Vertical op maintenance.... I'm not doing it right

[Osamabintokin]

Hi all, I hate being lame at growing weed, it's the best plant in the world and deserves all the love in the world...but for the best of me, after a year of dabbling, I compare my yield of avg. 1 pound per 1000 Watts with the epic 4-6 pounds per 1000 Watts on the net, and I just feel like some trust fund baby who's thrashing his Lamborghini because he can't drive it.

I have a row with both sides lined up rockwool slabs and a vertical drip. The 1000 Watts are in the middle. Simple enough?

As far as my maintenance schedule is concerned:

Change water weekly or when the tank gets to half full (the pumps stress out otherwise)
Adjust ph and maintain it within range
Clean the gutters weekly
Foliar spray (algae/sprayngrow) weekly
Check for bugs
Check straws to make sure roots don't jam in them and stop the water from dripping
------------

And that's it so far. Anticipating the question : do you check EC levels...the answer is no if only because I don't know how to adjust it if it was off. I figured that since I change the water so frequently, it wasn't worth doing. I'm using a hydro recipe that's been tried tested and true, big brand name stuff in Qc that includes flowering boosters.

FIM technique was tried, the space between the plants from one trunk to the next is roughly 10 inches, so making them bushier didn't seem to help much. Lollipoping hasn't been done, if only because after four weeks of growth, the plants are just beginning to touch each other. Aside from the occasional leaf removal, no other touch up on the plant was done. I get bushes with a big bud and a lot of popcorn.

I wish someone had some pointers, it seems I'm wasting a lot of potential. BTW....I don't care if you have an 8 hour daily schedule, I'm up for it. It's not the lack of will so much as it's a lack of know-how.

Thanks

 

[madmarv0525]

First off welcome to
I would only monitor ph daily trying to figure out what nutes to add when checking ec will drive you crazy just top off your res with more of your original mixture add some pictures and we can help more what are your Temps how is your rh do you have good air exchange do you have airflow through the canopy a lot of things go into growing our beloved plant you should consider starting a grow journal for assistance. Many things are an easy fix if you ask for help the awesome people here will get you where you want to be happy growing

 

[Osamabintokin]

I appreciate the quick reply. As far as temp is concerned, we keep it under 28. We have a good air intake and the ventilation is as good as it is. Just no AC, so lights get cut by half around summer.

I would like to post pics eventually, but what I really need to know is the pruning/Low stress training needed for a vert with narrow spacing between plants.

 

[madmarv0525]

It is all really about what works best for you they only need enough space so they don't block each other I have no experience with a vertical bare bulb but have read you want them above the canopy until the end of the flowering stretch and then lower the light so I would assume tall plants without a very dense canopy would be your best bet maybe 4 large colas per plant since you can't really rotate them I would think more would be blocking a lot of light hope this helps a little