Needs professional assistance for flowering.

Hi everybody. I'm not so new on this forum but this is my first post.

After reading for 3 months while vegging its time for me to post.

I have seen mr. dierwolf and mr. unoit the fresh air inspector from canada have a not so nice discussion about cutting up plants. But I have a question about plant that are already cut up.

I have started my first grow and I have my own ideas about cutting up my babes (at least i hope they are babes can't see yet)

This picture displays schematically what my plant torture results in (no leaves just stem and tops) :

This is what it looks like in the real world (my best 1 out of 3) :



Lotsa tops.



Nice structure according to tactix.



This thick stem will support, whatever I let grow on top.

These pictures are 6 days old, the plant is 3 months old from seed.
I lower the photoperiod each day by 1 hour. Today they get 14 hours.
I know the hormone production got going already , the smell is AMAZING (and I like it).


So, now you guys know a bit about me and what I'm doing here's the question :

Since this plant is so full and bushy, and most plants I see on this forum during flowering have far less leaves AND they do not have my upside down triangular plant structure, should I cut off some more fans leaves for extra light penetration?

I'm worried, my grow box looks a bit busy and chaotic :



What do you guys think?

 

Too bad my digital camera is not 3D.
That one 20W tube you see is actually 18W (europe 230v) but it has 5 brethren, totalling 108W. (dimensions : 2ft x 2ft) about 1200 lumens each for 7200 lumens total.

I chose my fluros carefully, most people i read about on the internet using fluros prefer color 830 (3000K) or 840 (4000K) because they output 1500 lumens for 18W :


830




840

but I chose 33 (4200k) because it has much wider spread spectrum, not those nasty skinny peaks, although it only does 1200 lumen for 18W:



color 33

I remember reading that the optimum wavelength of the light for photosynthesis are around 444 and 666 nm.
I chose long 2 foot tubes instead of spirals on purpose, because of the increased surface area emitting light. This should be better to spread the available photons on the plants more equally = better efficiency.

In the first two months of growing, temps here in my grow box were a bit on the low side when the lights were turned off.
All the way down to 10 Celcius, thats like 50 Fahrenheit.
I noticed that slowed them down a quite bit. Good thing for me the summer got going around here, but my next winter grow I will add more power and more light for better temps.

 

I have decided not to cut off anything.
Because I read somewhere that during flowering the leaves makes sugars during 'daytime' which the convert in the good stuff 'at night'
Photo period down to 13/11 now. As of tomorrow 12/12 straight.

These photo's I made today to show progress :


crowded box


favorite plant


favorite from above


least favorite plant but it does show me a V-sign.
crystals all over the place
too bad I had to use a flash while making the photo.
Tomorrow I will do one in daylight so the contrast is better.

 

Here it is the best photo attempt out of 15 to show the V-sign :
Make sure you click all the way to 1600x1200 to have sufficient resolution.

 

I feel glorified.
This is my first grow.
But I do know my tech stuff!


Q1 : the soil : general potting soil for flowers. 40 liter bags cover these three pots. I bought them at the local DIY shop. I germinated in this soil. Very easy to over water. Will kill some seeds because they can't handle the soil. That's ok. You want to go with THAT WHICH SURVIVES. Meaning something that is in 'balance' with its enviroment.

Q2 : the light/photperiod. First 3 whole months of vegging on 17/7. Then every day -1 hour of light until 12/12.

Q3 : the maming :

the general idea here is to increase biomass exponentially. I've noticed how trees outside who are split-stem just a few foot above ground grow the fattest stems and the most biomass. I love trees. They are my great example for growing grass.

Basically you can cut off the top once the stem starts alternating nodes. Wait a while until you see the two shoots come out from the highest two remaining stem nodes. Wait until they get decent fan leaves.

Cut off the fan leaves. Not all of them. Just the ones that block the light going further down to where nodes meet the stem or new shoots. Wait until it has recoverd so the leaves are just as big as when you just cut the off.

Cut off the tops. Whipe them out. All of them. Never let a single top remain unless you decide to stop cutting and flower, you don't want to introduce serious assymetries since this reflects how the plant spends its energy. There are now at least two tops probably more since you've been busy cutting fan leaves. After choppin' heads wait again until decent fan leaves appear.

Chop chop with the fan leaves and so on and so on.

Only theoretical limits I see :

1. Maximum age for your plant which should be around 9 months. This includes flowering. Who ever you are and whatever you do eventually your plant WILL DIE. Thats' ok. Just be ready.
2. Size of the rooting system. Pots are limited in space unlike the earth around trees, practically speaking that is. SO ABOVE SO BELOW! I know it sounds like a boring bible passage but if you imaging a upside down marihuana plant sticking into the ground just as big as the one you can see above ground it kinda makes sense. This is about the ultimate above to below ratio.

If this above to below ratio goes awry you get problems with soil contraction because you HAVE TO water every day and when you come back the next day the soil is bone dry and thus smaller. Also a common problem then is nute burn due to excess nutes in the soil. If you add 2 liters of water to a 10 liter pot every day you will have this problem.
3.Plants go psycho after all that torture. Meaning herbie. I see this as evil. So unnatural. In actuallity you are helping the plant become big and strong! Also, if you find a plant that likes to be cut you can clone it. It probably likes that too.

Ofcourse this all assumes you have taken proper care of the light, the wind and the heat and so on to begin with.

But ofcourse you should ask others too, I'm just a growing sux0r n00b, but I do know my tech stuff...

 

O yeah good luck with your own project grow!

 

And then I thought up my signature. Damn good smokin' here.....

 

So, what do I find 1 week into flowering ? :



and this is what I had to do with 2 out of my 3 plants :



Weapon of choice :



Ready? Aim! Fire!



Remains of the boys :






So then this is the sole survivor that remains :



Nice young flower :



So what do you all think when you read this?

 

And uhh- o yeah, those funny green/yellow things you see hanging om my plants are 2.5mm square solid copper wires. 20-30 grams each I guess.

Yes I'm hanging weights on my girly.
This I do to optimize light distribution.

 

I'm sorry if I upset you dude.
That was not my intention.

I'm just a stoner whos trying to explain something technical to another stoner.

 

The weights I use to bend my plants as I see fit are hanging loose no fixing it to the ground or to the pot.

................................2
I use insulated 2.5mm solid copper wire.
Guess they are 20-30 grams each.

I did notice that after pruning the plants need 2-3 days to recover, very little growth to see but after about 7 days after the cutting I have nice tops again, who look just like the one(s) I cut off. So after a week, carbon-assimilation should de doubled for the top part of the plant.

This should allow for exponential growth.

In any case, since I use fluro tubes directly above then plant which have quite some surfcace, the mushroom shape suits me better then the christmastree shap.