Shaping the canopy and bulb intensity

The bulb puts out the same amount of light regardless of how you shape your growth. The variable here would be your reflector.

Shaping the plant for the leaves to catch maximum light with training.

You can do this by getting creative with chicken wire (or waht ever else you choose to scrog with) to match the lights foot print. It works best with a bare bulb but at a certain point you kick your self in the ass and think "why didnt I just go vertical to begin with?" I hope this helps, I might be high but the question seems a bit vague....-S0uP

You can shape your plant canopy with different pruning and topping methods. It's all good and it all works really well. There is no one solution to shaping the plants in your grow room, lots of ways to get to the same end result. Seriously.

AimAim said:

There is no one solution to shaping the plants in your grow room, lots of ways to get to the same end result. Seriously.

Click to expand...

Definitely. There are many ways to get an optimal shape and there are many ways to get an ineffective shape.

Looking at the big picture...
Water
Air
Nutrients
Sunlight

That's what you need. There are many ways to get there.

The shape of your plants is just a piece of getting more sunlight, more efficiently.. kwh = $.

If you can get your hands on an intensity meter you can build a half moon shape out of trellis netting whatever you prefer and guarantee that all points of your canopy are getting equal exposure.

Oo S0uP oO said:

If you can get your hands on an intensity meter you can build a half moon shape out of trellis netting whatever you prefer and guarantee that all points of your canopy are getting equal exposure.

Click to expand...

I've been achieving the goal by using tomato cages and garden twist. The tomato cages are really just a structure to tie to, bend over, prop up, etc... you just use your eyes, brain, hands, garden twists and the tomato cage to make it happen. You can use less cages and more garden twists for higher plant count/smaller plant size. For 4 plants per 600hps, I love 1 cage per plant.

I'de like to get one of those meters. Some experience and a hand test works well too.

Check out: https://www.rollitup.org/general-marijuana-growing/413359-supercropping-canopy-control.html (I'm somewhere near the end, but plenty of examples).

What you draw is what I named (yes named ) a VoG as in a Valley of Green. Pronounced "phuq". I had a plant in the middle that was a week ahead, and some major unexpected stretch, so didn't exactly end up with that valley. I got the idea (yes 'my' idea ) when I did a halfpipe scrog, which was more of a quarter pipe. Switched to a different system and didn't want to scrogg yet still end up with the same canopy shape. I pinch, bend, snap (90 degrees), hang weights on branches, and just yesterday added 30 yards of binding wire (with a rubberish soft layer so it doesn't cut into the branches.

Or you can buy a decent reflector that spreads light uniformly, some over 90% on the entire (horizontal) canopy. Then the barely 10% is hardly worth the effort (still a funny hobby imo).

Sativied said:

Check out: https://www.rollitup.org/general-marijuana-growing/413359-supercropping-canopy-control.html (I'm somewhere near the end, but plenty of examples).

What you draw is what I named (yes named ) a VoG as in a Valley of Green. Pronounced "phuq". I had a plant in the middle that was a week ahead, and some major unexpected stretch, so didn't exactly end up with that valley. I got the idea (yes 'my' idea ) when I did a halfpipe scrog, which was more of a quarter pipe. Switched to a different system and didn't want to scrogg yet still end up with the same canopy shape. I pinch, bend, snap (90 degrees), hang weights on branches, and just yesterday added 30 yards of binding wire (with a rubberish soft layer so it doesn't cut into the branches.

Or you can buy a decent reflector that spreads light uniformly, some over 90% on the entire (horizontal) canopy. Then the barely 10% is hardly worth the effort (still a funny hobby imo).

Click to expand...

Yeah. I find my Silver Star reflectors benefit quite a bit from the VoG while with the Day Star it is a little less needy in that way.
Like I said in the first post, the reflector is your variable.

Another variable is what sort of starter plant you have to work with... I'll throw an old mother plant into flower and do all kinds of stuff to make her fill the space well.

I'm not trying to sell a certain way of achieving optimal use of the light... I'm just trying to bring attention to it, for the newbs. It's something to think about.

This crop was shaped decently. This was only the second run with this clone, so, still getting a hang of it...
You can see though that the tops of the side growth are nearly the same size as the main cola.
All of the top colas were pulled away from the light around weed 3. Shortly after the lower branches began filling in every inch of available space.

Like we said earlier... there are many ways to achieve this.
View attachment 2674674

lol maybe this is the noob in me still but i cant even tell which is the main cola

Dboi87 said:

lol maybe this is the noob in me still but i cant even tell which is the main cola

Click to expand...

That's what I'm going for.... Every branch is like a cola. When I started getting that my yields bumped up.
No topping involved, although, there are good techniques for that way too... UB lays that one out about as good as it gets.

BTW, I just made this thread to share a few pics and tips with a friend on here. If you see me making one of these "How to" threads.. I'm not trying to play Ganja God or anything.. it's just easier to make a thread than share this stuff through PM. Also, when it comes up later, I can just pass the link.

I will add something along the lines of this thread that I learned. We all know we have different methods and that some things work for some of us (and our methods) and not others. This is something about my way of doing things.. Like I said before... there are many ways to get from seed to bloodshot eyes.. this is one of them.

It is common for folks to put their plants right under the lights early in flower and then slowly spread them as they get bigger... Cervantes recommends this in the grow bible.. I know, I know, on paper it sounds good... it makes sense, Cervantes said it, but I'm just speaking from experience.

IME, it's not a good practice. Especially if trying to fill a larger space with fewer plants.. A plant can sense the space available (I do believe I read that somewhere and have "seen" it)... If you have plants butting against each other early in flower, they sense it and grow straight up, not wide...

So, I find it is better to sit the plants in their final resting place and leave them all through flower... They will fill the space better and produce bigger and more plentiful buds than if you go moving them as they grow.

My guess is that it also confuses the plant. Like, the plant is setting itself up to flower with one "profile?" of light (intensity, direction, shape, depth, etc) and then you go moving it every week or so.. It doesn't help your yields...

Try it out... sit 4 plants under a 600 hps... put them directly in the center, then spread them as they grow...
Try another... sit 4 plants in the place that they normally end up by the end of flower...

Don't get nervous around week 3 when you still have a gap under the bulb... for a standard hybrid (8-10wks) it will fill in by mid wk 4..
If there is still a little gap at mid week 4... go ahead and push the plants in a little to make better use of the bulb.

Take it to the scale and see for yourself... I've had another grower confirm my results.

Si tu id aeficas, ei venient

I find it is better to sit the plants in their final resting place and leave them all through flower... They will fill the space better and produce bigger and more plentiful buds than if you go moving them as they grow

Click to expand...

I am preparing a small grow in which this and other biodynamic techniques will be employed. There is much we don't understand, and experimenting is great fun. I'll post findings.

Shaping: I use the Tie-Down method w/ hemp twine. As the plant is growing, you simply tie a loose knot around the stem you want lower and duct tape the second end of the string to the side of your grow-pot; creating a slight bend, use good judgment in deciding how much to bend your branches as this is NOT super cropping it's Low Stress Training. Check out Sarah Flowers' video "Tie Her Down"; she's not a "pro" but I like how she words it.

Nice pics Heart...Your right if you, the grower manipulates the growth can utilize the most sq./ft. and get the max quantity from their space. Some people don't understand this but the ones that do...benifet the most. JAS

I ran untrained plants indoors once. NEVER AGAIN!!!
I think canopy management and a decent environment is most of the battle in getting good yields.

What I always think is funny is the people who don't plain ahead . If your doing it right the buds should be heavy enough to bend the stem . Ive seen a lot of rooms where the plants look like puppets because the have to string up every single branch.