Monster-cropping 101

I am not just pruning the shoots for aesthetics though. If the plant doesn't have to support as many shoots, you'll get quicker growth and fatter stems. Later on fatter buds. Just have to have faith that the shoots will keep popping and there's time after the flip to let it go wild.

thanks for documenting the progress so well, am sure it will help some.
Your pruning seems to be very strategical, good job.

I was more with a watch and act aproach on mine.
Youre right i never planed to take em out of the tent while in flower.
Not very back friendly setup and you need long arms, but it is quite effective.

cobshopgrow said:

thanks for documenting the progress so well, am sure it will help some.
Your pruning seems to be very strategical, good job.

I was more with a watch and act aproach on mine.
Youre right i never planed to take em out of the tent while in flower.
Not very back friendly setup and you need long arms, but it is quite effective.

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Exactly.
I have ditched 5 gallon pots partially because of weight. When you end up dreading watering day because you have to mess with 40lb pots and 5 gallon buckets of water, (and for me having to R/O it all) it becomes a job. I'm effing retired!

2 gallon are too small, but perfect for this "throw-away" experiment that will result in smoke regardless. My seeds go in 3 gallon pots. The math just works. In a 3 gallon pot, 1 gallon of water will soak it. add another quart and you get plenty of run-off. Works great for nute-computations as well. Rather than doing percentages on every nute, I'll round up to the nearest gallon I need, and use the water volume to get a "50% feed" or whatever.

So if I'm watering 2 plants, I need 2 gallons of water. If I want to feed at 50% I just add nutes for a gallon. But I'll mix a little extra (and use any extra on my vegetables) to make the math stoner-proof.

You have to be careful with "feed schedules" and ask how they got them. How much light did they use compared to what you have? What size pots? stuff like that.

good info.
dont use soil in my hempys, so can get away with less volume, using 2.5 gallon hempys.
Have a quite airy 50/50 coco perlite mix.
Collecting my runoff in a bowl, so watering is quite easy, just workin on the plant could be easier.
I setup my nute regime according the water reservoir i use, which is about 4 gallon, works for me, stoner proof.
May will setup some simple auto watering later in flower, so far i was too lazy and simple water the hempys once a day when i check em.
Find my hempys much easier to care for then the dwc i used before, as there i needed tons of RO water for a water change, this is now spread over a bigger time frame, which makes it nicer for me.

Quick update.
They each got watered yesterday and seem to appreciate it. Lots of new leaves. When I get them trained as far as they're going in these small pots, I want to let them get about a foot of new vertical growth MAX before I flip. Their mom was about a foot and a half at flip and ended up over three feet tall. I expect these to show more growth after the flip than mom.

It looks like I might just be able to base it on the one that has no true leaves yet. As soon as it's about a foot tall they might all be ready.

Day 41 since snip - and Day 0 of flower.
I finally have true leaves just popping on the little one. My considerations were the small pots, that these will probably almost triple in height over the next 3 weeks, and that they will be more bushy than a regular plant. I will have to shift them to the 3x4 room after it harvests. I may up-pot a few of them if they are real champs.

I am also thinking about keeping the number of shoots down to keep it manageable. With the possibility of crowding, pruning them all up like a manifold until I see pistils might work best. Also just limiting the number of cola that each pot supports. I think 3-4 might be best, so I think I have one plant that might need a few shoots pruned, Most have 2-3.

12/12 Day 1

Now that the plan is set, I did some heavy pruning. I got rid of some decent size limbs to focus growth on the tops. Over the next few weeks, I'll prune a few more lower shoots as they stretch.

This one has lots of shoots on the end, but only 2 main limbs. I am going to salvage a few of the ones pointing in the right direction to grow this one like a with 4-5 main tops.

3 limbs here, and there were no spectacular lower shoots, so 3 tops.

Another 3-limb, but I left one extra shoot for a bit. but it's probably a goner.

This one had bout 7 shoots trying to grow out of the same spot, which was why one side was drastically slower. I don't think there was ever a dominant shoot, they all just grew at the same time. Anyway, this will be my "nobody-puts-baby-in-the-corner" plant

Having a plan made chopping on this one easier, so now I can see what's happening and it is a symmetrical clone
4 bottom limbs, and I pruned all the shoots up to the top.

And last but probably destined for an up-pot is the 4-prong. 2 even limbs off the bottom node, and 2 off the top node. In a bigger pot and offset a little all 4 cola can be kept at the same height.

I think I have this one figured out.
The top has a few lower sprouts that look normal, but the tip just keeps growing straight up and growing more sprouts.
I think I'll have to just pick one to be the "top" and then prune the growth above that away.

I wanted to wait until the other limbs have popped a true leaf, but I think trying it now might help the pothers catch up. That's a decision better made after a fatty, but I think the idea has merit

Regardless, I think I'll have plenty.

will sit and watch how that progress.
Pretty radical, but looks like you know what you do.
Good luck! let em explode.

I’m gonna build a cloner Thursday, and when it’s done, I’m gonna be doing this too HAF. I’ll be watching to see how it turns out for ya.

Fee

Opie1971 said:

I’m gonna build a cloner Thursday, and when it’s done, I’m gonna be doing this too HAF. I’ll be watching to see how it turns out for ya.

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l free to throw pics on here. I don't consider this "my" page. I have a grow page. Anyone that can add info for the gen-pop about monster-cropping is welcome.

12/12 day 3
They got a top-feed and their first real soaking.
Working on positioning cola now, the 2 circled ones were the drastic moves today. The lower left one is 2 shoots coming off the same limb, but they were both about the same stem thickness and pointing in the right direction so I now have 2 4-tops, 2 3-tops, and 2 undetermined.