Feeling kind of dumb... :P

[bpgrower]

First time doing this and honestly have no clue what I'm doing I have four plants, 62 days ago I started germination. All four are "feminized" according to the website I purchased from.

I started indoors with two of these: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GNWK2XO/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_2?pf_rd_p=1944687522&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B0034QE9ZY&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=HG2QBE9XYBWA18VR858G

They got too tall for the space I had them in so I moved them to a greenhouse outside. They quickly took that over so I had to move the two smaller ones into my garden and left the two larger inside the greenhouse.

Fast forward to today - the tallest was hitting the ceiling of the greenhouse and over crowding the other one that was in there so I moved it indoors to my extra bathroom thinking I'll start a 12/12 light cycle on it.

What should I do with the other that isn't in the ground? I have already decided to go ahead and let the two that I planted in my garden to just do their thing and play that by ear but I want to at least try to make sure the other two do what they are supposed to do. I see other people post pictures of their plants and they all look SO much shorter but bushier and more full than mine.

Any suggestions? I added pics of all four plants.

 

[somebody1701]

You should top them and get them bushed out. You need better light so they are fuller. Not sure trying to flower those now will be productive.

 

[bpgrower]

You should top them and get them bushed out. You need better light so they are fuller. Not sure trying to flower those now will be productive.

Well, they have all been outside for the last 45 days or so - I haven't set my lights up in the shower yet, I took the photo right after I moved it inside. Is there a how to link for "topping" so that I don't mess it up? Then the two in the garden, should I just leave them as they are? They get the most direct sunlight being on that side of the garden.

The other one is still in the greenhouse - would you advise leaving it outside and leaving it alone or should I "top" all of them? I'm so sorry, I am not very up on the lingo and haven't had much spare time to really read about the different techniques :-\

 

[bpgrower]

OK, I just did a quick search and I think I get it. Is there a way to salvage what I cut off? Should I only cut the very top off? It's pretty damn tall, at least the one that I brought inside is.

 

[Budgoro88]

OK, I just did a quick search and I think I get it. Is there a way to salvage what I cut off? Should I only cut the very top off? It's pretty damn tall, at least the one that I brought inside is.

I'd cut it to the roots to tall for my liking
cut it in half when you flower it's gonna stretch, to much cellulose isn't good my friend

 

[LegalizeNature420]

What strain is that, and in which region of the U.S. do you reside? I ask because I live in the Deep South and it's so humid here that I must be VERY selective as to what strain I plant outdoors, otherwise mold will strike and completely ruin the bud. Just concerned about those in the greenhouse.

You should go to Walmart [or any garden center] and purchase some rooting hormone, take clones before you switch over to 12/12. It would be a shame if you ended up with stellar bud from one of the plants but didn't clone. Moreover, you shouldn't keep ordering/paying for seeds when it's not absolutely necessary.

Your pots look small and I notice a bit of nitrogen deficiency (lowering leaves are yellowing). You should probably transplant to a larger pot.

And as has been mentioned, top the plant to form a bush; it's simple as pie. Also, get a stronger light for flowering, as vegging plants will grow just fine under weak light but such is wholly insufficient for flowering.

 

[thewanderingjack]

so... you should have done something MUCH sooner.

There's not much wrong with those lanky bastards, really, excepting the problems that come with such height/lankiness.

Though as suggested, they look to be having a slight problem

http://ww2.marijuanagrowing.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/CannabisPoster4000.jpg

The best thing you can do at this point (as already suggested) is top the plants and clone the tops you cut.

There's many ways to clone. Different costs/different success rates for different people (some people use nothing to root, and still get great results, some use things like aloe or honey, most use a cloning/rooting gel, some use complex systems).

You can also top the side branches and clone those. Just make sure to leave plenty of noded branches and good fan leaves.

If you do that, you will want to wait a while to flower so the plants can recover and grow out.

Anything you do, you will probably still have to support those things with something. When the buds come in the weight will drag those branches down and cause damage, losing you bud.

The short bushy plants you've seen are usually a product of topping (usually a lot of topping) and LST (which can't help much here because you're already looking at such a tall plant, it'd be huge stretched out horizontally too ).

Next time you gotta be a little more attentive from the get go, the more you catch early on, the less problems you have in the long run...

 

[bravedave]

The one in the shower....

Transplant to a bigger pot. Double your pot rim radius. Water well and wait 2 days.

Top the main. Taking off 12" or so. Bend/LST from the top to get the main stem as close to horizontal to the ground as it will let you.Work your bending slowly, bouncing it slowly avoiding it snapping. New transplants may want to turn up the root ball at the base. Stop if you see that happening and tie it off there...you want the plant to be bending not the dirt to be giving way. Give it time to get past the transplant shock and start growing anew. .Light as close as possible. 20-24 hours per day. Side lighting that beast may be beneficial too. After a week or two, switch to 12/12.
Have fun.

 

[bpgrower]

so... you should have done something MUCH sooner.

There's not much wrong with those lanky bastards, really, excepting the problems that come with such height/lankiness.

Though as suggested, they look to be having a slight problem

http://ww2.marijuanagrowing.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/CannabisPoster4000.jpg

The best thing you can do at this point (as already suggested) is top the plants and clone the tops you cut.

There's many ways to clone. Different costs/different success rates for different people (some people use nothing to root, and still get great results, some use things like aloe or honey, most use a cloning/rooting gel, some use complex systems).

You can also top the side branches and clone those. Just make sure to leave plenty of noded branches and good fan leaves.

If you do that, you will want to wait a while to flower so the plants can recover and grow out.

Anything you do, you will probably still have to support those things with something. When the buds come in the weight will drag those branches down and cause damage, losing you bud.

The short bushy plants you've seen are usually a product of topping (usually a lot of topping) and LST (which can't help much here because you're already looking at such a tall plant, it'd be huge stretched out horizontally too ).

Next time you gotta be a little more attentive from the get go, the more you catch early on, the less problems you have in the long run...

Would this be a good fertilizer to help with the Nitrogen deficiency? https://www.amazon.com/Dr-Earth-9000-Fertilizer-16-Ounce/dp/B00BSULFNW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1470415089&sr=8-1&keywords=liquid+nitrogen+fertilizer

And is this a good rooting hormone? https://www.amazon.com/Garden-Safe-TakeRoot-Rooting-HG-93194/dp/B00AA8WPGY/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1470415148&sr=8-2&keywords=root+stimulator

 

[bpgrower]

What strain is that, and in which region of the U.S. do you reside? I ask because I live in the Deep South and it's so humid here that I must be VERY selective as to what strain I plant outdoors, otherwise mold will strike and completely ruin the bud. Just concerned about those in the greenhouse.

You should go to Walmart [or any garden center] and purchase some rooting hormone, take clones before you switch over to 12/12. It would be a shame if you ended up with stellar bud from one of the plants but didn't clone. Moreover, you shouldn't keep ordering/paying for seeds when it's not absolutely necessary.

Your pots look small and I notice a bit of nitrogen deficiency (lowering leaves are yellowing). You should probably transplant to a larger pot.

And as has been mentioned, top the plant to form a bush; it's simple as pie. Also, get a stronger light for flowering, as vegging plants will grow just fine under weak light but such is wholly insufficient for flowering.

Washington state, about 20 miles from the Idaho border. Desert like climate with very low humidity!

For a larger pot, what size would you recommend?

 

[thewanderingjack]

Would this be a good fertilizer to help with the Nitrogen deficiency? https://www.amazon.com/Dr-Earth-9000-Fertilizer-16-Ounce/dp/B00BSULFNW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1470415089&sr=8-1&keywords=liquid+nitrogen+fertilizer

And is this a good rooting hormone? https://www.amazon.com/Garden-Safe-TakeRoot-Rooting-HG-93194/dp/B00AA8WPGY/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1470415148&sr=8-2&keywords=root+stimulator

Both seem fine to me I've only heard one cann grower using it, was happy, though you'll get a lot of mixed opinions about ferts in here... and prob clonex as the highest recommended cloning product... but seriously, if it works well for other plants it'll work for you

With the fert: start slow... much lower than recommended... let say 1/8th, or 10th... you want to make sure not to burn the plant, because while you can stop the burn, you can't repair the damage... meanwhile you can slowly add more till the plants look like they're balancing out without as much danger... also, be careful... watch out for other issues (excesses in something else from your addition)... keep a close eye til things level out.

As for pot size, biggest you can deal with, for biggest plants... so pick you container based on how big you want your plant to be... in this case for transplant, at least 2x the size... you'll see why when you look at the roots while re-potting

 

[bpgrower]

Alright, I'm going to make a trip to the garden section at ACE and see what I can find locally I am in no rush to start flowering these guys, so if I can get them to where they should be (AKA short enough to bring back inside to my growing room!) then I can have a lot more control over them indoors and make sure that they are good to go before changing the light schedule for them.

Now, the two in the garden - should I top those as well? Try to widen them out a smidge? I feel like the entire bottom half of those two plants are struggling because of the excess nitrogen deficiency from being in the garden soil :-\

 

[bpgrower]

OK - transplanted the two that weren't in the garden. I used stakes to bend the smaller offshoots over to the side - I can't get the main stalk to bend at all, it's too thick. I cut 6 clones off of all four and tried those with rooting powder. The two in the garden have such minimal growth that I'm not sure what to do with them - I can't bend the main stalk on those either but they have no smaller ones coming off of them on the sides.

I got the fertilizer, it's a dry powder. I was going to wait a couple of days for the two I just transplanted but I figured I would start fertilizing the ones in the garden this evening. Minimal amounts, right? How do the two transplanted ones look now? You can definitely tell the really big one apart from the other one with all the smaller sections tied down.

 

[cocojo3]

Another option is to Supercrop (squish stem and bend down without breaking outer skin of stem). Normally I will do this instead of topping when they get too tall. If the height is from a single main stem then top away.

 

[Cannacat]

They're gonna double to triple in height once you flip them so I'd take them a lot shorter than that if you're wanting them to fit comfortably without running the risk of them growing into the light and burning your buds

 

[bpgrower]

Yup, it's the main stem that is too tall! I will continue topping them....and try to figure out what to do with all the clones lol. I have 4 that are doing very well from yesterday (the first two were when I topped them and didn't have any root hormone, but they are doing better today). If I can figure out a way to get the clones out quickly I will just top them all down to the size I want, let them bush out a bit and then bring them inside and flip. The ones outside have NO other branches besides the main stem - not really sure what's causing their slow growth compared to the others but I think for now I will just have to leave them in the garden and let nature take it's course and top them enough to keep them hidden behind my tomatoes...

 

[cocojo3]

you can always just decapitate the plant as far down as you want and as cannacat said allow for 1.5-3x stretch. Make sure you wait a week or so after topping to flip to bloom to give the plant time to heal.