- Thread starter
- #681
Thanks Emilya! I was kind of hoping you would say something along those lines. Muchas Gracias.
Jon's Second Grow, First Grow Journal, Soil Grow Autos & Photoperiod
Yoda sounds like he's gone down a few of these roads before. The mechanics of his directions are solid. Good eyes on him. Folks who grow from a bottle should flush for salt removal. He brought you along well. Yoda for the win!
Bud Love
Well-Known Member
56 ey? You old goat you.Phototown Update
Changes/Adjustments
Grow Day 83
Flower/Stretch Day 9
Last night I had a long conversation with my Yoda from Oregon, and I took him on an extensive FaceTime tour of the scrog and the autos. Funny. Dude doesn't give a damn about my autos and thinks they're for children. Lol. Professional grower snobs. Ha. However, he has keen interest in my scrog. I am the one who talked him into growing this same strain of Pineapple Upside Down Cake in one of his greenhouses this grow for him, and he has a ton of very large ones. He wanted to see so I took him on the tour, and then he said wait, zoom in on a couple of those leaves on the Blueberry Muffin. I did so. Then he told me to pick one and show it to him in the normal light. I did that. Then he had me show him leaves from all four plants so he could see all four to compare.
After all that extensive tour, dude said, you got a lot of work to do. Tonight.
WHAT????
It took him all of five seconds to diagnose that my EC is off just a touch on the Blueberry Muffin and I needed to correct it immediately since I am nine days into budding. I looked at the same leaves he looked at. The same leaves you guys see in the picture. I STILL can't see anything wrong with it, unless I look WAY close. I have no idea how the dude saw this, but the reality is that some of the lower leaves on the Blueberry Muffin that you can't see in the picture are getting the tiniest amount of a golden/rusty looking sort of sheen. Just a few, and it's literally so barely noticeable it's not worth posting. But he said FOR SURE I am in the very infant stage with the Blueberry Muffin of starting to get lockout. He says I have too much salt built up in the soil and it's JUST starting to show. He said to correct it immediately I needed to flush that plant with plain water first, at least five gallons through her. So I did that. I flushed her last night until the water was basically the same coming out as it was going in. Clear. Then he said to wait til she's all done shedding the runoff, and then follow it up with a one gallon nutrient feeding, wherever I was with nutes. And he said to add CalMag. So I did that.
Then dude says I gotta clean out under the canopy. I said isn't it too soon for that? He said yes, it's too soon for you to strip them of all the leaves and stuff like you're going to in a few weeks. But he said to go underneath, take anything that was dead, dying, or not getting any light, and then to focus on taking any BRANCHES that were thin, or flarfy, or were no way going to make it up to the screen. He said these are robbing energy from the buds and to do that immediately, so that as they start to form buds I don't have to hurt the plant by cutting that stuff off after buds start forming and cost myself a day or two of budding while the plant recovers. He says to remove that under the canopy growth in stages over a couple weeks, NOT all at once, so that you don't give the plants a gigantic shock all at once and instead it's spread out and minimized. So I did that. You can see (sort of, I tried) the removal of those branches a little bit in the picture, and my PARTIAL under canopy defol.
Then he says, put your damn dehumidifier UNDER the canopy, not above it. I said why, don't I want to lessen the humidity in the climate zone ABOVE the canopy? He said yes, but you do that by removing it from underneath. That's where your humidity starts, with the wet pots and soil in addition to the plants respiration. He also said that the exhaust fan is drawing the air to the top of the tent and that since I'm running AC into the bottom, I want to let the less humid air underneath (assuming the dehumidifier is doing it's job) get pulled UP and THROUGH the canopy and buds. So I put the dehumidifier underneath in the middle of the plants as directed.
Then he says to install my extra stretchy screen that hooks to the tent poles, about 8" above the first screen. I said why do I need it? He said for support. BECAUSE, he said, YOU ARE NOT GOING TO TUCK ANYMORE AFTER THE MORNING TUCK. I said why not, I thought I tucked til the screen was filled or actual buds form, whichever comes first. He said dude, the screen is fricking filled. Don't be a cola junkie trying to get EVERY HOLE FILLED, you already filled nearly all of them and there's undergrowth ready to fill a lot of the remaining holes. He says now I should LET THE PLANTS GROW UP. The reason is to get a little verticality to the bud sites before they start to become actual buds. He said it will grow evenly as I have an even screen. He says letting it go now will increase my yield cuz the buds will have more to work with above the canopy. So, he said install the screen and when they get to it I'll have support, and I'll also have a way to attend to any rogue buds that decide they want to outpace and outgrow (vertically) all their friends, and I can tuck those using the second screen if necessary to maintain the evenness of the canopy as a whole. So that takes two seconds and I'll do that in a day or two when the buds get close to six or eight inches above the first screen.
So that was a lot of work out of nowhere when I had no idea I had all this stuff to do.
I trust this guy like I trust @Emilya, and if he told me I needed to do all those things, I take it to the bank and do them. He saved my first grow three times with diagnoses. NEVER led me astray. And he has yet to be wrong about a diagnosis or a solution to it. So since I laud my friend (who I wish I could Identify so BAD!! Lol!) with frequency and take his advice always, you guys tell me. This is my first scrog. Was my friend on point about the things he told me to get done? Do you guys have any input on the above? If so I'd love to hear it. He's Yoda, not God. And there's lots of Yodas here too. So I'm very curious if anyone has any input on the veracity of what he had me do and the whys of it?
Anyway, there it is. This is my scrog.
Here's the state of it after the final tucking session from above and below. Sorry about the below picture, it's a bit rough. Just trying to show what a partial stripping under the canopy looks like versus a total stripping.
Thanks guys. Happy Tuesday. If anyone has some absolutely amazing, killer, frosty buds they want me to try for them, tomorrow is my birthday. I'll be 56. Whoo Hoo. Feel free to ask me for my address off the public feed and send me some.
Garden looks feckin ace mate , what a job.
That was a hell of a post Jon, as ever your right on top of it all.
Peace to ya
- Thread starter
- #684
Peace to you to my friend, and thank you.56 ey? You old goat you.
Garden looks feckin ace mate , what a job.
That was a hell of a post Jon, as ever your right on top of it all.
Peace to ya
Diatomacious
Well-Known Member
Sounds like he nailed it... make that saved your grow 4 times
- Thread starter
- #686
Sounds like he nailed it... make that saved your grow 4 times
LMAO!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks, I needed that belly laugh you sarcastic son of a bitch. And thanks for the feedback.
- Thread starter
- #687
LMAO!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks, I needed that belly laugh you sarcastic son of a bitch. And thanks for the feedback.
You know, YOU probably could have mentioned a couple of those to me......Sounds like he nailed it... make that saved your grow 4 times
LOL!!!!
- Thread starter
- #688
I now have them along the very side of the house. You can't see them at all, they are completely blocked from anyone's eyes. You're right. I'm not dumb, just a bit cavalier at times. Lol. But I really don't want the hassle, and of course it's always true better safe than sorry. Thanks for not wanting me to get arrested, lol. They come inside the garage at night too now, so no fear of theft overnight. Only thing I can't do is mask the smell, and these plants STINK. So does the whole area in front of our house. You can smell them from about 50 feet away. Maybe not enough to find them, but there's definitely that odor....Lol. Oh well. It's an improvement over the normal neighborhood smells of complacency and trumpism.Coming from a few encounters with the fuzz regarding “funny flowers”, i wouldn't count on them going easy because of the wheelchair. At least you have em hidden now
Not trying to nag, just coming from a genuine place of concern. We moved down here a handful of years ago but due to unnamed circumstances we havent had much opportunity to meet people and make new friends. You all on here are my friends these days. And i’d hate to see something happen to ya man
Emilya Green
Well-Known Member
Thank you @Jon, I think you have stopped me from making a mistake by putting my mother plants out in the backyard. This discussion has convinced me that even though it is legal to grow here in my house, it might not be quite as cut and dried in the backyard, even behind a privacy fence. I just turned out the lights in the mother room this evening and will let the 4 plants in there go back to the compost pile... it is probably for the best.
- Thread starter
- #690
Diatomacious
Well-Known Member
It's hard to tell from a picture sometimes. Yoda got all the close ups.
- Thread starter
- #692
Autoflower Bud Porn Update
Some Final Trimming
Cinderella Jack Autos #1 and #2
The first two Cinderella Jack plants have been curing in my container on the stems until this morning, when I began the process of final trimming and jarring these buds up. Not enough volume to do the second step 5-gallong bucket part of my curing process, that's mostly for photo grows, so into the jars they are going. I say going cuz it takes fricking FOREVER. My first grow it was a labor of love and I was all excited. Now it's just work. Cool, visually and olfactorally stimulating (I don't know if that's a real word) work, but pain in the ass work nonetheless, and I basically do it as close to in the dark as I can cuz I really consider light to be my curing buds mortal enemy. So yeah, I have a ways to go and one more CJ in the pot still. When all of them are done I'll post a final weight and all that good stuff. And after it cures for a while I'll post a smoke/smell/taste report. The test buds got me one hit weed high and the weed smells almost exactly like Jack Herer, maybe a touch more lemony and sweet. She's Cinderella 99 x Jack Herer, so where she got the Jack from is obvious. I'm assuming the sweetness comes from the Cinderella 99 genes. Really really good weed and an auto I will most definitely grow again, and I may even investigate the feminized version. Super high THC weed. Shockingly high for an auto. Smokes already like a photo..
Enjoy.
Photographs
- Cinderella Jack #1 NO flash
- Cinderella Jack #2 NO flash
- Cinderella Jack #1 flash
- Cinderella Jack #2 flash
Some Final Trimming
Cinderella Jack Autos #1 and #2
The first two Cinderella Jack plants have been curing in my container on the stems until this morning, when I began the process of final trimming and jarring these buds up. Not enough volume to do the second step 5-gallong bucket part of my curing process, that's mostly for photo grows, so into the jars they are going. I say going cuz it takes fricking FOREVER. My first grow it was a labor of love and I was all excited. Now it's just work. Cool, visually and olfactorally stimulating (I don't know if that's a real word) work, but pain in the ass work nonetheless, and I basically do it as close to in the dark as I can cuz I really consider light to be my curing buds mortal enemy. So yeah, I have a ways to go and one more CJ in the pot still. When all of them are done I'll post a final weight and all that good stuff. And after it cures for a while I'll post a smoke/smell/taste report. The test buds got me one hit weed high and the weed smells almost exactly like Jack Herer, maybe a touch more lemony and sweet. She's Cinderella 99 x Jack Herer, so where she got the Jack from is obvious. I'm assuming the sweetness comes from the Cinderella 99 genes. Really really good weed and an auto I will most definitely grow again, and I may even investigate the feminized version. Super high THC weed. Shockingly high for an auto. Smokes already like a photo..
Enjoy.
Photographs
- Cinderella Jack #1 NO flash
- Cinderella Jack #2 NO flash
- Cinderella Jack #1 flash
- Cinderella Jack #2 flash
Diatomacious
Well-Known Member
Just trimming some up and you got me thinking about how some buds have a lot more leaf than others so they end up being a nightmare to trim. Something to think about before your next seed order considering past experience you've had.
Bud Love
Well-Known Member
HAPPY BIRTHDAY 
- Thread starter
- #696
I hear you on that. I don't know man, I kinda feel like as much of a pain in the ass as it is, if I start picking seeds based on "easy" I'm kind of pussying out. Lol. I'm more about a challenge and experimenting.
Michael Hunt
Well-Known Member
Happy Birthday @Jon
If we had any extra, I'd happily send some your way. We're sadly down to only a few grams left. Glad you got those ladies into a safer place in the yard. Not gonna lie, started getting a little more nervous when i didn't see any morning posts from you yesterday lol.
Take care man and enjoy the day!
If we had any extra, I'd happily send some your way. We're sadly down to only a few grams left. Glad you got those ladies into a safer place in the yard. Not gonna lie, started getting a little more nervous when i didn't see any morning posts from you yesterday lol.
Take care man and enjoy the day!
- Thread starter
- #698
Thanks Michael! Yeah, it's all good with them now. They're stealthy. Lol. I got a good post on them I'm about to put up. The real sun definitely agrees with them. I'll expound a little on that thought in the post.Happy Birthday @Jon
If we had any extra, I'd happily send some your way. We're sadly down to only a few grams left. Glad you got those ladies into a safer place in the yard. Not gonna lie, started getting a little more nervous when i didn't see any morning posts from you yesterday lol.
Take care man and enjoy the day!
- Thread starter
- #699
Auto Alley Update
Day 73
Solo Jelly Rancher Update
Day 84 Grow/Day 5 Flower
These used to be Autotown updates until the solo Jelly Rancher muscled in on their territory and took the place over. So we'll combine updates on these two, the autos and the solo JR.
Autotown is now Auto Alley, in the narrow space between my place and next door, outside in the sun, along a white wall on the side of the house. Hidden from view to anyone walking by or driving by. No way to actually see the plants until you're standing in front of them. That said, I can't do anything about the odor, and it's significant. It's got about a 50 foot circle of smell around it right now which reaches to the sidewalk in front of all the houses. Lmao. I wonder if people are walking by and wondering where the hell that odor is coming from. At night I bring them inside the garage so they don't mysteriously disappear just in case someone were to follow their nose and get to the plants.
Moving them outdoors was the only option as Jelly needed a place to bud. And that cut their light from 22 hours a day to whatever the time is from me putting them out at 6 am and bringing them in at total darkness, about 14-15 hours a day. Way less light and way more rest/recovery time at night. And I gotta tell you, to my inexperienced eyes, the plants are doing BETTER than they were before. They have literally EXPLODED. The ones that I thought were really close to budding, ie, the Cinderella Jack #3 and the Lemon #1, appear to have begun a second phase of growth on the budding. Both of them, almost already mature to my eyes, are now shooting out new growth on the buds at the tops and sides at a rate I haven't seen the entire grow. You can see what I mean in the picture of Lemon #1. Note that the very tops are that little new top bud growth we've all seen. What you are seeing is what grew OVERNIGHT. That will all fill out today and the bud will be that much taller. This is happening every day since they hit the sunlight. They are getting fatter at the same rate too. I definitely took the first two Cinderella plants too soon I see now, despite what the trichomes were telling me. Cuz here's the thing, @Michael Hunt, we were talking about when the plants are ready to harvest and trichomes, right? Well the way the trichomes looked on the remaining Cinderella Jack at the time of our discussion, what, a week ago(?), is EXACTLY how they still look. The harvest window in terms of how slowly the amber comes in, is WAY longer than we think sometimes I guess is the lesson I learn there. The buds are awesome from those Cinderellas I already harvested, so I can't imagine how good the one that's left will be. She's so dense and so much fatter than the others and way more mature. And she's still got time. As long as all the bottom green growth I left at the bottom is nice "growing" green color, they ain't ready. When it starts to turn yellow and brown and all that, like the top leaves were getting, it will be close to ready. I check the trichs every day anyway, just saying. I believe they really like the sun (that's obvious), but more importantly, I think they like having more down time. I now believe that a 22/2 light cycle like I used on these guys is too much. I should have gone 20/4 or even 18/6. I will try that next time. The 18/6 is attractive cuz it increases options of where to grow the plant in case I have a photo tent vegging and need some space or something. I just can't account for this explosion of growth and increase in all activity any other way than because of the real sun and the increased down time, cuz other than that, their nutes haven't changed and their watering hasn't changed. I did successfully clean up a slight CalMag/still wanting a little veg nutes issue, but that hardly accounts for it and that was only on the Pineapples for the most part. Anyway, I have pics of all the plants below. Couldn't get to both the last two Pineapple Express, it's muddy out there and I was afraid I'd get stuck in the electric chair. Lol. That sucks when that happens and I gotta call my roomie to come tow me out. Lmao!
So onto the beast. This Jelly Rancher is digging her new digs big time. She's obviously got unlimited space and she loves that. She is enjoying the light situation as well. A little bit of stretch going on at the same time as they are forming actual buds, which is kinda weird, no? The buds themselves are starting to look pretty damn well developed for only five days of budding. I believe this girl is going to produce very well. There are a couple yellowing leaves in various spots - I cleared that up with a big flush and a CalMag plus Iron bath yesterday, and you can see all the new growth is nicely green. just a few leaves. Easily fixed.
That brings us up to date on all these guys. Enjoy the pics guys, there's some sweet ass looking plants if I do say so myself. If only I had something to do with it, lol. Natural sunlight rules.
Photographs:
- Lemon 1
- Lemon 2
- Cinderella Jack 3 (photograph itself is mistitled by me, it's a CJ)
- Pineapple Express 1
- Pineapple Express 2 and 3
- Solo Jelly Rancher Day 5 flower
Day 73
Solo Jelly Rancher Update
Day 84 Grow/Day 5 Flower
These used to be Autotown updates until the solo Jelly Rancher muscled in on their territory and took the place over. So we'll combine updates on these two, the autos and the solo JR.
Autotown is now Auto Alley, in the narrow space between my place and next door, outside in the sun, along a white wall on the side of the house. Hidden from view to anyone walking by or driving by. No way to actually see the plants until you're standing in front of them. That said, I can't do anything about the odor, and it's significant. It's got about a 50 foot circle of smell around it right now which reaches to the sidewalk in front of all the houses. Lmao. I wonder if people are walking by and wondering where the hell that odor is coming from. At night I bring them inside the garage so they don't mysteriously disappear just in case someone were to follow their nose and get to the plants.
Moving them outdoors was the only option as Jelly needed a place to bud. And that cut their light from 22 hours a day to whatever the time is from me putting them out at 6 am and bringing them in at total darkness, about 14-15 hours a day. Way less light and way more rest/recovery time at night. And I gotta tell you, to my inexperienced eyes, the plants are doing BETTER than they were before. They have literally EXPLODED. The ones that I thought were really close to budding, ie, the Cinderella Jack #3 and the Lemon #1, appear to have begun a second phase of growth on the budding. Both of them, almost already mature to my eyes, are now shooting out new growth on the buds at the tops and sides at a rate I haven't seen the entire grow. You can see what I mean in the picture of Lemon #1. Note that the very tops are that little new top bud growth we've all seen. What you are seeing is what grew OVERNIGHT. That will all fill out today and the bud will be that much taller. This is happening every day since they hit the sunlight. They are getting fatter at the same rate too. I definitely took the first two Cinderella plants too soon I see now, despite what the trichomes were telling me. Cuz here's the thing, @Michael Hunt, we were talking about when the plants are ready to harvest and trichomes, right? Well the way the trichomes looked on the remaining Cinderella Jack at the time of our discussion, what, a week ago(?), is EXACTLY how they still look. The harvest window in terms of how slowly the amber comes in, is WAY longer than we think sometimes I guess is the lesson I learn there. The buds are awesome from those Cinderellas I already harvested, so I can't imagine how good the one that's left will be. She's so dense and so much fatter than the others and way more mature. And she's still got time. As long as all the bottom green growth I left at the bottom is nice "growing" green color, they ain't ready. When it starts to turn yellow and brown and all that, like the top leaves were getting, it will be close to ready. I check the trichs every day anyway, just saying. I believe they really like the sun (that's obvious), but more importantly, I think they like having more down time. I now believe that a 22/2 light cycle like I used on these guys is too much. I should have gone 20/4 or even 18/6. I will try that next time. The 18/6 is attractive cuz it increases options of where to grow the plant in case I have a photo tent vegging and need some space or something. I just can't account for this explosion of growth and increase in all activity any other way than because of the real sun and the increased down time, cuz other than that, their nutes haven't changed and their watering hasn't changed. I did successfully clean up a slight CalMag/still wanting a little veg nutes issue, but that hardly accounts for it and that was only on the Pineapples for the most part. Anyway, I have pics of all the plants below. Couldn't get to both the last two Pineapple Express, it's muddy out there and I was afraid I'd get stuck in the electric chair. Lol. That sucks when that happens and I gotta call my roomie to come tow me out. Lmao!
So onto the beast. This Jelly Rancher is digging her new digs big time. She's obviously got unlimited space and she loves that. She is enjoying the light situation as well. A little bit of stretch going on at the same time as they are forming actual buds, which is kinda weird, no? The buds themselves are starting to look pretty damn well developed for only five days of budding. I believe this girl is going to produce very well. There are a couple yellowing leaves in various spots - I cleared that up with a big flush and a CalMag plus Iron bath yesterday, and you can see all the new growth is nicely green. just a few leaves. Easily fixed.
That brings us up to date on all these guys. Enjoy the pics guys, there's some sweet ass looking plants if I do say so myself. If only I had something to do with it, lol. Natural sunlight rules.
Photographs:
- Lemon 1
- Lemon 2
- Cinderella Jack 3 (photograph itself is mistitled by me, it's a CJ)
- Pineapple Express 1
- Pineapple Express 2 and 3
- Solo Jelly Rancher Day 5 flower
- Thread starter
- #700
So this post is for newbies like me. All you old heads already know this, so ignore if you choose.
I have now been asked questions enough times by first time growers that I realize there are a number of first time growers who read our journals. More than I thought. And even though I laugh, and thank them, and then direct them to someone who knows what they're talking about, there are still some things I have learned in this grow, my second, that I feel would be useful for brand new growers to know right off the bat. If I knew this stuff on my first grow the yield would have been triple what it was or more. I only got 10 1/2 ounces of primo bud from six plants in 8 gallon pots. That's how newbie I did on my first grow. In large part because of the stuff in this post and a lot of help on the forum, this grow will not disappoint me.
So...
This is about training the plant to produce more bud sites. Topping and low stress training (LST). The picture below is my Jelly Rancher. Note that there are six MAIN colas. They are the three on each side, far and near, that are the biggest and longest and most spread out. These were the six main colas that I "created" by topping the plant using Uncle Ben's method. I would encourage you to research this method and other methods of topping to discover which you want to use based on your needs. With Uncle Ben's method, you basically top between the second and third node, after the fifth node is coming up. When you do that, there are four shoots ready to go for you right there at between node 2 and 3. They will become four of the six main colas. The other two are the two branches from node 1 that will pretty much keep even pace with the four. So six main colas. And if I had been satisfied with that I could have let the plant go and gotten six really sweet big buds. Great. But instead, I used LST to pull the branches to the side. This allowed the interior growth to grow out. That's a process I kept up all through veg. Spreading branches out as evenly and as much as possible, while trying to keep the overall plant at the same height with some form of canopy. This sounds way harder than it is. Just takes consistent effort, but no skills or experience, as I did this with neither this time and it looks great I think. Just ties and posts, whatever you use. String. Skewers. Bamboo posts. Whatever works.
When you do that, you get what you see in the picture. Obviously there are the six main colas, but there are a ton of bud sites that are at the SAME HEIGHT, getting the SAME AMOUNT OF LIGHT, that will be JUST AS BIG as the main cola buds. There will be WAY more than six nice buds. I guess you could count them if you wanted to. These only exist because I gave them the opportunity to develop VERTICALLY, by spreading out the branches HORIZONTALLY. Thus they become NEW BUDS OF THEIR OWN rather than a flarfy thing at the base of the stem of the main cola. And that was accomplished with one simple cut and the simple act of spreading stuff out. Really really easy, much easier than it seems before you ever do it, trust me. I understand the hesitancy and trepidation that new growers have when faced with something like this they haven't done before. I had, and still have it, too. That is why I do tons of research, but more importantly, why I constantly fall back on people here in this forum. There are many here who not only know their stuff cold, but also like to help new growers. They will tell you the real deal, even if it's bad news. You, and I, need that, in my opinion. It has helped me get here. I would NEVER have been able to produce this plant as you see without the help I have gotten on here. So use these guys. People like @Emilya, and @Bill284, and @Dimatacious, @Michael Hunt, @Virgin Ground, @Backlipslide and many many others (no disrespect to anyone else who knows their stuff and has helped me a ton, there are many of you I just went off the top of my head). Anyway, READ these guys. Check out their journals. You will learn a ton. And most importantly ASK A LOT OF QUESTIONS. LEARN. The resource will prove invaluable I promise.
Anyway here's the girl. Topping once and a little low stress training. You'll increase your yield dramatically.
Hope that helps any of you new guys. I wish I had seen a post like this before my first grow, so that's my motivation here.
I have now been asked questions enough times by first time growers that I realize there are a number of first time growers who read our journals. More than I thought. And even though I laugh, and thank them, and then direct them to someone who knows what they're talking about, there are still some things I have learned in this grow, my second, that I feel would be useful for brand new growers to know right off the bat. If I knew this stuff on my first grow the yield would have been triple what it was or more. I only got 10 1/2 ounces of primo bud from six plants in 8 gallon pots. That's how newbie I did on my first grow. In large part because of the stuff in this post and a lot of help on the forum, this grow will not disappoint me.
So...
This is about training the plant to produce more bud sites. Topping and low stress training (LST). The picture below is my Jelly Rancher. Note that there are six MAIN colas. They are the three on each side, far and near, that are the biggest and longest and most spread out. These were the six main colas that I "created" by topping the plant using Uncle Ben's method. I would encourage you to research this method and other methods of topping to discover which you want to use based on your needs. With Uncle Ben's method, you basically top between the second and third node, after the fifth node is coming up. When you do that, there are four shoots ready to go for you right there at between node 2 and 3. They will become four of the six main colas. The other two are the two branches from node 1 that will pretty much keep even pace with the four. So six main colas. And if I had been satisfied with that I could have let the plant go and gotten six really sweet big buds. Great. But instead, I used LST to pull the branches to the side. This allowed the interior growth to grow out. That's a process I kept up all through veg. Spreading branches out as evenly and as much as possible, while trying to keep the overall plant at the same height with some form of canopy. This sounds way harder than it is. Just takes consistent effort, but no skills or experience, as I did this with neither this time and it looks great I think. Just ties and posts, whatever you use. String. Skewers. Bamboo posts. Whatever works.
When you do that, you get what you see in the picture. Obviously there are the six main colas, but there are a ton of bud sites that are at the SAME HEIGHT, getting the SAME AMOUNT OF LIGHT, that will be JUST AS BIG as the main cola buds. There will be WAY more than six nice buds. I guess you could count them if you wanted to. These only exist because I gave them the opportunity to develop VERTICALLY, by spreading out the branches HORIZONTALLY. Thus they become NEW BUDS OF THEIR OWN rather than a flarfy thing at the base of the stem of the main cola. And that was accomplished with one simple cut and the simple act of spreading stuff out. Really really easy, much easier than it seems before you ever do it, trust me. I understand the hesitancy and trepidation that new growers have when faced with something like this they haven't done before. I had, and still have it, too. That is why I do tons of research, but more importantly, why I constantly fall back on people here in this forum. There are many here who not only know their stuff cold, but also like to help new growers. They will tell you the real deal, even if it's bad news. You, and I, need that, in my opinion. It has helped me get here. I would NEVER have been able to produce this plant as you see without the help I have gotten on here. So use these guys. People like @Emilya, and @Bill284, and @Dimatacious, @Michael Hunt, @Virgin Ground, @Backlipslide and many many others (no disrespect to anyone else who knows their stuff and has helped me a ton, there are many of you I just went off the top of my head). Anyway, READ these guys. Check out their journals. You will learn a ton. And most importantly ASK A LOT OF QUESTIONS. LEARN. The resource will prove invaluable I promise.
Anyway here's the girl. Topping once and a little low stress training. You'll increase your yield dramatically.
Hope that helps any of you new guys. I wish I had seen a post like this before my first grow, so that's my motivation here.