Lucky's First Home Grown Bag Seed

[ggrant]

If I want to spend a little time in my grow room when the lights are out, I arrange it just before or after the lights come on.

So f'rinstance, if my 12/12 schedule is 9PM on, 9AM off, I woud either,

1) disconnect the light just before 9PM, work in the grow until I'm done, (say until 10PM), then turn it back on and make sure it goes off on schedule at 9AM.

2) turn the light of early (say 8AM), then finish at 9AM.

In other words, shave the time off the light schedule. Don't wake your laides up in the middle of the night!

 

[420Farmer]

Red light is the worst color light to work with during dark periods. Plants are green, meaning they reflect green light rather than absorb it. Get a green light and you can be in there as much as you want

 

[luckiestman13]

thanks 420farmer thats makes total sense.

I trimmed some large fan leaves from the right side so I could get the light closer to the bud sites. Might be a newbie mistake but it made sense at the time plus it was only two leaves so I figured it couldn't be all that bad anyway.

I also added two more cfl's in the back left corner

 

[ggrant]

I trimmed some large fan leaves from the right side so I could get the light closer to the bud sites. Might be a newbie mistake but it made sense at the time plus it was only two leaves so I figured it couldn't be all that bad anyway.

Lucky, not a noob mistake! Cut off as many fan leaves as you like! Cut one off and two will grow back, like Medusa. Here's are example of one of my trims:

The Falling Leaves Drift By My Window ...

This is one of the many trimmings I have done on my plants. Granted (get it, huh, huh, huh?) that I have four plants, but it's still more than 2 leaves per plant.

 

[luckiestman13]

I'm quickly running out of vertical room. Is there anything I can do to minimize the stretch? Or soon I'll have to become creative with a way to tie them down.

 

[Lord Indica]

I would try to get them at least another foot but if you have to throw the ropes around her you could go ahead and do it now. I just like to let them get tall, it's just a personal preference of mine. She looks healthy and strong so tie her down if shes gettin too big for her britches.

 

[ggrant]

You've been to my grow, LJ, I believe.

Why don't you try busholysis as I've done?

Basically, I topped every shoot that got too tall. If you do this, you can keep the height down, as well as create lots of new bud sites in the process.

My plants range in height between 22" and 26". The minimum height these babies grow is 3 feet (that's 36" if you're not very good at math).

Since you using CFL's you're Lucky (no pun intended - OK I lied, pun intended!), you can keep the bulbs fairly close to the plant. (I'm using HID bulbs and I need about 12" - 18" clearance.

My grow space is 4" high so that leaves (on fire, today!)

48" - 12" = 36" growing room​

My pots are 9" high, so the tallest plant I can safely grow is 36" - 9" = 27". So I have 1" left to spare!

If things get really bad, you can let the plant reach the top of your grow space and use side lighting exclusively.

Also, since heliotropism (the tendency for plants to grow towards the light) is at play, if you use side lighting, the plant will grow outwards sideways, rather than up vertically. Since I'm using HID lamps, this is not an option for me and I haven't tried it myself. It certainly couldn't hurt to try.

 

[luckiestman13]

Although she has stretched a bit I guess she has grown quit a lot as well. The main stem is A LOT thicker than even just 5 days ago.

 

[ggrant]

OOPS,

Sorry I called you LJ, Lucky. I was thinking of another grower who had been to my journal. I've never gotten around to adding the link to my journal in my signature, so you may not have seen it.

If you haven't visited my journal, do so if you want to see an example of extreme topping at work:

Charly's 4th Grow - G13 Haze Soctober 2011​

Come by and visit. There are great things to learn, prizes to be won, and after every tenth visit, you get a free cup of coffee and a muffin!

 

[luckiestman13]

ggrant my man already been by your journal! Everything looks amazing. I see you took some clones after you started flowering. How are they turning out?

 

[ggrant]

Glad you saw my grow. I just wanted to show you that you can cut quite a few fan leaves from your gal withour worrying about her freaking out!

As far as the clones go, I took four. Two didn't make it. Of the two remaining, one is a monster and the other is finally starting to look like a real marijuana plant and not some weird twisted evil clone.

This is actually perfect for me. Three of the clones were from the largest plant I have. The one that survived is the monster. The second clone that survived is from a rather small but very fast maturing plant.

So I got one clone each from the two plants I wanted to clone. If you want to see what they look like, I usually post pictures of the clones at least every other day.

I had severe height problems with my ladies being too tall for my space on my last grow. They actually were taller than the height of my grow space. I either had to bend the colas over and under the ballast hood or leave them completely outside the ballast so that only the lower part of the plants were exposed to the light.

Part of the crop didn't mature properly because of lack of light and the colas I jammed under the hood of the ballast were charred on the side exposed to the HID bulb and crumbled into dust when touched.

Total Bummer!​

Anyway, after that, I read what I could on LST and other ways to limit plant height. Now that you've found the limitation of your space, you can choose whichever option is best for your next grow.

What is the limiting factor in your space? Are you using a stealth box to hide your grow or perhaps you live in a decaying English manor and are using the dumb waiter as your grow room?

By the way, I think you mentioned you might try SOG next time. I recall chiming in, agreeing that was a good option.

What I meant wasn't SOG (Sea Of Green) but ScrOG (Screen Of Green).

Here's some information on each that may help you decide. (Copied from another website - not permitted to post links, sorry)

Sea of Green​

Sea of green or SOG is the method of growing where a multitude of smaller plants are grown instead of few larger ones. These smaller plants will mature faster and in less time than larger plants and one crop can be started while another is maturing. This saves the grower a lot of time and money as less time is required between crops. This method is also good for those wanting to make the most out of their smaller grow area.

Twice as many plants grown half as big will fill the grow space twice as fast, so harvests take place almost twice as often.

Although SOG is more of a style of growing than an actual technique that can be applied in order to increase the harvest, I still wanted to mention it here as this method of growing will under the right conditions actually increase the harvest. As opposed to growing a few larger plants in the same area that is. Since you want the buds to cover as much of the grow area as possible, one plant per sq. ft. is a good rule of thumb for SOG.

Plants should naturally not be topped when using the this method as the idea is to harvest the main cola from a whole bunch of smaller plants and topping them defeats that purpose. The SOG plants do not require any training either as that will only slow them down and delay the harvest. It is probably better to just grow more plants instead and fill out the entire surface area with as many plants as possible. In case the smaller plants do not fill up the entire area of the grow room, some minor LST training might be needed in order for them to branch out a bit more.

The SOG plants can also be Scrogged for further control over the plants. In order for this method to be truly effective, all the new plants would have to be clones from the same mother. That means that all the little plants will grow at the same speed, which is important for keeping an even canopy.

Although no topping and training is needed when growing SOG, the trimming of branches and fan leafs, especially lower ones, becomes a must because every little bit of space counts towards the harvest. By removing excess fan leafs that would otherwise block bud sites, the SOG grower improves on his yield. Since SOG grows usually contain a great number of plants in a relatively small area, the need for trimming fan leafs becomes apparent. After all, what we are after is a bountiful harvest and different methods apply to different styles of growing.

ScrOG

Scrogging, or Screen of Green means that you suspend a net over the plants and allow them to grow through it. This makes it easier to separate the growing branches so that they cover the entire area of the grow room. The scrog net also provides support as the buds can often become so heavy that that the branches cannot support them any more and break under the weight. Thereby the scrog net also removes the need for noisy fans, used to make the stems stronger through the waving effect. Personally never use fans due to limited space.

I usually train the plants for up to three months before flipping the switch, which means that they are thick stemmed and quite large in size. Although plants can be kept very low with training, my aim is to grow large and busy plants that produce the maximum amount of buds. Due to the long vegetative period, the plants are strong and healthy with an abundance of bud sites.

I try to keep the canopy even by topping the plants that stretch more but sometimes it is impossible, especially when growing both indicas and sativas at the same time. One has to adjust according to the plants and direct longer branches to the corners of the grow room, sometimes the only option is to tie the branches horizontally so that they are resting on the scrog net. This can be a strange sight as the buds keep growing vertically out of the side of the flower.

The basic idea is that the training should be complete by the time the plants start flowering and grow through the net. Sometimes a second scrog net is necessary higher up if the plants need further support.

There are also different methods when it comes to scrogging, some people tilt the net so that one side is higher than the other, as this provides a greater surface area for the buds.

 

[luckiestman13]

I just got home from a long wkd away from her. I can't believe how sativa she looks now. Weird how much she can change in a few days. I just took a quick peek at her. I can't wait to see her when the lights come on

 

[luckiestman13]

 

[luckiestman13]

Well I have some options. I can move her into the utility room in the basement and just put a lock on the door that enters it. Then I would have no limits for growth and could add more light. The downside would be losing any light thats reflected from being inside my cabinet, but I'm gonna guess that since I'm using CFL that the light isn't strong enough to be reflected very well anyway.

So I'm sure she will be real happy in her larger room and I'll just see how big I can get it!

What is a good rule of thumb for trimming leaves? I've only trimmed ones that blocked light to the bud sites but is there any other reason to trim leaves? I'm pretty excited that she's showing so strongly a sativa since that's what I prefer.

I see some hairs starting to change color and turn orange. This looks normal to me since they are orange at the end.

How does my buds look? Tomw I think is 3 weeks. As of now I have no restraints on time either. So I can let her flower for as long as she needs.

 

[ggrant]

She's looking really good, Lucky!

Three weeks into flower and the flowers look greatl They're supposed to get orange and red hairs, so you're right on track.

Using a larger room is a great idea! The bigger she grows, the more smoke you'll have.

Besides trimming fan leaves to let light through to bud sites, trimming leaves seems to stimulate the growth of the nodes where you cut off the leaves, in a similar fashion that topping cause the shoots at that node to develop.

Try trimming a couple around a node that is undeveloped, i.e., the little shoots next to the fan leaves are small and immature. When you cut off their life support (the fan leaves) they react by growing larger in order to get more sunlight.

I read somewhere (not positive if it's true, but it makes sense) that a fixed sized root system can support a certain canopy of leaves and that a fixed sized canopy of leaves can foster a certain sized root system.

That sure didn't make a lot of sense, did it? I think it means that you can only grow so many leaves given the size of the roots (limited by pot size) and conversely, the roots will only grow as large as needed to support the current canopy of leaves.

If this is true (and I can't say for certain) then cutting off some fan leaves will cause the plant to replace the leaves because the roots can handle them.

At the worst, you will have nothing to lose. Cutting off a few fan leaves will not stunt the growth of your plant nor will it slow down the development of any flowers nearby.

I know you have a million bulbs focussed on your lady, but it's still hard for light to penetrtate very far into the plant with too many fan leaves. That's one of the reasons I went Hannibal Lector on my plants, so that all the buds would get some light.

If you do opt for the bigger room, you might consider transplanting to a larger pot. Remember:

Bigger Pot ---> More Leaves --> More Buds​

 

[luckiestman13]

ok So this is what I've decided to do for the moment. I took the door off my cabinet, and going to set it on its back so that the open part faces up. Then I'm going to suspend 3 large CFLs(65 w) on a pulley system, so they can each be height adjusted.

I'm also going to pick up another 65 w CFL and reflector.
A larger pot.
and more soil and perlite.

Pictures to come when I'm finished. As for now time to spark it up slam some coffee and hit up menards and home depot to see what I can come up with!

 

[luckiestman13]

Got it all done this morning for the most part. Spent about $90 for it all. Not sure how big the plastic tote is I repotted in but it's large. Probably 20 gallon or so. I got 2 more bags of the soil and 3 bags of perlite.

I think she's going to be pretty happy!!!

Lights down in their position over the plant

 

[luckiestman13]

I'm not exactly sure of the watts of the smaller cfls around the outside but they are 23 watt or larger so I have over 365 watts of cfls!

So hopefully she takes a long time to mature. Another 9-10 weeks would be great. Giving her a lot of time to grow really big!

What do you guys think? Any tips/ advice? Currently I'm using a cheapo fertilizer that's higher in P. What are some good ones? Have you found they make a huge difference?

 

[LJFM]

I'd venture a guess that she's going to be a mighty big lady! Glad to see her so healthy after the rough patch in the beginning!

 

[luckiestman13]

Finished the pulley system for the lights this morning and got the lights moved around a little bit. I also tied down the tallest branch.