I have been worried for a while about how close the plant grew to my led lights. The usual recommendation is like 16-20" above , but I can't raise my lights and this plant stretched so fast a couple colas got away from me. As you can see in the photos and video, some are as close as 6-12 inches and because this plant is a slow developer, I think it's starting to Foxtail. In response to this and preparation for upcoming harvest, I lowered the intensity of my light and changed the light schedule from 19/5 to 16/8. I've been lowering the nutrients all week and will be flushing all next week. I've been preparing for trimming and drying, only worry is keeping the correct humidity, but we'll see.
Youre doing nice! As for your plant not looking like others, they had different (better) phenotypes or its the growers techniques. Either way, shes growing past the high amounts of stress you have thrown her way. Its a good thing you cut off the "skinny" branches that wont amount to much, not bad thinking for your first grow! Good thing you did that because the energy from the plant and your nutes wont be wasted anymore. I dont know if you know this, but if you have limited height space, always remember that when a plant starts to flower, she could double in size, some strains triple or even quadruple in the stretch weeks (1-3 weeks of flower). I want to grow this strain too, so Ill keep my eye on your grow!
@Thegermling509, thanks. I appreciate the support. It's been a learning process. haveing never seen the flowering cycle I'm not always 100% sure I'm doing the right thing.
Again, a masterful job of tying your girl down and using all of your space! I was thinking about your height problem. Do you have the kind of Trash Can that has handles? Those usually will "nest" like the smaller 5gallon buckets. You can cut them to make spacers. That would give your about 6-8 inches per spacer. Inverting a second bin, and putting it on top might also work.
@TheOutlawBubbaKush, Sorry, I couldn't remember if your grow bucket was on top of the fridge. You could probably still make a spacer. I turned one of my buckets upside down so I could invert the top. I used Gorilla Tape and to secure the upside down bucket on the inside and outside then added the silver tape.
You are 14" from the light. That should be plenty as long as your little girl stops stretching. Sorry I couldn't come up with an idea to help you out!
@Quexos, yes, my space is actually already two stacked trash cans. But I can't go any higher because it's all sitting on top of my refrigerator. Lol. I live in a small space. The top cola is about 14" away from light. The heat is ok but if it keeps growing upward, it'll get into danger area. I don't want to supercrop just yet though. Fingers crossed.
That is one bushy little plant. You are very creative with your LST techniques! Has there been any damage when removing her from the bucket? She looks difficult to stuff back in the tiny space.
This is a great diary! Looking forward to seeing the final results. I am new to autoflowers, and have been struggling with figuring out the right PPM per week. I was only doing 100 Week 1 and 200 Week 2 Day 1 so far.. Gonna switch it up next feed and get them up to 350/400 by the end of the week.
Wow that things has exploded! Awesome.
I doubt that any healthy and vigorous plant will really fail to produce at least something, so no worries there ;)
Mad branching alright, some plants just grow that way, it seems. I'd let it settle into its flower another week and then maybe cull some of the ones that aren't fattening up enough. The thing looks hardy enough to have no problems with that.
But don't worry about having cut small branches, like you've said there seems to be no sighs of slowing down/stunning. New growth should stop at this point.
Seems to me that the buds will fill out nice, the distance between nodes seems tight enough. Maybe lollipop it later? (defoliate the leaves + flowering sites at the bottom, which are getting less light).
But yeah, i'm no expert here, just throwing ideas round. I'm sure others will chime in too, ideas be flowing. It's always easy to over love the garden and worry. Peace.
doing great! esp for first time!
training is amazing! next time dont chicken out on defoliation... and try supercropping some of the lankier, fewer-noded limbs, instead of the leaves XD
good going with the para cord. Usually i use the wire ties like twist tie on roll, except i use the rubber-coated thicker wire for little loops around the branches and use the twist tie to tie THAT to the pot. No stretchy. The para cord is working surprisingly well so far and your canopy is very much the correct shape.
Looking like you are off to a mighty fine start. Killer photo of her coming out with her helmet still on. Ready to do battle! Best wishes on the rest of the grow. - Zannabis7
Awesome lookin lady! She’s really starting to frost up! I don’t see any pistols/white hairs that have turned orange yet so I think you have a bit of time to go yet!
@TeflonDonFarms, yeah. Can't see any in these pics from a few days ago but in just last few days I'd say 10-15% on each cola has started to turn orange. I know it's not much, but after all this time I'm hoping to see a finish line somewhere down the road.
All that LST produced a ton of bud sites. That's a good thing!!! En and Jon are correct I think. Cull away all the lower buds that are robbing your main buds of needed energy. By the time you are done, you will end up with a nice haul of bud for smoking and making butter, etc.
You are doing a great job.
@TheOutlawBubbaKush, I think its the genetics of the plant. I've read tons of descriptions of strains then looked at the grows on different sites. They rarely look the same. Also, those buds are going to change a lot over the next several weeks. When you look back at these photos, you'll laugh.
Very nice use of cords to hold down your branches. I'm a few weeks behind you. I'm watching your training methods closely so I can stuff as much green in my bucket as possible. I couldn't see how you attached your cords to hold down the branches at the bottom. They look like they are holding down the main branches but I don't see how you connected them to the wall of your bucket/pot.
@Quexos, hi. I pre drilled some holes around the top lip of my grow bucket. I then ran sections of wire through the holes, wrapped it around the outside of bucket and fed back in a hole to secure it. The LST cords are then tied to that wire. It's a little messy but working.