Popcorn buds are the concern of every grower—keep reading for a detailed guide on these flower formations, and on how to keep them from bringing your harvest down.
Contents:
- What Are Popcorn Buds?
- What Causes Popcorn Buds?
- Will Popcorn Buds Get You High?
- Processing Popcorn Buds at Harvest
- What to Do with Popcorn Buds?
- How to Avoid Popcorn Buds
- Preventing Popcorn Buds Outdoors
- Are Popcorn Buds Bad?
What Are Popcorn Buds?
Popcorn buds are underdeveloped, airy buds about the size of, you guessed it, popped corn. You’ll generally find these buds towards the bottom of your plants, underneath the main canopy. There are a few main causes of popcorn buds, and they can weigh down the harvest of even really experienced growers.
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What Causes Popcorn Buds?
Stress is the number one cause of popcorn buds. Any kind of stress, be it from poor watering, a lack or excess of nutrients, the environment, pests, plagues, or improper care, can affect a plant’s ability to grow big, dense flowers. Some of the most common stressors causing popcorn buds include:
Overcrowding or Overshading
An overcrowded grow room, poor spacing between plants, or bushy vegetative growth—due to the lack of pruning or training—can reduce the amount of light that a plant’s bud sites get, affecting bud growth and size.
High Heat and/or Humidity
Heat and humidity can encourage plants to develop airy, wispy buds in an effort to fend off mould and other pathogens/pests.
Cannabis plants need water and nutrients to grow and develop big, healthy flowers. Drought, overwatering, and over/underfeeding can all affect your plant’s ability to develop big, dense, and heavy flowers.
Pests and plagues can wreak havoc on a plant’s ability to grow. Any pest/plague problem you run into during the late vegetative and flowering phases can drastically impact the size and weight of the buds you’ll harvest.
LST and HST techniques can massively improve the harvest potential of some plants. However, time your training poorly and you can drastically stunt your plant’s growth and its ability to develop big, fully-formed flowers.
Will Popcorn Buds Get You High?
While they might not look like much, popcorn buds can do a perfect job of getting you high. Just keep in mind that you’ll need more popcorn buds to fill a joint or bowl, simply because they are smaller and airier.
Processing Popcorn Buds at Harvest
If you've found yourself with a considerable amount of popcorn buds at harvest time, fear not! Here are a few tips that will help you trim and dry popcorn buds.
Trim popcorn buds like you would any regular bud. If you’re lucky enough to have had a large harvest and a lot of trimming to get through, you can opt to be less “detailed” when trimming your popcorn buds, especially if you’re planning on using them in edibles or concentrates. If you plan on smoking/vaping your popcorn buds, remember that a good trim will help ensure a better smoke because it removes excess foliage.
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After trimming, you’ll want to dry your popcorn buds until their branches bend and snap easily. After that, you can throw them in curing jars. Again, if you’ve been blessed with a big harvest and can’t wait to taste the fruits of your labour, you can opt to start smoking/vaping your buds early, while the rest of your harvest cures.
How to Quick-Dry a Popcorn Bud
If you’ve accidentally broken a small bud off one of your plants or are short on weed and want a quick smoke, you can try quick-drying a popcorn bud in an oven, grill, or even a fry pan on low heat. Make sure you monitor and flip the bud regularly to ensure it dries somewhat evenly. Also, don’t expect anything of a smoking experience; quick-drying cannabis this way ruins a lot of its flavour and makes for a harsh smoke. But hey, it’ll get you high if that’s all your after.
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What to Do with Popcorn Buds?
Now that your popcorn buds are processed, you may be wondering what you can use them for. Below are our favourite ways to enjoy these flowers.
While they might not look like much, popcorn buds can make a perfectly acceptable smoke, especially if you dry and cure them properly.
If you prefer only smoking the crème de la crème of your last harvest, you can use popcorn buds in your edibles. They’ll provide all the kick you’re looking for and you won’t notice any of the flavour imperfections that you might experience when smoking/vaping. Remember that you might need more popcorn buds than normal flowers to get the same strength you’re used to.
Try Making Your Own Concentrates
Concentrates and dabs offer completely unique ways to enjoy the flavour and effects of cannabis. Popcorn buds are great for using with solvent-based or solventless extraction techniques to make bubble hash, regular hash, or even alcohol-based tinctures. Again, just keep in mind that you might need more popcorn buds to get the kind of potency you’d expect from a concentrate made with top-shelf bud.
How to Avoid Popcorn Buds
While they still make an acceptable smoke and have a ton of uses, harvesting ounces of small, airy popcorn buds is far from a dream for any grower. Here are a few techniques to help you reduce the number of popcorn buds in your next harvest:
Lollipopping is a great way to prevent popcorn buds from weighing down your harvest. This technique involves pruning the bottom of your plants and removing all of the foliage and bud sites from the bottom of your plants during the late vegetative/very early flowering stages. Over time, you’ll be left with plants that, you guessed it, look like lollipops, with clean stems down low and big, bushy colas up top. For the best results, we recommend combining lollipopping with mainlining (more info below).
Click here for an in-depth look at lollipopping and how it can up your yields.
Mainlining is a cannabis training technique that uses manifolding to split a plant’s main stem into a Y-shape. Every time you manifold a plant, its main stem divides into 2, giving you 2 new main colas. You can repeat this process as many times as you like and use LST to train each new stem to grow exactly how you want it to.
Combine mainlining with lollipopping and you’ll end up with plants that have big, bushy colas and trimmed bottoms. Using these techniques together is, in our eyes, the best way to prevent popcorn buds. Click here for an in-depth look at mainlining.
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Screen of Green is an advanced growing technique that involves pruning, defoliation, LST, and mainlining (optional) to teach plants to grow through a screen, creating an even canopy across your entire grow space. Any vegetation growing underneath the screen should be pruned, helping your plants direct their energy to the bud sites above the screen. Many growers love ScrOG, because it makes maximum use of the light in the grow room, prevents overshadowing, and guarantees a harvest free of popcorn buds.
Check out this article for a detailed look at ScrOG and how it works.
Preventing Popcorn Buds Outdoors
Outdoor growers should use a combination of mainlining, lollipopping, pruning, and defoliation to ensure all parts of their plants get enough sunlight to develop big buds. Alternatively, some adventurous growers might be tempted to use a ScrOG setup outside to further maximize the quality of their harvest.
When growing outdoors, you have the added advantage of the best source of light on the planet—the sun. Remember, though, that excessive heat can cause stress that may lead to your plants developing popcorn buds. Consider providing a shaded area for your plants; a simple shading screen can work wonders and ensure they don’t suffer during the hottest months.
Are Popcorn Buds Bad?
Popcorn buds might not be the ideal payoff for all the hard work you’ve put into growing your plants, but they’re still a long way from disasters like pest infestations or mould. Using the techniques listed in this article, however, you should be able to produce a harvest of top-shelf bud. If you still see some popcorn buds in your harvest, make use of them by smoking them while the rest of your weed cures or throw them into your edibles and/or concentrates.
FAQs
Lollipopping is a great way to prevent popcorn buds from weighing down your harvest. This technique involves pruning the bottom of your plants and removing all of the foliage and bud sites from the bottom of your plants during the late vegetative/very early flowering stages.
Why do I keep getting popcorn buds? ›
Popcorn buds can happen even to the most seasoned growers. They usually result from stress on your plants, with excessive heat during growth being one of the most common reasons. Aside from heat stress, overcrowding of plants and over-shading can also cause them to occur.
Do you trim popcorn buds? ›
Trim popcorn buds like you would any regular bud. If you're lucky enough to have had a large harvest and a lot of trimming to get through, you can opt to be less “detailed” when trimming your popcorn buds, especially if you're planning on using them in edibles or concentrates.
Are popcorn buds OK? ›
The smaller buds get the “popcorn” name from their size and sometimes airy structure, which make them less desirable to users. But popcorn buds are also inferior to top-end nugs in potency and flavor, because they grow at the bottom of the plant, closer to the soil and farther from the sunlight.
What stops popcorn from popping? ›
Popcorn kernels will not pop if they contain too little or too much water moisture inside the kernel. The popcorn kernels which do pop have 14-15% moisture in the hull and anything less or more will cause the popcorn kernel to not explode.
Will buds grow without fan leaves? ›
It won't have a negative effect on the flowering process — in fact, if you fail to properly prune and/or remove the fan leaves, the flowering process is much more likely to go awry. Once your plant has entered the flowering stage, you'll want to execute another round of defoliation.
Are popcorn buds less potent? ›
Because popcorn buds developed from plant stress and lack of light, they have lower levels of trichomes, and, therefore, less potency and aroma than larger-sized colas. Many cultivators and consumers will choose the denser and more trichome-filled nugs available.
How long does popcorn buds take to dry? ›
Especially popcorn buds. If you place a handful or two of freshly manicured smaller nuggets into a paper bag and leave them to dry for 2–3 days your halfway there. Ideally, you should leave them another 3 days to dry completely.
What to do with popcorn buds? ›
They Can Be Concentrates & Edibles!
Another use for popcorn buds is to use them in resin or as a concentrate in edible products. Manufacturing edibles is a lot like making a hotdog. You take all the stuff that is left over - clippings, popcorn buds, weak plants - and throw them into the cooker.
Should you trim your buds wet or dry? ›
Wet trimming takes up less space, as you remove all the foliage off the buds before drying instead of hanging up the entire plants to dry. Wet trimming allows the buds to puff up, making them more visibly attractive. For growers selling flower, this is important, as consumers often buy based on how the buds look.
Pros and Cons of Popcorn Buds
Also, they are often considered less potent, pure, or flavorful. Nonetheless, some unique benefits of popcorn buds might make them more appealing to some users. They offer similar effects to full nugs. Some batches will have similar potency and aroma to full nugs.
How do you fatten up buds before harvesting? ›
To some degree, more light translates to fatter buds and higher yields (you'll need to pay attention to the distance between your grow light and plants or your plant may suffer from light burn). Increasing light intensity is the most effective way to fatten up buds.
Are smaller nugs less potent? ›
In short, mini buds are smaller nugs, with less shelf appeal than their larger counterparts, that offer a similar potency and overall experience for consumers on a budget. Producers and dispensaries often come up with unique and quirky names to help their mini buds stand out on the shelves.
How do I save my popcorn plant? ›
Stop watering the plant all together and let it shift into a semi-dormancy. The leaves will all fall off, but don't let this startle you. As long as the branches remain pliable, the plant is still alive. Water sparingly once every 6 to 8 weeks and do not fertilize.
Does humidity affect popcorn popping? ›
Moisture content significantly affects the popping volume, flake size and PUK. The popping volume and flake size increased with an increase in moisture content up to 14%, and then decreased with any additional moisture.
Can too much oil stop popcorn from popping? ›
If you use too much oil, this can easily lead to poor popping results. The problem with too much oil is that the kernels end up swimming in the oil and roasting slowly instead of exploding into fully popped kernels. Also, do not pour in too many kernels with the oil.
Can you spray water on popcorn? ›
Water. Keep a spray bottle of water in your kitchen so you always have it available when making popcorn. It may sound odd, but water adds just enough moisture to popcorn to make toppings stick. You won't even get any additional calories by spritzing water on your snack.
Are big fan leaves good? ›
Since the fan leaves are the largest leaves, they are essential to this process. Fan leaves also have pores known as stomata, which allow the plant to breathe. Plants breath in carbon dioxide and breathe out oxygen. Fan leaves are absolutely essential to the growth and development of the plant.
What happens if I remove all fan leaves during flowering? ›
Removing these fan leaves opens up light and produces better air exchange to the lower canopy. Healthy leaves at the bottom of the canopy should be kept to trap valuable light from being lost and wasted. The more quality light a flowering site receives, the larger it will grow and the faster it will mature.
Does it have to be dark to dry buds? ›
The Room Must Be Dark
The ideal drying room must be dark, as light can damage the THC in your buds. While it does not hurt to have a light source inside to check on the progress of your buds, you should keep it off most of the time, and block all other passages of light that can enter the room.
With popcorn buds, you're sure to still get the psychoactive effects you're looking for in your flower, but you won't pay as much at a dispensary when compared to other types of cannabis. Another advantage of popcorn is that it can be smoked or vaped in a variety of ways.
Why are buds fluffy and not dense? ›
These airy flowers are often the result of suboptimal growing conditions, a lack of light, or nutrient deficiency. Fluffy buds don't only look less appetising, but you'll need to use more of your harvest every time you roll a blunt or hit a bowl.
Why are my buds Foxtailing? ›
If your lights are too intense, too close to your buds, or produce too much heat, they can cause foxtailing to arise. Your plants will start to develop symptoms at the hands of this environmental source of stress. You'll notice the upper leaves and buds start to bleach white from the lights.
What happens if you dry your buds too long? ›
Overdried cannabis has less aroma and flavor (terpenes), and burns hotter and faster. The latter issues result in an unpleasant customer experience, to say the least, and typically requires that a greater amount of cannabis is consumed to get a desired experience.
How dry should my buds be before curing? ›
When Do I Know My Buds Are Properly Dried And Ready To Cure? There's a simple test to know if your buds are dry: Simply take a small branch and try to bend it. If it snaps, your buds are dry and you're ready to move on to the curing process. If they bend, your buds need a little longer to dry.
Can buds dry in 3 days? ›
Usually, it takes around 2 to 3 days to dry wet-trimmed buds. So, after around 2 to 3 days, touch your buds and see if they're still wet. If they're not dry to the touch when you lightly squish them, check for dryness again the next day.
When should you cut off fan leaves? ›
Usually, growers trim the fan leaves weeks before harvest, which is a period that leads to senescence, a phase in the plant cycle when the larger leaves start fading away. It is safe to start removing these dying leaves and continue until harvest.
Do buds grow at night? ›
12 or more hours of darkness is the biological trigger for photoperiod cannabis to bloom. Outdoors, as the nights grow longer incrementally from the summer solstice onward, some strains can even begin flowering when receiving 14 hours of sunlight.
Will popcorn buds get you high? ›
With popcorn buds, you're sure to still get the psychoactive effects you're looking for in your flower, but you won't pay as much at a dispensary when compared to other types of cannabis. Another advantage of popcorn is that it can be smoked or vaped in a variety of ways.
What do you do with popcorn buds and trim? ›
They Can Be Concentrates & Edibles!
Another use for popcorn buds is to use them in resin or as a concentrate in edible products. Manufacturing edibles is a lot like making a hotdog. You take all the stuff that is left over - clippings, popcorn buds, weak plants - and throw them into the cooker.
Most marijuana connoisseurs agree that nug looks better than shake or the smaller popcorn flowers. It delivers the full potency and flavor of the strain. Popcorn Bud is cannabis flower that grew at the bottom of the cola, the collection of flowers at the terminal bud, where all the flowers grow together.
Does peanut butter make your high better? ›
Nuts are good for you in general, but they can also help the marijuana effects. The fatty acids within attach to the cannabinoids and they can make you high quicker as well as helping it to last longer.
Are small buds more potent? ›
In short, mini buds are smaller nugs, with less shelf appeal than their larger counterparts, that offer a similar potency and overall experience for consumers on a budget. Producers and dispensaries often come up with unique and quirky names to help their mini buds stand out on the shelves.
Are big nugs or small nugs better? ›
Small buds, about the size of a marble or smaller, are appropriately called “Smalls” and are considered lower quality than larger nugs. Large and smalls can both come from the same harvest and the same plants but will get filtered out in the packaging process.
Are popcorn nugs not as good? ›
Popcorn nuggets are not that bad compared to regular buds. The only significant difference is their size, which makes them less appealing. Otherwise, these cheap buds can give the same experience as their counterparts.
