2.5x1.5 cabinet (first grow)

I'm not really aiming for any number, I was just kind of wanting to fill the space. I've been trimming off every other node (the verticle ones) and at the moment she'd have 14 tops? There's currently 3 remaining nodes on each arm of the manifold.

I'm not practicing the traditional manifold/mainlining, I decided to go with Nebula's manifold technique because there's less recovery time involved.

Hey guys I need opinions! I was initially planning on sending my plant into flower on 4/20, a week from now and basically the plant's 2 mark since first sprouting. The thing is she's starting to get really bushy in the middle of the box but the sides of the box are still empty. It's pretty clear even with training this plant won't be able to fill out this rectangular of a space unless I cut off the oldest branches. So should I start flowering now, wait the week and flower on 4/20, or cut the largest branches and then wait the week?

Quick pic of alternating nodes



Here's how bushy she is, she's starting to push on the sides of the grow area. Also pictured is the pegging system I'm working on for the SCROG

Can you put up a pic of the front side of the plant like facing the plant so i can see the branch development. Something like this.

I dont see any reason you cant fill out the square with some training

I tried my best to get some usable pictures. I'm pretty scared of over pruning so she's really bushy.

Do you have any tips on what i can and cant cut off the plant?

Federson said:

I tried my best to get some usable pictures. I'm pretty scared of over pruning so she's really bushy.

Do you have any tips on what i can and cant cut off the plant?

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Personally i dont like heavy defoliation. When i scrog i clean up under the net like most everyone does. I dont want to tell you to butcher your plant. It just takes some experience.

Removing large fan leaves to allow light to hit more bud sites helps. Just start small remove maybe the 1st and 2nd nodes from each branch. Thats the popcorn at the end of the grow anyway. Puts more energy into tops doesn't get wasted on small stuff that never amounts to anything. Give it a few days to recover and look it over.

Just go by feel but if youre worried about hurting it too much just let it ride. Once you get the screen in it will be easier to see what will and wont make it up to the light when you flip and thats the stuff i get rid of. I have a grow journal where im in a scrog right now going to flip to 12 tomorrow night if you want to see what i have done. Title is 3x3 led sour diesel blue dream super lemon haze.

Hope this helps.

Also remember when you put flip to 12/12 your plants are going to really stretch and push out before bud production and even into it. you'll fill it when you flip.

Okay I gave my plant a quick trim and put in the screen so you guys can have a better sense of what's going on with the branching. I've heard that thing about cannabis really growing during the first 2 weeks of flower, which is kind of why I wanted to flip to 12/12 now. What do you guys think? You can see the center most 2 branches toward the back are already almost to the edge of the screen, those are really the branches I'm most concerned about maneuvering if they get any longer. Where would I guide those branches?

I would prob wait another 3 days then flip. You will just have to pull everything left and right. The stretch is hard to estimate unless you have grown that pheno of that strain before but a good rule of thumb is double the height.

If your plant is flowered at 12" expect at least a 24" plant. But you control some of the stretch by filling in the net. If it gets to be no more room then let em come up. You will probably already have scroged enough stretch your head room should be fine.

Quick update, I got a few goodies in the mail today!

I got a UV bulb that'll be running all day along side my tastyLED. Supposedly it should aid in the development of terpenes. I also got a far red/infrared bulb which is supposed to act as a trigger light and is supposed to decrease flowering time. The trigger light is set to run for 30min at lights on (15 before and 15 after the lights turn on) and also 30min at lights off.


I also gave the plant more grow nutes (1/2 str) 2 days ago and the plant responded very well. She hasn't burned at all which I'm loving, and I'm starting to wonder the the brown tips from before were maybe nutrient deficiency related?

Anyway I'm really looking forward to this new phase in my plant's life!

Curious why you wouldnrun it for 30 mins and also why before the plant wakes up? Also what is the nm spectrum of your bulb?

I'm using 2 single outlet mechanical timers so I have them run 30min because it's too hard to get them to sync exactly so at least this way I know it's running for about 15min after lights out. And before the plants wake up is because I've seen people mention doing both, and I figure it's probably not hurting any thing even if it's not helping either.

And this is the spectrum taken off the product's website

Hiw many watts is the bulb? Really though it shouldnt hurt anything much having the overlap due to mechanical timers. I used one before went to digital so much happier. Red spectrum with lights on will cause it to stretch which is why everyone tries to limit the overlap to 1 min.

But i dont see any reason to run the light before lights on. The point of the light is to put the plant to sleep faster. If you do that then why use the light again to keep it from waking up and causing extra stretch?

Alright good looking out I didn't know having it on with the lights on could make the plant stretch. I'll cut it to 15min only when lights are out and cut out the morning red completely if it actually can hurt more than help!

Big update today! My brother came over the other day and told me my house smelled like pot, luckily he's cool and has grown a few times before, I know he won't tell anyone that I'm growing. Clearly my DIY carbon filter isn't cutting it, so I spent some cash on an exhaust+filter setup from VenTech and set it up to feed into my attic.

I also built a box to start seedlings in. I'll probably germinate some new beans when there's a little less than a month left in flowering. I'm using that cheap chinese UFO as the light and again decided to go with the "stealth" theme even though with the new exhaust in my closet the grow isn't near quiet unless I close the doors and turn on my loud-ish air purifier in the main room that the closet is in (to mask the noise).



Meanwhile my plant is doing great in flowering, she's stretching a bit but it's not too bad. I'm probably going to stop tucking in my ScrOG and just let the tops do what they will.

Been forever since I updated. I believe today is day 21 of flower, but I'd have to double check. There's about 34 days left of flower, I'll pop seeds in about two weeks then. In the mean time enjoy some pictures!

So it's day 40 of flower! If she lives up to estimates she should be ready to harvest in two weeks! She's got a little nute burn because I've been pushing her hard but i think she's really coming out well. Tonight she got her last meal, she'll be getting nothing but water from here on out.

If I could do one thing differently, I would cut off all the branches that aren't the 10 main colas. I've got a lot of larf growing under the canopy and I think the roots could have sent more nutes to the main colas if the small under-buds weren't in the picture. I'll do a picture with a Bic for scale when I harvest, but as it is my biggest colas are only a bit taller than a Bic... but I have 6 big colas so it should be an okay harvest for my first grow I think.

Sorry I never updated this. I did harvest quite some time ago, the bud is currently curing. I've been busy building up a new area to grow in my closet so I can have 2 plants instead of one. I'll report weight once curing is complete.

Okay so I weighed it and it came out to 77grams. I did sample through the curing process so let's just call it 80. Not too terrible for my first grow I think! Smokes well enough.

Thanks to everyone that's given me pointers along the way and to rollitup and anyone that's ever published anything useful on growing cannabis!

Federson said:

I also decided (after much googling) that one CFL is enough for her at the moment, so I cut off the LED.

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Yo early stage for led or you have to keep 24" from canopy seedling.

OZAK47 said:

Yo early stage for led or you have to keep 24" from canopy seedling.

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It's only 138 rated watts. At 12", it'd probably be fine.