Question about big colas vs popcorn buds

T

Thatguy9123

Active Member
So I'm about a week into flower on my first grow. 3 plants started from seed of unknown strain. All 3 turned out to be female as far as I can tell. Any who, here's a couple pictures of one of the plants now. She's about 2 and half feet tall by 2 feet wide.
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I see all the pistols forming along the tops as well as between all the nodes. Is there anything I can do to make sure I end up with larger buds as opposed to several popcorn buds. The way it's looking now it seems as if they will all be fairly small, however I'm not sure if the pistils will continues to grow between nodes and connect? Any input is helpful.
 
Using a 300 watt led a 125 led for top lighting. Added 2 23watt daylight and 2 23watt red lights for supplemental side lighting during flower
 
The fine arts of training and trimming--"lollipopping." There's lots of information out there. YouTube videos are especially useful IMHO because you can actually watch someone doing it.

And of course the right nutrient schedule--less N, more P.
 
Ok let me add some more detail. I had to veg for almost 5 months due to various issues I came across throughout the grow (deficiencies, ph issues, etc) finally after having all three of my plants good and healthy at the same time I switched to flower. I've been using general organics go box nutes throughout the process at about half the recommended strength as well as on occasional foliar spray with humboldt county snowstorm ultra. I did a lot of low stress training on this one particular plant and as far as I could see I thought I was doing it more or less appropriately as most of my grow is all level at the canopy. As this is my first grow I don't really know what I expect. I've looked through some YouTube videos and a few grow journals as well as asked some friends. I was also wondering about yields. I know it all comes down to several factors (genetics, environment, nutrients, etc..) but is there anyway to estimate yield based on size of plant now? Also since I switched to flower 6 days ago. I have only given bloom nutes once at half strength. How often should I provide nutrients. During veg I would alternate between regular ph'd water and nutrients. Should I do the same now?
 
Edit* growing In fox farm soil. 5 gallon buckets. I just recently learned about lollipoping but I'm told that you should do that before switching to flower? Any input as to weather or not I should lollipop now, 6 days into flower or should I just let it ride. Maybe pull a few fan leaves from center blocking light from getting to lower leaves ?
 
There's no way to start estimating yield this early. Your buds have a long way to go. They will stack to make colas. Hang in there.

They're looking good right now. Keep doing what you're doing and give them 4 to 6 weeks before starting to assess potential.

/Obi
 
Let them ride through stretch. LST here and there if needed.
 
Thatguy9123 said:
Any input as to weather or not I should lollipop now, 6 days into flower or should I just let it ride. Maybe pull a few fan leaves from center blocking light from getting to lower leaves ?
Click to expand...

I think defoliation is an art that you can only really learn by doing and watching the results. For me, easy targets are leaves that are:
  • damaged
  • so shaded that they're probably not contributing a lot
  • shading a bud site
  • blocking good air circulation
Any leaf that fulfills two or three of the above are gonners for me.

And of course you have to decide which of the growth sites at the nodes get to grow or get nipped. The best advice I have had on that is the the ones way down are never going to be epic, so nip them so the ones higher up can thrive.

A healthy plant that's in its flowering stretch can recover and fill in any defoliation within half a day in my (admittedly somewhat limited) experience.

Of course erring on the side of less, not more, is wise. If in doubt, you can always come back the next day (and you probably will be back the next day--trimming and training is an ongoing process).

And of course that's just defoliation. Training the canopy into a nice even, planar surface is another art. I find that I'm adjusting training wires twice a day, but I'm fussy and have time on my hands. ;)
 
Thatguy9123 said:
Edit* growing In fox farm soil. 5 gallon buckets. I just recently learned about lollipoping but I'm told that you should do that before switching to flower? Any input as to weather or not I should lollipop now, 6 days into flower or should I just let it ride. Maybe pull a few fan leaves from center blocking light from getting to lower leaves ?
Click to expand...

im also not a very seasoned grower but from what ive read lollipoping shouldn't be done to early, usually people start the process three or so weeks into flower so they can see what stems will produce good bud, and the ones that are trailing behind the others are the ones to go.
 
LaidBackLeo87 said:
im also not a very seasoned grower but from what ive read lollipoping shouldn't be done to early, usually people start the process three or so weeks into flower so they can see what stems will produce good bud, and the ones that are trailing behind the others are the ones to go.
Click to expand...

I was concerned that I was doing too much too early, but I finally had no choice but to start thinning because the plant was was choking on its own foliage. I think we do well to read and watch everything that's out there but then must make the best guesses we can for our particular situation. Which is part of the fun. :)
 
Scientific said:
I was concerned that I was doing too much too early, but I finally had no choice but to start thinning because the plant was was choking on its own foliage. I think we do well to read and watch everything that's out there but then must make the best guesses we can for our particular situation. Which is part of the fun. :)
Click to expand...
Most definitely, i myself couldn't wait either i ended up giving my girls a haircut a week into flowing and they are loving it. I'm just a new grower so i didn't want to use my single experience as an answer.
 
yet to have anyone ask "what size cola did it come off", jesus please us, toke up, if it ain't what ya need toke more. we ain't trying
to land a man/woman/bruce jenner on the moon, just want to get one close enough. Bachman-Turner Overdrive "Ride ride ride let it ride"
hardest decision is what to do when, sometimes doing nothing is the best thing, give your brain a 2 day break & shit will sort itself
out while you are worrying about other shit. don't stop, pedal to the metal and hold on.
 
Thanks for all the input everyone!! You all rock! Things are looking good so far, I'll post more pics a week from now in case anyone is interested in seeing where Im at! I've been pulling leaves on a daily basis little by little. The hasn't been any shock to the plants that I can see and I've been able to clean the bottom halfs of the plants up an bit. Hoping in a couple of weeks my colas really start to form. Regardless of yield I am excited to make it through the whole process and see what I've got!
 

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