My First Attempt

Week 4 (almost) The Organic soil brought in Gnats and thrips, dealing with both organically. They are starting to take off after topping them so early.

Group Shot
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GDP
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Bay 11
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Ken's Kush at 3 weeks
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great looking plants, i think the bigger ones will need transplanting soon to prevent them been stunted, if the roots get to crowded then the plant wont bush out anymore it will just get taller, so i think a bigger pot will be needed for them plants very soon, but you have got some very healthy looking plants, hope you get the bugs sorted out, sounds like your on top of it anyways
 
I am waiting just a tad longer for transplant, hoping to see preflowers before I do so. If I see any sign they are stuggling, I'll pull the trigger on the transplant, been scoping them every day, no nubs, no hairs, nothing yet. In 2 days it will be exacty 4 weeks from when they went in the pug from seed. Then 4 days later they popped so I'm thinking I'm actually at about 3 weeks from the seeds popping, seems I may have a tad more time to transplant (wishful thinking).

Whats the quickest you've seen preflowers on these? 4 weeks? more?
 
its hard to say, my plants never showed sex till i flipped the lights to 12-12 and my plants where getting on 7 weeks old, they normally show sex when they are 4 nodes high or the branches stop growing opposite each other, it does vary by strain so its hard to say, but its also to do with the envrironment, lights etc etc, so its pretty hard to guess when they will show preflowers, if at all before flipping the lights, some of my plants where getting on 7 weeks and no signs of sex and it took another couple of weeks under 12-12 before they showed sex and i had 1 male to get rid of then 2 more out of the 12-12 from seed, so for showing sex under veg the average time is 4 weeks old or 4 nodes high, but again it varies by light cycle, usually under 18-6 they show sex at 4 weeks or 4 nodes, but using 20-4 or 24-0 it could take a lot longer, so to answer your question, it could take anything upto 4 weeks and over, its just not easy to say, males do tend to grow taller and look more spindly than females but i wouldnt remove any plants till you know for sure.

sorry i couldnt give you any better advice but as mine never showed sex till i flipped 12-12 i cant really say, all i do know is my plants where well over 7 weeks old and had still not showed any signs of sex and then it took another 2 weeks under 12-12 to show sex but i was growing under 20-4 so could of been the reason why, but under 18-6 they will show sex sooner from what i have read
 
yea i see sex about 1-2 weeks after flipping to 12/12
veg for about 4 weeks throw it in the 12/12 part of the tent and a week or 2 later you see the fuzz
or balls i been using a few clones so i know certain ones are female
 
Even tho I havnt sexed the plants, I am in process of transplanting them into their final bloom pots. So far I have moved the GDP, will do the Bay 11 today. My timing was perfect on the GDP, there were barely any roots swirling on the bottom, 2 days from the move they didnt miss a beat.

Thanx to all of you for pushing me to transplant :)
 
im sure you will see them growing a lot quicker now they are in bigger pots, you might be lucky and they might show sex early, but my plants where 7 or slightly more weeks old and the never shown sex till i flipped the lights then i couldnt tell sex for another 2 weeks, so i was 9 weeks in when i sexed them, my plants under 12-12 from seed showed sex after 2 weeks from day 1, so they was the quickest at sexing but they was 12-12 from day 1
 
i could possibly see you getting 2 more in at the most, but if you end up with a load of fems and hoping you do, you may struggle for growing room,

how big are the pots you planted them in, the rule i have followed is that the plants have enough room to grow twice the size as the pot, so if the pot is 1ft high then it should hold enough compost and roots for 2ft plants, but if the pot goes thinner at the bottom then you would lose some of the room due to less root space

so what size are them pots, my 2 biggest plants are in 3gallon pots and the plants are not very big but well into flower and i think im having root bound issues, the plants are less than 1 ft high and im starting to have a few problems with leaves wilting and the compost is rock hard after the top inch of loose soil, so a possible sign their root bound, so bare that in mine, the new air pots are the thing to buy, their expensive but they have holes that sitck out all over the pot that looks like spikes,and they have a hole in the middle, the roots grow into these spikes and die off when they reach the open bit, this stops the plant getting root bound and also keeps the roots growing as they would out doors, and if you normally flower in 5gallon pots then using air pots you would only need to use a 35 gallon pot due to this new root technology, im not using them yet but will be at some point as the plants look a lot healthier.

so i dont thinj you will fit for more plants in, if your still in veg then im not sure they will show sex till you flip the lights are the plants are about 1ft high possibly around 7 or 8 weeks time, so for now id keep the smallest of the 4 plants in the smaller pots and transplant the bigger plants and you may get away with it, but when they get this big now they really enter rapid or agressive growth so you will see a huge difference now their in bigger pots
 
The average sized Indica plant grown in a 5 gallon pot can hit up to 6 feet tall and about 3-4 feet in diameter at the base of the branching nodes just above the main stalk if left to its own devices. You can of course prune them and shape them to work within your grow area. But if you plan to raise all these plants to full maturity, you will only be able to comfortably handle about a third to possibly half of what I see there when they are fully mature. It will be a bit crowded, but you could do it.

You could stunt some of them by keeping them in something smaller like a 2-2.5 gallon pot, or better....If you can create a separate area for flowering, you can move some of them in there and flower them at maybe 3-4 feet tall ahead of the others. Your yields will of course be smaller due to smaller plants, but you will not be forced to cull some off if you get a good female to male ratio and end up with a lot of viable female plants without enough room to raise them properly.

I can't tell from your photos what kind of light intensity you have for your grow area, but as the plants get bigger, their canopies also get bigger, and taller plants will start blocking the light to the smaller plants over time which will end up causing some plants to only leaf and flower on the sides that are not in direct contact with another plant too close to it.

Just some thoughts as you still have several weeks before any of this will start becoming a problem for you.

They all look excellent so far! Keep up the good work, and definitely start making plans for spreading them out or expanding your grow areas to other stations in other parts of your living area. :thumb:
 
great advice gg7, i had the same problem i had the hps raised high for my biggest plants in flower but then the plants 12-12 from seed where further down, so i got some of those big round sweet tins, not sure if you have these brands over your neck of the woods but we have bit round metal tins or plastic round tubs of quality street or rosies and stuff like that, i stack 2 of them in top of each other to keep all the plants at the same height, so the top of all my plants are at roughly the same height, unless they are very young then i have them lower down as the hps packs out heat and i cant have the fans blowing on the young plants as it gave me loads of problems early on as i had fans blowing on the plants to early and it really stunted growth and dried the leaves up as they was evaping the moisture to quick,

im amazed at all the good advice on here, its why this is the only sight i come to now, and you know what, when i was researching my grow before i started i was reading through loads of sites, i seen comments slagging people off and laughing at them and not being helpfull, if someone was using cfls then they would call em a joke and tell them to stop posting comments and get off the site, but when i came across this site i noticed it was totally different and everyone was helpfull, so when i started my grow this was the first site i chose to come to and ive been knowhere else since unless g@~gle takes me their when im looking for something,

give reps to everyone who gives you advice, its the little star shaped symbol to the left under the growers name tag, next to blog this post, click on that and reps who ever you like, the more you reps people the more you get reps back, i knew nothing when i came to this site, when i grew years ago i stuck a clone in a pot and watered it i used miracle grow liquid nutrient, i used it for both stages of growth as i knew no difference and it worked, i had no bugs, i had no nute def problems, nothing, i even took clones without rooting powder and they all lived, i had 100% success rate taking cuttings and putting them in water then placing in pots, all lived then i used rooting powder and all lived, now im using gel and ive lost a couple, the powder used to stick well to the stems, this gel type stuff just falls off, but im thinking it must work cuz i leave it in their for 30 sec as instructed, its like a tub of goo thats sticks together, and its the worst smelling stuff i have ever smelt, usually the dog sniffs and eats everything, but this stuff made him sneeze and when i get the tub out he runs out the room and goes on the balcony till he knows im finished, on the plus side its stopped him eating my clones,

growing has indeed got technical, and way more advanced than i ever thought,
i got my outdoor grow going, bit of guerila growing a good walk away from where i am, if they live and produce then its a bonus, if not then its no biggy, i had to many plants and was taking a bigger risk than needed, so ill be updating my journal on that when i get back to take some pics,

looking at your grow tent again mate, i think if you got your plant pots as far back as you could so they was basically pushing out the fabric at the back and then you may be able to squeeze the others in, you got some space at the sides as well, for now the pots can be touching each other and squeezed in, but as soon as they get big you will have problems, im hoping they are mostly fem for you, but a couple of males would mean you wont need another grow room or killing any plants, if that is the case then try and donate them to someone who can use them, unless you have another grow space or outdoors, these plants will grow by a window so worse case find somewhere that it will get light, it wont be a huge yield but would be more to add to the mason jar when done
 
So here's the deal. As this being my first grow, I thought that I would have about a 50% drop out of plants due to, male/female and or user error. Which is why I seeded 12 plants, I also didnt think I would go 12 for 12 in germination. SO, I kinda hope I get some males in this batch so I can actually handle whats in the tent.

As for light, there are 2 600w LED's on them, should be more than enough, dont u think? I am still hopeful to sex them before 12/12 I'm at 4 weeks now so, maybe in a week I'll pull clones and just throw them into a 12/12 and get a feel for the Male/female percentage. How long into 12/12 for sex on baby clones a week or 2?

Another thought is depending on percentages/space I can start 12/12 at 6 weeks rather than 8. Dont cringe to much but the bigger pots they are in are #10 nursery pots (7 gallon). I figure that my tent can handle about 4 1/2' plants and have the LED's about 12 inches from the tops.

If any of these things are an issue, please slap me :)
 
its really up to you on the topping, i only topped each top once and also topped 1 or 2 of the lower node branches, but the more you top the more it stunts growth while it recovers,

lst is always a good idea, if you pulled the 2 tops down so they was running out towards the edge of the pots instead of letting them grow upwards then you would end up with many tops as all the nodes would now grow and would all become tops, mine looks like its under a scrog, all i did was top but not as early as you did, then i lst all the branches, i kept pulling them so they was running strait out sideways or even pull them down lower than the stem this will force the growth at the nodes to grow rapidly, but this will make your plants very bushy as well so if your struggling for room then it could be a problem, if most are fem you could be in trouble anyway, mine are covering the same are as 1 and a half 3 gallon pots, but mine are less than 1ft high not sure why but they are.

as for the clones showing sex, usually between a week and 2 id say before you know sex, just make sure you label everything well so you know where it has come from
 
plants usually show sex under veg schedule when the nodes stop growing opposite each other, so when the nodes either side of the branch stop growing exactly the same point just opposite each other then this is when they will show sex
 
Oh one quick question. Should I consider topping them again?

Thanx!

They look like they have plenty of nodes already. I would just let them continue the way they are. Guess the best thing to do right now is to wait and find out how many females you have out of that dozen plants and then start figuring out how to space them out for the best overall growth on all sides of all the plants. :)
 
They look like they have plenty of nodes already. I would just let them continue the way they are. Guess the best thing to do right now is to wait and find out how many females you have out of that dozen plants and then start figuring out how to space them out for the best overall growth on all sides of all the plants. :)

Seems like they have 4 major nodes, I didnt know if I should top again after sexing. I assume thats a wait n see.
 
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