Timeline strategy with my first grow

[CamZ]

@rama777 the hope is that you’ll have the knowledge and spread it, creating less work overall. 😉

[rama777]

1. So I’m noticing in photos of plants that branches continue to grow outwards as they stretch. In that case, this larger plant seems like it’s really gonna smush some main colas against the tent wall. Any tips to avoid that? Or is it not a huge deal if I have adequate airflow and rotate the plants daily? I’m open to using screens if they will help me get out of problematic predicament.

[rama777]

In hindsight I regret tying them down so hard since they seem to have a very bushy habit. They’re still only 6” tall from the top of the pot. Perhaps I could just cut the main tops loose from their tie downs and maybe they’ll tighten back up a bit? If I flip now, they’ll wind up being only 18” tall or so which seems like it would be wasted potential.

[rama777]

Bushy might not be the right word.

[rama777]

I jumped the gun. Feel free to skip responding to this! I untied the mains on the monster plant and can see that I will be able to tighten things up. I tied them back down for now but I’m glad I played around with that because I can see that when I do loosen them up, they will add a few inches to overall height so I will keep them down and let the interior tops outpace them for a few days.

[rama777]

Well shit, I accidentally broke one of the main branches on that plant! Lol, maybe that’s not the end of the world since it’s the biggest. Future space problem solved!?

I taped it up and put a support underneath it. Considering just letting it go though..

[rama777]

I am so incredibly confused about light distances with MH and HPS. The forum discussions on them are outdated and not very scientific.

But an average recommendation is 12-18” for 400mh (what I’m currently running). Some went as low as 8”

Personally I’ve been running at 15-16” which seems to be around 7,000 lumens. There are old charts floating around that show optimal distance ranges for MH and HPS. The optimal range for a 400Mh according to the charts is between 18” and 5”. 5??

And then for HPS it shows 8-29?” Obviously both of those extremes are ludicrous. At least 29” is. 8 certainly sounds risky and with questionable spread.

My plan was to keep the HPS at 16” but maybe not at first. 16” HPS is 16,000 lumens. That’s double the lumens of what I’m running with the MH at 16”. I’m sure there is a question of photosynthetic usability based on the spectrums. Sheesh. Not much helpful information.

What wise words can you share from experience? Should I lower my MH to 14” for a couple of days, then maybe even bring it down to 12” until I switch/flip in about 10 more days?

Then when I do switch, should I begin by matching the HPS distance to the equivalent lumens that they were getting under MH, then just keep decreasing the distance until I get to?? How close is too close?

I do not believe I will have any issues with leaf surface temperatures regardless so I should be safe to go as low as I can, whilst still keeping the ladies happy. I’m not trying to stress them out. I just want to aim for the most light they can get without inducing harmful stress.

With all the years under HID, I’m surprised there isn’t better information out there. I can’t seem to find it anyways, otherwise I wouldn’t be bothering you about it. I tried before asking, a lot, I swear 😉

 

[rama777]

Day 41, 7” tall. Lookin’ awesome. Lots of tops. More than I expected. My uninformed thoughts are to either thin out the number of tops during the eventual pruning sessions and just let ‘em loose from there. Or, keep all the tops and probably (need to?) put in a screen after the end of veg pruning and maybe another one midway through the flowering stretch.

Or I guess a third option is to keep all the tops and not use screens. But somehow that seems risky. I’m envisions buds touching buds. At that point I’d be tying things to the poles in which case screens would likely make a lot more sense.

Fewer tops and no screens sounds good to me, if indeed there are too many tops to continue unsupported. But, if you thought that would potentially decrease my yields by more than 5-7%,g I’d bite the bullet and use screens.

[mrgrowit]

Sorry for the delayed response as the past few weeks has been hectic. Your plants look great!

General recommendations for HPS, MH, and CMH light distance are as follows:
Seedlings, clones, mother plants: 24″-36″
Veg stage: 18″-24″
Flower stage: 12″-18″
Environment conditions, nutrition, and genetics will influence the amount of light can absorb so that’s why there are ranges.

I’m sure once you do that pruning, you’ll find thin branches that are lagging behind that you’ll end up removing. If you’re trying to max yield and ensure the plants get the support needed in flower, then a trellis net is an excellent option.

[rama777]

Thanks man, and no worries on the delay. You’re kind enough as it is taking the time to help people out!

Here’s where I’m at. I defoliated the bottom 1/3-1/2. I think I’m 3-5 days from the flip.

[rama777]

[mrgrowit]

You filled up that space nicely 👏

[rama777]

Thanks man, almost totally filled out!

[rama777]

I’m trying to get a handle on how to prune and support. I ordered a couple screens, different mesh size, just to keep at the ready in case I need them.  I probably will.

Because these plants are trained so low, and because they will stretch probably 2.5x or so, lollipopping the bottom third as I’ve done really does not at all represent the finished height bottom third.

So there will definitely be some major pruning that will need to happen during flower. I guess maybe around the second week. If I add screens before then, pruning the back plants will be hell, if it’s possible to even effectively accomplish.

So, if I do use a screen or even two as support, will it still be effective if I wait until the second week of flowering, right after the major pruning? This strain supposedly continues to stretch, which may be in my favor. If I pruned and then put a screen in and they just stopped stretching, well then the screen would do nothing 🙂

I’m imagining that I will be able to prune in flower and then screen. Sound like a reasonable plan?

[mrgrowit]

Hard to tell you for sure since the growth rate is impacted by many things within the grow and the genetics. Many people will add the net late in veg right before flipping to flower and then the first weeks into flower it grows into the SCROG nicely during the stretch phase. Other people will add the net in the beginning weeks of flower.

I’ve continued to bend branches into the net for the first 7-14 days of flower and unfortunately they didn’t stretch up beyond the net after that and I wasn’t happy with the result. So it can be a gamble.

[Author]

Posts