Why are my buds relatively small?

[skeptik]

I'm approaching the end of my first grow, and while everything has progressed pretty well – plants have been healthy and filled the scrog nicely – the buds haven't developed as I expected, and I'm hoping to get input as to what the problem might be for my next grow. The scrog resulted in copious buds, the plants are giving off an intoxicating odor and fan leaves are yellowing fast, but the buds seem to have stopped developing.

Photos are below, but first the vitals:

The environment:

grow room: 120 x 60 x 220 cm
10 cm inline exhaust fan with carbon filter
2 x 300w LED panels (Viparspectra class)
temp has been 25'C during light period, 21'C in dark
humidity fluctuates 35% - 45%

Super soil mix in 20 L buckets
Jack's Classic All-Purpose 20-20-20 and Bloom Booster 10-30-20, with a dose of DIY Big Bud weekly

The plants:

1 x Money Bush (fem, photo)
1 x Northern Lights (fem, photo)
vegged for 8 weeks at 18/6
currently finishing week 8 of 12/12
amber trichomes are appearing on the sugar leaves, but few on the bud

Let me know if you need additional detail.


Here's a photo of the scrog; MB on the left, NL on the right:



Some representative MB buds:



And some NL:



I'm thinking the problem might be insufficient light (I can add a third panel), or perhaps because, according to directions, I continued to tuck the buds under the screen for the first 2 weeks of 12/12. Dunno. Please share your experience and advise.

[Skunky n funky]

This may be a strain thing.... They look healthy and nice and big. Should be a good yield. Not all strains are gunna produce the same... Try something with a bit more sativa in it and you will pull more. Looks like a solid grow... its hard to pin pout the issue in retrospective cause we cant see your process.... coco will increase your yield also soil tends to not maximize a plants potential.

[Volcano]

They look great mate well done and thanks for the pics.

[Strider]

Light would be my first guess as they look happy otherwise, it's not that they're BAD in any way, just not possibly reaching full potential. I don't know the panels in question though. What's the buds density like, solid? squooshy? airy?

[MrChedHead]

Its they led mate

[B.A.BARACUS]

I'd say strain & Led.... At a guess

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

[Esh]

I'm sorry I have nothing useful to say and I'm only commenting because your title has made me chuckle each time I see it and I really have to say your small buds are probably due to your genetics, you can blame your parents for that.

I am really sorry, really really sorry, it just had to be said

[skeptik]

This may be a strain thing.... They look healthy and nice and big. Should be a good yield. Not all strains are gunna produce the same... Try something with a bit more sativa in it and you will pull more. Looks like a solid grow... its hard to pin pout the issue in retrospective cause we cant see your process.... coco will increase your yield also soil tends to not maximize a plants potential.

Thanx, Skunk. Perhaps I'm overreacting to photos I've seen of other scrogs where the grower has a dozen colas, each as thick as my wrist. When I compare my results to those, I assume I've done something to stunt cola development, but I'll take your experienced assessment over my noob guess any day. I appreciate it.

[skeptik]

They look great mate well done and thanks for the pics.

Thanx, Volcano. Hopefully the end result will assuage my concerns.

[skeptik]

Light would be my first guess as they look happy otherwise, it's not that they're BAD in any way, just not possibly reaching full potential. I don't know the panels in question though. What's the buds density like, solid? squooshy? airy?

The panels are inexpensive <$100 "full spectrum" units.

Never having seen a fresh bud until now, it's difficult for me to judge if they have an appropriate density or not. They seem to have a relatively solid center with a 0.25 cm squooshy layer on the outside.