Should you mainline a regular photoperiod plant that has not yet made a sex determination? I am not concerned about space for the plant, as it will be transplanted outdoors. I don't want to create a negative growing condition that might make the plant more likely to become a male. Thanks.
And is there any reason why I should not mainline a photoperiod variety that will be grown outdoors and have no space restriction?
For what reason? Training is mainly for indoor use. The light doesn't move but suspends over the plants only shining down on one spot. A light doesn't have the penetrating ability the sun has. Which is why indoor we have to train and open up the canopy while keeping it all even. Outside the sun is plenty to just let it do what it does. If you live in a humid climate may want to do a little defoliation to help with air flow and aid in preventing mildew. Other than that unless you just like doing that kinda thing there's no reason to outdoors. Not saying dont do it js no reason to unless you just wanted to especially main lining
Thanks very much! My thinking was that this might allow the side branches to have better developed colas, perhaps more so in the sativa dominant hybrids (will be providing proper support for the plants). With indoors lighting, are there any methods (besides reflective coatings) or are there angled light sources that can be used for more penetrating light for the plants? I was envisioning a metal frame that would slowly rotate the light source along the sides of the plant lol. Or is that not cost-effective?
I assumed that autoflower would certainly be best indoors, given they can get practically unlimited light even in the flowering period. But isn't it possible to get very good quality outdoors if you begin with very good genetics, have great growing conditions, and large plants started indoors?
I grow autos perpetually all year around outside in mostly bad growing conditions or not what's considered good by tent standards. Starting autos indoors you wont have a large plant going out unless you start flowering indoors finish out outside. Autos are fairly small, seems when they do start growing its stretching in flower most times. They flower around day 30 after sprout, seedling stage lasts 2 weeks. Only a 2 week veg doesn't make a large plant.
Training reg photo plants indoors before putting them outdoors is a super smart idea, many reasons that plants are trained that way indoors correlates to outdoors, “airflow, less encouraging for bugs, less larf nugs” not to mention if you stick a good structured plant outside it can take a better beating weather wise, pest wise, disease wise. And when you train up top, you train below aswell, your root mass ima trained plant is usually substantially larger in structure to an untrained plant.
Yes, thank you again. I wasn't very clear with my last post, apologies. What I was trying to say was this: "Isn't it possible to get very good quality -- high thc levels and good quality buds-- from photoperiod plants grown outdoors if you begin with very good genetics, have great growing conditions, and large plants started indoors (that gives them a jump on the growing season)? In other words, I know you can keep the lights on practically 24/7 during the flowering period of the autos, and this extensive light won't confuse them as it would a photoperiod plant (which would cause a photoperiod plant to revert to a vegetative state, as they flower based upon the shortening length of daylight hours). I had assumed that it was this extreme amount of light (without the issues of bad weather and pests) that would promote the very high thc levels and large buds (assuming you do everything else right lol). But the fact that sunlight does penetrate better and our summer days generally have very intense sunshine, makes me think that one could be quite competitive with the quality of buds grown outdoors (once again assuming that you do everything right and have no catastrophic events). I will admit that I tend to be somewhat of an optimist in this regard (typical farmer, always hopes the next season will be the best ever). At this point, I am inclined to wait until I know for sure if I have a female plant (the plant is coming from regular seeds) before I would choose to start topping it, as I don't wish to do anything that might negatively affect the growth and tip the plant towards becoming a male. I probably will give this a try on both a sativa dominate and an indica dominant hybrid, and see what happens. I don't think I will mess up the yield all that much given the plants will be fairly large at the start of the growing season.,
Thanks very much for this. Should I wait to top these regular (non-feminized) plants until they declare their sex? I have some super-healthy looking indica-dominant hybrids that are certainly large enough to qualify for training if i was sure they were going to be females lol.
Weed is that a weed, it can grow in most environments. Granted some strains do better in certain environments. Big bud and trichomes have more to do with genetics. Not every plant is frosted out not every plant has big buds. But yes you can grow good weed doing what you said.
thanks lol, sorry for the probably very obvious question/answer. That's what i thought but wanted to check with someone more experienced. I've been reading up on mainlining but none of the articles included that specific information; i suppose most people use feminized plants anyway, but that's not what seeds i had for several varieties.
It depends who you are, I start training and remove if I see male as I see, but all my reg photos get let’s I’d hate to play catch up when I find it’s a female if it’s a male, you just remove it no harm no fowl, if it’s female, now u have an untrained female at a month pld
This has nothing to do with anything but buy feminized seeds if you want a male get tiresias mist and make one. No sense in wasting medium time effort and money growing males you're gonna pull and kill. If I had a bunch of mixed seeds I'd let them run their 2 wk seedling stage then I'd run a 12 12 sexing cycle.
Thanks. I was thinking the genetics at least provided a general baseline for thc values; for example, on some sites selling seeds, I sometimes see an average value posted or a range of values. I had thought that reflected differences in growing conditions rather than differences in phenotypes lol
Ok thanks. I am seeing now that a lot of what you do is also based on your own preferences and techniques. One mainlining description I have found that seems quite good is the "Nebula" system, described at this link: Nebula's Easy Manifold (Cannabis "Main-Lining" Tutorial) | Grow Weed Easy they recommend that you allow a healthy plant to grow to 6 nodes, then top back to above the third node (leaving a bit of stem above the cut to prevent later splitting). I have a couple plants that have grown past the 6th node . . . would you recommend cutting back three nodes from where the plant currently has grown, or go all the way back to above the 3rd node? I have seen large (unsupported) plants get some major splits when the limbs become heavy, so I would like to avoid creating a plant that is predisposed to splitting. Thanks again
I don’t grow out doors too heavily my friend so I’m not really your guy, I train for shape and size I want indoors, out doors I have found if I train for a healthy stalk it doesent split But as I said idk boss, that’s up to u
Thanks again. I took your advice and have topped the plants and they all look great. I agree that it makes sense to go this route, as you get better results by breaking apical dominance. I live in a very rural area, at the end of a mile-long gravel road, surrounded by several hundred arces of forest, bottom land, and flood plain (next to a river). I am an old guy and have grown gardens and orchards for decades, but its been 38 years since I had a crop of green and there are so many options now with amazing lighting and seed varieties. It's fun and it is making my life more interesting these days.