1st Grow in a while

When is it necessary to pinch the apex meristem?

  • Never. Topping cannabis is purely aesthetic and has no bearing on yield.

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    2
  • Poll closed .

Maat Aatack

Well-Known Member
Hello hello community. I wanted to share this grow because I would like to try to give back since i have gained much from the people and information you all present in these great forums.
Like I said it's been a while, but I have been growing on and off for the past 25 years or so. Most of my grows have been outdoors, but a few of them have been inside. All of them until this point have been illegal, but this one i am currently is not.This is a completely above-board medical garden. The only people that are not aware of it and i have to hide it from are my kids, so i have locks on everything :)

The setup is as follows: two rooms, veg and flowering, 5 x 8 and 13 x 8 respectively. I am working with Galaxy DE balasts and SunSystems BOSS hoods with phillips 1000w bulbs in both rooms. Active air exchange with both intake and exhause fans in the veg room are 6" inline fans connected to a variable day and night temperature thermostat.

I am growing a White Widow x Big Bud cultivar called 'Mangolicious'; feminized, from Amsterdammarajuanaseeds.

The first batch of 10 seeds was germinated using the paper towel-in-a-closed-tupperware-container on a seed sprouting mat method. . .overkill and not even as efficient. I got 8 seeds to germinate. 6 of them are very healthy and two are kinda deformed looking possibly due to mishandling between the container and the soil. The seed germination medium was 2 parts seed mix and one part FFOF. The plants began to show nutrient defficiency after about a week, but recovered after transplanting to the solo cup. The solo cup i used was clear, and they were inlaid into 1 gallon containers filled with the soil they would be next moved into. The clear cups allowed easy viewing of the roots (during lights out of course), while the dirt surrounding them protected the roots from the light during daytime. When i went to move the plants from the cup to the gallon, it was a very simple procedeure (round peg in round hole) and the plants suffered virtually no transplant shock. Since they have been in the new gallon containers I've given them one watering of 16oz of full strength Botanicare Pure Blend Pro Grow and Liquid Karma by the same company. At 23 days old today, I may give them some straight up water at lights out.
The second batch of 10 were all sewn directly into FFOF filled 2" peat cups, under a dome with a sprouter mat, and i got 100% germination and emergence.
I'm currently running my ballast at 750watts, up from 600watts just since i needed a bigger area for the new seedling dome. The hood is about a foot and a half from the canopy.
Ok I think that gets this thread more or less current. Ok now for some pictures.
 

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bravedave

Well-Known Member
Hey! Going to utilize your clear plastic solo idea. I already kind of do it as I put a clear solo inside an opaque one, giving me the same ability to check roots...but your burying the cup is something I have to try.
 

Maat Aatack

Well-Known Member
Hey thanks! And Awesome! :) I hope the inlaid cup works for you. . .lemme know!

Just did my lights out assessment. I decided to water them because it was dry a knuckle and a half down, and I saw some signs of water stress: leaflets canoeing on some of them. I'm struggling a bit with keeping the RH up in this room. . .sometimes dipping to 35%. I had some open water-filled totes, and a small humidifier which would get it up to 50% at lights-out, and 40ish% at the end of lights on. I removed all but the humidifier, and it just can't keep up by itself, so. . . I'm going back to open containers of water.I'm hopeful that once the veg room is in full swing the number of plants will assist in keeping the water in the air.
 

Maat Aatack

Well-Known Member
So the ladies are moving along nicely, 27 days of growth from seed.
The new seedlings that are about a week old have taken a hit in their move from the germination dome to solo cups: 4/10 show severe necrosis on leaves due to heat/light stress. I since turned the wattage down to 850.
Also still struggling with RH% even with two wet towels on the floor, a humidifier, and open water tote outside the room at the air intake. it bounces around 40% at the end of lights on period, but if any one of those "humidifiers" goes dry or missing, it quickly settles to 35% and under.
Mary.JPG girlsApr20.jpg Mary.JPG girlsApr20.jpg
 

Maat Aatack

Well-Known Member
Having a bit of a scare with N-tox. . .hyper-green color and the dreaded "claw". . .i've leeched them twice in the past 2 cycles. . .lights just came on. . ..
 

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Maat Aatack

Well-Known Member
k so it's been a bit. . .moved them all into the newly fashioned flowering room. I have monster air exchange in there with a 12" Max Q fan exhaust and an 8" Max Fan Pro. temps range between 70 and 75 degrees, but the Relative Humidity is still a struggle. I know low RH is desirable in the flowering stage, but being new transplants. . .not a day too soon because they were a bit rootbound, it would be helpful if the RH could hover in the 50-60% range for a bit. Looking at makeshift auto-humidifiers. . .any suggestions?
 

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Maat Aatack

Well-Known Member
Even though I've had virtually no feedback to the poll at the head of this thread, and as a reflection of its current results, I went ahead and topped 4 of the 8 ladies in the flowering room. I did the 4 tallest plants to help maintain a consistent canopy height, and only pinched the newest growth. Being in the transition period between veg and flowering, I'm curious to see how they respond.:leaf:
 

Maat Aatack

Well-Known Member
Hey check out my makeshift humidifier! I've raised the RH% a solid 10 points! the fan blows directly across the beach towel, which bounces over to the plants. One day in the room and the babies are looking thankful.
 

sworth

Well-Known Member
Looks awesome! Big Bud x White Widow is a favorite of mine :) I only just got back into growing recently as well, so I'll be following this here thread for sure :weed:
(My vote would of been
Sometimes depending on spacial needs and/or the growth habit of the plant. ;) )
 

bravedave

Well-Known Member
Even though I've had virtually no feedback to the poll at the head of this thread, and as a reflection of its current results, I went ahead and topped 4 of the 8 ladies in the flowering room. I did the 4 tallest plants to help maintain a consistent canopy height, and only pinched the newest growth. Being in the transition period between veg and flowering, I'm curious to see how they respond.:leaf:
Yeah, I did not answer your poll because I am a newb that is still evolving. My current grow...when they got to be about 12-15" in veg, I topped the main and LSTed the whole plant down to one side of pot. The results are going to be a new "high" in yield. Most the plants have produced a couple main colas, but also the second tier is quite hefty and plentitful. On day 61 of flawa of a 70 day plant. Excited to harvest.
 

Maat Aatack

Well-Known Member
I answered the poll as "sometimes depending," but I had forgotten how well herb does being tied down and pinched :-). However, that being said, I did not leave any of my plants un-tied regardless of stature or size. The largest of the bunch is topped and bent over 2x, while the smallest is gently coaxed into a more advantageous position.

Ya see, this variety was only maybe a foot tall at the time I put it under 12/12, so I was on the fence about doing it at all. Turns out though that the plant occupies more area on the horizontal plane after LST than before even though there wasn't much plant to work with.
I'll get some photos later this evening...
 
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Maat Aatack

Well-Known Member
So I've got 12 teenage girls spending the night tonight, and the wife was all up my ass about having stuff ready for the big night. . .in my haste I forgot to pH the nutrient solution for tonights feending. . .hate not knowing what it was.

Anyway, gonna send the photo-update via mobile because i can't find the cord. . ..
 
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