Cultivator's Return - Multiple Grows

Great guide man, would be glad if you take some time to explain more about the pruning.
What stage of vegging, how many times, how you are doing it would be useful information I believe.

Cultivator said:
Welcome.

So basically i never top. I feel it slows growth too much for no benefit at aĺl, or no benefit to the way i grow anyway. i just bend the plants over above the growth nodes. This method allows the side branches to grow more and keep up with the main stem growth. You can bend the side branches àlso and it will encourage more flowering heads with zero time taken off veg time. Sometimes i pinch the stem.or roll it gentky between my finger and thumb. I try not to snap the stem But sometimes it happens and in this case it will heal most of the time without problem. I guess it is like super cropping really bit once the plants are in flower i dont bend at all. Everything is done in tbe veg périod.

I dont transplant from fabric pots. I mostly start seedlings in 1litre pots and get them rooted. Maybe 2 weeks in those pots, never more that 3 and then they go into their final home. In this journal the grow in spain started in 7 litre pots, this is because they were clones not seedlings and i knew id be gone for a while so i wanted them growing and rooting at the same time. I go plastic pot to fabric pot.

Its just not necessary im coco to pot up multiple times tje way you would in soil. The growth rates everywhere arw so much faster in hydro that when you have got a small rootball established it will grow rapidly in 3 or 4 weeks enough to fit up to a 25litre pot. If you go bigger than that id recommend starting in 7-10litre pots. But when growing indoors i dont see the point in ever growing in pots bigger than 25litre unless its a mother thats been going a long time. If you are moving from fabric to fabric you could just pot the pot into the bigger pot and the roots will grow through but then you couldnt reuse the fabric pots.


Finally i know that yield is more than some people ever see and im gratefull i have the ability to have grows that give me kilos or lbs at a time. But just to put it in perspective the space is around 4x4m2 running 6x600w hps. 11oz per light in a space like that is pretty shit for an experienced grower but i will be sure to make sure it doesnt happen again. The room build and the grow was rushed but that has been rectified and the rooms will be shown in the next updat to what has been modified and set up, the waybit should have been done first time.


Just incase this reply is gibberish in anyway, ive had a few beers tonight lol. Sorry i will be back on the ball tomorrow.


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These are the only pics i can find with a quick search tbrough my photos here these take it a bit too far as i dont go as fat as tbis any more but i just bens and open up. I also prune which is different yo topping ofcourse. Back then i was more caught up on being so precise. Ive figured now that even slight bending will maximise yields and infact due to the way these are growing now with such sort interodal spacing they probs wont be bent at all. Just a little fol if needed.


Peace
Click to expand...
 
Cultivator said:
Welcome.

So basically i never top. I feel it slows growth too much for no benefit at aĺl, or no benefit to the way i grow anyway. i just bend the plants over above the growth nodes. This method allows the side branches to grow more and keep up with the main stem growth. You can bend the side branches àlso and it will encourage more flowering heads with zero time taken off veg time. Sometimes i pinch the stem.or roll it gentky between my finger and thumb. I try not to snap the stem But sometimes it happens and in this case it will heal most of the time without problem. I guess it is like super cropping really bit once the plants are in flower i dont bend at all. Everything is done in tbe veg périod.

I dont transplant from fabric pots. I mostly start seedlings in 1litre pots and get them rooted. Maybe 2 weeks in those pots, never more that 3 and then they go into their final home. In this journal the grow in spain started in 7 litre pots, this is because they were clones not seedlings and i knew id be gone for a while so i wanted them growing and rooting at the same time. I go plastic pot to fabric pot.

Its just not necessary im coco to pot up multiple times tje way you would in soil. The growth rates everywhere arw so much faster in hydro that when you have got a small rootball established it will grow rapidly in 3 or 4 weeks enough to fit up to a 25litre pot. If you go bigger than that id recommend starting in 7-10litre pots. But when growing indoors i dont see the point in ever growing in pots bigger than 25litre unless its a mother thats been going a long time. If you are moving from fabric to fabric you could just pot the pot into the bigger pot and the roots will grow through but then you couldnt reuse the fabric pots.


Finally i know that yield is more than some people ever see and im gratefull i have the ability to have grows that give me kilos or lbs at a time. But just to put it in perspective the space is around 4x4m2 running 6x600w hps. 11oz per light in a space like that is pretty shit for an experienced grower but i will be sure to make sure it doesnt happen again. The room build and the grow was rushed but that has been rectified and the rooms will be shown in the next updat to what has been modified and set up, the waybit should have been done first time.


Just incase this reply is gibberish in anyway, ive had a few beers tonight lol. Sorry i will be back on the ball tomorrow.


These are the only pics i can find with a quick search tbrough my photos here these take it a bit too far as i dont go as fat as tbis any more but i just bens and open up. I also prune which is different yo topping ofcourse. Back then i was more caught up on being so precise. Ive figured now that even slight bending will maximise yields and infact due to the way these are growing now with such sort interodal spacing they probs wont be bent at all. Just a little fol if needed.


Peace
Click to expand...

Thanks for taking the time to answer that. It's the experienced growers that get to facts and not fads. This is important for those that are trying to learn. I am attempting a first grow. I chose coco because of all the good things I read about it and reading through your thread on how to grow with it everything made sense.

I had bought fox farm nutrients (opposed to AN which I will probably switch to) as that was what I could find local before I found the shops that cater to cannabis growers.

I am using great white from the start and with the transplant, and quite frankly am astonished at the root growth. I have a seedling that is only 3 1/2 weeks into veg and is blowing roots out the side of a 3 gallon (11.3 liter) fabric pot already. I am using 4ppm RO as a start, adding Cal-Mag to 140-150ppm then managing the ppm's of the base nutrients with the PH set on 5.8. Very easy to manage.

The training techniques are a little foreign to me as they probably are to most that start growing in that you can do a lot to these plants and they bounce right back. Slightly unnerving at first to snip and bend at first. I topped because I only have a 180cm tent height and have a sativa dominate strain in there that I am worried might be a problem with the others when trying to keep the light height efficient for all occupants of the tent. Your pictures and explanation got the point across and follow what I have been doing for LST.

Thanks again and we are along for the ride on your journal to learn more.
 
Great guide man, would be glad if you take some time to explain more about the pruning.
What stage of vegging, how many times, how you are doing it would be useful information I believe.
Click to expand...

I actually just pruned the alien system plants that wi be in the video i upload shortly but i didnt video me doing that because its hard when im alone with a mobile phone in one hand and snips in the other. But i will see if i can get some help videoing next vid and then i will show more what i do.

But to break it down. I do a defoliation of most of the fan leaves around week 3 of veg, just when the plants have 5 or 6 sets of nodes and some healthy growth. I remove the fan leaves and bend the plant about 1/3 of the way down between nodes. This will make more sense when i can get some pics or video of it. And then i just leave it to recover. I dont like doing little bits here and there, i like to get in and hit the plants hard, as long as they are healthy of course, this means that although iys stressfull to the plants it has plenty of time to revover and flourish between prunings. I will do a 2nd defol and prune 2 days before flip and a final defol and prune around day 21 of flower.

I will for sure show more depth in future updates.
 
Here's a vid of the rooms almost finished and the seedlings are now plants. The seeds were put on paper towels on the 7th November so have been vegging 4 weeks now, they actually got off to a slow start if i remember correctly? Anyway i pruned the Alien plants and they will be left to grow and recover now. I haven't used silica for a few grows and i have used it most feeds in this one and you can definitely see the difference in stem strength and the formation of the stems, just thick and strong and bare in mind there is nowhere near enough air movement in these rooms, it's the one thing that is lacking but will be rectified this week.

Still need to tie up loose cables , add oscillating fans and pull out the males when they show, but there's time for that yet.

I'm going to Spain on Thursday for the weekend to see my girls as i've not been home in 7 or 8 weeks. When i get there i will show you in more detail the small set up i have going there.

EDIT: In the video the lights are quite high away from the plants. That is just so i can move around the room freely. The lights are probably 12-16 inches from the plants.
 
Here are a few pictures of the BLZ Bud in the Alien system just for anyone who cant open videos for any reason. I will get some close up images of the plants tomorrow when i prune the plants in the other flower room...


To be clear as i stated in the edit in my last post the lights are lower than you can see in the pics. I lift the lights high to make it easy for me to walk around the room when im there but when i leave the lights are lower to 12-16inches above plants.


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No never, its pointless whem running extracted flower rooms. If you run sealed grow rooms then id would use co2 and i would push it but because i dont run sealed rooms its completely pointless.

Co2 absolutely accelerates plant growth but if you have a co2 bottle releasing co2 into the room you would need an awful lot of co2 to make it beneficial. When you extract rooms with a passive intake and are using a fan that exchanges air in the space 3x per minute you would juat pull that great co2 straight out the room before plants would get the chance to use it. So its just wadting money. Exactly like driving down the motorway at 70mph witj all windows open on the car but with aircon blasting, its just not going to work.

So in order to get CO2 enrichment i just make sure that my rooms are extracted correctly witj fresh air. The biggest error noobs make in terms of their extraction is to think of it in terms of controlling temperature of the room with lights on and thats it. Its far more complex than that. The no1 thing extraction is for is to allow plants to breath.

You can see vividly tbe difference between a room that has had good airflow and fresh co2 from out side pass tbrough and one that hasnt, its a massive difference, 2nd most important thing to consider after light source.

So to round it up co2 supplementation is a must in sealed rooms but a waste in extracted rooms. The 1 time i would maybe add co2 in supplement form would be if i had a tent or an almost sealed area that i was was using to start my vegging process from seedlings where i want humidity higher.

Hope that answers your question.
 
Honest dont waste your money. Ive had people argue til tbey blue in the face that im wrong yet theyve never 1 had a grow like mine. Trust me mate. Spend your money on QUALITY lighting and extraction and make sure where ever you tale the air from that its clean air, in other words try get air from direct ouyside or as close to that as possible. That will give you all yhe co2 you will ever need
 
Just getting more relaxed in my old age haha
 
Here we have the Liberty haze. So if you all remember they went in with the longer tails and were potted up 11days ago. They have been unxer 24hr light which slows growth a little compared to a 18/6 schedule but i dont have a timer handy so 24hrs it is. They will stay in these pots until monday or tuesday when i have set up another room.

As you can see my roots mix is doing its job as usual. Thats great white mycorrhizae, voodoo juice, roots excellurator. Carboload. On top of tbe base nute which is currently running at 1.2 ec.
 
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Thanks for the pruning guide, will use it in my scrog grow now and I'll update you with pictures when ready so you can see the progress.

As I see you are using normal reflectors, what is your say on the Adjust-A-Wings reflectors, I'm having the impression they are the best out there but want to hear your say on them.
So basically this is a Alien RDWC system, filled with coco, correct? You really got me interested there, I'm sick of hand watering but I'm too lazy to do a drip feed system so a solution like yours would literally save my life lol. You are using the PH perfect series so basically during veg you do not ph down the water, right? (I'm on your how to feed coco feed schedule)

Since you mentioned quality lights, do you think there is big difference what kind 600w's or its all the same quality wise? Do you use any specific brand or take whats in the store?

What is the size of the liberty haze pot you are using, do you think the 1l fabric pots are worth it? Cause they are REALLY unstable on the ground and can fall of even from osc vent lol. I'm in a sealed room and using 1100 co2 in veg and 1500 in flower, what do you think about these numbers?

Best regards, once again thank you in advance for all the useful information
 
These standard dutch barn shades are all anyone needs. The adjust-a-wings are cool and offer slighly more control over light delivery but they arent worth the extra money. Id use them if running 1000w lights though as they have a wider spread and def more suited to that wattage light.

Im glad you mentioned bulbs. Yes there is a difference and theres a large influx if cheap bulbs to choose from now. Ive had disasters with most of them. Just go for a bulb of at leat 90000 lumens and dual specs give a better overall result to quality i think than straight red hps but reds give a little more yield. However duals can be used start to finish whereas reds cant, so then you have the cost of extra bulbs and making sure you switchbat the right time. You cant go wrongvwith sunmaster or hortilux bulbs.

The liberty haze are started in 500ml plastc pots i think, they could be 1litre im not sure. But they will go straight into 20litre fabric pots from there. There is absoluetly no reason whatsoever to multipot when running coco and growing INDOORS, outdoors is different if growing monsters. Its hydroponic and when you follow my root care supplementation they will fill lqrge pots fast. I dont use small fabric pors, its pointless if you transplanting. You could just pot the whole pot into a larger pot but its a waste of money really. Just start in small plastic pots and as soon as they rooted properly get them potted up.

As for you CO2 values they sound fine. However i have spentv95% of my career growing in extracted rooms so you may want to consult someone who actually uses sealed rooms as the norm to get better answers there.

Peace...
 
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