Hey everyone! Quick update and advice needed please.
Bloom Week 3 Day 2
#8 outside is looking spectacular! At least in my eyes. I need to add the outside support structure asap so I don't need to worry about anything snapping. I'm still not sure on my training methods/techniques so I'm a bit nervous about what the end of September will look like. They will be dense and heavy is my anticipation! Reminiscent of what the Romulan looked like last year. There in lies one of my wisdom requests.
I really feel the need to do some defoliating and branch cuts. I'd like to see more light and air getting into the canopy. Did I miss that window?! Will she get too stressed out and potentially hermie? That is worries me the most. I'm not concerned about her bouncing back from the stress. It is the stress itself causing a hormone issue/change.
Would you say she is done stretching? She seems to have stopped growing vertically to me and colas appear to be stacking and getting wider.
Next question, what are your thoughts on bending down some of the branches that appear to have stopped growing vertically? I would like to get some of the inner canopy more light to help develop the small bud sites. Thoughts?
How many bud sites do you see?!
See what I mean about cleaning up?! I could clear out almost everything in there. There's no chance good light will get down there. It's already dark technically.
Here are examples of lower & outer branches I would like to bend down a little and over to the left slightly. I realize I should have done this weeks ago. So now, should I do pruning & bending or leave her be and harvest whatever I get?
I just had to try and get the best pic I could with my phone of one of my favorite colas. It's massive! I will need to try and figure out a way to get a picture of the whole thing. Curious how big it will be after it is done stacking.
So here, I wanted to show my idea/plan for training her backside. In my head, a taller back tier made more sense since I had a fence. So I did some supercropping and quite a bit of bending the back and front to accomplish my shape in my mind. I got relatively close but I could have done better. By having the back tier taller, it will get full light like the front section of the plant. Otherwise it would be considerably shaded from light and would be spindly branches and mediocre colas. At least that is what happened last year to the plants sitting in grow bags positioned in a similar spot in the yard. I did not rotate the bags.
Also...I have been treating all the outdoor plants with BT for the past couple weeks. This shows you though how persistent these stupid caterpillars are. I found 2 alive on top of the buds and a couple on leaves. Stretched straight as an arrow and obviously in distress. BT kills them from the inside out! They were a nemesis for me last season. Could have all been prevented with less laziness. This year, I went with 2 BT applications 5 days apart and then I have gone to 7 days. I may change back to 5 days. Looks like they may be getting a couple days of growth with no consequences.
Oh and quick pics of the ladies in the tent this afternoon. They look nicely recovered from the defoliating on Sunday. If anyone is wondering, #9 is being trained like this on purpose. Anybody see any glaring issues with the way they are structured or pruned right now?
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#9
Beautiful gardens!
