Emeraldo's 2021 East-Facing Balcony Grow

[stinker]

Topping 6 all at once might slow her down, but prolly no harm done. I have a three-tipped plant in this grow, the Durban that at first could not put out a leading growth tip, so she put out three with equal vigor and dominance -- they are all three growing at the same rate.

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• Emeraldo
• Jul 3, 2021

Durban, July 3

I was thinking of topping all three, but it might be easier on her if I topped one each few days or so. Thing is, the grow experts say topping should stop two weeks before flowering starts, so I'll need to have all topping done by about August 1 or so. Topping or FIM maybe would be better than topping.

Maybe @Stunger has a comment on that. I have the impression he is more into LST than topping, though quadlining starts out with some pretty massive topping. I'd just prefer to chop once or twice.

Good morning Emeraldo, beautiful plant . I plan to grow 2 land race sativa s indoors after the new year.
The Dos si Dos i'm growing has 6 dominant yet fairly equal mains with 4 others that are also similar. My plan is to top the 6. I'll probably do the 4 uppermost nodes first and wait a week before topping the last. I do want to slow the upward growth down as I am concerned with greenhouse height. Pic for reference.
I admire your grows. Take care

 

[stinker]

Question for you guys who also use rolling pot caddies / dollies: do you rotate your pots on a regular basis to try to give each part of the plant equal exposure to the sun or do you try to keep them at the same orientation as much as possible for a better representation of what a plant growing in nature would experience? So far I’ve been rotating mine more so to try to regulate the temperature of the pot, but I’ve also read it’s good to minimize moving your plant if possible as they will naturally adapt to their orientation with the sun. I think that I will definitely continue rolling my pots under the pergola for protection from the weather but maybe it’s a good idea to have them always resting in the same orientation?

I always keep the same orientation to the sun. Thought being, they don't change when in the ground. Indoors I rotate the plants clockwise and am not concerned with the orientation.

 

[Emeraldo]

Topped so far this season: Mexican Sativa and Chrystal both topped once, but I will top these two again in a week or so, lest they get too big during stretch! Just yesterday I Fimmed all three Durban growth tips, below how that looked last night. Fimming can produce 4 colas per growth tip if done just right (topping usually gives you just 2 colas).

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• Emeraldo
• Jul 5, 2021

Durban topped July 4

 

[Primeau]

I’ll be watching the growth of those fimmed Durban tips with interest @Emeraldo ! I tried to FIM one of my plants a couple weeks ago and definitely see a few growth tips in that area now but still not convinced I did it right so it will be nice to compare to the Durban as it moves along.

 

[RetiredRN]

I'm considering topping the 6 most dominant branches. Do you think that would be too much? I need to flower in the greenhouse as we get too much rain. The max height in the house is 6'.

Hey stinker. Can you give me the in and out about growing in a greenhouse??? Please, and thanks for your time.

 

[stinker]

Hey stinker. Can you give me the in and out about growing in a greenhouse??? Please, and thanks for your time.

Hey RN, I would be happy to tell you what I know and answer any questions you have. Lets do this on my greenhouse grow thread and not hijack Emeraldo's thread. Is tomorrow okay? Here is a link - In The Greenhouse

 

[RetiredRN]

Hey RN, I would be happy to tell you what I know and answer any questions you have. Lets do this on my greenhouse grow thread and not hijack Emeraldo's thread. Is tomorrow okay? Here is a link - In The Greenhouse

Ok awesome! I’m going to your journal now.

 

[Emeraldo]

I’ll be watching the growth of those fimmed Durban tips with interest @Emeraldo ! I tried to FIM one of my plants a couple weeks ago and definitely see a few growth tips in that area now but still not convinced I did it right so it will be nice to compare to the Durban as it moves along.

Durby was "fimmed" three days ago. The word "fim" is often used as though it is a special technique, vague and unexplained. Magical. I thought it meant something like "cutting off 80% of new leaf material, while doing that, gouging off part of the growing tip". What I learned is this: It is unnecessary to cut the leaves. Cutting the leaves is not even part of it. All cutting the leaves does is making such an ugly mess out of the top of the plant and, even worse, depriving the plant of the photosynthesis and energy from those top leaves. All I needed to do was gently separate the new leaf material to find and snip off the growing point.

The best discussion I found on this is the thread by Green Cross on r o l l i t u p : FIM Tutorial (taking the guesswork out). The point is: "Fimming" is just a form of topping, but instead of cutting the main stem between nodes, you remove the apical growing point at the very tip of the stem itself, forcing the plant to redistribute growth hormones to all lower nodes, developed and undeveloped. Main difference: Topping, at just above say node #4, the plant will produce symmetrical branching because the two sides of node #4 are fully formed and opposite each other; they will support upward growth and branches in two directions. Whereas with fimming, the top nodes you'd normally expect to appear aren't yet fully developed and will probably be less symmetrical; normally growth in four directions.

That's what I do now. I leave the new leaf growth alone. No mess, no loss of leaf.

 

[Primeau]

"cutting off 80% of new leaf material, while doing that, gouging off part of the growing tip"

This is exactly what I did Live and learn and wish I was talking to my you 1 week earlier!

 

[Primeau]

I read that article, all of the pictures are missing now but between that and your detailed description + Durban photo above I think I’ve been set straight. I have another plant I was planning to top soon, I’ll see if I can get the FIM right this time instead!

 

[Emeraldo]

I read that article, all of the pictures are missing now but between that and your detailed description + Durban photo above I think I’ve been set straight. I have another plant I was planning to top soon, I’ll see if I can get the FIM right this time instead!

Yes, Primeau, if you look, some of the descriptions of "fimming" on the web vary. The graphics usually show a cut of about 80% of the top leaves. That advice on how to FIM literally "misses the point" (you can miss the growing tip or growth point entirely, and the cut achieves nothing but makes a mess of the plant).

Here's what my Jamaican Pearl looked like in 2018 after a botched FIM-job.

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• Emeraldo
• Jul 21, 2018

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• Emeraldo
• Jul 21, 2018

You see, all I did was chop off some leaf material, which ultimately achieves nothing and does the plant no good. That isn't really fimming.

Now -- after I discovered that tutorial on r o l l i t u p. c o m -- I just pull back the tender little leaves and clip out most of the growth tip, but not all of it. You need to leave a little bit of the growth tip there. What is stimulated to grow are are two growth points at the node below, and most interestingly, two tiny incipient nodes you still cannot see. They are the reason you don't want to remove 100% of the growth point. I cut it down considerably, leaving about 2 or 3mm of it above the stem. If you're lucky, the top of the plant will often develop four colas about equal height. This is a great way to manage the height of your plants, and it makes the rest of the plant bushier as well.

Last time I fimmed a plant was my Purple Maroc S-1 in 2018, and after some stretching it looked like this about a month before harvest.

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• Emeraldo
• Aug 25, 2018

Purple Maroc (Female Seeds - S1 from 2017 grow) on Aug 25, 2018. Fimmed.

 

[Emeraldo]

Hello everyone. Here are some pictures from today, July 8

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• Emeraldo
• Jul 8, 2021

July 8, L to R: Afghani, Durban, Chrystal, Mexican Sativa

All four plants have doubled in size in the last three weeks. The Mex-Sat and Chrystal continued rapid veg growth after topping two weeks ago, and to keep them manageable I topped them a second time today. On each of those two I clipped the two growth points (alternating nodes) that shot up after the first topping. That'll put the brakes on the rapid growth and direct the lower branches to become stronger and bushier. The main stems have been getting visibly fatter every day.

In other news, the little Durby-the-self-topper has also gotten bigger and her three mainstems also got taller and fatter. She's taken well to the fimming I did a couple of days ago, showing some growth since fimming.

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• Emeraldo
• Jul 8, 2021

Durban, July 8

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• Emeraldo
• Jul 8, 2021

Durban, July 8: showing one fimmed growth tip

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• Emeraldo
• Jul 8, 2021

Durban, fimmed a two days ago

 

[Emeraldo]

Good morning Emeraldo, beautiful plant . I plan to grow 2 land race sativa s indoors after the new year.
The Dos si Dos i'm growing has 6 dominant yet fairly equal mains with 4 others that are also similar. My plan is to top the 6. I'll probably do the 4 uppermost nodes first and wait a week before topping the last. I do want to slow the upward growth down as I am concerned with greenhouse height. Pic for reference.
I admire your grows. Take care

Hey stinker, did I understand that? Your plant put out 6 growth points? Did you do any pruning to get it to do that? Or was it just a genetic thing or whatever?

 

[stinker]

Hey stinker, did I understand that? Your plant put out 6 growth points? Did you do any pruning to get it to do that? Or was it just a genetic thing or whatever?

Hi Emeraldo, I'm not sure what you mean by growth points? I topped at the 6th node and removed the bottom node leaving 5 nodes. the 5 made 10 main branches, 6 of which I was able to train to be rather equal.. Now all 10 branches equally make up the canopy. As of today, I have topped or FIM'd 8 of the 10 branches
I went to get a pic but couldn't get high enough to get a good pic.

 

[Braddah Waiheesohai]

Hi Emeraldo, I'm not sure what you mean by growth points? I topped at the 6th node and removed the bottom node leaving 5 nodes. the 5 made 10 main branches, 6 of which I was able to train to be rather equal.. Now all 10 branches equally make up the canopy. As of today, I have topped or FIM'd 8 of the 10 branches
I went to get a pic but couldn't get high enough to get a good pic.

Whoa sweet spiral. You wearing locals?

 

[stinker]

Yea Braddah Waiheesohai thanks, howzit? They are Locals. Not many people be looking at my feet.

 

[Emeraldo]

Hi Emeraldo, I'm not sure what you mean by growth points? I topped at the 6th node and removed the bottom node leaving 5 nodes. the 5 made 10 main branches, 6 of which I was able to train to be rather equal.. Now all 10 branches equally make up the canopy. As of today, I have topped or FIM'd 8 of the 10 branches
I went to get a pic but couldn't get high enough to get a good pic.

Hi stinker, by "growth points" -- usually a seedling has only one -- I meant the 3 growth tips my Durban seedling produced instead of just one. I didn't "top" that plant, she "topped" herself because, after producing 1 node with two single leaves, she could not immediately complete the process and send up a growth tip. Instead, at the first node, she sent out 2 tips and then she decided to send up the middle one after all. In yours , you topped manually at the 6th node and left 5 on the plant, which makes her strengthen the side branches. All good!

 

[Emeraldo]

There's somethin' happening here, just what it is, ain't exactly clear, there's a node with a fim over there... Looking like the fim-job worked!

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• Emeraldo
• Jul 10, 2021

Durban, July 10

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• Emeraldo
• Jul 10, 2021

Durban, July 10

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• Emeraldo
• Jul 10, 2021

Durban, July 10

 

[Primeau]

There's somethin' happening here, just what it is, ain't exactly clear, there's a node with a fim over there... Looking like the fim-job worked!

IMG_2680.jpeg

• Emeraldo
• Jul 10, 2021

Durban, July 10

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• Emeraldo
• Jul 10, 2021

Durban, July 10

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• Emeraldo
• Jul 10, 2021

Durban, July 10

Nice work @Emeraldo, hoping my latest attempt will be equally successful, Will be fun to follow along and compare!

 

[Emeraldo]

IMG_2689.jpeg

• Emeraldo
• Jul 12, 2021

L2R: Afghani, Durban, Chrystal, Mex-Sat, July 12