What plant training method?

[greenjeans]

I am planning for next year and was hoping for input - as a total newb, last year was a total experiment and while I am pleased to have anything usable I feel it should be much better...the only training I did was just topping late in the procedure just to keep them under 12' - most were about 6'
- I am hoping to have four plants
- Undetermined seeds - species will not be known
- Grown in amended soil in laundry tubs, maybe fabric pots
- 6' x 15' greenhouse attached to shop, natural light
My question is what would be the best training method in this situation?? Last year I think more good went into the plant, not the flower.

 

[Weedman11]

Best I’ve ever had and yielded was from manifolding with low stress training. Basically it inverts you’re plant and allows for a lot more bud sites with massive flowers if done correctly. But you have a very nice amount of space to make those 4 plants huge if you use like 7-10 gal buckets. I’d let them veg and train them for damn near 2.5 months with that space maybe making 16 large even potentially 32 colas haha. I’d be interested in a grow journal if you decide to do so!

 

[greenjeans]

Thanx Weed!! There will be a journal for sure. I probably harvested a bit early but the plants had started to look "tired". Sprouted on May !st and I had an ongoing harvest (due to pests or whatever) from about the 1st of Oct until the 16th. - the trichs looked OK but the buds don't seem "tight" or big - the effect is OK but not as strong as I was expecting.
That's why the "big plans'' for next year!!

 

[Weedman11]

Hell yeah, if they do start looking “tired” and it’s not an actual symptom of deficiency or mites (actual problematic things), then get your hands on some plant yo-yo’s they work wonders for your plants. Making them have to focus less on building up stronger stems while trying to support the flowers and more nutes go into the actual buds.
but with your current harvest if you’re not impressed by what you have, I typically will turn it into some form of wax, concentrate, hash, etc.

 

[greenjeans]

Hey weed - I have about 65 jars so I will be doing a bit of experimenting - my cococanna oil seems weak - takes four 00 caps to have much of an effect and does not seem to last more than about 2 hours. The best effect is thru my hooka but two vape pens full gets things going as well. I'm trying to figure out which plant is the best and it seems to vary from day to day. Once my silk screen material comes in I'll try my rosin press again and see how that goes.

 

[Weedman11]

That sounds sweet man! How much did you harvest for 65 jars?! Also lmk how the rosin press goes, that’s one of my favorite ways to smoke by far. Concentrate! Here's the Difference Between Shatter, Budder, Crumble and More here’s the lot to decide what you might like the best

 

[greenjeans]

I had six plants - four outside and two in a small greenhouse. I've pressed some naked pucks, but used too high heat and too long of a press and using crappy weed - what could go wrong???!!!?? Once my silk arrives I'll try a proper run.

 

[Blew Hiller]

6x15' for 4x plants is tight....what is the available height?

 

[Southerncough]

There's a really great thread here about a technique called "quadlining" and i could only imagine what could be done this way in a greenhouse!
Pretty much you top the plant around the 5th node and grow out only 4 branches below it and strip out everything else. Train the 4 branches into an "x" the size of the pot and the flip into bloom a week or two after you've reached your desired horizontal footprint. Then you get a nice canopy of flower that's pretty low maintenance once the x is trained out.

The Quadsquad Thread: A Community For Quadlining

As quadlining has become bigger and bigger on these forums I have seen that anyone interested in it has been able to receive the help they need on their own journals. Recently I have decided that it would be really fun to have a quadlining thread where people can come together and share their...

www.420magazine.com

 

[greenjeans]

6x15' for 4x plants is tight....what is the available height?

Really??? That's more than 3' in width for each plant. The height would be about 6 1/2' - I figured that when guys that are putting 4 plants in a 5 x 5 tent I was giving them tons of elbow room - what am I missing??

"quadlining"

Yeah, this is why I started this thread - to get everyone's ideas - last year they ran away on me - too tall, too rangy, just wild - as I said earlier, it seemed that all the good went into the plant not the flowers.

 

[Southerncough]

Really??? That's more than 3' in width for each plant. The height would be about 6 1/2' - I figured that when guys that are putting 4 plants in a 5 x 5 tent I was giving them tons of elbow room - what am I missing??

Yeah, this is why I started this thread - to get everyone's ideas - last year they ran away on me - too tall, too rangy, just wild - as I said earlier, it seemed that all the good went into the plant not the flowers.

Also, your strain has a lot of say as well. I.e. good luck keeping a tropical landrace sativa that wants to be 20' tall tamed under a limited ceiling LOL.
I've learned the fun way that if i want a sativa affect I have to find an indica hybrid that produces similar medicine because I just can't accommodate otherwise in my compact garden.

 

[greenjeans]

good luck keeping a tropical landrace sativa that wants to be 20' tall tamed under a limited ceiling LOL.

Tell me about it - I had to raise the roof twice this year and the outdoor cover once and still bend them over!! It was a regular sitcom around here!! I'm getting too old to climb ladders leaning against these plants but then again it hurts to bend over. All I want is the perfect plant!!! Everything at waist height - is that too much to ask???!!!???

 

[Southerncough]

Can be done! Just lots of training in veg. Topping and lst at 4th-5th node, training branches out instead of up, etc. Lots and lots of wire ties. I get mine at the dollar store when they roll out their garden stuff every spring. Coated & uncoated wire, 3" pots, label stakes, starter trays, pruning shears and even veggie seeds LOL. I load up and drop $40 every year and I'm set for a while. Also a 100 pack of pipe cleaners is $3 @ Walmart. Super easy tool for training plants. I use them on my tomatoes too. I like that you can shape them into a hook for getting into those hard to reach spots with one hand

 

[Blew Hiller]

I figured that when guys that are putting 4 plants in a 5 x 5 tent I was giving them tons of elbow room

The opposite...in a tent you want to maximize the plants surface area to receive every single (possible) photon of light you are paying for...plus you can usually access any plant from at least 3 sides of the tent.

what am I missing??

- 6' x 15' greenhouse attached to shop, natural light

Indoor growers can control the size of the plant because they control the light schedule. If they want X final size they grow in vegetative lighting for Y hours @ # of days and then flip lighting schedule (overnight) for flowering. They know (or learn) there is a certain amount of growth in both phases and they calculate final size based on that. Do it enough and you can get pretty exact in a confined space.

Outdoors (natural light) you are at the whim of Mother Nature and she is much slower in the transitioning of lighting from veg to flower, which usually means bigger plants. Preferably you want to have some space to maneuver to tend to the plants, plus having air movement is always beneficial. One way to manage plant size under these conditions is simply by starting later...like a month after other outdoor growers in your area (for me @ 44N outdoor start date is approx June 1).

6.5' may seem like plenty when they are a seedling, but they will quickly get there even in veg. I recommend starting 2-4 weeks late and topping twice. You don't want the flowering plants to be touching the interior of your GH because that is asking for bud rot.

 

[greenjeans]

@ 44N outdoor start date is approx June 1).

OK, seems counter intuitive but makes sense - I'm at about 45 N so we are pretty close. One thing I thought I might try this year, as an experiment...add lighting to extend the "daylight" by about an hour and then as the daylight hours start to lessen on June 21st stop the extra light, so in effect, a less gradual "flip".
My seedlings were started on May 1st and basically I think I did most things wrong but somehow coaxed them thru until well past frost.

 

[Southerncough]

Or you could run some autoflowers perpetually. Where i live our winter is many people's summer and we can grow autos outside all year long

 

[greenjeans]

Where I live - our spring and fall is many people's winter!!!
I think I need to spend this winter studying - If I'd studied this much 60 years ago I coulda bin a
Rocket Surgeon!!!!

 

[Blew Hiller]

OK, seems counter intuitive but makes sense - I'm at about 45 N so we are pretty close. One thing I thought I might try this year, as an experiment...add lighting to extend the "daylight" by about an hour and then as the daylight hours start to lessen on June 21st stop the extra light, so in effect, a less gradual "flip".
My seedlings were started on May 1st and basically I think I did most things wrong but somehow coaxed them thru until well past frost.

Trust me on this...I've made the mistakes and lost the time in doing so...you can fast forward right to the successful harvest part

The common mistake I made was not planning for the last 2-3 weeks of flower...because that's the most important part and everything should be tailored to it. Huge plants sound great until they suffocate each other and the flowers suffer. @ 45N your window of harvest will coincide with plenty of cool nights which will create a lot of condensate on the interior of the GH poly/plastic. If this gets on your flowers it will greatly increase your chance of botrytis (bud rot) and the closer the proximity of the plants increases the risk of transferring the rot...I had to harvest much of my crop 2-4 weeks early (in a 12x24' GH) in 2018 because of just this issue. It is a hard lesson you can avoid.

I am not sure why you would choose to grow seeds of undeterminate origin....there is a lot of useful info out there on strains that 1) work for your conditions and 2) work for you personally as a finished product. This summer was my best season so far because I applied what I learned from my previous failures (which were many...and still occurring, though lesser in number and degree). One thing that worked well for me at my/our latitude was picking a strain that was specifically bred for the shorter season and resistant to mold/mildew/rot. The breeder was Mandala Seeds and you can buy them direct or through @SeedsMan. One of these had the privilege of being chosen as POTM for October. You can see my progress with them in my journal (as part of your long winter thinking about spring .

 

[greenjeans]

grow seeds of undeterminate origin

Well, in my defense, this started as a lark!! After my prostate surgery my son got me some cbd in a vape pen so that got me thinkin' and then when my other son gave me some seeds, well, that got me thinkin' more and then 15 seedlings popped...then I had to really start thinkin'.....so this isn't my fault at all !!!! Oh, yeah...and I'm cheap - if I get free stuff I use it !!! But I always seem to learn stuff two days after I really needed to know it....so this year.....

 

[Southerncough]

Trust me on this...I've made the mistakes and lost the time in doing so...you can fast forward right to the successful harvest part

The common mistake I made was not planning for the last 2-3 weeks of flower...because that's the most important part and everything should be tailored to it. Huge plants sound great until they suffocate each other and the flowers suffer. @ 45N your window of harvest will coincide with plenty of cool nights which will create a lot of condensate on the interior of the GH poly/plastic. If this gets on your flowers it will greatly increase your chance of botrytis (bud rot) and the closer the proximity of the plants increases the risk of transferring the rot...I had to harvest much of my crop 2-4 weeks early (in a 12x24' GH) in 2018 because of just this issue. It is a hard lesson you can avoid.

I am not sure why you would choose to grow seeds of undeterminate origin....there is a lot of useful info out there on strains that 1) work for your conditions and 2) work for you personally as a finished product. This summer was my best season so far because I applied what I learned from my previous failures (which were many...and still occurring, though lesser in number and degree). One thing that worked well for me at my/our latitude was picking a strain that was specifically bred for the shorter season and resistant to mold/mildew/rot. The breeder was Mandala Seeds and you can buy them direct or through @SeedsMan. One of these had the privilege of being chosen as POTM for October. You can see my progress with them in my journal (as part of your long winter thinking about spring .

Hey, which mandala strain did you choose? I've been doing a lot of research and they seem like a very legit breeder.
I've been eyeing their satori strain as it does well in hot climates and tight spaces and the affects sound very pleasant as well.