Lighting Recommendation for COB LED lights to cure fluffy buds

[fortunato1]

Hello everyone. I am an experienced grower at the end of my rope. I can get great yields but my buds are always fluffy. I run Kind soil and use both Kind LED and Platinum LED lights and after speaking with Phil Kind about my results and reviewing what I've been doing he said that I was doing everything right and suggested to move to COB LEDs and I wanted to get some feedback on the following
1. Has anyone cured a fluffy bud issue by switching to COB LEDs
2. Any recommendation on a COB lighting system. I do not want a home grown system and am happy to pay for quality.

Thanks in advance

 

[Mossy]

Welcome to our Home @fortunato1 ..quite a few of the staff grow with COB's so I've put a request in for one of them to come give you some Help.

 

[Eekman]

@Global Moderators

I am assuming this occurs no matter what strain you are growing?

 

[wwwillie]

Kind soil, so just water then. Have you grown "fluffy" with other regimen?
I use the 55 watt Autocob. I did notice a tightening of my flowers. Let's see what comes of this for you. Do you have any specific devices in mind?
WWW

 

[Dudeski]

Cobs are usually tighter. What distance away do you keep them. You may need a little PK boost to help the buds develop. I have used kindsoil before, not bad stuff. You growing sativas?

 

[Eekman]

Cobs are usually tighter. What distance away do you keep them. You may need a little PK boost to help the buds develop. I have used kindsoil before, not bad stuff. You growing sativas?

Yes on the PK booster, I use M.O.A.B. (mother of all blooms), and it works well. Sativas, especially Haze's are fluffy by nature, and landrace Thai's have almost no bud structure at all.

 

[Waira]

It's more likely the Kind soil in my opinion,... LED and COB (a type of LED) both can produce dense buds, it's proven here in scores and scores of grows,... Kind, and Platinum especially have plenty of intensity and spectrum coverage if kept at the proper distances, lots of fine grows with their lights here.... Talk to @BigSm0 , owner of AutoCOB's for starters ,... but there are several other great COB makers around, and several companies are using a mix of both COB and single diode type LED's..... Either way, the mountain of evidence is huge!
As for KindSoil, we did a test run with it a couple years back, and many other folks have run it on their own since. The general conclusion was decidedly mixed results, and in the Infirmary, I have seen several growers with definite P defc. starting up during bloom, the worst possible time for that to happen!.... We dropped them as a vendor here for more than one reason though BTW, and I personally don't recommend it anymore,... I'm always open to mind-changing, but I haven't seen anything to date to make me do so,...
From the nutritional side of this, low P and K, high N, or both during bloom can make buds have a poor bud:leaf ratio, and depleted "water only " soil can definitely be a cause of this,... That said, your specific strain and even phenotype variation are big factors as well. What strains did you run? Some of the Sativa-dominant types simply do not make compact dense bud, it's just how those types grow....

 

[fortunato1]

Thanks for the responses so far.
I have done numerous grows with a variety of seeds (indica and sativa) from some of the best breeders (Dutch Passion etc.) and now almost always grow autoflowering indicas. As for distance I have played around with several on the numerous grows I have done and the changes in distance doesn't seem to impact density. The kind light is 600W and the Platinum is 900W so they have more than enough power. I have run numerous experiments trying to fix the issue like increasing container size to 5 gallon allowing for more nutrients, increased air, lowering temps, and just can't seem to solve the issue. My yields have been really good (up to 4-5oz per plant) and the plants get huge but it's just the density that's an issue

I don't have anything in mind as far as brands but I am willing to spend good money if it resolves the issue.

 

[Eekman]

I mean if your gonna do cobs anyways, they seem to be resilliant lights. Wouldn't hurt for sure.

I thought I would bring in some more perspectives to get ideas on other things to think about also.

Just a note on the Kindsoil, does that coinside with a feeding regimen, and you have no issues other than density?

I have done all kinds of soil, except Kind Soil. I liked Dr. Earth. I also have purchased Super Soils in bulk. The stuff I got this year was a local company called Paronia (I live in S.E. Colorado). They said it would go full cycle. They all do. But I have never had a soil that can do that without coming out with sub par plants and/or deficiencies. I just expect to add Nitrogen, calmag, and pk boost.

My best results so far is with MegaCrop with a base soil. But still needed the addatives.

 

[wwwillie]

What made the biggest difference for me was switching to NFTG. A Ca based nutrient so no salts really. I also use a bunch of benes too like MamothP, Recharge, etc
Pineapple Express, Fast Buds under some COBs. Fed Nectar For The Gods full regimen. Very solid flowers.
Sorry bout the sideways.

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