Freidog's - Soil - Northern Lights Under 400W LED

Freidog's Soil Northern Lights under 400W LED - Day 24

I was gone all week and the girls had a chance to grow by themselves (although my wife did check in on them occasionally). After Day 24 they just look awesome! They have literally exploded in the last 5 days!

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Jane:
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The Runt:
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Medusa:
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So today I FIMed them all just above the 7th node and tied them down to the sides of the pots with plastic chain links on a wire. I like using these because they don't harm the plants and you can just loop them around a branch and then tighten the wire on the other end.

They looked a bit stressed after FIMing and bending, but they'll pop back pretty quick:

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No watering since Sunday, although they feel like they'll need something tomorrow. It's been very hot in Germany today (over 35C outside), so it got a bit warmer in the grow room under the lights (around 28C when I got home). Will be keeping and eye on this!

What does everyone think?
 
Freidog's Soil Northern Lights under 400W LED - Day 25

The girls were growing like mad in the warmth of the last few days! Here they are yesterday on Day 25:

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The Runt:
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Jane:
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Medusa:
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I also decided they all needed a haircut, as the huge fan leaves were blocking the light to the lower branches. What do the experienced growers think of this? Did I remove too many fan leaves to make room for growth?

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The Runt:
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Jane:
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Medusa:
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Still haven't given the girls any water -- waiting for them to show me that they are thirsty! Based on the weight of the pots, I assume they will get thirsty today!
 
Looking really nice there. As for the defoliation, Im sure you will get conflicting views. In my limited experiance it slows them down a bit when you go that far. This next grow Im starting I will let them grow as naturally as possible...only removing sick looking leaves. Dont stress though, they look happy and will bounce back in no time :)

:peacetwo:
 
Thanks for your thoughts, mouser! I'm trying to LST them flat to use the light optimally and get the branches to cover the maximum area. The girls look to be doing well today after the haircut...pics to come later when I've watered.
 
Looks good, Feidog! :welldone:

FYI...I would not defoliate during veg, except in some rare instances (it can be used to slow down the growth). During flower, many people defoliate after days 21 of flower (once the buds are established) and again after day #45 of flower to get as much light on the buds as possible, however, more recently, with everyone focused on "high brix", the defoliation is less common since it's been shown to negatively impact the brix number.

Another technique, which I do use regularly, is to simply tuck the fan leaves under the branches/buds to allow more light to get through. :Namaste:
 
Freidog's Soil Northern Lights under 400W LED - Day 26

Thanks for the advice on removing the big fan leaves -- I guess I'll take that into consideration from here on in (they are gone now!!!).

Nonetheless, the girls look great today, Day 26!

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Medusa:
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Jane:
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The Runt:
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I watered them this afternoon and rotated them through the framing for the pots so they get a different position.

The watering today was the first in one week (I watered last Sunday).

Here are the values I got from the watering:

The Runt In: 3300ml @ EC 875 pH 6.1 Run-off: 300ml @ EC 1190 pH 6.2
Jane In: 3300ml @ EC 840 pH 6.1 Run-off: 250ml @ EC 1200 pH 6.3
Medusa In: 3300ml @ EC 820 pH 6.1 Run-off: 350ml @ EC 1020 pH 6.3

The EC of the run-off has dropped considerably since the last watering -- happy to see in and out converging more.
 
I only top, fim, or supercrop during veg. Then I take the fan leaves after the buds start showing. Then, I take them when they are blocking buds. I have an experiment over in my 1st journal where I took all the bottoms off one girl, took about half of another girl, and I left one alone, only taking yellow or dead leaves. You will do just fine freidog. I love your setup.
 
Mr. Krip said:
Looks good, Feidog! :welldone:

FYI...I would not defoliate during veg, except in some rare instances (it can be used to slow down the growth). During flower, many people defoliate after days 21 of flower (once the buds are established) and again after day #45 of flower to get as much light on the buds as possible, however, more recently, with everyone focused on "high brix", the defoliation is less common since it's been shown to negatively impact the brix number.

Another technique, which I do use regularly, is to simply tuck the fan leaves under the branches/buds to allow more light to get through. :Namaste:
Click to expand...

Guten Morgen, Freidog! Love your frame for rotating pots. Great workspace design and great plants.:thumb:

Mr. Krip, I was going to disagree with you about not defoliating in veg, but as a noob I'm open to learning from new perspectives. My plants are taller (30", purchased as 20" clones). In my case I think heavy defol helped develop more bud sites pre-flower to produce more during flower. My indicas rebound so quickly that i can't keep all my buds exposed even with daily defol. Also I juice my leaves, so defol is part of my harvest plan. Freidog's plants are so low and even I see how they would'nt benefit as much. If he has all the bud sites he can fit then there's no point. My next grow with seedlings will be perpetual with LST or ScrOG. I still think defol is net benefit for larger plants indoors. Please tell me if I'm missing something, because I usually assume that I am.

You mentioned brix. I'm familiar with brix scale in brewing but not with MMJ. Can you explain what you mean. Is it referring to potency in general or is there a specific measurement?
 
KingstonRabbi said:
Guten Morgen, Freidog! Love your frame for rotating pots. Great workspace design and great plants.:thumb:

Mr. Krip, I was going to disagree with you about not defoliating in veg, but as a noob I'm open to learning from new perspectives. My plants are taller (30", purchased as 20" clones). In my case I think heavy defol helped develop more bud sites pre-flower to produce more during flower. My indicas rebound so quickly that i can't keep all my buds exposed even with daily defol. Also I juice my leaves, so defol is part of my harvest plan. Freidog's plants are so low and even I see how they would'nt benefit as much. If he has all the bud sites he can fit then there's no point. My next grow with seedlings will be perpetual with LST or ScrOG. I still think defol is net benefit for larger plants indoors. Please tell me if I'm missing something, because I usually assume that I am.

You mentioned brix. I'm familiar with brix scale in brewing but not with MMJ. Can you explain what you mean. Is it referring to potency in general or is there a specific measurement?
Click to expand...

Guten Abend Kingston!

Thanks for the thumbs up on my growing setup. I spent an afternoon thinking about how best to hang the pots into the shower booth without damaging the shower. Actually pretty simple construction but works perfect and is self-supporting (the wooden pieces are not screwed or mounted to anything).

The de-fol was not as dramatic as I thought. I wanted to get a nice even canopy of buds growing quickly on an even level but there were a number of large fan leaves in the way. Today they all look fantastic and I have an even canopy below the LEDs -- I'll be uploading new pics tomorrow.

As far as your Brix question goes...I'm also wondering what that is. Anyone have a link in a forum here?

Thanks everyone for following!


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Just decided not to be such a lazy ass and go down to take some pictures of the ladies!

Here they are on Day 27 after the de-fol two days ago on Day 25. I think the canopy is looking good and the bud-sites for the various colas are taking shape and poking through.

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Nice set up man, very create! Plants are looking lovely too! As far as brix goes I'm not an expert by any means so I won't even try explaining it. It's basically how healthy your plant is. Search for Doc Bud on the journals here, he's sort of the expert here.


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KingstonRabbi said:
Guten Morgen, Freidog! Love your frame for rotating pots. Great workspace design and great plants.:thumb:

Mr. Krip, I was going to disagree with you about not defoliating in veg, but as a noob I'm open to learning from new perspectives. My plants are taller (30", purchased as 20" clones). In my case I think heavy defol helped develop more bud sites pre-flower to produce more during flower. My indicas rebound so quickly that i can't keep all my buds exposed even with daily defol. Also I juice my leaves, so defol is part of my harvest plan. Freidog's plants are so low and even I see how they would'nt benefit as much. If he has all the bud sites he can fit then there's no point. My next grow with seedlings will be perpetual with LST or ScrOG. I still think defol is net benefit for larger plants indoors. Please tell me if I'm missing something, because I usually assume that I am.

You mentioned brix. I'm familiar with brix scale in brewing but not with MMJ. Can you explain what you mean. Is it referring to potency in general or is there a specific measurement?
Click to expand...

For the best info on Brix and its relationship to MMJ quality/potency, I recommend checking out some of Doc Bud's journals. Although it's not his first on high brix cultivation, this is a good one to start with:

Doc Bud - High Brix Q&A With Pictures

Regarding the defoliation, maybe you can educate me (Rabbi does mean "teacher"! ;) ). How does defoliation in veg cause more bud sites to form?

At absolute best, perhaps because it slows the growth it may cause node distances to be closer, but I don't see how it would create more bud sites.

If you want more bud sites to develop, topping, FIM'ing, LST, Supercropping will all cause the auxins (growth hormones) in the main leader to be displaced to the lower shoots causing the development of the lower colas.

I just don't see how defoliation can do that and, while I'm a big fan of trying everything to find what works best for you, I've just never heard of defoliation during veg as a method to create more bud sites.

The fan leaves are important for photosynthesis and they store nutes. I highly recommend reading this article that talks about the pro's & con's of defoliation, however, although it is not specifically stated, I'm fairly certain all references to defoliation are talking about defoliating during flower and not veg (remember, there are NO buds until the plant goes into flower, so getting light on buds doesn't apply when in veg!):

Should Fan Leaves be Trimmed? - Blogs - 420 Magazine ®

I do know there's a lot of debate of this subject and I'm the first one to tell you that, if you're having success and happy, no need to change for me or anyone else. :Namaste:
 
Thanks for your insight, Mr Krip! It makes sense to me and I think I was just afraid of the branches not getting enough light. I also noticed that I can tuck the leaves in below.

I'll look into the brix journals - at this stage just happy to be having a moderate amount of success!


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Sharksbreath said:
Nice set up man, very create! Plants are looking lovely too! As far as brix goes I'm not an expert by any means so I won't even try explaining it. It's basically how healthy your plant is. Search for Doc Bud on the journals here, he's sort of the expert here.
Click to expand...

KingstonRabbi said:
That is a really sweet set up! But I can't tell that you've done any defol. They grow too Fast :jawdropper:.
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Thanks to both of you for your positive feedback on the grow setup! Much appreciated!


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Ev'nin!

Today is Day 28 - 4 weeks done! Tied down the girls for their LST again today -- they were looking very good and had shot out in multiple directions in the past two days.

Here some pics:
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I have two questions for the community:

  1. Should I be sending them into flower now, or should I wait another week for some additional veg growth?
  2. If I let them veg another week, should I top some of the stronger side branches to get the girls to shoot out more branches and colas?

Thanks everyone! I'm quite pleased with my grow so far in and I'm really happy that I've joined the 420 group!
 
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