Qs about Perpetual Setups and Single-basin DWC

I have two very high-level questions here:

1. I'm thinking of a simple 4-plant single res setup, and I read somewhere here that you can do MAIN COLA only grow. As I understand this, the side branches/stems are all cut off after a few weeks old and it flowers just one giant cola on the main stalk. Is this for real? Won't stripping all the branches off the sides kill the plant? How much leaf should I leave - basically all the leaves that are on the main stalk but no branches??

2. In a shared res setup, the roots will likely get VERY intertwined, let alone in a perpetual setup. This worries me because when it comes time to harvest (I would harvest one every 4 weeks and have 4 plants each 3 weeks apart in their lifecycle) each plant will be so intertwined I'm worried I won't be able to harvest properly. Or worse, I will kill another plant or else leave dead roots in the rest accidentally. I'm thinking I might make some kind of divider in the rest to prevent the roots from mixing, but then I run into issues with even aeration distribution (perhaps) and who knows what else. Any ideas on how to approach this??

Thanks!

SmokeDoggy said:

I have two very high-level questions here:

1. I'm thinking of a simple 4-plant single res setup, and I read somewhere here that you can do MAIN COLA only grow. As I understand this, the side branches/stems are all cut off after a few weeks old and it flowers just one giant cola on the main stalk. Is this for real? Won't stripping all the branches off the sides kill the plant? How much leaf should I leave - basically all the leaves that are on the main stalk but no branches??

2. In a shared res setup, the roots will likely get VERY intertwined, let alone in a perpetual setup. This worries me because when it comes time to harvest (I would harvest one every 4 weeks and have 4 plants each 3 weeks apart in their lifecycle) each plant will be so intertwined I'm worried I won't be able to harvest properly. Or worse, I will kill another plant or else leave dead roots in the rest accidentally. I'm thinking I might make some kind of divider in the rest to prevent the roots from mixing, but then I run into issues with even aeration distribution (perhaps) and who knows what else. Any ideas on how to approach this??

Thanks!

Click to expand...

1. I've never heard of cutting branches off but there are strains that tend to produce one large main cola and very little side foliage. I have heard they do well, maybe that's what was being discussed?

2. How would you have plants apart in their life cycle? When you go to 12/12 they are all going to get 12/12, or am I missing something? I guess you could do it with autoflowers. I wouldn't try to start plants at different times.

my 2 cents

1. Ok, well all of the pics I've seen show this main cola growing on 12/12 and it has all of the lower limbs cut off at the main stalk. So just the top foliage is there. I know from experience (what little I have with growing) that it will grow new bud sites/leaves at those cut off stemps anyways (smaller than the top of course), but at least the plant won't be super wide. So it will still get a lot of bud sites and bud. I dunno, I've just seen pics like this one and the comments are that they clip the lower branches or shorten them at least, which they call "spearing".

My "goal" with a "single cola" is to get 4 plants in my ~16x12" space and not have each of them growing into the other. I don't want to do LST/SCROG either (like I did last grow). I just want some simple buds growing, not too big, just a lot of nugs and a few leaves.

https://www.rollitup.org/indoor-growing/19368-single-cola-plants.html




2. It will be 12/12 all the time, BUT I will have 4 plants, 1 at clone/seedling (week 0), 1 at week 4, 1 at week 8, and one at week ~12 ready to be harvested. That is all I mean. This way, I can harvest a new cola every 4 weeks and at the same time plant a new clone/sprout and rotate them 1-2-3-4. Make sense??

I think perhaps what I could do is trim the bottom leaves/branches and then after it recovers and new leaves begin to form and it gets to about my max height (16") then , then I will TOP the plant. This way it will limit it's height and limit its width initially. It should make it nice and thick in the middle w/out the width at the bottom and w/out getting much taller.

What do YOU think?

Anyone know any more details or can confirm this info (above)??

Thanks!