Mainline: Girl Scout Crack

@TreeTent310, hehe, just look at my diary!

@Quexos, definitely learned a lot and had fun with this one so I am happy with it. The mainline/manifold itself came out perfectly. Overall was a great grow for me. I just popped my Dark Devil and Devil Cream they are just tiny little sprouts right now next weekend will make 1 week. I am excited to see what they do!

@TreeTent310, If the quality is better and the yield is at least the same, I would call that worth it! I can see a few variations that would be a lot less work, but I guess the whole point in mainlining is getting things equal and even. You won't accomplish that with just a few toppings and some LST. Ultimately you are right. The grower will decide whether this method is worth the effort.

@TreeTent310, I don't know what it is, but my first grow was the most productive as well. That one started out in a space bucket. Once the plant started going, I caught the fever and bought a tent and lights. I'm still trying to duplicate the yield. I will have to veg my plants for more than 6 weeks. I want the topped top😵 to grow out to 3 nodes. On average it is a little past the first node. I figure 7 weeks to get everything in place, and maybe another for development. My Dark Devil journal is up. She is only a weekish old. My autos are in my new tent with the QB.

@Quexos, I will take 2 oz per plant. That seems like around the norm for me though, so I thought and hoped that this method would improve those #'s. If I do it again I will veg longer for sure. Honestly though after this run I think I am going to try a less extreme method on my next photoperiod grow and see if I can get my #'s back up to where they were on my very first grow. It is funny that I am still trying to improve on my first grow but I guess I had beginners luck on that first round lol and have not been able to replicate it yet. Almost 1 whole year of growing in the books! My mind is already on the next grow, I am about to pop my Dark Devil and Devil Cream in the next day or two so I'm stoked on that! Definitely veg yours a minimum of 6-8 weeks I would say and hopefully yours fatten up more than mine did! I think you should be ok with the 3 gallon. Might get a bit root bound by the end but I don't think it will mess things up for you too much if at all...

@TreeTent310, Yeah definitely veg longer. In order to get that extra yield, you need a more mature plant. In terms of stretch, I think that you might be right, but I've been following a few mainline grows and they stretched like crazy! So it might be more strain related. Your yield of 2oz is excellent, but I agree with you. I expected those buds to fill out the entire bud stalk!😟 You certainly had everything set up for that to happen. I think if you mainline again, you need to veg longer and let those budsites develop. I'll try to keep my mainline grow in veg longer than my normal 6 wks and see what difference that makes in the end. Too bad they are all in 3 gallon pots.

@TreeTent310, The tent was the cheapest part of the investment. I think I paid less than 90 dollars for the 4x4. I'll post pictures of my new set up when I post my new auto grows. I have 4 little sprouts. I'm hoping to do some longer grows. I'd like to experiment with larger pots and some longer veg times. I might try my hand at cloning and doing the perpetual grow thing if I can find a few strains I want to grow over and over. There is way too many choices!

@Quexos, I know you have seriously expanded your operation bro! I am envious of your 2 tent setup. You can now get a real perpetual grow going and veg in one and flower in the other constantly keeping them rotating. I need to make the investment in a veg tent. I have an extra light and the space and but for some reason I have not pulled the trigger yet.

@TreeTent310, Now that I have a second tent I can breeze through my current stash of seeds. I found some really nice strains from a few breeders closer to home. I've seen the results and I'm dying to try them out! I like to support local growers whenever possible.

@TreeTent310, That's kinda what I was thinking after reading the article and looking at all the photos! I will try this method on my grow coming up, and see what happens. Of course I will have your grow to check out too!

@Quexos, sweet dude! I am glad that you gave it a read and are now thinking of implementing on the next grow. I guess you can see how mine ends up doing and decide if it is worth the attempt or not. Honestly though they are going to be massive I think when all is said and done! I am going to post week 6 photos soon so you will see just how bushy and how many bud sites she has popping off. I just switched the light schedule so we will see soon how well she performs in flower!! At this point I am pretty sure that she will be my biggest yielder ever, so I am already more or less sold on doing tis again on future grows.

@TreeTent310, I just read the article from the link you gave me. It makes perfect sense. I'll give it a shot on my winter grow. I don't think I'm going to risk my precious Seedsman order on cold temps at night. I have some other seeds that will grow nicely. It will give me a chance to experiment on main lining without wasting money. I had a plan for this grow that was similar to mainlining, but after reading the article and seeing all the evidence, I'll give it a shot! Thanks for the link!👊

@TreeTent310, Thanks! My biggest concern about growing more plants is adequate light coverage. I'm just afraid that the buds near the edges of the tent will suffer. Mainlining and using severe LST as you are doing with this grow should solve that problem. I'm not sure about the autos though, so I'll probably do those 2 at a time.

@Quexos, that sounds awesome. I am really wanting to grow some purple strains soon. I requested the Blackberry for my prize from FastBuds which would've been purple but I got the Pineapple Express instead. I am not complaining as they are 10 freebies and Pineapple Express was my 2nd choice. But I am excited to see how your Dark Devil turns out that is on my wish list for sure! Also that Auto Critical Orange is supposed to be FIRE! Stoked to hear that you're stepping up the grow too! Maximizing your available space is the way to go and it is not too much extra work at all. Benefits definitely outweigh the pains lol. All good things Quexos I will be following along my friend! Thanks Buddy!

@TreeTent310, Let's see, Auto Brooklyn Sunrise (Diesel Strain), Dark Devil (Purple!), GSC of course, then a bunch of freebies. Jack Herrer, Amnesia Haze Auto, Auto Critical Orange Punch, and some mystery seeds from Sweet Seeds. That should keep me busy for awhile. I'm going to increase the number of plants I grow to 4 eventually. Right now I have 2 and its a breeze. The Bubba's Gift I'm growing now is going to be a 4 plant mainline, SOG like you are currently doing. In the future of course. I'm going auto on this next grow. I want to take advantage of winter and grow purple strain and Brooklyn Sunrise. I love Diesel strains!

@Quexos, I just posted the week 8 pics! I did end up defoliating most of the lower ones pretty much took the first 2 nodes on each one. She is looking nice and clean now. I would be interested to leave them on one and take them off one next time to see how they perform differently and see which method ultimately yields more.

@TreeTent310, I definitely need to see new photos. You defoliated those buds in the middle of the canopy? I counted the 8 main ones, but there are a bunch of smaller buds in the middle of the canopy. I counted at least 8. I guess you are supposed to eliminate them, but I was wondering what you decided.

@Quexos, thanks buddy!! I appreciate the high praise my friend! The plan is for sure to let her stretch and stack at this point. I ended up defoliating and lollipopping her quite a bit and got rid of much of the lower growth. I am trying to post more pics this week so you guys can see the difference. Now she really should just make 8 super fat mains hopefully!

@Quexos, she will be a stoner's wet dream in a few weeks bro just give her some time to recoup and start flowering!! LOL

@TreeTent310, Now I'm going to have nightmares! 😫

@Quexos, hey bro they don't look that bad Lol!! I know what you mean though for almost 5 weeks veg they are tiny! But hoping it will be worth it in a few weeks, when hopefully they will have full on donkey dick colas going on or at least I hope so...

@TreeTent310, You are pretty close to 100g per plant. Maybe start looking for high yield plants. There are a bunch out there. Or, look for strains that are really dripping in heavy resin! You can't go wrong either way!

@Quexos, thanks buddy! The nugs came out dense and frosty! They don't smell too strongly but they definitely pack a punch in the high department. This is one you can smoke all day though and just feel very relaxed but not sleepy. Very good strain all in all for sure!! I ended up being happy with the yield. I am still trying to break 100 grams on one plant though and I thought mainlining might get me there. Maybe next time!! Thanks bud!!

@TreeTent310, Good point. I was planning on letting them go to 5 nodes then cutting back to the 3rd and pruning all but the 2 fan leaves. Since this is my winter grow, and an experiment, I might do a shortened version of the mainline. I was thinking of keeping nodes 2 and 4 after topping. I would prune off nodes 1 and 3. At that point, I would have a choice to top at node 5, let it grow to node 6 and top, pruning off node 5, or leaving the top and flipping after node As long as I do the same thing to each side of the original manifold then I should be okay. 7/8 seeds are regular in this grow. I really don't want to do a long veg time only to find out over half will be male. I'm hoping this modification might cut out a few weeks.

@Quexos, thanks so much buddy! I think the reasoning behind waiting to start the topping and pruning is to let the plant get established and get a little bigger before you top etc. From what I have read if you do it too early it really stunts the plant, but if you wait the plant is strong enough to bounce back quickly. I think some people let them grow all the way up to like 4 or 5 nodes and then top down the the 3rd and cut everything below. It seems like a lot of cutting, BUT since the plant is already 5 nodes it is a bigger, stronger, and more mature plant and able to take the topping in stride and not slow down or get stressed out as badly as topping a little baby. I am excited to see how your grow goes! I will be following along for sure!! Best of luck, of course I know you will kill that shit!!

@TreeTent310, I guess that was my question. I thought everything was removed every time you topped so that it focused energy on the 8(?) colas you were creating. I don't see how those other nodes would hurt though. I'd be a little hesitant as well. I've seen a couple of mainline grows that look really long, like a centipede almost. I think those kept their secondary nodes when they emerged. In the tutorials it mentioned making sure each side of the first topping had to be basically equal. If you have 4 extra secondary nodes then 2 would have to be on each side.(?) Otherwise the plant's energy doesn't flow equally to each top.

@Quexos, that is right! Toppings 2 & 3 both took place on the first available node so there was nothing to remove beneath them. There has been some new growth tips popping up since I have stopped topping. My issue now is....do I trim them or keep them!! It is something I am wrestling with I think I will trim the lowest ones and keep the ones that have some potential to become significant tops. We will see...first time trying this way so it is all new to me, I have to experiment a bit and see what works best I guess.

@IndeKast, thanks a lot! She’s almost done now, hoping she fattens up quite a bit more in the next few weeks.

@Quexos, I am not sure if this is going to get some huge nugs or not. I am with you though, the way she is looking right now I think she may fatten up all the way up the stalk and make some fat colas on all 8 mains. That is at least what I am hoping will happen. Either way this grow is going just like I imagined it so far, just hoping for the best in the weeks to come! I will definitely be following along when you get yours going. I think this may be my new method for my photo plants from now on. I am going to wait until I harvest obviously to see if I really am going to do this every time, but I like the look etc and if yields are on point I am going to be a mainlining fool!

@Wheytoobaked, thanks a lot bro! This is my first mainline too, so I am still figuring it all out. Overall, I have defoliated a little bit pretty much every few days, but just overly large fan leaves and anything that was shading bud sites too much. I really debated for a couple weeks about cutting or letting the lower growth grow. I ultimately decided to lollipop them pretty good and got rid of most of the lower growth. I am a bit behind on posting so I have another weeks worth of photos to put up in the next couple days so you can see exactly what I have done! I will post the pics soon so you can see how much BETTER they look now lol. And now they are more of a "real" mainline which should just grow 8 big colas. Time will tell how she turns out but I think she is set up for success right now. Seriously, thanks for all the love!! I will definitely follow you as well!

@IndeKast, thanks so much!! I am pretty intrigued to see how/what they do in flower as well! They will have been on 12/12 for one week this Sunday 11-11-18. They have just barely started stretching a tiny bit so we will see...