Clone Grow .... Start to finish (kinda)

i really didnt know much about indoor set up, but these indoor grow journals are teaching me a lot about the set ups, and different methods..

 

I understand that circumstances limited you this time, I meant it as a suggestion for future grows.

As to agreeing or disagreeing with the bud height comment, it doesn't have to do with the amount of light they are receiving.
Plants will only stretch so much when put into 12/12. How much they stretch depends on the strain and the phenotype variations within that strain. Even so, they will only stretch so much since they are now in flowering and only concerned with making buds.
The average for Indicas is 18" and the average for Sativas is 24".
Therefore, for simplicity's sake, let's say a plant you're growing has a known stretch in 12/12 of 20". If you train that plant for 10 days of the stretch, it is only going to grow upwards 10 more inches, no matter how much light it gets.
So, to figure out how many days you need to train your plant for your room height you need to know how much your plant stretches in 12/12.
You can only learn this by either growing a strain out and then taking clones or getting clones from someone who already knows, however, you can always guess based on the averages for Indicas and Sativas.
Since you have a 400w light, and we already know a 400w light will penetrate 10" of canopy effectively, we know the target height you should try for. The only thing we don't know is how much your strain and phenotype stretches. Once we know that, we know how many days we need to train during 12/12 for your plants to reach that most productive 10" height.

It makes sense to me, but if I seem out in left field to you, let me know and I'll try to make it a little clearer.

 

Didn't silent1 have it in 12/12 before you go it? Just wondering because that amount of stretch seems low, although it is highly probable that it did only stretch 10 or 12 inches.

The clones you take will grow exactly like the mother plant, they just go a little quicker because they don't have to germ and mature. The clones are, for all intents and purposes, the same age as the mother plant.
What I'm getting to is that you sort of alluded to thinking that the clones might stretch more or less when you clone (when you said, "That was a SEED plant tho...not a clone").
They'll do exactly what the mother did.

How many days have you been training them since you went 12/12? I ask because even though you want to fill the screen and get a lot of budsites, the more you train them now the smaller your buds are going to be.
For now, I'd just let them grow up and try to scrog them the usual way with clones after this grow.
I don't think you're asking to much, but I do think your yield will be dissapointing if you keep training them instead of letting them grow the bud sites they have now.
I could be wrong, but if your strain only has 10"-12" of stretch, you wouldn't want to train them for to long once you went 12/12 anyway.
Looks like with this strain, if you decide to keep it, you'll want to fill the screen completely before doing the flip.

I wouldn't switch to 18/6. I would think about taking some clones and just scrapping the plants you have now once the clones are rooted and doing well.

As far as the best suited strain to scrog, there's so many variables from grow to grow that it all depends on how much screen area, light, and vertical space you have.
In general, you want a plant that is branchy.
Sativas can be done, but their long stretch tends to overgrow small spaces quickly which is why a lot of closet growers don't use them.

Look around at different breeders, read the strain guide, and read all of the forums that you can to see what kind of growth people are getting from different strains.
BOG's stuff seems to like to branch and a lot of people have had good results with his strains.

C99 is also a good choice, if you can find it. C99 is probably the most popular scrog strain.

At any rate, good luck, ask questions, read the forums, learn, and most importantly, have fun and stay safe.
If you have any questions, just ask away.
FWIW, I spend most of my time on OG and CW. Seems to be more people on OG who are in to growing and more knowledgeable people on CW who are into growing.

 

Also, here's a link to one of the most informative scrog box pictorial threads I've found. Pretty much everything you could want to know is covered here.
http://www.overgrow.com/edge/showthread.php?t=150589&onlyuser=&perpage=15&pagenumber=1

 

looks pretty interesting. how much more of stretch do you think youll have? and youre just going to stay 12/12? and how long you been 12/12 anyways?

 

So, what strain did you choose?
Remember, Gypsy puts a curse on all of the freebie seeds. If you try to grow them instead of giving them away, they won't do shit.

I'd say that you can probably just remove the screen unless it's supporting one or two of those plants, I can't really tell.
No real need to get rid of it, but it will make it easier to get in there and check things out.

Looks good man. I'm looking forward to seeing wtf this grow does. it's almost like a dirt, sog, scrog hybrid. lol

 

i agree bro smaller colas makes less bud height for the light to penetrate, if you have a 70-100 w you might want to train throught 12/12 to get small colas that the light can penetrate but anything 150+ you wnat the screen to be full before going 12/12 no matter teh circumstances, othrewise just SOG with a bit of tieng down a week before 12/12.

 

nice, nice, nice looks like everything is working itself out. im guessing youre going to try the scrog on the next grow?

 

love the plants man. Got a question for ya... or anyone really. See all those little leaves by ur buds... are they at all important to the buds? See i dunno if taking leaves off is hurtful to the plant or not... and i was thinkin the less leaves it has the more it can concentrate on the buds themselvs... either that or they'd concentrate on making more leaves...

I've heard ppl say pull the buds from the bottom 2/3 of the plant, were no light gets off, so that the top buds get bigger and more potent but isnt this the same problem? U tear away weed and it works to reproduce what it lost rather than to whats already there.

 

If your growing SOG style its better to cut the lower shoots, but thats before flower. With training you can get those lower shoots to make some nice big buds.

 

I wouldn't reccomend it. You'd basically be pulling off the solar panels that feed the buds.
People trim the bottom budsites on their plants if those budsites aren't getting adequate light to produce buds that are worth anything, but they do this before flowering.