Day 19 Veg Tent A - Day 25 Flower Tent B - The Quadline Begins!
I have two main tents in my grows. I call them Tent A and Tent B and the plants stay in those tents for the full flower cycle. My titles reflect the days that those tents are at. I do not keep a total day count but I do list way day they are in veg and then start the counting over when flipped. My other journal will shut down this weekend and this journal will inherit some plants I have that are almost done with 4 weeks in flower. I'm not going to talk a ton about them as they are already mature. This journal will focus mainly on from start to finish how I do a grow now. With that in mind, these ones in flower should give a good picture of what they will look like in the end. People can see what I am doing and kind of the result down the road at the same time.
Starting off I kind of jumped into this journal with plants that were not entirely from the beginning. If you would like to see my germination method, it hasn't changed and is in my other journals. Pretty simple as it's the plastic baggie and paper towel method. Quickly soak a paper towel in very low nutrient (200ppm) 1-1-1 NPK solution where most of the nitrogen should come from the cal-mag. then I wring out that paper towel until it is just moist and not wet and put the seeds in it. Put that in a plastic bag and wrap in a kitchen towel. Then put either on a DVR or computer (something kinda warm) and in about a day and a half they will be ready to planted. I start in little pots and pretreat and wash the coco with a 1-1-1 NPK solution of about 350 ppm. Plant the seed with the root facing down about 1/2" down and into a veg tent and watch it grow! You should see roots coming out the bottom and usually about 13-14 days they are ready to get put into their 3 gallon final homes. Now we are all caught up and the last update was the transplant.
They had all recovered pretty nicely from the transplant so it was time to start the quadline. The first step into doing a quadline is to pick two nodes to keep and train as the 4 main branches. I top at the 4th node and remove the 1st and 2nd nodes and keep the 3rd. That makes the 2 branches that come out of node 3 and the 2 branches that come out of node 4 as my 4 quadlined branches. These 4 branches support the whole plant and grow mostly horizontal during veg. This allows other branches to grow out of these and become the main colas of the plant. If kept evenly with each other by adjust the training ties, the plant will stay relatively even with itself the whole way. Do this with 4 plants and you get a screenless scrog or quadline.
The line is where I top at. I had already taken off nodes 1 and 2 and had forgotten to take a picture but that is where nodes 1 and 2 were. The fan leaves are the ones with one leaf and 3 leaves respectively. The little cotyledons don't count as a node. I will top them in the next two days but I want them to recover from this defoliation a bit.
The end results of this method. This is on my Blackjack plant 25 days into flower.
I am a firm believer of guiding energy around the plant and not wasting it. I don't want things to grow that I know I am going to cut off. I don't want the plant to waste energy if it doesn't have to. That energy could be used to get other branches sturdier. My three most important factors in a good grow are:
Lights
Environment
Grower Experience/Training
You can't grow good plants with crappy lights. I'm not saying I have the best lights but they work very well. They aren't $50 lights and they aren't cfls. If you want to grow good stuff with a good yield then don't skimp here. The environment and keeping the temperatures in check is 2nd most important thing to me. I used to preach a lot about humidity but it really is more about temperatures and airflow. The quadline helps space the plant out evenly so you can get good airflow in the long run, even when the buds are fat. It gives each cola it's own space and keeps them all at the same height. Grower Experience so you can learn to read a plant and what it needs. Each nutrient does something for plant and knowing when a plant is begging for more or needing to back off is important. You'll recognize when certain things happen every grow and be able to see positive and negative differences when experimenting. It's also huge for when things go awry and you need to make the right decision and fix things. Things happen fast in coco for the good and the bad sometimes. Training is also a form of grower experience as you need to know when the appropriate time is to do things. If the plants are healthy all the time then you can train them and defoliate them as much as you like and they always bounce back.
Defoliation is key with my methods as I want the plant to get as much light penetration as possible. It also helps keeps the leaves from sitting on each other and building up moisture. It also opens up airflow to strengthen the plants. Amazing how all 3 of my top factors bleed into each other right? One always is effecting the other and the synergy is what creates amazing plants. The defoliation by taking nodes 1 and 2 of the youngest girls begins getting them used to getting nicked up here and there.
The girls that are 25 days into flower got a defoliation as well. This tent is Tent B and they have all been quadlined. All 4 are even mostly the same height at about 2.5 ft from coco to canopy. The BlackJack has a few taller colas than that but for the most part I would like every grow to look like this one.
Before defoliation.
After defoliation.
Sideshot.
Tutankhamon - Really better than I thought it would in the end.
Anubis - A little different but growing well.
BlackJack - Biggest.
Critical Cheese - Stacking incredibly.
