Some Flowering Questions

[The Mayor]

Hello!

 

I am growing what is called Lemon Paw. It's a hybrid of Lemon Skunk and Monkey Paw. It takes about 8 1/2 weeks to flower and I am 1 week into my first flower cycle. I ended up vegging longer than I wanted due to not having the flower space ready. So one of my initial concerns is that the table they are in may not end up being big enough. I don't know what I'll do if that is the case.

 

It is really bushy...or I think it is. I have 6 plants in an ebb & flow system. The second day of flowering I pruned off maybe 10% of the lower interior portions of the plants. A couple days later you couldn't tell.

 

I did LST (combined with one round of topping and fimming on occasion) during veg and tied the plants over sideways as well as keeping many of the larger branches horizontal. It has become a bit of a jungle already.

 

 

 

I see a lot of people put a grid of string over the tops of the plants.

 

-Is this simply so you have something to secure the stalks to in order to hold up the colas? This was my assumption, and what I had figured I would be doing. I have been told the colas become heavy.

 

-Does it aide in limiting plant height at all?

 

-When roughly should I have this grid in place?

 

 

 

Attached is a pic I took 3 days ago with a phone. It's a bit dark and yellow, sorry. (NOTE: I took the picture off because the file size was too big and I had to upload more!)

 

Some of the branches seem to want to rise higher than the others. They are stretching a little, but the one day or so that I had the light a bit lower (18 inches off the top) in order to reduce stretching, the leaves started showing signs of light burn (using a 600 w hps). So I'm keeping it about 2ft above.

 

Do I just let them go at this point? or... Should I try training/tying any of them at all to keep the plants at an even height until I apply the grid/net/whatever it is called?

 

I'm all ears for comments or concerns. I know I have quite a few weeks ahead of me, but I figured it wasn't too early to ask. Thank you in advance for any input.

[wingnut]

Hello!

 

I am growing what is called Lemon Paw. It's a hybrid of Lemon Skunk and Monkey Paw. It takes about 8 1/2 weeks to flower and I am 1 week into my first flower cycle. I ended up vegging longer than I wanted due to not having the flower space ready. So one of my initial concerns is that the table they are in may not end up being big enough. I don't know what I'll do if that is the case.

 

It is really bushy...or I think it is. I have 6 plants in an ebb & flow system. The second day of flowering I pruned off maybe 10% of the lower interior portions of the plants. A couple days later you couldn't tell.

 

I did LST (combined with one round of topping and fimming on occasion) during veg and tied the plants over sideways as well as keeping many of the larger branches horizontal. It has become a bit of a jungle already.

 

 

 

I see a lot of people put a grid of string over the tops of the plants.

 

-Is this simply so you have something to secure the stalks to in order to hold up the colas? This was my assumption, and what I had figured I would be doing. I have been told the colas become heavy.

 

-Does it aide in limiting plant height at all?

 

-When roughly should I have this grid in place?

 

 

 

Attached is a pic I took 3 days ago with a phone. It's a bit dark and yellow, sorry.

 

Some of the branches seem to want to rise higher than the others. They are stretching a little, but the one day or so that I had the light a bit lower (18 inches off the top) in order to reduce stretching, the leaves started showing signs of light burn (using a 600 w hps). So I'm keeping it about 2ft above.

 

Do I just let them go at this point? or... Should I try training/tying any of them at all to keep the plants at an even height until I apply the grid/net/whatever it is called?

 

I'm all ears for comments or concerns. I know I have quite a few weeks ahead of me, but I figured it wasn't too early to ask. Thank you in advance for any input.

[wingnut]

edited by wingnut.

[wingnut]

also nice clean room in the pic

[MightyMightyMezz]

Trellises can be used for supporting plants, but the thing you are talking about is a scrog or screen of green. String can be used, but it has to be tight to keep the branches down. You can use 2x2 or 2x3 wire fencing. I made one out of bamboo garden stakes.

 

A scrog allows you to even out the canopy and multiply the colas by forcing branches to grow to the side. A form of LST is what it is. Let the branch grow through the square a couple inches, then pull it down and over to the next square. This leaves a bud site that will now receive more light and grow into a cola plus the one in the square next to it.

 

With a plant like yours you can lower a scrog from over the plant and let the branches through. Make the plant a little shorter be forcing branches to the side. It will necessarily have a larger footprint, but height will be checked by the scrog.

[wingnut]

Trellises can be used for supporting plants, but the thing you are talking about is a scrog or screen of green. String can be used, but it has to be tight to keep the branches down. You can use 2x2 or 2x3 wire fencing. I made one out of bamboo garden stakes.

 

A scrog allows you to even out the canopy and multiply the colas by forcing branches to grow to the side. A form of LST is what it is. Let the branch grow through the square a couple inches, then pull it down and over to the next square. This leaves a bud site that will now receive more light and grow into a cola plus the one in the square next to it.

 

With a plant like yours you can lower a scrog from over the plant and let the branches through. Make the plant a little shorter be forcing branches to the side. It will necessarily have a larger footprint, but height will be checked by the scrog.

You are right I was wrong it is scrog late night, I have to crash.

[The Mayor]

When is a good time to put the scrog over the plants?

 

Thanks Wingnut, I hope to keep it that clean!

[rockinlespaul]

I'm assuming using this system your going to have a much longer flowering period?

[The Mayor]

I'm assuming using this system your going to have a much longer flowering period?

 

The person I got this strain from uses a similar set up and his flowering lasts 8 1/2 weeks. So I have been expecting that to be pretty much what I would encounter.

 

I am a bit worried about height over that period of time, which is another reason I am asking about the scrog. I don't have a whole lot of headroom left to go up.

[Grow Thread]

a scrog is best began in the veg stage when the plants are about 8" tall. yeah, you seem to be a bit past that point. scrogging now is nearly impossible. at least a "true" scrog is. the branches are too mature to twist and bend around string. this should be done as they grow, not after they grow. FYI for next time

 

as far as your height prob now, i would build a pvc "fence" around them to tie them to. just a pvc box, as tall as they are now, and instead of letting the branches grow straight up, tie them to the sides first.

[The Mayor]

Okay. I was wondering if that should have started that earlier. Scrog in veg next time, check.

 

I have screws all around my frame right now that I use as anchors to tie over the branches as they have been growing. They seem to bend rather easily still other than the thicker older parts (which for the most part are already trained to the side).

 

Do you think tying them back this way will accomplish the same thing as the pvc box? I had already planned on building a pvc frame for a trellis, so whichever way works best I'll do it.

 

I saw an Urban Grower video where he prunes his plants the first and third week of flower. Thoughts on that?

 

Should there be a point where I could really get under these plants and take off the bottom and interior growth more?

 

I have a fan blowing on them pretty well in order to keep the air moving through, but wonder if I need a bit more breathing room underneath.

 

Thanks for all of the input so far everyone.

[Kevin]

Hopefully it will work out. I've seen chest tall plants in dirt and 6" pots and it was good.

 

Best of luck with that bro.

 

 

 

 

Peace.

[The Mayor]

Thanks Kevin. I won't be able to put anything up until Monday. So I am currently just tying them off to the side to try and control the height. I'm really trying to figure out how much, if any, more pruning I can do to the plant. Even if it is just getting rid of the undergrowth to help air movement for them.

Even when I'm having issues it is fun learning this process. What an amazing plant.

[Grow Thread]

sounds like you will be just fine as is bud. as far as the bottom pruning, i would really have to see some detailed pics to give you my opinion on your specific plants and what i would trim off.

[The Mayor]

Thanks bubblegrower. I appreciate it.

 

I'll take some nicer ones with my SLR and upload them tomorrow (it's lights out right now) hopefully in the morning.

[Grow Thread]

keepin' my eyes peeled

[The Mayor]

Ok. Here is where I am at right now. Sorry I did not get to it this morning. I was unable to get to my grow space until now but here goes.

 

You'll notice in the first pic that I have my light at about 18 inches (and closing fast) above the plants. I only have about 8-10 inches more that I can raise the light with about 6 weeks left to flower.

Can I still attempt to put a screen over the top to help control my height? Will putting a PVC frame around and tying the plants to it be enough? I want to do whichever is best, and I would like to do it today.

It's a 600 w hps, so from your other posts I see that a 3.5 x 3.5 ft screen would be the size to go with. I'm gonna be crammed for space!

 

Then of course, should I prune the undergrowth at all? In the 3rd picture down you might be able to tell that I trimmed a bit of the lower brush, but in a couple days it filled in quite a bit. I am going to also cut all the string off that I am using to hold back the branches today and replace it with something that won't dig into my branches as has happened on one already.

 

Thanks again for the help.

[Grow Thread]

ok cool. i have a MUCH better idea now. thanks

 

thats another testament to the necessity in having pics for help

 

ok, ............. screen? way too late for weaving IMO. you still have about a week left in the "2 week stretch" according to your numbers too. since you are height restricted, what i would normally chop off, i think you should leave for the moment. go with the pvc fence or something similar. its cheap and takes 3 minutes to build. just a generic frame. i would make it exactly as wide and as tall as the plants are right now. for the moment, your bottom scrub looks healthy and it is definitely helping the plant take in light so i would leave it for now.

 

i would get that fence built, get your string situation taken care of, and be "on call" for tying any squirly branches up for the next week. after the week is over, then we can take a much more detailed look at what needs chopped, what is going to get enough light, and what should be tied down. let them do their own thing as much as possible, but have that fence ready to tie a few branches to before the stretch is over. you may need it. and it will also come in handy in a few more weeks when you have branches wanting to fall over from the MONSTER BUDS you are going to be burdening them with!!

 

looking SUPER by the way!!

 

great grow, let's get ya through this one, and you will have a strong feel for things. maybe you will want to try a scrog next time, and maybe once you see what the final product looks like, you may get some ideas in your head for next time and decide to keep things more the way they are. either way, we are all here for ya!!

 

when growing larger/taller plants like i normally do, it is necessary to do quite a bit of "cleaning" along the bottom. they are just way too far away from the light. when you start bending/tying the plants down to restrict height, obviously those lower branches become exposed to the light, and remain much closer to the light throughout the entire flower period....... meaning they are going to produce meds. if those lower branches are shaded by 3 feet of lush growth above them, then you may as well just cut them off now because any amount of energy the plant puts into them is a waste, and that energy could be used elsewhere.

 

no trimming yet, build a fence, and get ready for action thats my opinion.

[The Mayor]

Nice! Good explanation. That all makes sense to me so I will build the fence tonight. I'm off to Home Depot to get more pvc.

 

Thanks for taking the time to help! Much appreciated.

[The Mayor]

While putting the frame up and tying some of the branches, I bent one accidentally and it snapped (bent but didn't break off or anything). I basically tied it to the frame to support it and left it on the plant. Is that alright? ...or should I clip it off since it is damaged?

[Grow Thread]

it will probably heal itself. you will know by this time tomorrow usually. so everything else went well??

[The Mayor]

Pretty good. I was using that 3/4 inch wide plant ribbon that's kind of like a poly material to tie what I could. I found it a frustrating to use so I may look for something different in the future. I didn't have enough time to cut all my strings and re-tie the lower stuff, but I can accomplish that tomorrow no problem.

 

It isn't very neat in appearance. I feel like I have branches going this way and that since many were right near the fence, and therefore had to be bent over to a different area of the fence to be secured. Afterward I thought I probably should have just gone around the grow in one direction and tied them to the fence in more of a crop circle fashion rather than a bit randomly as I ended up doing.

 

I can't believe how fast it is growing. It seems like inches per hour sometimes. They're going through almost 3 gallons of water a day. Little white hairs are just starting to appear!

[Grow Thread]

haha.... i share in your excitement. believe that. AND........... please, PLEASE subscribe to the fact that a plant is grown for its potency and not its beauty i have had some just ridiculous looking plants produce medicine that has had me floored.

[Daika]

I noticed the plant seems to be growning every which way. Tight pruning in the earliest time possible will stop this. I had the same thing happen to me on my very 1st grow. I had 2 plants, I only had enough light to support 1 plant. So I basically chopped the lesser plant down to the first or second notch. I groomed the other plant to produce 1 solid cola. Well I ended up getting a MH finally. The larger, more payed attention to plant was tremendous. But all the sudden the chopped down plant rose up and produced a bush like plant. In the end the bush plant produced more and higher quality bud. Moral to the story is, grown it however. Just make sure its healthy.

 

In my later grows I acutally intentionally did the same thing to help my indica strains maximize output. Good luck, it will be fine i am sure.

 

Also it looks like the plants could use more WIND. Healthy amounts of wind grow strong plants. Also raising the light will make the plant strech out. Sometimes good, sometimes bad.

 

 

Good luck!

 

Edit: After looking at your later pics, I noticed the plants are working hard to get to the light from underneath. This is commmonly known as light loss. The room seems to be soaking up all the light that should be reflected by something on the floor and walls. The less the plant has to work for the light, the less stringy it gets. Try putting something very white on the floor. Mylar is your best friend.

[The Mayor]

A bit of a side note. I just flushed for 24 hours prior to starting week 7 of my Fox Farm nutes.

 

I see on the schedule going forward that I will be changing the res every week. Now, will I need to flush each time I change the res? It doesn't say that on the schedule, but I'm asking.

Also, this week I flushed the res starting on the 6th day of my week so that my next week started on the same day that my first one did with the plan that I will continue forward having each week start on the same day that the first week did (in this case Friday).

I feed three times a day. One hour after the lights come on and one hour before they go off. The middle feeding is right in the middle of those two. Are three feedings enough? I know that some people do four. My plants so far seem to be doing well with three so I have not been worrying about it.

 

 

Also, my brother and I were suggesting supplemental lighting and the fact that some people will put lights around the lower parts of the plant that aren't hps with the thought being that the more light the better.

Thoughts on this?

 

I have 3 22" florescent lights that are wall mountable, and can easily change the bulbs in them if I know what type to put in them. They are T18's I believe. I would love to try this if there aren't any reasons not to.

 

Otherwise the tying to the frame seems to be a success so far. They do seem to be stretching a bit slower than they had been last week, but they're still growing a bit. I'll probably tie a few more off to the side tomorrow as needed. The frame has made the distance from the light situation much easier to regulate.