Some questions about what's the next step for my grow? Switch to flower?

Hello again fellow growers. I am 60 days into my first grow, and I am quite lost with how to proceed, plus some general questions. It would be really great is someone can help me out here cause I really don’t want to mess this up after getting so far.

I have 3 plants in a 4x2, from left to right: RQS Critical, Seedsman Blueberry, RQS Amnesia Haze:

Single pics of each plant:
RQS Critical:

Seedsman Blueberry:

RQS Amnesia Haze:

I topped each plant twice (once from the main stem, and then a week or so later on top of node 3 of the 2 main stems) and did a manifold the Nebula Haze method. I only tied down the growth tips on node 1 of each plant though, the tips at node 3 were too small at that point to tie them down (and I’m also running out of space to stretch them out more towards the tent walls/door). The Blueberry was only tied down from the 2 main stems, and I didn’t tie down any growth tips, they were very small and short so I was worried to force them. Here’s a pic to show what I mean:

Amnesia Haze: (tied 2 main stems and tips from node 1)

Blueberry tied: (only tied from the 2 main stems)

So, my questions in this point I’m at are:

  1. Is it time to flip to flower? Plants are 36" away from the light, and I don’t have too much room left on top to lift the light. Getting worried about the flowering stretch.

  2. I have a SCROG net, would now be a good time to set it up?

  3. The top growth of the Critical (and a bit on the Amnesia Haze) are showing yellow tips (image below), is this light stress or a nute problem? Some of the leaves’ sides are a bit wavy also as you can see. My light is an Electric Sky ES300 (330 Watts) on 65% intensity with the dimmer, 36" away from the plants.

  4. This is just for curiosity and not an issue, but why is th Blueberry so small in comparison to the other 2? Is it cause it was in the centre so maybe the other 2 starved it for light from the sides? Or maybe just genetics?

Final question, this one is for you @beardless , after reading through your journal ‘GDP to start the new year’ (GDP to start the new year - #134 by beardless), in post 134 you pinch off the new growth tips at node 1, why do you do this? Should I also be doing this since I’m following the Nebluze Haze manifold method?

I would like to thank everyone here in advance for all the patience and advice. You all have helped me on more than one occassion and I truly do appreciate everyone’s effort here.

Best wishes to all, and thanks once again for everything!

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Plan on them doubling in height after the flip. If you are going to do a scrog, now would be a good time, but if your canopy is as flat as you want it to be, it isn’t necessary. Thay look gorgeous, by the way! Good job!

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The plant was not yet at the height I wanted to allow secondary growth tips to develop. It would be a thicket had I let them grow.
This photo is from a few days after the referenced post. I had just strung the scrog. No secondary growth tips are starting below the scrog

This gives you an idea of where I let some of the secondary bud sites grow. They are above the second frame which is 5" above the first

I had the space and height to let it grow since it is in a 3x3x7’ tent. Right now I have maxed out the light’s height but I should be Ok. The buds should mostly fill in and not grow up.

@MeEasy uses the same light and grows in a 2x4. Also does variations on a manifold. Otherwise, a great resource to have.

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Your ladies look marvelous! Good job. Are you checking your ph and runoff? What nutes? I am flipping tomorrow (420) because I am afraid my tent isn’t tall enuf either. Mine are about 16" from soil. Good luck.

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3 plants in a 2x4 can become a handful I do it every time I say I’m going to do 2 but always ends up 3 so flip a little early you need the room they can really pack a tent

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That tents about to get very busy. If thats a seedman blueberry fem? It can fill that tent by itself.i just harvested one this week with 8+ onces. Intense aroma and sticky as all get out.

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Thanks for the tag bro,
Hi @MagicCultivator420 I didn’t read through the whole thread so I’m probably going to repeat something already said.
I know a couple of your plants are big stretchers so I would expect close to a 100-150% increase in height I’ve had some haze plants stretch 3x their height. I don’t use a net most of mine are manifolds or something resembling one I like to play around with em.
I normally only let my sativas get like 12-16 inches high before I switch them to 12s because they do stretch a lot so if yours are around there I’d start dropping the light down on them and switch to 12s soon
I would say to try and get it to about 20" and 70-80% or so but you have to do it slow. Id turn it up and drop it 4 inches every couple days watching the plants for complaints. Once you get to 20" you can adjust it when necessary to stay there I like my es300s between 18-24" obviously the plants have the final say
later on you can crank your light up to 100% as you get better at reading the plants the harder you push them the faster things happen so by keeping it down will help you get better but I run mine maxed
Hope something in my babbling helps you out, good luck and feel free to ask me any questions I’ll do my best to answer or help find one. If you want to check out my growroom click on Homer then again on my featured topic and you will be magically teleported over. I just switched over to flower in my 4x4 full of sativas with two es300s on them

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Hello again everyone, thanks so much for all the replies and getting back to me so quickly. So, I’ll try replying to everyone:

Yeah I’ve heard that they can double, or even get close to triple their height during the flowering stretch, which is one of the reasons I want to put in the net so I can bend some tips as they stretch to keep a more even canopy. I saw a journal of an Amnesia Haze which grew 4’, so I’m going to have to bend that one to keep it in line with the other 2. Thanks so much for the positive reinforcement, gives me some peace of mind hearing ‘gorgeous’ from a more experienced grower :slight_smile:

Thanks again for pitching in @beardless My plants are at the height I want them to be though (if anything they’re getting a bit too big for the height I planned, so I don’t need to pinch off these growth tips as you did and I just stick a net on top of them and weave the current growth tips I have through it? (trying to spread them out as much as possible in the process?)

I see that you’re using 2 nets, do I need to do this also, or it’ll work with one net? (I don’t really understand the concept of using 2 nets)

Thanks also for tagging MeEasy, I appreciate the tag for further assistance from someone using a similar setup to mine. You’ve really been awesome throughout! Thank you so much!

Thanks also for the positive comment @beachglass, as I told @Newt I really appreciate hearing good comments about my plants, especially this being my first grow and I’m so new to all this.

I check pH and EC when making the nute mix, but not the pH or EC of the runoff. I read that this is only necessary if someone is experiencing issues and is trying to troubleshoot issues in the root zone. Please correct me if I’m wrong and if I should start doing this.

I’m using the full line of Advanced Nutrients pH Perfect (the Coco version). They’re currenlty at full strength dosage of Grow A+B (4ml/L), and 2 ml/L of B52 and Nirvana. Plants are currently drinking 2.75 litres per day amongst them 3, so around 0.8 litres each plant on average. I water each till I get runoff almost every day. The Amnesia Haze drinks less than the others for some reason cause there’s always more runoff produced from her than the other 2 plants.

Awesome day to flip! 420 all the way!! :wink: Best of luck with your grow!

Oooh those are looking beautiful! Congratulations! Yeah, I imagined 3 would really pack the tent in well, but I prefer having 3 smaller plants than 2 bigger ones so I can have 3 different tastes/effects come harvest. It’ll be another 5 months between harvests (I only have this one tent), so I figured it would be a good idea having another strain to add diversity till the other harvest comes along.

Yep, it’s a Seedsman Blueberry fem. Wow, hope it doesn’t grow as big as you’re saying being sandwiched between the other 2, really don’t want to run out of space :confused: Weirdly enough, she was my biggest and fastest growing plant till the topping and manifolding, but now ended up as the smallest one. Wow 8 ounces from just 1 plant? That would be awesome! I’m hoping for 250 grams from the whole tent (I need that much to tide me over till next harvest if I want to be self-sufficient).

Thank You @MeEasy for taking the time to reply after being tagged.

My tallest ones are 14 inches, and the Blueberry is 12 inches, so I reckon it’s time to set them to flower then? So should I switch to flowering now, and start adjusting the light as I go? Or adjust the light first before flipping? Without meaning to sound like I am contradicting your advice, one thing is worrying me though about lowering the light/increasing intensity. I’m getting these yellow tips on the top most growth (same image as I posted in my OP). Won’t dropping the light/increase intensity amplify this? Aren’t these yellow tips from light stress?

Thanks I’ll check it out, dang, 6300 posts! That will take a while to read through x_X must be one succesful grow and interesting topic! Thanks for the link!

I would like to thank everyone again! You all have really been awesome with me here on several occassions. Thank you soooo much!

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2x4x6 pretty much stuffed the tent. 8.3 ounces one plant.blueberry fem.

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:astonished: Wow, ok that is huge… Did you train it out to grow like that though, or will mine bulk up like that also? Cause if she does, I’m going to have issues…

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I suppercroped and thru a net over her.


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Ah ok, whew, you scared me for a minute over there :sweat_smile: Beautiful looking plant though, well done! :heart_eyes:

I just grow for my wife and myself. 1 big girl twice a year gives us all we need. I’ve got the yeald down.

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The tip burn looks like what is called painted fingernails it’s a very early sign of nute burn which is a good thing, to me it means you are pushing it just hard enough to show but not hurt em
When you switch from 18 hour days to 12 hr days the amount of light the plants are getting drops by 1/3 and the stretch starts after flipping em. What I do is get the light down on them where they are getting alot of light if you look at the chart below the yellow original line is what I recommend daily light for plants (dli) where it has the big drop is the switch from 18 to 12 hrs. The other line I drew on there to show what I try to do it’s higher than recommend because it’s the top of the canopy I like to put more up at the top so further down into the plant it’s getting that recommend amount of light, this makes for longer colas :grin: it would be a good idea to learn a little about dli if you don’t already know about it because it gives you a good starting point for your lighting, I and most others just use the photone app on our phones to get a measurement it’s probably not perfect but the plants make you adjust to them anyway so perfect isn’t necessary :wink:
There’s a bunch of bs’ing on my thread :laughing: I try to update each tent once a week

Screen-Shot-2018-12-28-at-11.19.14-AM

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Yep, same here, but I’m just growing for myself. Same here, I’m planning on 2 harvests a year, but with various strains instead of 1 big plant for different tastes and effects :wink: Glad you got your yield down, I’m hoping to get to that point.

Aw dang, you 100% positive that it’s got nothing to do with the light? Cause dang it I’ve been holding back on increasing the light intensity cause I was thinking it’s light burn/stress :frowning:

Yep, that’s the chart I was trying to follow also (but the unamended version, playing it safe for my first grow)

Yeah I was linked to a very interesting topic about DLI here, and I am using it also. Ah, just a heads up, if you’re using Photone on Android, it’s not so accurate, it’s fine on iPhone though. Here’s where I got this info from: PAR meter APPs tested & compared for accuracy – MIGROLIGHT

Since I’m on Android, I’m using a Uni-T Lux meter paired with the PPFD Meter App. This gives me readings in PPFD and DLI instead of Lux. Got this idea from here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ipf_6TUmhXk

This is the Uni-T I’m talking about:
download

So I’ll look into flipping to flower this weekend then. Just one thing holding me back before flipping, is there a very clear tutorial (preferably with pics from the side of the plant rather than the top) somewhere on how to defoliate the plants before flowering? I got the idea from here (Complete Cannabis Flowering Stage Defoliation Tutorial | Grow Weed Easy) for light to penetrate further and grow arm-length colas, but I’m terribly anxious that I’m going to mess it up. Don’t really know which leaves to remove, and I really should do this cause it’s like a jungle under the canopy. It’ll promote more airflow and also won’t waste energy on the lower bud sites which won’t be getting enough light.

In that article Nebula just uses her thumb to defoliate, can I do it with the pruning shears instead? Seems more hygienic for the plant in my opinion.

Thanks once again for your time and advice :slight_smile:

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That’s what I was saying about the phone app it’s just gonna get you close, the lux meter is probably better but I don’t know much about em. I don’t do a lot with the phone app I just stuck it in there a few times to see what I could see the version I have doesn’t even measure past like 850 ppfd (I think it was) and I’m not going to pay to use it once or twice on each of my lights to get an idea of where to start. It’s perfect to start with lower light intensity because the more you push the faster things happen after a couple grows you can play with your light more and see what you can do.
Nebula has an article on light burn/stress too she shows a bunch of pictures of what to look for search for light burn on their site. I’m prolly 95% sure that’s painted fingernails on your leaves. Here’s some pictures that shows my way and I learned a lot from Nebula and have tweaked it some

I have some pictures of what I like to do before flower.
Before… After


More from the same grow … couple weeks later

I’m growing with living soil now so I leave a few extra leaves for food storages than when I used synthetic nutes.
This is my last grow… right at light change


A week or so later

The 3-4 week trim

A couple weeks before harvest…

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Oh and I use my shears for trimming just clean em up a little with alcohol every once n a while

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@MeEasy Wow, thanks so much for the side by side comparison, it will really help. I really appreciate you taking the time uploading before and after pics. You have very beautiful plants, and the manifold structure you did is lovely and so neat (I started mine out a bit too late and some of the branches had hardened, so it’s more of a Y shape than how flat yours is).

Regarding the painted fingernails, before I opened this topic here, I sent an email to Advanced Nutrients with the issue, and I just heard back from them recently and they told me to flush. What’s your opinion on this? They also asked me for runoff pH, I gathered it for 2 plants:

pH 5.7 EC 2180
pH5.8 EC 1840

My feed is pH 6.0 EC 2080.

Everything looking ok? I don’t really know what to do with this info.

Thanks again for everything, you (and the whole community) have really been great! Thanks soooo much! I really can’t stress that enough. Happy weekend to everyone! :smiley:

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I’m growing in organic soil now and have been for some time so I’ve been away from the testing and numbers so I’m very rusty and don’t trust myself to give much advice on it but I can holler at a couple other growers , in no special order just as I’m remembering them and I believe these are using synthetics
@SilvaBack203 , @JJ520 , @CooterJuice , @Graysin , @OGIncognito , @beardless

One or more will be able to help you out… thanks guys 1aaa

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Those numbers arent horrible, at all. Painted tips!! Yes as @MeEasy said thats a good sign. Plants are taking all you can give them. When i see this i back off on my ppms just a touch. Id drop your ppms to 1800ish and keep on what your doing. When you see ppms rise a tad and ph drop a tad thats telling you the plants are starting to recieve more nutes than they can eat. I dont think i would flush, yet. Drop your ppms going in and continue to monitor

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