How vegetative growth time exponentially affects yield

Cap'n, I can't say thank you enough. I just joined the site 2 minutes ago so I could comment on this thread specifically (the stoner in me is a little weary of Big Brother looking in on what I'm doing, especially since I'm in a state that hasn't legalized it yet and probably won't for as long as possible). I saw a pic, once upon a time, of a plant in SCROG and had no idea how they got it that way... I thought they topped the hell out of it, turns out I was sooo wrong.

I'm currently in my second grow, ever. The first one was a co-op grow, me and my roommate at the time. He had more experience so I let him take the reigns. After seeing how simple it was I decided to order some feminized O.G. Kush seeds... unfortunately, only one of them made it past the seedling stage. I'm pleased with how the lone survivor has turned out though.

My box is only 30" x 17" so I'm a bit limited at the moment. Pretty ghetto construction at first, using 2x4 panels of styrofoam from Lowes until I HAD to upgrade. When I did I got a roll of reflective mylar and a can of spray adhesive... I couldn't be too much happier with the amount of reflection in there now. I planted on March 10th, sprouted on March 19th, started 18/6 on the 29th, and moved it to a 5 gal bucket on April 5th (it was 2" tall at the time). A week later I topped it for the first time, at the 3rd "node". I didn't give it any nutes, just water, until April 24th (I wanted to make sure the soil had been flushed enough before I started feeding it). I've just been using these Sta-Green Boost Pacs (20-20-20), seem to work fine although I'd like to upgrade my veg nutes for my future clones (coming soon).
I only topped it one more time, on April 25th... busy with work and stressing over bills, so I kinda put it on the back burner. So now I've got a plant that's got (2) 22" colas in the middle, the rest of them are around 17" or so. I've seen a couple posts and videos about "gently bending" the main cola to trick the other colas into thinking they are "main" colas... do you have any experience with this? It seems a little similar to your method, but on a smaller scale.
I'll have a 2.5' x 2.5' x 5' grow tent here this week, with a 150w hps (16,000 lux) coming soon after that... getting ready for flowering. She's been under (2) 2,800 lux cfl's since April 24th... a nice amount of light (5,600 lux), but I wonder how that would work when I have 3 plants in one box... then again I might just keep two clones to give them more room to stretch out.
In your opinion, how much do you think I should yield with this one? And is there anything I can do to increase that yield, as far as training goes? I'm thinking about topping her to get more bud sites... with all the colas it seems like I'll get a decent yield, but I'd love to find a way to create more colas.

Thanks again for all of your threads, I've been reading them almost nonstop for the past hour or so (trying to quit cigarettes, so keeping myself occupied is priority #1). Hope everyone enjoys the pics, I haven't really had to do much to keep this plant happy... just feeding every 7-12 days.

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Very true virgingrower, I'll keep that in mind when my tent arrives this week. I've been lucky though. The two cfl's put out just enough heat to make things perfect in that box... stays at 75*F - 82*F when the lights are on... to be honest I'm not 100% sure what temp it is when they're off, but considering it's never below 74*F in my house I would assume it doesn't get below 70. I think I'm gonna have to upgrade my ventilation in the tent w/ an HPS, workin on that next (looking to make my own carbon filter and use some computer fans... I hope that keeps it cool enough in there... we'll see).
 
>>>Cap'n, I can't say thank you enough. I just joined the site 2 minutes ago so I could comment on this thread specifically (the stoner in me is a little weary of Big Brother looking in on what I'm doing, especially since I'm in a state that hasn't legalized it yet and probably won't for as long as possible). I saw a pic, once upon a time, of a plant in SCROG and had no idea how they got it that way... I thought they topped the hell out of it, turns out I was sooo wrong.

Glad to hear you are enjoying my articles. It makes it all worth it. Check out my "bend and top your way to a monster", if you haven't already. You can use the same technique in your box or tent.

>>>I decided to order some feminized O.G. Kush seeds... unfortunately, only one of them made it past the seedling stage. I'm pleased with how the lone survivor has turned out though.

Good choice, many OG kush strains are very stable and all good!

>>>My box is only 30" x 17" so I'm a bit limited at the moment. Pretty ghetto construction at first, using 2x4 panels of styrofoam from Lowes until I HAD to upgrade.

Getto, yes. Effective, yes. It looks like you're doing very well in there.

>>>I've seen a couple posts and videos about "gently bending" the main cola to trick the other colas into thinking they are "main" colas... do you have any experience with this? It seems a little similar to your method, but on a smaller scale.

Yes. Bending a branch to the point where you "KINK" it, is called "supercropping". I don't do it, because the plant then needs to "heal" that plant. Instead, I top early and often to create an even canopy, and I never have a "main cola". You should be doing this in your box to spread out your plant and keep it low. Right now, I would take a few inches off those two main tall branches, and top all the others that are almost as tall. Again, check out the "bend and top your way to a monster" thread.

>>>I'll have a 2.5' x 2.5' x 5' grow tent here this week, with a 150w hps (16,000 lux) coming soon after that... getting ready for flowering. She's been under (2) 2,800 lux cfl's since April 24th... a nice amount of light (5,600 lux), but I wonder how that would work when I have 3 plants in one box... then again I might just keep two clones to give them more room to stretch out.
In your opinion, how much do you think I should yield with this one? And is there anything I can do to increase that yield, as far as training goes? I'm thinking about topping her to get more bud sites... with all the colas it seems like I'll get a decent yield, but I'd love to find a way to create more colas.

Again, check out the "bend and top your way to a monster" thread. If it's not too late, try to get a 250 or 400W. But the 150 will work for now. Under 600W, I get about 1.2oz per sq ft with a single plant. So under 600W, you should be able to get 6.2 zips. With a 150W, I would guess 1/3 that. This is contingent on everything else going perfect. The proper veg time, topping, bending and SCROG.

>>>Thanks again for all of your threads, I've been reading them almost nonstop for the past hour or so (trying to quit cigarettes, so keeping myself occupied is priority #1). Hope everyone enjoys the pics, I haven't really had to do much to keep this plant happy... just feeding every 7-12 days.

I love seeing pictures. It reminds me of when I first started and how we go to home depot 3 times a week to get parts to "rig" up this or that. This is how it gets started. Soon, you'll outgrow that tent too! Keep up the good work. Your plants look very healthy.
 
>>>Right now, I would take a few inches off those two main tall branches, and top all the others that are almost as tall.

Do you mean I should just snip a couple or more inches off? Or would you recommend a less stressful way of shortening the plant? I'm okay with prolonging my veg time, in the long run I think it's for the better. I just don't want to misinterpret what you're saying. Thanks for the reply.

>>>It reminds me of when I first started and how we go to home depot 3 times a week to get parts to "rig" up this or that. This is how it gets started.

I wish I had pics of the first grow... I was (and still kinda am) soooo poor. Whenever I could scrape together $10 I'd make a trip to Wally World to get some bulbs. We had our sprout inside of a 20oz styrofoam cup with a lamp (minus the shade) suspended over it using 550-cord and nails in the wall and ceiling to secure it and adjust the height as needed... the only money we spent was on a $3 bag of Black Velvet Mushroom Compost at Lowe's and some Evergreen potting mix... other than that we'd research how to give it the nutes we couldn't afford (using epsom salt, coffee grounds, 2-week old piss..... yes, piss... apparently the urea is good for it, although I still don't like the idea of pouring piss into the soil hahahaha).
In all honesty I'm glad it started off so humbly... kinda forced me to think about the basics and forget about the products that cost money. I'm definitely no expert, not by a long shot, but I think knowing what your plant needs and how to give it to it is square 1.
Thanks again for all of your help, I'll definitely give your "1lb monster" thread another read... if only I had some bud to smoke while I enlighten myself :dreamy:
 
>>>>Do you mean I should just snip a couple or more inches off? Or would you recommend a less stressful way of shortening the plant?

If you have plenty of height to work with, just take the very top. If you know you will run out of room, it would be best to take a few inches off. Topping a plant is not very stressful to it.
 
Ok, understood. However, I'll have more room to work with (i.e. the tent) in a couple of days... would you recommend leaving the plant alone since I'll have more space?
 
OprahWinfrey said:
Ok, understood. However, I'll have more room to work with (i.e. the tent) in a couple of days... would you recommend leaving the plant alone since I'll have more space?
Click to expand...

UP to you. But I would top it. "TALL" doesn't produce yield. WIDE, produces yield. Here is a picture of a plant that went on to produce a pound. Your goal should be to make it look like this. Keep topping the tallest branches. Don't forget to read the "bend and top" article.

A buddy of mine is doing exactly what you are doing right now. He only has 3' of vertical space to work with. Topping and bending out is the way... if you want to produce a lot of bud!

Note, there are some stoners here and there who have crazy ways of torturing their plants, trying for more yield in the end. These techniques I'm suggesting to you, are not harmful. They are very low stress, if any, and your plant will keep truckin.

 
Ok, I'll do what I can with this one... I'm sure my lack of topping in the early stages will come back to bite me, as far as yield is concerned, but when I take clones I'll be sure to follow your advice. Do you think the colas will split (make a V) when I top them? I guess I'd have to top them in certain places to make that happen... I would love to be able to turn it into a short-wide, decent-producing plant even though it's become tall.
 
OprahWinfrey said:
Ok, I'll do what I can with this one... I'm sure my lack of topping in the early stages will come back to bite me, as far as yield is concerned, but when I take clones I'll be sure to follow your advice. Do you think the colas will split (make a V) when I top them? I guess I'd have to top them in certain places to make that happen... I would love to be able to turn it into a short-wide, decent-producing plant even though it's become tall.
Click to expand...

When you top a plant, the next two branches below it will grow up, almost equally, so you'll then have two tops.

Since we are getting off topic here, please post any more questions to me in TheCapn's Q&A blog:

Open Q&A - Blogs - 420 Magazine ®
 
TheCapn said:
When you top a plant, the next two branches below it will grow up, almost equally, so you'll then have two tops.
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great high yielding,max light using method Capn,,,have you ever used supercropping (phloem rupturing)in combination with the training?
I've seen vids on youtube about supercropping,but in my opinion the "instructors" were way too overly aggressive and randomly cracking every stem in sight to the point that the plant has to suffer some nominal stress from their version of the technique,I do supercrop,but i go about it more tactically,less aggressively and gradually over several days or more.but i would like to try a combination of both.just wondering if you've ever incorporated both methods ?
 
pit58 said:
great high yielding,max light using method Capn,,,have you ever used supercropping (phloem rupturing)in combination with the training?
I've seen vids on youtube about supercropping,but in my opinion the "instructors" were way too overly aggressive and randomly cracking every stem in sight to the point that the plant has to suffer some nominal stress from their version of the technique,I do supercrop,but i go about it more tactically,less aggressively and gradually over several days or more.but i would like to try a combination of both.just wondering if you've ever incorporated both methods ?
Click to expand...

>>>the point that the plant has to suffer some nominal stress

You're exactly correct about that. Doing so much puts the plant into "heal" mode. I have done it in the past. But I don't do it now. I find I do better by bending (without kinking) and topping. Kinking a branch here and there is no big deal, but like you say the plant will be stunted if you do too much.

How To: Bend and top your way to a 1 pound monster
 
Here's a great couple pictures, submitted to me by a member here, who has become a good friend.

He sent me this picture, wondering if he should wait longer before going to flower.

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I suggested he wait 7-10 days. Here's the picture 10 days later:

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Why is this so important? Waiting that 10 days exponentially increases his yield. Not only is the plant getting taller, but it is growing in all directions. Most of all, the branches get thicker, and are able to carry more nutrients to the tops.

Instead of nursing along those tiny branches, hoping they will reach the screen and produce something, now we have a plethora of thick branches already at the screen, and we can cut off the little stuff we know won't make nice sized colas.

I predict waiting the 10 more days will turn this into a one pound grow, instead of a 10oz grow. I'll let you know in two months.

Thanks to the anonymous grower for the pictures.
 
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