If you’re growing weed, you’re likely striving to grow dense, potent, and springy buds that bounce back.

Unfortunately, we can’t make our buds denser after they’ve been picked off the plant. So, this process starts at the place of cultivation, where our precious crops are growing to become mature adult weed plants.

The last thing you want is to grow weed that crumbles or lets off a loud crack when broken apart. But how do you achieve that perfect balance between dry and soft? These five tips below should help you out.

Giving your plants the light they require is essential to get dense and springy buds at harvest.

If you’re growing plants outdoors, you don’t have much to worry about, just as long as your plants are getting 10-12 hours of direct sunlight per day.

Indoor growers could use artificial light sources like LEDs but should use a source with 1000W light intensity per square meter.

You also want to place these lights no closer than 60cm above the plant, any closer, and they could suffer light damage and heat burn.

Heat burn can be caused by artificial lights, as mentioned above. But it can also come from hot temperatures, indoor or outdoor.

Cannabis plants thrive under a temperature range from 18-26°C. Outdoor growers may have more difficulty with this, considering they can’t control the environment like indoor growers.

Shade cloths and blankets are a great option for outdoor growers who want to cool their plants during a scorcher. Indoor growers should keep their environment between the above temperature range.

A cannabis plant can suffer from a lack of nutrients and too many nutrients. This can directly affect the density of your buds and the entire plant altogether.

When giving plants nutrients, you want to carefully follow the product label to ensure you’re only providing what your plant needs.

Too little nutrients and your plant won’t be strong enough; too many nutrients and your plant can undergo severe damage.

Did you know you can manipulate a plant’s growth by trimming other areas?

More often than not, plants will evenly disperse their energy throughout themselves, meaning some unnecessary bits are sucking up precious energy that could go towards making your buds denser.

You can help push your plant’s energy into its buds by “topping” them, a technique that calls for trimming the top of the main stem. A plant that hasn’t been topped will produce one main stem with one large cola on top.

A plant that’s been topped will grow multiple colas (buds), thereby maximizing energy in these areas and improving density.