The girls are now 26 ins and 21 inches.@beardless I topped the on one that is 26 inches last week and I see new growth as demoed in the pics. I thought that the new growth needed to be mature before flipping, am I wrong on?
This is my first photo grow and I have topped them 2 times. First the main stem. Second topping was the secondary stems produced by the first topping. I also topped all of the terminal branches below the first topped node. They are currently 8 - 9" tall and 43 days old.
I’m not sure mature is correct. I would use the description as established. The new stem growth is an indication of this. I belief the rule of thumb is it is OK to flip after about 2 weeks after topping. This is to provide recovery time and establish adequate new growth. With that said, I would think a little while longer, give those new stems a chance to grow a bit (maybe even first new branches) and then flip. Of course it takes time for the plant to transition so some of the new growth can occur during this transition period.
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Thanks for the info beardless. I am going to flip them on Monday. The new growth should be well established by then. I bend instead of trim. I take the really big fan leaves and I bend them back to give the lower levels more light. I’ve never done this before but I was seeing a lot of possible colas on stems that were being covered up.
This has really aided in growth.
You are well on your way. Be aware of height limitations and get as much bending in now and before transition to flower is complete. Also keep an eye on them for general health. Do they look different, color change, what is that spot, why are the leaves curling??? Also read the grow bible and review the ILGM guides they really provide a lot of useful information and they increase your knowledge base.
Thanks so much. I keep a very close eye on them, I’m obsessed lol. I check on the. 3 or 4 times a day to check on temp and humidity. I final got the temp down to 75 degrees and the humidity up over 50%. That has been a big battle. But they are looking very good and strong. Excited to flip them on Monday.
My wife likes it that I spend so much time in my “Lab” so I know what you mean. I will probably be flipping my NL around that time too. I am bending and tying them down now.
I didn’t see this until now. If you tag people (sparingly) or use the “reply” function, we’ll get notifications @BigCountry74
I’ll catch up on this later today.
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please let me know how you like the NL, i have been eye balling that strain.
Keystone i thought i was replying to your thread, i was most likely stoned when i did it and hit the wrong reply button. lol
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I’m glad you didn’t wait too long to change the light cycle. Hope this run fully works out. Maybe you want a game plan in place in case you need more light; right now it can actually be hard to receive the best LED lights in a timely manner, so it’s not a bad idea to assess your options.
I wouldn’t do this because I wouldn’t want to bring pests into my grow space. If you do decide to take the risk, perhaps you want to start crop-scouting in your yard first to see what pests and beneficial-insects are already there. Swarms of ladybugs May be encouraging, but keep in mind they’re swarming to eat something else…
@beardless @keystonecops, I flip the light cycle as they are getting to big and i didn’t wan them to out grow the tent. Keystone i still haven’t figure out what the watts are on this light. going off of its looks and having smaller lights for the first couple grows, i can tell its bright and seems to be covering the girls very well. my tent is small 3x3. i think the light is doing ok… but i would love to her some suggestions on budget friendly lights that i could use. thanks you guys I can’t wait to see how they turn out. I will keep you posted.
I have an HLG 260 XL V2 RSpec, which covers a 3x3 very powerfully and also very good (efficiently). I think any of the HLG 260 lights would be great in a 3’x3’, and they start about $300. You could build a light out of HLG QB120 boards or similar, and that might save you more money. I dunno.
Hopefully you’ll have a good harvest, and can save money by not buying flowers for at least a few months. You could put the savings into the HLG, which will deliver really stellar flowers, as long as the genetics are good. Flowers are more than $350/ounce here, so it’s pretty valuable to grow your own (which I am not, because that would be illegal.)
Give BudgetLED a look as well. I am using 3 of their 250W fixtures (comparable to HLG 260’s) and zero complaints.
One thing about HID lamps is that they will make your plants GROW but also increase the demand of Nitrogen needed to support that growth. Depending on what your grow medium is, you might want to providing additional N to your plants.
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Are you certain you’re using “HID” correctly? HID covers HPS, MH, CMH, and a few others that aren’t used for horticultural purposes as far as I know.
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HLG is the gold standard here on this sight. Budgetled makes a decent light also I have the series 2+ 250 R-Spec and it works great. If you’re really on a tight budget I just ordered a Meijiu 240W Quantum 288 board Samsung lm301b V2 diy led grow light with 660nm from Alibaba and so far it seems to be pretty decent. I did the same as you and many others here and originally bought two “1000” watt lights from Amazon but I did do enough research before starting my first grow and bought the Budgetled thanks to a recommendation from @Bulldognuts. I believe if money is a concern any new grower would be better off with an Alibaba board over any blurple light on Amazon.
No, I’m most definitely not using HID properly here. I guess I always think of QB-style fixtures and Hight-Intensity Discharge lamps as being the same because QBs are… well INTENSE.
Apologies!!
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Well on week in the books and the girls are looking really good. The on that I topped has 4 distinct colas and while I am looking at it there seems to be on coming iOS from beside the cut mark which would mean 5? Is that possible? They are really filling out nicely and everything just seems to be going alone like it should. The tallest is 32 in and the other is 26 in, the shorter one has out grown the taller one but 2 inches over the last 2 weeks. Here are some pics @beardless @KeystoneCops
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You should actually end up with 2 colas where you topped. The topping will cause the main stem to be split into 2 secondary stems. Each of these stems should produce its own colas. Think top for twins.