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Potted both my seedlings into 3" square pots. I planted it as deep as I could and soil right up to the true leaves. I buried majority of the stem to get them stronger. Bottom watering them too.
The girls are out now fulltime. Fully acclimatized to the outdoor temp and full sun. Also, this is the first week of adding nutrients to my watering regime; Grow and CalMag. Going to upgrade them to their forever pots this week too.
The girls are loving their new home and enjoying the heatwave we are experiencing here in Ontario. There was a big rainfall yesterday to break the heat so that was nice treat. I did spray them with a neem oil soapy mixture as I found a few bugs on the underleaves. Could have been aphids but I'm not 100% sure. Also found a few leaves that were munched on by Japanese Beatles. I've gotten rid of 2 of those Beatles already but seems to be the time of the season as they are all over my veggie garden too.
I'll probably move them closer to my garden beds next to some companion plants. Maybe it'll help with the bugs.
I'm a gardener but first time grower of these type of plants, should I attempt to top one of the plants to experiment? I'm also late in the game than it might be too late to top now? Both ladies are at the 4th or 5th node in its growth. Thanks!
Are these photoperiods? If so, I think you could top them with ease! And I would encourage you to try!! Your plants are at the perfect time to do some topping so read up about it and go for it!! If they're autoflowers, do not consider it... it will stunt them and may completely destroy their schedule...
Good luck!
nah, can be a good time, depending on what you want to accomplish.... try to work backward from what you want at the end to dictate what you do now...
how many vertically growing colas do you need/want?
i like to top after some axiliary growth begins in earnest... as opposed to a little nub. i see you are outside, so you may not need to use these methods. topping is an effort to make the canopy even for artificial lighting. just 20" deep into canopy is significant loss of light intensity (inverse square law, plus physical obstruction). This doesn't happen outdoors. your lower colas should be beefy, too.
not saying spreading it out won't help... or that maybe topping can increase yield, but the percent increase is almost certainly lower than what you reap inside while doing these things. you got 2000ppfd all over that plant, outside, unless it is overly shaded or obstructed in some way. (Check DLI for your region, adjust for any loss of hours of sun and you'll know the amount of photons it is getting per day, roughly.
when does your region have longer nights? that's when it'll flip and youll only have 3-4-5 weeks of vege growth after that point, because it's transitioning to flower phase. this is useful to know when it will occur... don't want to be topping anything near end of vege growth, as it won't grow back enough to merit the damage.
anything near 10hours of darkness is a potential point where it'll flip to bloom phase. (dark enoug you cannot read or distinguish letters, so deduct 1-1.5hours for twilight from any sunset/sunrise length.)
You can top at any node and as much as you want as long as the plant is still in the veg stage. It also varies of how much room you have when flowering or time you want to wait. The cannabis plant is basically customizable to your grow room and needs. Hope this helps. BTW when flowering begins the plant will stretch roughly double of its size so keep that in mind. Hope this helps
Moved the girls to the garden bed area just to benefit from some companion plants. Maybe it'll help deter some of the bugs munching on the leaves.
They have been doing great during the slight heat wave this week and the much needed rainfall too. They look happy and thriving.
I topped one of them to experiment with. Let's see if I did it correctly. Same technique I usually do on some of my flowers and herbs.
Hot and some rainy days which has been great for the growth of the girls. They are flourishing everyday. Responding well to the Grow and CalMag nutrients too.
You can tell that the one I had topped is slightly wider than the untouched one. Might experiment a bit more with the topped one to get more of a lollipop look.
Still have issues with the Japanese Beatles but I've noticed them getting attracted to the flowers in the garden so hopefully they stick to those instead of gnawing on the leaves of the girls.
So far so good. Heatwave is back and they are loving the humidity. I've needed to water a bit more often, ever other day due to the heatwave.
But now we are forecasted to have rain for the next few days. Should be a nice relief.
The one I had topped almost 2 weeks ago is still doing well. She is must shorter than the untouched one as expected. I have also tied down the bottom branches; experimenting with LST and so far she's responding well and adjusting.
The tallest one is 40 inches while the one I had topped is 30 inches tall. Still doing well in the garden and definitely growing really big. A bit scared at what they will be once they flower as I have a feeling they will be huge.
As the vegetation grows tall in my garden, I needed to move the girls away from the shade it was in. Not sure if it matter but hair in case.
The temperature is back to normal, not much of a heatwave and definitely a bit cooler at night.The girls doesn't seem to mind.
I believe we are about to move into the flowering stage. I see a bit of the white hair.
I've given them probably their last mixture of grow+CalMag nutrients this week. We'll see how they are looking in the coming weeks and I'll switch to the flowering nutrients next.
They are well over 4ft and 3ft tall (excluding the pot) and they look like they will be huge! Looking forward to the next stage.
I wanted to use the flowering nutrients (I think it's the bloom nutrients) but it's been raining a lot lately. The soil is still quite saturated so I'll wait and see if it'll dry out a bit in a few days before I give it some food.
So far the trichomes are more visible on both beauties. I've started to trim more of the lower and fan leaves. I would say about 1/4 of the bottom is pretty airy. Working my way up every day.
It has been cold the last 2 days dipping anywhere between 10C to 15C in the evening and day time high of 15C to 18C. It's supposed to heat up (25C-28C) in the next few days but then back with some cold days again. That's the problem with Canadian Mother Nature; can't make up her mind. This will test my plants and see how they do with the ups and downs. Hopefully it won't affect them that much.
I've also started rotating them in case the sun isn't getting certain parts of the plant. I'm not sure if it matters but it isn't cumbersome to do so why not.
So far I've been lucky to not worry about any infestation nor abnormal leaf coloring. I usually do a deep watering only once a week if it's a normal week with no scorching hot days. There was a period of 3 scorching hot days and they definitely were droopy and thirsty. So I must have watered them 3x over a span of 7 days.
Very excited to continue to see them grow into beasts!
I've started removing alot of the fan leaves on the taller lady and somewhat on the shorter one so I could see if it made a difference come harvest time.
I'm still continuing to give them bloom and partly CalMag nutrients.
Fall has definitely started and it's getting cooler so I do try to come out every morning to shake the dew off the ladies. The nights are way cooler and we have had some cooler days as well but they seem to not mind.
HappyPetals
