When should I switch to 12/12? (pics inside)

Discussion in 'Growing Marijuana Indoors' started by WinterGreenGrow, Jun 16, 2010.

  1. This is my 3rd legit grow, and I'm hoping to keep improving my results. My last grow I let the plants veg too much, and ended up with plants that were a bit too big for the room by the time flowering was done. I'm looking to avoid that this time. This grow is the first in this particular room, so I'm on the fence on how long I should let these grow before I switch to 12/12.

    The room is pretty tall, so I could let them go pretty long, but I also don't want them to overgrow too much for the 400w MH light I'm using to make thick buds. They are a skunk strain, and have been growing for a solid 2 months. (from seed)

    I think the biggest mistake I've made in this one would be the lack of air moving throughout most of the grow. I just recently installed a 20" fan to get the babies moving around more. My basement has been fairly cold, so I didn't want the room getting too cold from the air moving in the beginning. The stalks aren't nearly as thick as they should be, and the plants haven't seemed to branch out as much as I would have liked them to. Thoughts?

    Let me know what you guys think. Any ideas of where I should go from here would help.

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  2. light only comes from the top, or most of the light, that's why they don't branch.

    cover the whole thing with tinfoil, or add CFL lamps at the sides.

    not sure if you may want to cut off the tops from some plants, to get branching there.

    on the picture, the plants had about 300W CFL, branched a lot! i just harvested the leaves, never flowered them.

    and the CFLs in PET bottles!
     

    Attached Files:

  3. During my last grow, I veged my gurls for 50 days, then 36 hours total dark, then 12/12 with a 400w hps.
     
  4. I guess I may have built the room a bit big. I'm guessing the light isn't reflecting off the walls as much as it could. Although I wanted to be easy to tend to the plants, so I guess that is the trade-off. Maybe I'll try adding some tin foil closer to the plants to get some more light reflection. I have a couple of CFL's I may throw in the mix also.

    Anybody a decent judge of size on these things? How much longer should I let them veg before going into flowering?
     
  5. Look into the SCROG method. You should build yourself a screen with a stand and spread those branches out evenly under the screen. You will get more branching and good light distribution where it really matters. Your yield will increase this way.
     
  6. And don't use tinfoil...Work with flat white paint or refelctive Mylar. Good luck to you...:D
     
  7. I'd say two more weeks then flip em'
     

  8. I've seen screens in the past, but don't you need to start it from the beginning? Wouldn't it be a little late in the game for a screen now?

    If it is in fact an option, anyone have an easy way to put one together with stuff from local stores?


    I'll keep that in mind. I was thinking they should be switched fairly soon, so that might be the magic number.
     
  9. #9 JollyStoner, Jun 17, 2010
    Last edited by a moderator: Jun 17, 2010

    I dont think its too late. Those branches look thin and you can spread them apart under a screen allowing light to penetrate to the lower branches. Keep it in Veg for a while and you will get more branching eventually filling the screen. When the screen fills up, clip off the tiny branches at the bottom then switch to 12/12.

    You can buy 2x2 wood pieces from your local hardware store. Just ask for Four 4 foot pieces, line them up in a square and use wood screws to connect them. Then you need 4 more pieces connected to that to build your stand. (Basically you're building a table here and the top is a screen that you can staple on.) The hardware store will have screens, there are ones that have bigger holes than the chickenwire screens, go with those.

    Edit: Here's a good example of a simple SCROG Table:

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  10. Thanks for the reference. Building the base will be easy, I was just wondering what people do for the screen itself. I never thought that a hardware store would carry something like that, but it makes sense now.

    So the point is the keep the branches UNDER the screen, not coming through it?
    I suppose I'll have to do a little research on this.

    Thanks for all the help guys!

    edit: I just looked up that coordinate in your sig JollyStoner....nice. haha.
     
  11. While you're vegging you need to keep the branches UNDER the screen. As it grows it will naturally want to grow through the screen towards the light but then you just keep tucking it back under the screen allowing it to spread out more. Once your screen is full then you switch to 12/12 allowing the flowers to grow through the screen which makes a nice even canopy of buds.

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    Here's how it should look from the bottom. As you can see, the top branches are spread out so light gets to the lower branches allowing them to grow into the screen as well. Once the screen is full to capacity you trim off all the smaller branches that didnt make it to the screen allowing all the energy to be focused at the top of the plant. Thanks btw, you're the first one who noticed the coordinates in my sig!

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