Hey GC! Today is the 23rd Day of my indoor CFL grow, 2nd attempt. My first grow was kind of a joke, just to see if i could keep something alive. I wound up learning better, and just killed it. I know a lil more now, and i have a decent setup with 4 6500K, 2 5500K & 4 2600K CFL Bulbs. All are 26 watts, or 100w Equiv. So... with my 260 w setup, i now have 6 plants growing. All of them are doing well. I took my 4 best plants and transplanted them into 1 gallon pots. Due to a pot (container) shortage, I have not transplanted my weakest and stretchiest plant, but still have it growing in a 4" pot (no doubt it has far outgrown it though). The second smallest plant (possibly sativa) is now in a 6" pot, and finally taking off since i added Ph control soil. The 4 best plants i have are in the biggest pots, and doing extremely well. One plant however, is surpassing the others by easily double (developementally, not height). The Soil i used for the first 3 weeks is a miracle grow moisture control soil. Now i have a peat moss, vermiculite & limestone mix. some plants surely had a pH problem, but the soil is made to help regulate it (good thing too, because i haven't been). The ferts' I am using are a simple MG houseplant food, with a low, even blend of N, P & K and a powdered nitrogen supplement. My grow area was a 2'x2' sq. area, surrounded by foil attached to cardboard and it was about 3 feet tall with adjustable lighting. Now i have simply removed the foil enclosure, and moved my area a few feet to the right in my closet. The wall are white and surround my plants on 3 sides. on the open side, i have my fan, and a white cardboard "reflector" i keep in place and remove when watering/observing. What do you all think? Questions: 1. Do you think i could trim the sets of '5' fan leaves which are covering new growth spots from the previous node? (my biggest plant) 2. How long should i veg plants for? (minimum, regardless of low yield) 3. I want to kill two of my plants and just say fuck'em. should i keep them for now? even tho i have no large pots/spaces? Wont they get root rot when the whole damn pot is roots?
Does anyone know when i could steal some clones from my big plant? Also, alternating nodes= ready to flower? cuz my biggest has a shitload of them.
Sup dude. You can veg grow most plants for 20 days then start flowering. Don't kill any til you start flowering. Let them flower for two weeks, then check the pre flowers and chuck the males (or go make cannabutter out of them). For clones, try to get atleast 3-4 nodes in the clone. So if you have a branch coming off with decent secondary growth, you could slice a clone any time now and seperate it away from the 12/12 lights whenever you choose to start that - like I said, 20 days is like the usual min for vegging, beyond that it depends on genetics, space constraints, and personal desire/capacity of your lights. Does that answer your questions?
Wow, yes, that answers alot of questions. I have a plants that could be a mother for clones for sure but i want to flower it really bad too! lol well, i think that these responses settle it for me at least, i will most likely start 12/12 at the end of week four. one of my plants shows very dominant sativa traits in my opinion, but it is my least developed (I am almost positive that it was a PH problem, and since transplanted, has grown more than in the last week and a half.
That's pretty good about the extra growth. Yeah, giving the plants the extra soil from bigger pots can make a night and day difference. I forgot to mention, one thing you can do is look for 'alternating nodes' on your plant as a strong sign of readiness to flower. When the nodes are basically 180 degrees away from each other your plant' vegetation is getting close to its peak effectiveness - which means you can flower whenever your conditions demand it. Happy growing
Well then... Considering alot of my other plants are considerably less developed... (all planted at very same time, except for my biggest, which is 2-3 days younger. HAHAHA!) can i trim the sets of fan leaves (5 per set) that are covering the new growth nodes? the leaves i want to trim are not making any more leaves or anything, just straight up fan leaves. I really want to trim my biggest plant so it gets bigger outwards, and so the others have time to catch up, given the more optimal conditions. I can post any pics anyone needs them.
Pruning can be helpful... so long as you don't go overboard. Use your judgement a bit on that issue. If youre talking just some fan leaves that are older and smaller etc, yeah, you can prolly chop em without too much qualm - so long as they aren't raking in the majority of the sunlight for your little ladies. Pruning to give newer growth more access to light can be a really good thing, but as always, in moderation is best
ok... so i have pruned 2 set of sun leaves off that were covering the undergrowth. these were from the same node, different sides. should i take another set off to allow for more or the undergrowth to sprout out a bit? I have nodes with like multiple other nodes being covered by sun leaves
Well, they seem to be doing good with the trim. when could i maybe top the plant? i might top it a couple days before flower
i'd like to see some more pictures before trying to give advice about pruning or topping. if the plants are still as small as your previous pics then i would not suggest pruning anymore and unless they are getting too tall for your room i would not top. topping is really a judgment call and can pay off huge if your plants are getting too tall for your space. by the way, there is no reason to keep males if you have the ability to identify them. if you can see the pre-flowers then there is no reason to keep the males unless you are planning on breeding or you just like smokin seeds for some ridiculous reason. also, once you can see pre-flowers you can start flowering. bottom line, once you identify them pull the males, make cannabutter, bake some cookies, and take a nap on the couch. otherwise, the grow looks nice and keep it goin
yo. My 8Mp camera is fucked, so im using a 2.0 mp phone to take pics. i can take n e u want, but they might suck, even close up. lol I took off 4 sets of 7 fan leaves to expose undergrowth from 2 diff nodes. that was like maybe 5-10% of them? not counting any undergrowth leaves.... what would a pre-flower look like? and when would this happen? I am very interested in finding out sex before i start the 12/12 light cycle, if possible.
they usually show up after about 4 weeks of veg. you can see them behind the stipule at the fourth or fifth branch internodes. they're really small and i would suggest a magnifying glass in order to look for them. the female pre-flowers look like normal female flowers. they usually have a pair of small white fuzzy pistils. i would look up a picture on google in order to see what male and female pre-flowers if you don't know what they look like. sounds like you are gonna be fine only pruning 5-10% of the fans
So after the trim i just wanted to post pics of my thinned out plant. the four side nodes are doing well. I left an inch or two of stem left where i trimmed. i posted the pic of the leaves i took off. they covered the new growth directly, so i was like... screw you guys. I figure after a day or two or three, i will have way more leaves then originally.
I swear to god my largest plant is growing sex organs. ver tiny. cant rly see much of anything. no way to tell which but YAY!
YO all. so after the trim, my monster has like exploded out a lil. Also, i have finally figured out how/when to water with the new soil. All my plants are actually all fanned out and perky at once. Odor is getting a bit concerning. very pleasant for me tho! I am looking for sex parts everyday. nothin yet, although i havent done a thorough search yet today. I tried shutting off my 2600K bulbs and only using 6 light and i swear they are doing better. I was running 4 6500K and 2 5500K. So i cut down the watts by 100... i turned them back on now but anyone think that maybe it would be best to keep the others off/replace them? I am a believer that both spectrums are nice throughout the grow. I would be eager to have my mind changed.