Green Knight
Well-Known Member
Hello everyone; here starts my second journal -welcome.
Following the Auto Bomb grow (which whilst it's still probably 3-4 weeks from finish, as you'll see I need to start this one now or they'll be a huge gap between grows), this next grow I'm going for a photoperiod because I will have far more ability to manipulate her to maximise yield. The strain I've chosen is Bomb seeds' Berry Bomb. If I'm honest the reason for the choice was the seed company's photo, although I'm under no illusions that I'll be able to get the wonderful pink/purple colour as I can't drop the night time temps easily, but I'm a sucker for marketing. Here's the description:
Berry Bomb
Berry Bomb is a special cross of a hand selected Blueberry mother with the all powerful Bomb #1 father. The result is outstanding; think Blueberry, but bigger yields, more THC and we think a better taste. The influence of our Bomb #1 strain gives Berry Bomb explosive growth while making the strain much easier to grow (both indoors and out) and easier to trim than the original. This strain produces a fat dominant single kola with large internodal distances and the characteristic explosive bomb upward growth. This is an excellent choice for SCROG. Indoors the plant will stay of medium height but outdoors this beauty can get huge. Like most purple/blue strains, Berry Bomb will turn blue under correct conditions (i.e. cooler, lower temperatures at night). It is considered to have good mould resistance. At harvest, buds are super frosty with a sweet berry perfume and taste. Delivering a classic indica high with some sativa qualities thanks to the Blueberry mother it won't lay you out for the count.
Type: Indica/Sativa (Indica dominant)
Plant Height: Medium (90-140cm)
Indoor Flowering: 6-8 Weeks
THC: High (15-20%)
Harvest Outdoor: Sep-Oct
Yield: High (500-600g/m²)
Stoned/High: Classic Indica stone
Having read a lot about maximising yields through plant manipulation I've decided to throw the lot at this one - I will be aggressively defoliating and supercropping this plant whilst using a scrog to maintain a nice uniform canopy height.
The system I'll be using is once again a top fed DWC using Canna Hydro Vega and Flores two part nutrients, Canna Boost, PK 13/14 and DM Zone.
Lighting will be a 30w blue cfl for propagating and early veg, and a 125w dual spectrum cfl for later veg and flowering.
Because there's a lot of controversy surrounding defoliation I've decided to run this as the first part of a controlled experiment which I hope will fairly compare the results between a standard super cropped scrog and a defoliated super cropped scrog. For those of you that enjoy getting right to the bud porn I apologise - it's going to take a little bit of time before we get to any money shots - unfortunately I only have space to flower one plant at a time so I can't run two different grows side by side and compare results. Having thought about how best to control this experiment for as fair a result as possible I've decided on the following:
1) I'm going to propagate the Berry Bomb and grow this into a small mother plant which I shall maintain in my veg room. Seed is currently soaking and will be planted in rockwool and hydroton tomorrow evening.
2) When large enough I will take a couple of clones - this will mark Day 1
3) Once rooted the best clone will be selected and moved to the flowering room for further veg, aggressive defoliation, supercropping and flowering.
4) The amount of time this plant stays in veg from the point it's cloned through to filling the screen and switched to 12/12 will be accurately recorded, as will the exact nutrient schedule throughout the grow. Aggressive defoliation will take place throughout, following keef treez' technique
5) A few weeks before harvest two more clones will be taken from the mother, and these will then follow exactly the same schedule, from nutes to time in veg etc. The strongest one will again be selected and will be super cropped and scrogged, but no defoliation will take place.
6) Everything will be controlled as much as possible and kept exactly the same, within reason - pH will be set to 5.8 but swings will be allowed - I'm not going to chase pH around all over the place unless it gets completely out of whack; if the plant shifts the pH from 5.8 to 5.6 there's a reason. EC and nutrient schedule will be the same for both grows, with res changes taking place at the same time for both, along with any adjustments or increases in nutrient concentrations. Additives and Boosts will be added at exactly the same time points and in the same amounts for both grows. Exactly the same scrog screen set at exactly the same height will be used for both grows.
7) Topping up the res won't be quite so controlled - I envisage the non-defoliated plant to require more res top ups than the defoliated plant, but any top up will be to the same EC as that week's feed schedule
6) Yields of the two grows will then be compared for wet weight and dry weight, along with any noticeable differences between the two grows.
I will not be topping or fiming, and I won't be using GLR or DLS. I've considered all of these but feel that there will be enough variables to control without adding more in, and the key question is whether or not defoliation can significantly improve yield (and if so, by how much), or whether it reduces it.
The reason I've included supercropping is because this appears to be a pretty established technique without a huge amount of controversy surrounding it, and it seems to go hand in hand with a scrog; you're bending the plant at a 90 degree angle when pulling it under the screen which seems to be a perfect moment to supercrop. The aggressive defoliation technique also suggests quite aggressive bending / supercropping to maximise light exposure to bud sites so this variable should also remain constant between the two grows - otherwise is it the defoliation or the supercropping that has an effect?
The reason I've chosen to spend extra time and clone from a mother for both parts of this grow, rather than grow the seed and do one grow with this and use a clone taken from her for the second grow, is that the variables would be different with the second option - even though genetically identical one would be the original plant from seed, the other a first generation clone, so there may be slight differences between them versus comparing two first generation clones. I can also start the clock at Day 1 from the moment of cloning for both experiments to allow both to have exactly the same nutrient and light schedules, and time in veg etc. This would be harder to do with a seed grown plant versus a clone, and two different seed grown plants of the same strain are a no go as they could have slightly different genotypes and/or phenotypes.
The clones taken will be as identical as possible in terms of number of leaves, nodes etc before rooting to standardise this variable as much as possible.
The reason I'm doing the defoliation part first is because aggressively defoliating may extend the time in veg, and if the plant needs a week or two extra as a result of defoliation then the plant for the second grow also needs to be exposed to exactly the same time in veg to make the experiment fair, so it makes sense to do the part of the experiment that is most likely to result in a longer vegging time first.
It may be the case however that the first part of the experiment using defoliation results in a veg time of say 4 weeks to fill the screen suitably for flowering, but the second part of the experiment with no defoliation fills the screen faster, let's say 3 weeks of veg. It will then be a judgement call as to whether:
a) continue to veg for the allotted time and risk suffering a reduction in yield as a result of overcrowding, or
b) switch to flowering a week earlier when the screen is full to same extent as with the first part of the experiment.
I think b) will be the fairer option - yields can be compared more fairly and the result may be that you get a higher yield with defoliation but with 1 week longer in veg versus not defoliating, as an example. Whereas option a) could negatively impact yield on the second experiment due to overcrowding and you couldn't fairly compare the two because the main limiting factor would have been vegging for too long and overcrowding, rather than defoliation.
We'll cross that bridge if and when it comes anyway.
So, that's what will be happening. As mentioned before, the seed is soaking so in a day or two we'll have a seedling, but things will be reasonably slow to start I'm sorry until she's big enough to clone and we can start the experiment proper.
Any additional ideas, thoughts or suggestions as to other aspects that could be built in for interest are welcome (within reason of course - I need to limit the variables a bit for fairness and simplicity!)
I hope that in 5-6 months time these journals will provide a reasonably definitive answer as to whether or not aggressive defoliation benefits yield, or adversely affects it. I'm sure whatever the results the debates will continue irrespective, but it's going to be fun anyway so who gives a shit.......
Following the Auto Bomb grow (which whilst it's still probably 3-4 weeks from finish, as you'll see I need to start this one now or they'll be a huge gap between grows), this next grow I'm going for a photoperiod because I will have far more ability to manipulate her to maximise yield. The strain I've chosen is Bomb seeds' Berry Bomb. If I'm honest the reason for the choice was the seed company's photo, although I'm under no illusions that I'll be able to get the wonderful pink/purple colour as I can't drop the night time temps easily, but I'm a sucker for marketing. Here's the description:
Berry Bomb
Berry Bomb is a special cross of a hand selected Blueberry mother with the all powerful Bomb #1 father. The result is outstanding; think Blueberry, but bigger yields, more THC and we think a better taste. The influence of our Bomb #1 strain gives Berry Bomb explosive growth while making the strain much easier to grow (both indoors and out) and easier to trim than the original. This strain produces a fat dominant single kola with large internodal distances and the characteristic explosive bomb upward growth. This is an excellent choice for SCROG. Indoors the plant will stay of medium height but outdoors this beauty can get huge. Like most purple/blue strains, Berry Bomb will turn blue under correct conditions (i.e. cooler, lower temperatures at night). It is considered to have good mould resistance. At harvest, buds are super frosty with a sweet berry perfume and taste. Delivering a classic indica high with some sativa qualities thanks to the Blueberry mother it won't lay you out for the count.
Type: Indica/Sativa (Indica dominant)
Plant Height: Medium (90-140cm)
Indoor Flowering: 6-8 Weeks
THC: High (15-20%)
Harvest Outdoor: Sep-Oct
Yield: High (500-600g/m²)
Stoned/High: Classic Indica stone
Having read a lot about maximising yields through plant manipulation I've decided to throw the lot at this one - I will be aggressively defoliating and supercropping this plant whilst using a scrog to maintain a nice uniform canopy height.
The system I'll be using is once again a top fed DWC using Canna Hydro Vega and Flores two part nutrients, Canna Boost, PK 13/14 and DM Zone.
Lighting will be a 30w blue cfl for propagating and early veg, and a 125w dual spectrum cfl for later veg and flowering.
Because there's a lot of controversy surrounding defoliation I've decided to run this as the first part of a controlled experiment which I hope will fairly compare the results between a standard super cropped scrog and a defoliated super cropped scrog. For those of you that enjoy getting right to the bud porn I apologise - it's going to take a little bit of time before we get to any money shots - unfortunately I only have space to flower one plant at a time so I can't run two different grows side by side and compare results. Having thought about how best to control this experiment for as fair a result as possible I've decided on the following:
1) I'm going to propagate the Berry Bomb and grow this into a small mother plant which I shall maintain in my veg room. Seed is currently soaking and will be planted in rockwool and hydroton tomorrow evening.
2) When large enough I will take a couple of clones - this will mark Day 1
3) Once rooted the best clone will be selected and moved to the flowering room for further veg, aggressive defoliation, supercropping and flowering.
4) The amount of time this plant stays in veg from the point it's cloned through to filling the screen and switched to 12/12 will be accurately recorded, as will the exact nutrient schedule throughout the grow. Aggressive defoliation will take place throughout, following keef treez' technique
5) A few weeks before harvest two more clones will be taken from the mother, and these will then follow exactly the same schedule, from nutes to time in veg etc. The strongest one will again be selected and will be super cropped and scrogged, but no defoliation will take place.
6) Everything will be controlled as much as possible and kept exactly the same, within reason - pH will be set to 5.8 but swings will be allowed - I'm not going to chase pH around all over the place unless it gets completely out of whack; if the plant shifts the pH from 5.8 to 5.6 there's a reason. EC and nutrient schedule will be the same for both grows, with res changes taking place at the same time for both, along with any adjustments or increases in nutrient concentrations. Additives and Boosts will be added at exactly the same time points and in the same amounts for both grows. Exactly the same scrog screen set at exactly the same height will be used for both grows.
7) Topping up the res won't be quite so controlled - I envisage the non-defoliated plant to require more res top ups than the defoliated plant, but any top up will be to the same EC as that week's feed schedule
6) Yields of the two grows will then be compared for wet weight and dry weight, along with any noticeable differences between the two grows.
I will not be topping or fiming, and I won't be using GLR or DLS. I've considered all of these but feel that there will be enough variables to control without adding more in, and the key question is whether or not defoliation can significantly improve yield (and if so, by how much), or whether it reduces it.
The reason I've included supercropping is because this appears to be a pretty established technique without a huge amount of controversy surrounding it, and it seems to go hand in hand with a scrog; you're bending the plant at a 90 degree angle when pulling it under the screen which seems to be a perfect moment to supercrop. The aggressive defoliation technique also suggests quite aggressive bending / supercropping to maximise light exposure to bud sites so this variable should also remain constant between the two grows - otherwise is it the defoliation or the supercropping that has an effect?
The reason I've chosen to spend extra time and clone from a mother for both parts of this grow, rather than grow the seed and do one grow with this and use a clone taken from her for the second grow, is that the variables would be different with the second option - even though genetically identical one would be the original plant from seed, the other a first generation clone, so there may be slight differences between them versus comparing two first generation clones. I can also start the clock at Day 1 from the moment of cloning for both experiments to allow both to have exactly the same nutrient and light schedules, and time in veg etc. This would be harder to do with a seed grown plant versus a clone, and two different seed grown plants of the same strain are a no go as they could have slightly different genotypes and/or phenotypes.
The clones taken will be as identical as possible in terms of number of leaves, nodes etc before rooting to standardise this variable as much as possible.
The reason I'm doing the defoliation part first is because aggressively defoliating may extend the time in veg, and if the plant needs a week or two extra as a result of defoliation then the plant for the second grow also needs to be exposed to exactly the same time in veg to make the experiment fair, so it makes sense to do the part of the experiment that is most likely to result in a longer vegging time first.
It may be the case however that the first part of the experiment using defoliation results in a veg time of say 4 weeks to fill the screen suitably for flowering, but the second part of the experiment with no defoliation fills the screen faster, let's say 3 weeks of veg. It will then be a judgement call as to whether:
a) continue to veg for the allotted time and risk suffering a reduction in yield as a result of overcrowding, or
b) switch to flowering a week earlier when the screen is full to same extent as with the first part of the experiment.
I think b) will be the fairer option - yields can be compared more fairly and the result may be that you get a higher yield with defoliation but with 1 week longer in veg versus not defoliating, as an example. Whereas option a) could negatively impact yield on the second experiment due to overcrowding and you couldn't fairly compare the two because the main limiting factor would have been vegging for too long and overcrowding, rather than defoliation.
We'll cross that bridge if and when it comes anyway.
So, that's what will be happening. As mentioned before, the seed is soaking so in a day or two we'll have a seedling, but things will be reasonably slow to start I'm sorry until she's big enough to clone and we can start the experiment proper.
Any additional ideas, thoughts or suggestions as to other aspects that could be built in for interest are welcome (within reason of course - I need to limit the variables a bit for fairness and simplicity!)
I hope that in 5-6 months time these journals will provide a reasonably definitive answer as to whether or not aggressive defoliation benefits yield, or adversely affects it. I'm sure whatever the results the debates will continue irrespective, but it's going to be fun anyway so who gives a shit.......
