SciFi's Durban-X, Experimental Bubble Lab 2010

[FryingPanFlyer]

Hey bro, great set up you have going.

 

[SciFi]

FPF: Thanks man! I don't have a catchy name for it yet, like yours, but I'll think of something.


The 4-site passed the leak and flood test. I'm moving two of the DX clones over to it tonight and my 3 ladies in flower are all showing now! WOOP! Pics to come! Got new batteries in the IR temp gauge, so I'll take some more measurements tonight too.

 

[Green007]

Yesssss! I love it when a plan comes together! Now on with the pics.

 

[SciFi]

Wow dude.. You REALLY like pictures huh?

I'd hate to see what you'd do if you were OCD.

 

[Green007]

Oh yeah!

 

[SciFi]

Ladies are showing in flowering now.. More to come tonight.

 

[MostlyCrazy]

What's the theory behind the pruning? Select ones stay and the small one go? Do you prune as you go or do it all at once?

 

[SciFi]

Good eye MC. Well.. I used a bonsai technique, and girdled it. Every where I girdled it, I removed one of the two branches when I girdled it.

I have to work on the car, I'll be back in a bit!

 

[Renfield]

Interested in the details about the strain. Can you give a little more background?

Very nice set up =)

 

[MostlyCrazy]

What the heck is girdling?

 

[SciFi]

So I girdled it here... It seemed to

And cut all the side branches on a weaker side, and lowered the growing tip almost 80 degrees during vegetation. By doing this it forces the auxin growing hormone to level out in each of the side branches. I then topped each of them to force them to branch, and did that as well to what would have been the primary tip, had I let it reach high enough. I cloned most of the side branches when I took them, and have been removing the weaker ones. That's the two large clones in my other tank, left.

 

[SciFi]

What the heck is girdling?

You restrict a stalk with something, or similarly do a sort of half supercrop type bend. It causes a thick callous to form and redirect growth to the side branches just in front of the girdling. It's sort of like when you see a little branch grow on a tree when it wraps itself around a pole.. Just more controlled.

I use a very stiff, foam coated agriculture wire, and ran it up the stalk at key points, and used 3 different techniques. One where I bent it over, one where I rolled it, and one where I micro adjusted it every day. All three seemed to work well, and the one time when I bent it too far, it split. It scared the crap out of me but it healed quite nicely.

 

[MostlyCrazy]

I see that wire. I'm a supercropping guy myself but I start higher up on the plant for height and canopy management. A little pot tilting also, I see. Is your purpose just to get it as flat as reasonably possible? That would come in handy for an outside guerilla grow.

 

[Green007]

Hmmmm, interesting. So the main stalk now grows horizontally and the side braches you left intact grow vertically into new tops?

 

[SciFi]

Yessir. It's sort of S&M Bonsai.. I think there's pic in my album. I kept tipping the netpot over, and leaving it for a few days, and then rotating it 6-12"s, to push more growth into the other branches and even the canopy out. I tried to aim all the primary growth tips from the forks I make on each of them. It's sort of like a free air scrog with bonsai wire.


Here's an early one.. Where I was just bending the plant with phototropism, moving the cup.
You can see the definite bend in the branch which is still present today.

 

[MostlyCrazy]

I understand. Sort of an underwire supercrop.

 

[SciFi]

Hah.. Bonsai Supercrop!

Sounds less like a woman's bra.

 

[SciFi]

Everyone got a fresh change of water tonight.. Not much else to report.

 

[Green007]

I understand. Sort of an underwire supercrop.

Hah.. Bonsai Supercrop!

Sounds less like a woman's bra.

Well, you are hoping for ladies aren't you!?!

 

[SciFi]

LOL. I got chicks man!

Too funny.