 weeks in flower right now. I have the exact same plant vegging in a DWC bucket and it looks completely different. The stems are at least 50% thicker and it grows about 50% faster. If you don't change anything else in the garden DWC hydro is the single best change you could make to increase your yield. Looking at your harvest pictures IMO it looks like you starved your plants of phosphorus. That's what all those large browned out spotty areas probably are. You need to get used to feeding heavier IMO without burning. Big Buds suck down the nutrients. I'm currently budding the biggest plants I've grown yet and I had to switch to 2-45-28 dry koolbloom to keep from getting phosphorus deficiency. That's 45% phosphorus. They are sucking it down faster then I can put it in the pot. I'm feeding 1/2tsp/gallon of that with no burn in fact it's pulling out of deficiency. I've been increasing my yield significantly each crop with small changes. One of the things I've really noticed is now that I've gotten more experienced in recognizing what the plants wants and needs I'm using twice the nutrients I used to when I started easily. The two on the right are 5 weeks in promix. This is my last Grand Daddy Purple DWC hydro plant. I got 6oz's of dense bud from this one.