Autos v. Photos - A 5x5 No Rules Fight for Yield: A Jon & NickHardy Gig

[Jon]

Here’s my first summary of this most enjoyable last Florida grow.

Somehow we got this:

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• Jon
• Jul 25, 2024

To house this:

IMG_5109.jpeg

• Jon
• Jul 25, 2024

 

[Jon]

Final tip from Florida:

Spend the money.

 

[KeithLemon]

I might have to enter the second picture in NOTM sometime just for laughs.

You should enter the photo they all look very nice.

 

[Melville Hobbes]

Ok the light is done and the tent is next.

And this is from the “you know you haven’t taken the tent down in a while when…” files.

This is some sort of hopefully empty critter container. I will know soon enough. Lol!

I missed the better one! We also have this condo on the tent. This one is pretty. Looks like an exotic rabbit tail or something.

Mud daubers?

 

[Azimuth]

I might have to enter the second picture in NOTM sometime just for laughs.

Do it!

 

[Jon]

Mud daubers?

That’s my guess but I’ve not seen a dauber nest in those colors before, I’ve only seen them straight brownish grey or whatever. But the Florida version of something in that vein.

 

[Jon]

Final trimming the Strawberry Banana.

 

[Jon]

And this

 

[KeithLemon]

Final trimming the Strawberry Banana.

Nice haul and the trim looks great.

 

[Jon]

Nice haul and the trim looks great.

Thanks Keith. That’s a third of it that’s ready. There’s two more of those yet.

 

[Jon]

So I have have come up with a new (for me) form of training I am going to try in the next grow. I haven’t yet seen this one done.

Here’s the concept first:
Create a flat canopied and highly productive single plant out of exactly and only six branches.

What’s new about that, right? Well on first glance I’d say the same. But here’s the rub.

Up to now I have often trained individual plants with the goal of a flat top and high production. We all have pretty much, it’s what we do. But I and it seems most everyone doing it in this style do the same thing: we use both new branches off the nodes. We run one in one direction and one in the other, then repeat that as high up as we choose, right? Easy. Common.

So for this experiment what I’m going to do is take only ONE side off each node. And I’ll keep the more dominant branch in each case. I will chop the other side on each node. So I’ll have the dominant branch from node 1 going out horizontally and upwards at the same time like normal. Then at node two I’ll take THAT dominant of the pair and run it horizontally in another direction. Chop the other side of the node. And then repeat this process for nodes 3 and 4. Now I have a quad of sorts, only it’s set up so each node only has to support and feed the better of two branches. It also gets taller as the plant does. Then I top her. That gives me two more branches. THOSE two I will keep both of as they’re essentially the “mains.” But they will also go horizontal immediately. Then what I’ll have is exactly what I sought - a six branch plant that’ll be essentially round, easy to work, tallish, and the lowers will have plenty of time to catch up to the top two.

It’s not a huge difference. But it’s a significant difference. I haven’t done it this way before. Here’s my thinking:

If I were to put a plant in a 10-gallon pot of whatever medium and raise it healthy and wanted it to have six tall individual colas that were huge, we all know how to do that. Exactly as I just displayed with that final Strawberry Banana just harvested last week. She had 12. But you get it, six would have been equally simple. And only six colas from a ten if raised right would undoubtedly have gigantic colas. So in this revised model, I’m essentially taking those six huge colas, and instead of going tall I’m going out horizontal, and then we will prune what comes so as to achieve a nicely spaced canopy. Same energy and same huge colas, only each branch will in theory be the maxed version of the best that node had to offer. I believe it’s quite possible that the result will be nothing but giant cola tops in what is basically a round one-plant rotating scrog.

Does that make sense to you guys? Easy enough to follow?

More importantly, anyone have any feedback or opinions on this? Love to hear whatever you got if you’re so inclined and thanks in advance.

 

[Azimuth]

Interesting experiment. I too have noticed nodal dominance both in stems coming off the main as well as the side branches but never thought to limit the plant to just the dominant ones.

Makes sense in theory so looking forward to the experiment.

 

[Jon]

Strawberry Banana yielded 304 grams. Seven large jars. My largest organic yet from a ten.

 

[Jon]

Forgot some closer shots. This is not the most photogenic bud god ever made. At least this plant isn’t. Also not the most outwardly frosty, again or at least this one isn’t. But don’t let that fool you. This weed is as powerful as anything I have including the Gorilla Cookies silver which is way up there on the power scale. And right up there even before the cure with the tastiest. But I can finish one better than this. This one hits at about 60-70% of ideal/what it should be imho. I’m going to try her again next grow as one of the autos and see if I can get some better colors, more outside frost, and a touch more density. The density is at about 75% of what I want. It’s okay but it’s more fluffy dense than dense dense if that makes sense. The bags will look large. All that said (just my honest assessment) it’s real good and I’m quite happy with the yield. Here’s a couple closer shots:

 

[Gee64]

So I have have come up with a new (for me) form of training I am going to try in the next grow. I haven’t yet seen this one done.

Here’s the concept first:
Create a flat canopied and highly productive single plant out of exactly and only six branches.

What’s new about that, right? Well on first glance I’d say the same. But here’s the rub.

Up to now I have often trained individual plants with the goal of a flat top and high production. We all have pretty much, it’s what we do. But I and it seems most everyone doing it in this style do the same thing: we use both new branches off the nodes. We run one in one direction and one in the other, then repeat that as high up as we choose, right? Easy. Common.

So for this experiment what I’m going to do is take only ONE side off each node. And I’ll keep the more dominant branch in each case. I will chop the other side on each node. So I’ll have the dominant branch from node 1 going out horizontally and upwards at the same time like normal. Then at node two I’ll take THAT dominant of the pair and run it horizontally in another direction. Chop the other side of the node. And then repeat this process for nodes 3 and 4. Now I have a quad of sorts, only it’s set up so each node only has to support and feed the better of two branches. It also gets taller as the plant does. Then I top her. That gives me two more branches. THOSE two I will keep both of as they’re essentially the “mains.” But they will also go horizontal immediately. Then what I’ll have is exactly what I sought - a six branch plant that’ll be essentially round, easy to work, tallish, and the lowers will have plenty of time to catch up to the top two.

It’s not a huge difference. But it’s a significant difference. I haven’t done it this way before. Here’s my thinking:

If I were to put a plant in a 10-gallon pot of whatever medium and raise it healthy and wanted it to have six tall individual colas that were huge, we all know how to do that. Exactly as I just displayed with that final Strawberry Banana just harvested last week. She had 12. But you get it, six would have been equally simple. And only six colas from a ten if raised right would undoubtedly have gigantic colas. So in this revised model, I’m essentially taking those six huge colas, and instead of going tall I’m going out horizontal, and then we will prune what comes so as to achieve a nicely spaced canopy. Same energy and same huge colas, only each branch will in theory be the maxed version of the best that node had to offer. I believe it’s quite possible that the result will be nothing but giant cola tops in what is basically a round one-plant rotating scrog.

Does that make sense to you guys? Easy enough to follow?

More importantly, anyone have any feedback or opinions on this? Love to hear whatever you got if you’re so inclined and thanks in advance.

Very interesting. What will you do if all the doms end up on the same side of the plant?

 

[Carmen Ray]

Congrats on your dry weight. It'll be interesting to see what you do with your experimental training method at the new place.

 

[Jon]

Very interesting. What will you do if all the doms end up on the same side of the plant?

Well, every other one would be offset by 90 degrees at least in that case. I’m pretty sure I can make another 90 if necessary. But as a hex, we’re never even talking 90 degrees. So that’ll be okay. Certainly offsets of 180 all the way up would be best case scenario. Either way there should be a series of <90 degree bends involved.

 

[Jon]

And then one day there was no more grow room in Florida. Only the boxed remnants of an addiction gone wild. Every box you see is grow stuff. The back row is lights, it’s mostly hidden in the picture. The left wall is mostly tents. And the huge pile is everything else I have, pruned out as we packed. For example, I tossed my half gallons of Blue Planet nutes I won on my second grow here. Figured they might not be too effective anymore. I tossed a few bags of very old Geoflora. I tossed any fan that wasn’t working perfectly. You get the point. Better is, it’s all already replaced and sitting right here in boxes. I have everything I need right here to fully set up and run all seven tents for the next grow. Phew that’s gonna be fun. It will arguably keep me busy. Lol. Now all I have to do is get one 1-inch bottom vertical corner pole for a Gorilla Tent, as when I dismantled the final tent here that pole was literally rusted through. Lmao.

My favorite part for real is the square permanent signature I’m leaving the next owners of this place.

I also spread/tossed about 200 seeds I had saved for no particular reason over the last few years. All over the neighborhood. I threw them into the damp landscape part in people’s front yards where they’ll sprout (I know cuz I’ve had it happen here) and where they won’t get cut down by the grass cutters. Anything that pops will live till they see it.

Fuck this place. Thanks for the cup of coffee.

 

[Jon]

And here’s the inside of the pod from outer space with the four alien bodies still intact.

 

[Jon]

My contribution for the day. This is awesome I think. Learned me some stuff.