Melville's Doug's Varin Winter Grow

Stunger said:
Hey Melville, the DV's are coming along nicely. Have you had the pleasure of her before?


Cheers for that Bill. Altho I have tried once (and failed) to clone, I bookmarked your link for future reference.

That's interesting. I have never grown a clone before, what sort of difference would you get?

That happened to me twice in recent grows, quite disappointing to witness and then waste some more time waiting to see if it can recover before soaking another precious seed. I'd say I share @Trala's seed accessibility situation. It is great you don't need to worry about that.
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It's fool proof, when your ready I'm always here. :thumb:
I'll help you with what you have to work with.

Stay safe
Bill
 
No going back now!
Doug's Varin 27 Dec 2021 Topped.jpg

She has been topped! I'll be adding the training tie-downs tomorrow after she has rested. Brought the light down a bit too, make up for the height I just removed.
Doug's Varin 27 Dec 2021 Family Portrait.jpg

Okay, having trouble adding a third pic. It's just the usual full tent shot. Not really needed so no big deal.
 
She seems to be responding well. The pre-top inspection revealed that the side branches are more developed than I had thought, and they're ready to come out from under the fan leaves. That will be the first step of training this evening, using the carhooks.
Doug's Varin 28 Dec 2021.jpg

I thought about removing the fans to get more light to the side branches, but I don't like doing that. They're still providing a lot of energy to the plant.
Doug's Varin 28 Dec 2021 1.jpg
They'll be trained out from under there soon enough anyway.
 
Looking forward to learn what it is you refer to as "car hooks".

:popcorn:
 
Ah, yes. I recall that post.

I train mine to a horizontal piece as I'm concerned about poking holes in a bunch of roots with a whole lot of skewers. I think Carcass said he uses lots (couple of dozen maybe??)

If so, yikes!
 
Azimuth said:
Ah, yes. I recall that post.

I train mine to a horizontal piece as I'm concerned about poking holes in a bunch of roots with a whole lot of skewers. I think Carcass said he uses lots (couple of dozen maybe??)

If so, yikes!
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Sounds like you do the same thing as I usually do. I take two dowels or straight sticks of some kind and use soft plant wire to train the side branches along them. They form a slightly off centre "x".
I'm still planning on doing that with the upper branches on the DV, but they aren't quite developed enough yet. At least the very top ones aren't. The third node might be ready.
I actually read a thread on another forum by a grower who liked to take some metal skewers and stab the soil in his pots to aerate it, especially if his plants were starting to get rootbound. It sounded a bit extreme, but some other growers had tried it with some success. I think it's kind of like a brutal version of root pruning, but one of the reasons he said he did it was to break up compacted soil near the taproot so that water and nutes would be able to reach it again.
I'm not thinking of doing anything like that, but if I limit the number of hooks, and leave them in place instead of moving them around a lot, I don't think it'll be a problem.
 
Melville Hobbes said:
@Carcass uses hooks he designed to train his plants. @Trala suggested I try them out, so I've decided to do just that. There's a link in her journal, and I think a video?

Edit: Here's the link
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Omg don’t take your lessons from me lollllll

Carcass is the man to get advice from.

I’m really excited to watch your grow Mel :) This technique was a game changer for me.
 
Azimuth said:
Ah, yes. I recall that post.

I train mine to a horizontal piece as I'm concerned about poking holes in a bunch of roots with a whole lot of skewers. I think Carcass said he uses lots (couple of dozen maybe??)

If so, yikes!
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I don’t think it matters. I think roots are far too resilient.

I’ve been known to use 20+
 
For years, I've used an old knitting needle to aerate the soil, but with the hooks there's no need-
Either the root damage is minimal, or the plants just don't care-
I think the roots are similar to the leaves and branches- a bit of damage just makes them stronger.
Just my opinion, of course...
 
Carcass said:
For years, I've used an old knitting needle to aerate the soil, but with the hooks there's no need-
Either the root damage is minimal, or the plants just don't care-
I think the roots are similar to the leaves and branches- a bit of damage just makes them stronger.
Just my opinion, of course...
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The 'ol "tough love" eh?
 
So I have good news, and bad news.....


Actually I don't have either. I have meh news.
My brother stole my bamboo skewers, so the carhooks will have to wait until tomorrow. I'll have to go out and get some, as the only things I have are toothpicks and joss sticks, and I don't see either of those doing the job.
Ahh well. I still might do the first round of my usual training though. We'll see when I pull her out at lights on. That's pretty soon.
 
Okay, nope. She isn't quite ready yet. I put the stick in there, and couldn't get the branches and my fingers in the right places to set the plant wire. She'll need a couple of days to get those side branches a little longer.
Good news is they're already starting to poke through the fan leaves. Won't be long now.
Doug's Varin 28 Dec 2021 Family Portrait.jpg

Doug's Varin 28 Dec 2021 Family Portrait 1.jpg
 
By the way, does anyone know where I can find square pot stands? I know they make them, I saw a pic somewhere, but I couldn't ask them where they got them.
I've been looking all over, but no one seems to carry them around here, and I couldn't find them online.
 
Sorry Amigo can't find them.
I looked before couldn't track down any.
Your big round ones can't you trim the edges off to make them square?

Stay safe
Bill
 
Bill284 said:
Sorry Amigo can't find them.
I looked before couldn't track down any.
Your big round ones can't you trim the edges off to make them square?

Stay safe
Bill
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The legs are in awkward places. I think I'll have to just grab an oven rack and some blocks of wood or bricks.
I'd like to have rack/plant stands fill the bottom of my tent so I can use fabric pots across the entire floor space. I was thinking 4, 30cm square pot stands would be perfect.
Thanks for looking. My search brought me to some weird places. I now know where to go to get a Willie Nelson chia pet.
 
Indoor Farmer sells square pots. Here's the link.
 
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