TheEngineer - Grow Journal #1

[theengineer]

mainly for light penetration. I have a metal ring around the plants so I can tie them open and expose the centre, which is how the buds are growing strongly from top to low down. I used to be sceptical of defoliation, and thought the 'solar panel' reason was good enough to leave them in place. but now I remove the fan leaves when they've passed the 21 day stage of flower, but not all at once, I cut a few a day to minimise any stress to them. the difference it makes is more than worth it as everything is concentrated on the bud sites.

I just removed all the fan leaves from this Original Sour Diesel, which just went under 12/12, and as you can see, it has exploded with growth on the bud branches

this Barney's Lysergic Acid Diethylamide was stripped about a week ago, and the branches tied to the outer ring;

I can't wait till the autos are finished and I can get both the P300 and the P450 in the flowering tent together. my next run is in bigger pots, so it will need the additional coverage

 

[RickityCrickt]

From what I have read, you shouldn't remove anything past day 14 of flower because the plant will release the hormone auxin. The release of this hormone causes the plant to focus on healing instead of flowering thus decreasing your yields.

Also, I don't see any of the large scale commercial growers removing fan leaves and those guys only focus on yield. I really think you're hurting your yield not helping it. I hope my comment doesn't offend, that was not my intent.

 

[theengineer]

yeah, I hear what you're saying as I used to tell myself the exact same things, until I reduced pot size in half, defoliated, and substantially increased my yield, using beans from the same packet as the previous grow.

in it, the plants were massive, and I got 2.4 ozs of the biggest one. then, as above, I defoliated the next run and pulled 3.6 ozs, from much smaller pots.

have a read at this, bro

Increasing yield with defoliation indoors: What's it mean? How to do it?

 

[KingJohnC]

I have a much different understanding of defoliation applied at the proper time line to enhance vegetative growth and flowering. You can see examples of how I defoliate and train my plants in my Grow Journals and Reviews. I would defoliate in vegetative growth 7-10 days before flowering to remove excess fan leaves and open more light to branches and nodes that become bud sites and colas. I defoliate in vegetative growth by removing any fan leaves that are excessively shading the branches and nodes to encourage the nodes to grow larger and produce more colas. I use Low Stress Training to tie the branches of my plants to the outer edge of the rim of the pots and each branch becomes its own bud site and cola. When I defoliate in preparation for flower I leave no more then 4 fan leaves at each growing top and remove the majority of the fan leaves, any fan leaf that shades a top and lower growth, this is a perfect time to select cuttings to root as clones from the plants you are about to place into flower. I defoliate in flower at days 21-25 of flower when the stretch phase has ended by removing lower growth that will not produce anything except for popcorn bud and any fan leaf that shades a bud site and again if required at day 45.

KingJohnC's 400 Watt LA Confidential Seed Cabinet Soil Indoor Grow Journal

KingJohnC's Brainstorm Haze Soil Indoor Grow Journal

KingJohnC's Lush Lighting LED Dominator 2x Soil Indoor Grow Journal & Review

There is a good example of how I defoliate in this Grow Journal and Review

KingJohnC's Twilight Groups LED 432W Spider COB Seed Cabinet Grow Journal & Review

 

[theengineer]

indeed good sir, yours is one of the techniques I employ. I leave only the fan leaves on the actual bud stalks, and remove any that are shading. I don't defoliate as much in veg as I just let them get on with it, then before flower, and after day 21, the reaper goes in

 

[RickityCrickt]

KJCs defoliation and yours are two different techniques. I can still see fan leaves hanging off of KJCs plants.

I still think you're taking the defoliation too far and too long in to flower. If you feel you need to defoliate that much then you're under lit. Also, the swelling of the bud sites you're noticing after defoliating would have happened regardless, you just need to wait a day or 2 longer. Most of the strains I have run over the years don't start to really swell until day 48-55......

 

[theengineer]

I think you're misunderstanding, bro;

there are still fan leaves on my plants, but not on the main stem, only the bud branches

I don't defoliate after day 21, so I'm struggling to see the difference in the techniques, unless you're assuming the Amnesia Haze was defoliated recently, which it wasn't

I didn't actually mention any swelling of bud sites after defoliation, just an increased yield at the end of harvest, with smaller pots and half the veg period

I have gone from a 600w HPS in a 2.5 x 2.5 grow space, to 750 watts of PlatinumLED, so I'm hardly lacking in light, I just like the way the lower buds turn out to be awesome rather than popcorns

this is not my first grow..

 

[RickityCrickt]

I was totally misunderstanding you.... Sorry bud

 

[theengineer]

no worries, bro, text is a shitty way to communicate, it isn't always easy to explain oneself clearly, as I have just demonstrated

 

[theengineer]

just ordered the following;

holy grail kush
trainwreck
sfv og kush
mazar
chemdawg
cheese - free
white widow - free
Afghani - free

 

[british green]

Nice beans dude . Just read though your journal . It's been a nice read on my lunch .

 

[theengineer]

the original sour diesel has had it's 21 day defoliation - I will get pics up tomorrow, but i really cannot say enough good things about these lights, the explosion of growth on everything they touch is just incredible

 

[theengineer]

this weeks updates;

the jacks, just over a week till the one on the left is chopped

its head

12/12 form seed; Delicious Cotton Candy - 1 week old

Amnesia's Cola

and in better light;

that double header

nice even canopys

and today's newest arrival, a Lemon Kush going 12/12 from seed

thanks for looking

 

[PlatinumLED]

BEAUTIFUL!! The towers of flower power on those two plants on the lower left and upper right...!!

Very curious which one of those was the plant from your photos just a bit ago with the HPS/P450 comparison?

Beautiful, beautiful work. I'd love to see more detail photos of those massive flowers with some contrasting normal light. Maybe try some nice side closeup shots with the flash..

 

[theengineer]

the HPS/P450 comparison plants are the ones in the very first pic, the two Jack Herers. now they're both under the P300 together, the only difference is the ex-HPS plant is clearly about 10 days behind the LED twin.

I'll try and get some daylight shots for next week's update, and capture the Amnesia's colas, as quite simply, they're like nothing I've ever produced

 

[poly]

Lemon Kush from Femaleseeds? If yes, then have fun! They are fun to grow. I have 6 of them and it seems that i have 6 different phenos, every girl is different.


And i would recommend to go 11/13 instead of 12/12. My Plants are happier now as they were under 12/12.

Where is the White Bhutanese? I will veg mine 6 weeks together with the Malawi and the Arjans Ultra Haze and then pow pow

 

[theengineer]

The Bhutanese sits with the other 25+ beans I have, I have a habit of impulse buying them, so now I have the next years worth of seeds to work through

and yeah, femaleseeds lemon kush, I have had them for a while, have grown a few of them, and I am now trialling a 12/12 from seed run under the new lights, as the previous run under HPS want what I hope it would be.

I have heard of the 11/13 lighting schedule; what is the reasoning behind it?

 

[theengineer]

and 6 weeks veg - you're going to need a tall tent, bro, I ran 6 week lemon kush first time round in my tent and the two tops grew to between 6 & 7 feet, and had to be tied down, then suspended at mid way up the tent - they really, really liked the HPS

 

[theengineer]

I've spotted a spotting on some of the Amnesia's leaves. I'm colour blind and therefore not the best at determining colour based issues, so if one of you kind gents would assist, there will be reps

 

[PlatinumLED]

Do you have a magnifying loupe handy? Flip the leaf over.

Even with your bare eyes, you don't see any mites.. do you? Look for little teeny tiny specs that move..