I have a couple of grows under my belt at this point, all of which have been a lesson. I'm getting progressively more successful, but this last grow has left me a little jaded. I germinated 5 seeds, vegged them for too long, then put them into flower only to find that all but 1 were males. I've decided to try a different approach this time in an effort to increase efficiency. My plan is to germinate 10 seeds, and grow them all under a 400w MH. I'll try to make them as bushy as possible, and put them into flower as soon as possible. The strain is Skunk if that makes any difference. I know this would work with clones, but I'm not entirely certain about growing from seed. My only worry is that they will get too big before they start flowering and then I would end up with a bunch of small buds because of lack of light. This plan would maximize my chances of getting females, and I think a bunch of little plants may yield more than a few big plants. What are your guy's thoughts? Any suggestions?
i would think of this two fold this grow would be just for fun... once you get one female... invest in a cloner... its a small investment and it will pay for itself... make your own for cheap using a diy by rumple.. its called a rumplecloner.. i purchased a premade one from a local hydro shop for 70 bucks... awesome.. make your own for less than 40 this way.. you have fun growing.. once you have a plant you like.. take some clippings and this way you have viable plants... rather than risking males all the time.. good luck
grow out every plant that u popped, after they get of age, (showing preflowers, about two months or two ft tall) clone each plant, take 2-4 or more clones per plant to make sure they survive (LABLE THEM!!!), after clones root, flower ur big plants, u no the ones from seed, and that way u will have a stock of the one u want to keep, and u wont have to start again from seed, keep one of those clones as a mother (flower the rest) veg her out to take more cuttings veg the cuttings out and flower to keep a perpetual garden
I plan on taking clones off of this next grow. I may just keep a mother then grow just 1 plant in a bubble bucket. Ditch this dirt bs altogether. I should have taken clones off the last one, but it ended up kinda sickly towards the end and I didn't really have the extra setup anyway. Either way, I've been getting progressively better. I guess cloning is the next step.
So what would you recommend? Take clones off a few of them right before I put them into flower, and then find out the sex of the plants by flowering them and ditch any "male clones" I may have.
I'm a little confused because you talk about getting these plants as bushy as possible but then also talk of them as a bunch of little plants. So do you plan on big plants or small? If you germ 10 seeds you should end up with 4-6 females, though more or fewer is still possible. But just taking 5 as the midpoint, that's not too crowded to flower under a 400w. Are you planning to use MH for flowering? You will get better results with HPS...
I'm looking to end up with small plants. Bushy doesn't necessarily mean big either, you can have a small bushy plant or a large one. I plan on topping it a few times, so I end up with short plants with a few big buds on them. It seems the best buds come off the main stalks anyway, so I'm going to promote that. I do plan on using a MH for flowering, I realize its not ideal, but I have had some decent results with it. Its still putting out a lot of lumens, more than a CFL setup would net me. I guess I haven't found a reason to justify buying a new light setup. I'm guessing it wouldn't be a "night and day" difference in yield. I may go that route in the future though.