seeds from the 80's

Hey fenor, sorry for the delayed reply. Vacation's over, crying the blues and trying to remember how to get up & go to work another day. Damn, I need another vacation 
 
You had pm'ed me about some training questions & decided to reply on here in case anyone else has the same challenges you are facing.
Deflorination, or heavy leaf pruning, wouldn't recommend it. Anything more than 50% has a serious chance of killing the plant; those leaves DO serve a purpose.
What you're describing & I'm seeing in a couple of your pic's is classical sativa - one strong main trunk with little side branching. Don't worry too much, it will eventually show side branch structure. If conventional topping or FIM-ing didn't work, the next step is what I call a hard topping. Say the plant is 8 nodes high, and you tried topping but all you got was one new main leader where normally two new top main branches would form. You drop down a couple of nodes, say to node # 6 where you have two good strong leaves on opposite sides of the main trunk. Go up 1/4" to 1/2" from the node and cut the main trunk. This will almost always result in two new top main branches forming where the leaf nodes join the main trunk.
Another trick you can try is a minor variation of low stress training / LST. For single trunked sativas this is best done once the plant is veg-ing well and showing good top growth. About 2/3 to 3/4 of the way up the plant, tie a loose loop in a long piece of string and place it around the main stalk. Be sure it is not tight or it will damage the plant. Now, over the next several days, bend the plant over slightly and secure the end of the string to your pot. Another piece of string tied all the way around the pot, just under the lip, makes it easy to secure the string to hold the bend in the plant. Next day, come back and bend it a little further. Over a few days' time you should be able to put a 90 degree bend in the plant. It's not too hard to eventually loop the top of the plant all the way back onto itself if you want to try it, but 90 degrees is usually all you need.
The closer the bend starts to the base of the plant, the better. The intent here is to get as many nodes as possible to be horizontal to the ground, and at roughly the same height from the base of the plant. This will force the side branches to form and go vertical, resulting in multiple tops. Many years ago, a friend was growing a mexican sativa in his back yard along a privacy fence. He trained the plant like this for the duration of veg; the plant probably reached 12' or more. Looked like a monster sativa serpent crawling along his fence    But when the bitch started blooming, unbelievable!!!
If the stem breaks, no worries. A sterile stick splint and a gauze wrap below, over and above the break, in a few days the plant will heal just fine. And it might result in a super crop (more below). Within a couple of weeks you should be able to remove the gauze & splint.
Once the side branches start going vertical, you can LST those down as well.
Take a look back in your thread; DNorris dropped by. Check out her grow threads, she's the LST queen & has some excellent illustrations.
The last technique you can try is super cropping. Essentially, this involves squeezing the main trunk between your thumb and index finger, at a node. When you feel it crack, job done. Just try not to completely crush it. The plant will wilt for several days, but usually perks up, and you can get a whorl of new side branches from the super cropped site. This is a very effective alternative to topping, but personal opinion only, wait until you are working with a next generation round of clones to try this.
 
Regarding sexing while the plants are still in vegetative growth, this is very inconsistent and unreliable. Plants have to veg a minimum of approx. 30 days before they are capable of showing sex. You're past that, but still, no easy ways here. Leaf shape, thickness, leaf stem swells at main trunk, smell, yadda yadda, nothing I have ever tried in 40 years of growing has been reliable. The only thing for certain is to flip to 12/12, then within 7-14 days the plants should show sex. The males usually show first. After that, just keep a lookout on the females for hermies; girls will grow balls occasionally & it's about as gross as it sounds.
Some people will take clones early in veg, root them, and immediately throw them into 12/12. As soon as they show sex, you know the sex of the corresponding donor / parent plant as well. But, for two weeks to root the clone(s), and having the plant at a minimum age of around 30 days before it will show sex... it's possible & reliable but it doesn't really save you any time IMHO.
 
Regarding when to take clones... if you have good bottom branches, take clones from them now. As the plant grows and stretches when in bloom, those branches stunt and die anyway. Make good use of them now. If you wait until after you go to 12/12, you can still take clones with little to no problems, and you can know sex before cloning. But until you get a comfort level with cloning, I'd recommend trying both. It's a lot easier to throw them away than it is to get them after the donor plants are gone 
 
OK, off to cruise the forum & say hello to some other buds, catch you later.

 

can't wait to see how this turns out. 

 

 
 
Hey, D!!!! Can you show fenor how to tie up some girls????
Looks like some LST could help his cause.
Hope all's well, catch u later.

 

Of course Olde School! I'd be more than happy too

So LST (low stress training) - I'm a visual learner and saved this stick drawing from my mentor so please excuse the stick figure drawing! Basically take the top of the plant and tie it down to as far as it will let you without breaking. My system s RDWC so I screwed 8 eyelets around the net pot to tie down to. I use rope around the size of a pen maybe a little smaller. Easy to find at any box store.

Two pics: what you start with and then what you end with. Let me know I'd you have questions. If done correctly this can increase your yield by clawing the plant out so it gets more light penetration.

 

Hey fenor, sad to say there's no cheap alternative to Superthrive. But not to worry, a good clone from a new plant is probably going to root without superthrive or any other rooting stimulant. Personally, I only use rapid rooter plugs to start my clones, and I always use a cloning gel as well as superthrive or RapidStart in my bubble cloner. But fresh generation plants direct from seed will usually root with nothing but some type of rooting medium and water. If you have a good organic soil mix with no nutrients added, try rooting the clones in Solo cups & dirt, nothing else. 
Your success rates will definitely improve with rapid rooters, rooting gel & superthrive or RapidStart, but plain old dirt works.
I just don't use it because I think dirt is dirty, and worm poop and bat dodo give me the willies

 

Shit, hate those little bastards. Soap mix has to be repeated every few days for 2 to 3 weeks. It won't kill the eggs, and you have to kill the newly hatched ones before they become sexually active to reproduce & lay more eggs.
Azamax is a neem tree derivative & works good. Neem oil is completely organic, effective & safe but must be used regularly.
Any oil or soap based solution should work, just be careful if close to harvest. Or anytime in bloom, it's good practice to treat one day, rinse the next, then repeat every 3 days. Soap won't hurt you, but tastes like rotten ass when you smoke it.
But the best treatment I've found for spider mites is MightyWash. The shit's a bit expensive, about $35 - 35 a gallon, but two treatments over a one week interval will eradicate them. Sometimes only one treatment is needed.
Mighty Wash is nothing but ionized, or acid water. The byproduct of alkaline water that everyone loves to drink these days. Do a search on Youtube for acid water & there are a couple of good tutorials on how to build your own system & make unlimited supplies. A couple of plastic containers, a DC transformer (have heard an old cell phone charger will work but haven't tried it), and a couple of other misc pieces and you'll be set to make all the acid water you'll ever need. 
I'm going to build one myself one of these days, but for now I just keep a gallon of MightyWash handy in case it's needed. The shit works better than anything I have ever tried, including whole room foggers like Docktor Doom

 

You're welcome! Post pics when you get a chance

 

Hey Fenor,
Guess what time it is??????


PIC TIME!!!!!
Don't be slacking on us this early, Bud.

 

 
 
Seconded

 

Been almost a month since update not looking good hope all is well.

 

OK Fenor, I got the posse on here for you... don't make us come out there!!!
(Insert emoticon as soon as I can figure why they don't work anymore)

 

tell us something this grow looks like it could be promising don't just leave us hanging here!