So here's the situation. I've made a ton of first time grower mistakes, and now I don't know how to correct them, or if I even can. I have two girls growing in my closet using a hydroponic ebb and flow setup. The tray is about 2' by 2.5'. I'm using the free seeds I got with my order, so I don't know what the genetics are, but I'm guessing they're a sativa dominant hybrid, due to the leaf shape and stretching. I'm running them at 12/12 under a 600w hps light with the ballast set at 50%. It gets really warm in the closet (sometimes up to 90, but usually in the mid-high 70's with the lights on. I let them veg for way too long (8 weeks), and put my scrog net in too high, and didn't organize the branches well. Now I have a massive jungle of branches, and I'm still tying the tallest ones down to keep them farther from the light. I'm hopeful that it will encourage bigger buds, but at this point I'm really just shooting in the dark. There are a ton of small little branches that have made their way up through the scrog net. The buds have reached the light, but I'm wondering if I should clip away the small stems to divert more energy to the big ones. I try to keep it pretty clean under the canopy. Will I yield more if I let everything above the canopy grow or should I cut away the small ones? I'm also not seeing any trichs forming. Today is day 26 of flower. Is this a bad sign or do I just need to be patient? I need the most help trying to manage this forest of plants. I'm blown away by how big and thick these girls have gotten. I had no idea I'd get this much volume. Any ideas? If this was your grow, what would you do?
Update to anyone watching this thread - tying the tall ones down seems to help a bit, I'm seeing the individual bud sites stand up, so hopefully they'll thicken individually. The other branches that were shorter keep stretching, though, and I just don't have room to try and tie everything down. Any thoughts...? Anyone...? Beuller... Beuller...
I can't advise you on smell or flowering trichomes (what strain is this btw?) Logistically, you should tie them down but you should have done that a while ago too, you can still do it but hopefully nothing snaps on you. Other option if thats not at all possible is cut which means lower yield if you say your lower branches are growing upwards. Maybe try to trim the worst of the bunch, tie down what you can? That is one hell of a bush though and some sativas tend to have a lengthier flowering process of 11 weeks+ so if youre in week 4 and you can expect the plant to keep growing.... Good luck to you sincerely.
Some strains smell more then others. Some don't smell hardly like anything until the last few weeks. There's not much you can do other then tie down the tallest and try for a more even canopy next time. Done right with a net you shouldn't have to tie anything down but that will come with practice. Looks like a lot of the plant grew straight through the net instead of being tucked. Be patient on the trics. Depending on how much a strain stretches I veg until 80-100% of the net is full before flipping. Nothing is allowed to grow through the net until its 100% full. If I only filled the net 80% full in veg then I'll continue to tuck the first few weeks of flower until its full. Then allow everything to grow through at the same time. If its a stretchy sativa 80% full is the max before flipping
Thanks for your advice, guys, it's really helpful. I've been tying them down to stretch them out since before I put the net in, and after I put it in I did my best to tuck them under, tie them down, whatever I could do. They're growing like weeds (hahaha), which is good, but it's really become a woven green jungle of Indiana Jones proportions. =) And I think you're exactly right, Killset. That's exactly how I want to do my next run. I set out to do this run as a total learning experience, which is why I used the unknown seeds. Next time I'd going to change/fix a lot of things. I'm still really confident that I'll get some really nice buds out of it, which is like the icing on the cake for me. Thanks again!