LB's Wildly Mediocre DWC/ScROG Grow

It's totally worth air cooling, if I could find some cheaper air cooled cmh's I'd probably buy a couple fixtures. And woah that's a dense canopy! I'm hoping to get to yields like that after a few runs, I just realized how bad my light penetration is down at my plant's first screen so this is going to be a long week of pruning. As of right now, a lot of the bud sites that aren't far past the first screen aren't getting much light at all, even though they are mainly the thinner stemmed buds that are sprouted off of the larger ones that are stretched out towards the edge. I'm going to try and not go to crazy with it though, just a few handfuls of leaves every night or every other off of each plant.

Logan Burke said:

It's totally worth air cooling, if I could find some cheaper air cooled cmh's I'd probably buy a couple fixtures. And woah that's a dense canopy! I'm hoping to get to yields like that after a few runs, I just realized how bad my light penetration is down at my plant's first screen so this is going to be a long week of pruning. As of right now, a lot of the bud sites that aren't far past the first screen aren't getting much light at all, even though they are mainly the thinner stemmed buds that are sprouted off of the larger ones that are stretched out towards the edge. I'm going to try and not go to crazy with it though, just a few handfuls of leaves every night or every other off of each plant.

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Yes it is haha. At harvest time you may have to do what I’m having to do atm.
Harvest the top section of buds then leave them for a week or two then harvest the buds that haven’t been receiving the same amount of light. But if you can get light to them now would be a better way of doing it Logan.
I look at my plants health to determine how hard I can defoliate at this stage. It will impact how resilient they are from any shock of going too hard defoliating and as you’d already know, if the plants aren’t as healthy then they will need those leaves to feed off. But from what I can see your canopy is thick and healthy. As long as you don’t see a lot of light on the floor then the plant is still photosynthesising all the light you are giving it anyway so don’t stress about it affecting yield as long as you don’t take all the leaves off one cola etc. and don’t go in and rip half the fans off all at once. I try to have good light penetration through my canopy by about week 4 at the latest as this is the time your plants will really begin packing it on, I like to not stress my plants from this time on and watch them swell

Yeah there isn't much light at all getting through to the floor of my tent, it's pretty shaded. I'll post pics tonight of how they look now and see what ya think in regards to how much more I need to prune off. It's really more of the small leaves blocking light in the center of my canopy though, the bigger leaves are mainly all out at the edge of the screen. Do you ever have to remove smaller leaves to get light penetration, or is it just usually the larger ones? It feels strange cutting off a bunch of smaller leaves haha. As of now, it is primarily the plant in the back left corner with penetration issues, the other 3 aren't all that bad really. I just over grew them this time I think, next grow around there should be way less of a need to prune and all. I do prefer to grow them bigger like you do though, it is just a bit more work haha.

Just a quick question, what should I do with budsites like these that are on the outer edge of the screen, coming off of the bigger budsites, that I can not possibly get worked into the screens? I have dozens or so of these types of budsites coming off of all of my big branches on the edge of the screen, and many of them simply aren't able to recieve much light and I'm at a complete loss on what to do with them...remove them? Leave them be? I must admit, getting in the nitty gritty of my screens I'm becoming a bit overwhelmed haha...any advice is appreciated.

Logan Burke said:

Just a quick question, what should I do with budsites like these that are on the outer edge of the screen, coming off of the bigger budsites, that I can not possibly get worked into the screens? I have dozens or so of these types of budsites coming off of all of my big branches on the edge of the screen, and many of them simply aren't able to recieve much light and I'm at a complete loss on what to do with them...remove them? Leave them be? I must admit, getting in the nitty gritty of my screens I'm becoming a bit overwhelmed haha...any advice is appreciated.

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Personally I’d leave them be Logan.
Depending on the strain, I have found strains that produce dense buds will still have fairly solid nugs with minimal lighting.
You may be able to strategically remove a fan leaf or 2 to allow more light.....
Having small low powered lights can come in handy for side lighting too!!
But for your first scrog I’d recommend, if your not sure then leave it
Your 1st scrog is looking great btw!
On your next scrog you will have a better understanding from this one and should be better again! My yields and overall quality went up big time once I started scrogging. Then I started adding co2! It’s no miracle dosing co2 but if you go down that path you will notice a difference if your using high powered lights like your 1000w hid

Yeah I think that adding co2 will be my next step forward in improving my yields, but I'll try one thing new at a time and add in co2 here in a few grows. I can't wait for my next scrog grow, it will go along so much easier than this one has haha. Thanks for the info!

Logan Burke said:

Yeah there isn't much light at all getting through to the floor of my tent, it's pretty shaded. I'll post pics tonight of how they look now and see what ya think in regards to how much more I need to prune off. It's really more of the small leaves blocking light in the center of my canopy though, the bigger leaves are mainly all out at the edge of the screen. Do you ever have to remove smaller leaves to get light penetration, or is it just usually the larger ones? It feels strange cutting off a bunch of smaller leaves haha. As of now, it is primarily the plant in the back left corner with penetration issues, the other 3 aren't all that bad really. I just over grew them this time I think, next grow around there should be way less of a need to prune and all. I do prefer to grow them bigger like you do though, it is just a bit more work haha.

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You can still remove smaller leaves but do this with caution if you do, as the smaller/younger leaves photosynthesise better than the large fans at this stage.
Looking forward to seeing an update photo. Try and get the full canopy of all the plants together if you can......?

Oh shit, I really wish I would've read your reply before last night...I didn't go all leaf serial killer on them or anything, but I did remove a number of smaller to mid size leaves that were in the center of the second screen. Anyhow, yeah the individual plant's themselves aren't quite equal in height...as mentioned before, one plant was veggied for one week less as I had a seed stall and had to pop a new one in seedling stages. But the other 3 are pretty close to one another in height, the biggest differential being between 1 and 3 inches at the tallest point on each plant. So, I'll do my best, but with there being no more screen horizontally left to stretch out the tallest limbs, it's looking more and more like I may need to just LST them on down if I can.

Hi mate. If you have some specific questions I'm here to help.

No offence meant, but I don't have the time to read the entire thread.

Happy to help if I can.

Logan Burke said:

Oh shit, I really wish I would've read your reply before last night...I didn't go all leaf serial killer on them or anything, but I did remove a number of smaller to mid size leaves that were in the center of the second screen. Anyhow, yeah the individual plant's themselves aren't quite equal in height...as mentioned before, one plant was veggied for one week less as I had a seed stall and had to pop a new one in seedling stages. But the other 3 are pretty close to one another in height, the biggest differential being between 1 and 3 inches at the tallest point on each plant. So, I'll do my best, but with there being no more screen horizontally left to stretch out the tallest limbs, it's looking more and more like I may need to just LST them on down if I can.

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I’m sure they’ll be fine Logan. Hopefully you are now at the stage to sit back and watch!!

No offense taken, it's 3 pages long! Hahaha. Do you guys think it's safe to supercrop this far into flowering (3-4 weeks from 12/12)? The branches have stiffened up so much that I'm lucky to bend the branches over an inch or two or I'd just LST'em down.

Hydro4life said:

I’m sure they’ll be fine Logan. Hopefully you are now at the stage to sit back and watch!!

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Haha yeah I keep reminding myself to chill the hell out, I have a tendency to overworry about my plants, but then again I'd say that's most growers lol. Even in the worst case scenario, I should still be happy with the yields. Next time around will be a lot better!

Just some popcorn bud sites left to remove. I'm sure there are some leaves as well, I'm just trying to be slow and cautious with the trimming. I'm going to stop trimming on 07/24, the 4 week mark to when I first saw some small preflowers. The buds act like they're ready to start bulking up, hardly any stretch going on if at all.

Logan Burke said:

No offense taken, it's 3 pages long! Hahaha. Do you guys think it's safe to supercrop this far into flowering (3-4 weeks from 12/12)? The branches have stiffened up so much that I'm lucky to bend the branches over an inch or two or I'd just LST'em down.

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I personally wouldn’t at this stage. Let them put their energy into big frosty buds!!

Logan Burke said:

Haha yeah I keep reminding myself to chill the hell out, I have a tendency to overworry about my plants, but then again I'd say that's most growers lol. Even in the worst case scenario, I should still be happy with the yields. Next time around will be a lot better!

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Not a bad thing when trying a new method. But soon it’ll become second nature and you won’t have to think too much about it.

Logan Burke said:

Just some popcorn bud sites left to remove. I'm sure there are some leaves as well, I'm just trying to be slow and cautious with the trimming. I'm going to stop trimming on 07/24, the 4 week mark to when I first saw some small preflowers. The buds act like they're ready to start bulking up, hardly any stretch going on if at all.

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Looks really good Logan!
Always harder to see in a photo as opposed to 1st hand. I’d leave them be if it were me and if the stretch has stopped then they should be about ready to go full flower. Not sure how far away your lights are but the closer you can get them without stressing the tops, the better the light penetration will be through the plant!

Logan Burke said:

No offense taken, it's 3 pages long! Hahaha. Do you guys think it's safe to supercrop this far into flowering (3-4 weeks from 12/12)? The branches have stiffened up so much that I'm lucky to bend the branches over an inch or two or I'd just LST'em down.

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You can pinch the stems to get them to bend down. Get your thumb and middle finger, crush the stem slightly until you can feel it becoming like a knuckle, whilst at the same time bending the stem down with your fore finger.

I've no idea what this is called but it works. Don't panic if you think you've snapped the stem, you won't do it any harm. Just take it steady at first. It's a bit like watching a magician bending a spoon if you get my meaning.

These plants can take a lot of stress and abuse.

I'd also invest in some potssium silicate. It helps strengthen the stems so you can work them easily.

I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure that's supercropping, having grown auto's forever I'm sort of new to HST and all but I'm working my way to becoming familiar with it. Much appreciated info MoodyShoes!

Hydro4life said:

Looks really good Logan!
Always harder to see in a photo as opposed to 1st hand. I’d leave them be if it were me and if the stretch has stopped then they should be about ready to go full flower. Not sure how far away your lights are but the closer you can get them without stressing the tops, the better the light penetration will be through the plant!

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Yeah I'm relieved at being pretty much done with the higher maintenance phases of growth, and it's good timing because my college classes start back up in a couple weeks! As for my lights, I'm still trying to find my sweet spot where I've had to raise them during stretch and all, now that it's over I'm going to try lowering them a tad bit until I begin to see some raised edges on leaves. These CMH lights are kind of weird to get used too, without being air cooled they put out close to what my ac'd 1kw light does :O Time to go purchase another Lasko fan!

MoodyShoes said:

You can pinch the stems to get them to bend down. Get your thumb and middle finger, crush the stem slightly until you can feel it becoming like a knuckle, whilst at the same time bending the stem down with your fore finger.

I've no idea what this is called but it works. Don't panic if you think you've snapped the stem, you won't do it any harm. Just take it steady at first. It's a bit like watching a magician bending a spoon if you get my meaning.

These plants can take a lot of stress and abuse.

I'd also invest in some potssium silicate. It helps strengthen the stems so you can work them easily.

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Yes that’s supercropping. When you gently crush and bend, another technique is to twist a little at the same time. Prevents stems from flopping down too much. The knuckle is a result from the supercropping after the stem has healed. I used to supercrop a lot but personally didn’t find much benefit yield wise from doing it. I still do it in veg or early stretch here or there when I’m feeling lazy and need to open bigger plants up to more light lol. But it is more of a high stress training method.
I find a good dose of Potassium silicate is good during stretch. Really stiffens the branches up and helps plant resist any pest attacks.

Yeah I think I'm going to hold off on the supercropping and all, one lesson at a time and it's probably a tad late for the positive affects to outweigh the delay to the plants. I'm going to go ahead and order some Armor Si (like rhino skin but from GH), I think it'll help with heat stress and these couple of pesky leaf hoppers. When you guys have two small budsites in a square, and neither can be tucked over to a seperate one, you just remove them right? My squares are 2x2inches on the first screen, so I'm guessing that's too tight for 2 bud sites.
On a side note, is it strange that these plants are gobbling up over 1500-1600ppms (.5 scale)? I feel kind of insane seeing them look healthy while being given so much nutes!