PsyCro first grow!

[PsyCro]

Just thought i'd throw some pics up for eyeballing.. this is my first grow, gonna be using it to make medicinal oil, so i've gone as all out as i can to grow some good bud.

Grown from seed:

My main room setup:

2 Mothers as of today

12/12 as of today

The main room is 1.2m W x 1.9m L x 2.3m H. Using 2x 250w MH and 2x 400w HPS. 220-350 CMH ventilation with coco filter, running out of the chimney, and 4 passive 110mm intake holes. Currently with all bulbs running at 29degrees in the warmer period of the day, with 21-22 degrees ambient temp.

Strain is Tutankhamon which i've heard good things about. Using only organic fert, chicken poop tea, seaweed fert, peeee, and more to come soon. 35L pots, store bought soil, some of the better soil around here.

Looking good for now, battled it out with mites, fingernail biting galore with this project, but hoping for the best...!!!

 

[PsyCro]

One observation and one question, for conversations sake..

When setting up my room i read that a good way to check temps before the grow gets going was to turn everything on in the room, and then check the temperature, in the shade. Did that, and wasn't too happy with what i got, but figured that it'll be ok with good ventilation, and possibly just slower growth in the flowering stage when all 4 lamps are on.

I noticed when i got the grow going that the temps were noticeably less than when testing. It seems that as the lamps are close to the plants that not as much radiant energy is bouncing off the walls and creating heat. I find it strange that i didn't find that kind of information anywhere?! Have others found the same? It seems like an important piece of info which could be useful in an FAQ here or there or wherever.

And now the question.. i vegged using the two 250w MH bulbs and let the plants go over a meter in height figuring that with later side lighting and a bit of defoliation i could get the whole plant budding nicely. So normally the lower branches near the end of veg didn't receive a whole lot of light at that distance, and are now a little bit puny. Now that all lamps are on and side lighting is in effect, do you figure that the lower branches will thicken up??

Thanks for any input..
PsyCro

 

[PsyCro]

lower growth .. ?

No input yet on lower growth? If anyone has experienced a similar situation i'd be interested to know. Basically, some of the lower growth is skinny/shoddy because of light distance during Veg (i'm going for tall plants, about 160cm max height).. now that MH side lighting is in place will the lower growth produce nice bud nonetheless, or am i better off trimming so that plant energy can be more efficiently used?

 

[CO Finest]

Lots of ways people like to grow my friend. I time all under growth on mine. I am not a fan of popcorn buds so over time I try to trim anything that will take away from my main buds. You MH will not do much o under growth in my opinion. If you are on later today I will talk to you more about this. Its 3:44am for me. I am going to call it a night. I just wanted to get a message in to you so you do not think you are alone on this site. There is a lot of great growers on here. I wish you the best and feel free to stop by and check out my 5x5 scrog forum and you will see how I trim my plants. Have a good one and keep it growing green

 

[greenergrass]

hey man that is an awesome set-up you got there

those lower branches i would get rid of, i always remove any budding sites that aren't getting much light as they would just end up being airy popcorn buds.
I have learned you have to be quite aggressive with removing them to get good results.
by aggressive I mean take 1/3 or more off and you should be left with just large colas

your plants are looking very well they are quite tall have you got enough headroom to accommodate the stretch during flower

 

[PsyCro]

Lots of ways people like to grow my friend. I time all under growth on mine. I am not a fan of popcorn buds so over time I try to trim anything that will take away from my main buds. You MH will not do much o under growth in my opinion. If you are on later today I will talk to you more about this. Its 3:44am for me. I am going to call it a night. I just wanted to get a message in to you so you do not think you are alone on this site. There is a lot of great growers on here. I wish you the best and feel free to stop by and check out my 5x5 scrog forum and you will see how I trim my plants. Have a good one and keep it growing green

Heh, yeah it would seem we're a feeew hours apart! I checked light intensity using a cheap light meter, and with the side lighting i'm getting about the same amount of light in the middle of the plants as on top of the canopy. This is why i figured i would get decent growth down below as well, because the lower branches and not shaded any more but are rather getting some decent light.
Not sure though if i were to trim the lower branches, which ones would be good to trim. Not all of them are all that skinny, just a random few..

hey man that is an awesome set-up you got there

those lower branches i would get rid of, i always remove any budding sites that aren't getting much light as they would just end up being airy popcorn buds.
I have learned you have to be quite aggressive with removing them to get good results.
by aggressive I mean take 1/3 or more off and you should be left with just large colas

your plants are looking very well they are quite tall have you got enough headroom to accommodate the stretch during flower

Thanks a bunch, i just hope the grow goes as planned to the end! This strain stretches maximum up to 30%, so the 170cm mark i've set should be a-ok.

Maybe a few close up pics to show you guys the lower branches i'm talking about..??

 

[PsyCro]

Here is a couple more pics of that front and center plant as a reference..

In this one you can see that even most of the lower branches go almost to the top of the plant, and are actually quite healthy:

And here is a close up of the bottom of the pant. There are about 5 branches that haven't grown out much with very small leaves:

As i'm new to all this, i'm not sure how much of a difference it will make if i trim those scrawny few branches. If it they realistically won't affect the rest of the plant growth wise i'd rather just leave 'em.. i don't mind some popcorn buds as long as its not in any way detrimental. As you can see though the whole plant is getting some good light..

 

[David Bowman]

It is totally up to you whether or not to remove those branches, however, removing small unproductive areas allows the other areas to have more access to water and nutrients and grow bigger and faster.