CFLs and The Ladies (First Grow)

Hello all, SWIM is new to the forum but has been around reading for quite sometime gathering information answering his/her own questions. SWIM has finally decided to create an account for some positive feedback and constructive criticism on his/her Ladies. SWIM has limited space for his ladies so in turn is having to make due with what he has. SWIM is conducting their project with four plants grown from seedlings the strains are: three Grapefruit Kush, along with one L.A. Confidential. This is SWIM's first grow so he/she is still learning and looking for feedback. With the ratio of 3 to 1 SWIM has used his grapefruit plants to test and experiment leaving his/her L.A. Confidential plant unharmed, however seeing the outcome from fellow Grapefruit plants decided to top her. Below are the choices SWIM has to each Lady.Grapefruit 1 / 9wks veg: Topping, Trimming, and Cloning.Problems: 4wks into veg encountered overwatering so damaged some fan leaves. Grapefruit 2 / 7wks veg: Is testing Flowering so SWIM will properly know how to go about the Manicuring, Harvesting, and Curing stages successfully.Problems: N/AGrapefruit 3 / 5wks veg: Will be my better mother after SWIM tests Flowering with Grapefruit 2 and induces flowering to Grapefruit 1.Problems: N/A L.A. Confidential / 9wks veg: Topped and Trimmed but will see LST in the future to gather more lovely clones.L.A. Confidential: GrapeFruit 1: Grapefruit 2: Left to right are the strains left in my VEG setup.L.A. Confidential, Grapefruit 1, then Grapefruit 3:

Firstly nice looking plants. They are going to be tall as shit when you flower lol. Secondly nobody here refers to them self as SWIM.

Just a habit, I've been on multiple forums that still use SWIM. I didn't plan for them to be that tall since they were indicas but I wanted to test cloning and wanted room for error in case things went south. Plus I want my harvest to be sufficient enough to enhance my setup.

Here is an update on my Grapefruit I put into flowering (week 3)
My L.A. Confidential mother after topping

You're doing good so far, but you don't mention your lights.
Chances are, you could have prevented some of that height with better/ closer lighting.
Adding to whatever lights you have now, will improve your chances of a good harvest also.
Right now, I can get 2 3/4 oz. dried and cured from one plant with 30 days veg in a 2x2 are with 300w of CFL's.

They are just set under a shop-light fixture with 4 T8's nothing special but getting the job done; the flowering room has the same setup but with two CFL's on the side to get within the canopy. I'll have to find the box that has the lumen and watts on it, so I'll post that later today. How would I add my light? Would I just do 4 times the wattage of the bulb in turn giving the total? After this little harvest I plan on upgrading my flowering light to an HPS setup and moving the other shop light into my Veg room so it's all in time.

tall plant like that with T8s and a couple of CFS is going to have a decent top, and pidly popcorn. Id LST it to increase the amount of bud it makes. Figure 100w per plant. Otherwise, nice job. Plants look nice and healthy, keep it up.

Interesting that the grapefruit you have is indica. Mine is 90/10 % sativa/indica. They stretch way out the first 2 weeks of flower. Don't remember what seed bank we ordered them from though.

Merlin34 said:

Interesting that the grapefruit you have is indica. Mine is 90/10 % sativa/indica. They stretch way out the first 2 weeks of flower. Don't remember what seed bank we ordered them from though.

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you are right I just read on it, my apologies. I bought them second hand from a friend and he said it was 90/10% India/sativa.

m4s73r said:

tall plant like that with T8s and a couple of CFS is going to have a decent top, and pidly popcorn. Id LST it to increase the amount of bud it makes. Figure 100w per plant.
Otherwise, nice job. Plants look nice and healthy, keep it up.

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I know what LST is but how would I start training them that tall? Any tips? This is as the title says my first grow so I'm still learning.

topping actually quite easy but if you wanna get a more busy full plant id say fimming would be your area you should play in, Just go to the top node fine the latest growth and just snip it off from its base where they came out from the stem, There should be a little nub left after but it will have 2 main colas and way more lower growth, youll get some nice trees this way. by the way the plants are looking real good friend! nice first grow

jswett1100 said:

topping actually quite easy but if you wanna get a more busy full plant id say fimming would be your area you should play in, Just go to the top node fine the latest growth and just snip it off from its base where they came out from the stem, There should be a little nub left after but it will have 2 main colas and way more lower growth, youll get some nice trees this way. by the way the plants are looking real good friend! nice first grow

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Fimming? As in the, "fuck I missed" method?

Rpatches said:

I know what LST is but how would I start training them that tall? Any tips? This is as the title says my first grow so I'm still learning.

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Sure, Grab the top of that plant by its 3rd node from the top. lightly tie a string around it. pull the plant down gently and tie the rope off on the side of the plant. let it set for a couple of hours. then untie your string from the pot and pull it down a little more. Wait 24 hours and watch as all the side branches and the top grow up. I lst'd a 3 foot plant once. takes some patience to get it to bend completely over.

m4s73r said:

Sure, Grab the top of that plant by its 3rd node from the top. lightly tie a string around it. pull the plant down gently and tie the rope off on the side of the plant. let it set for a couple of hours. then untie your string from the pot and pull it down a little more. Wait 24 hours and watch as all the side branches and the top grow up. I lst'd a 3 foot plant once. takes some patience to get it to bend completely over.

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Alrighty, do I need to cut the fan leaves that will be pointing down toward the soil? I saw a diagram that said I should but it looked it was made from the paint program off Microsoft. lol

Could I do dimming to my mother L.A. to gain more clones then use uncle bens method to the clones to get 4 main colas?

Here's a little update of my Grapfruit.

Rpatches said:

Alrighty, do I need to cut the fan leaves that will be pointing down toward the soil? I saw a diagram that said I should but it looked it was made from the paint program off Microsoft. lol

Could I do dimming to my mother L.A. to gain more clones then use uncle bens method to the clones to get 4 main colas?

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You odnt have to cut the fan leaves off. If theyre not getting light the plant will suck out the nutrients, dump a bunch of trash in them and then shed them.
As for the LA, yeah you could fim it while its in Veg. Once a plant has its buds growing, let it grow.

m4s73r said:

You odnt have to cut the fan leaves off. If theyre not getting light the plant will suck out the nutrients, dump a bunch of trash in them and then shed them.
As for the LA, yeah you could fim it while its in Veg. Once a plant has its buds growing, let it grow.

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Fair enough, I cut two fan leaves off my Grapefruit that's in flowering due to it covering a plentiful amount of flowering sites. All is well with her, she's showing substantial signs of growth.

If I took cuttings off my L.A. then LST'd it do you think that would be to much stress on the plant at one time? I don't think it would but again I'm new to this, so just double checking.

m4s73r said:

You odnt have to cut the fan leaves off. If theyre not getting light the plant will suck out the nutrients, dump a bunch of trash in them and then shed them.
As for the LA, yeah you could fim it while its in Veg. Once a plant has its buds growing, let it grow.

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How's this look? You said third from the top so I took it as third from where I topped it.

You may want to put a string around the base of the plant so you dont pull it out of the soil.and it looks like you went from the third node from the bottom of the plant, go from the top of the plant so it looks like a candy cane. and if it feels like its not bending right where it should grab it by the middle and wggle the whole top of the plant back and forth till it moves. This wont hurt it or stress it. and if you have a couple of branches at the base that you want to cut off and clone, go for it.

m4s73r said:

You may want to put a string around the base of the plant so you dont pull it out of the soil.and it looks like you went from the third node from the bottom of the plant, go from the top of the plant so it looks like a candy cane. and if it feels like its not bending right where it should grab it by the middle and wggle the whole top of the plant back and forth till it moves. This wont hurt it or stress it. and if you have a couple of branches at the base that you want to cut off and clone, go for it.

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So I would go from the third node from the top and lst it to a candy cane shape? That would leave some leaves pointing backward, correct?