Time to start training?

Hey guys,

These clones were cut from a flowering plant. They had about 6 weeks to root before the transplant. They went into 3-gallon pots July 26, roughly 10 days ago. I've been getting mixed messages from a few IRL friends and here in my grow journal. I thought I would branch out to see if I could get any advice here in newb land. I was told by IRL friend who gave me the clones to start topping/training at 12", then was told by others that I should let them sit longer. Right now the tallest once is almost 19", the shortest is just over 14", but the majority of them are ~16"-17". I don't want these things to get too far off to the point where I am going to be burning the colas on my lights. These past few days have seen explosive growth, maybe 4" or more on the tallest one.

My initial plan was to top and start supercropping/LST on Sunday night or Monday evening when I get back from a camping trip. I'll be gone Fri-Sat. I wanted to try and mainline but I think I am going to wait till I start from seed for that, as these don't have much symmetrical growth, the nodes are spaced pretty far apart.

Any advice for a newb? It's my first grow. Be easy on me. lol.

Shoulda trained a bit ago but not to late to monster crop the fuck outa it, bring your light down a bit seems to be stretching for the light and causing huge node spacing

I'd top them now.

There’s a good app for Lux/par measurements on the App Store, maybe not super accurate but it’ll show somewhat enough to get a good light distance for you

Manguy said:

Shoulda trained a bit ago but not to late to monster crop the fuck outa it, bring your light down a bit seems to be stretching for the light and causing huge node spacing

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Ok. I moved it up to about 24" not long ago cause I was told they might be getting too much light. The canopy reads between 40-48k lux with the app I have.

vitalsine said:

Ok. I moved it up to about 24" not long ago cause I was told they might be getting too much light. The canopy reads between 40-48k lux with the app I have.

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Nice, yeah that’s a good ares for them I’d recommend max 70k for veg stage. Are you using an led?

Alright. I'm gonna top tonight then. What should I do for training? I was gonna put a PVC brace in the tent and hook a trellis to it, but it's not ready. I have some 12 gauge wire I could start LST though. I'm thinking I'll top at the 7th node.

Manguy said:

Nice, yeah that’s a good ares for them I’d recommend max 70k for veg stage. Are you using an led?

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Yea, 3x SF 2000. I am going to stick a 4th in for flowering. It's a 5x5 tent.

Solid yeah I got a sf 2000 as well I’ve always kept it about 12" above seems to be great anywhere around 12-18 sounds fine

Just topped them. I just took everything off above the last node with a branch. Here's hoping I did a fine job. lol. So now that that's done, should I start to tie down/bend the branches that are left?

Have a pic?

Here are the 6 plants, all topped. I'm just having trouble imagining how to train these because everything is so spaced out. Figures, I thought starting from clones would be easier, but didn't realize homie monstercropped and was going to give me re-vegged clones. lol. I'm grateful regardless. I hear they can go crazy bushy and get lots of tops with minimal training, but I think it would have been easier to learn starting from seedling. It's hard to relate to a lot of the example vids I find on YouTube etc because everyone is starting from seed and has this nice symmetrical growth.

You could supercrop the main stem about 6-8 inches sbove the pot out one direction. Just remember to squeeze the main stem till plyable, then slowly bent it to 90 cut a little hole in the pot and tie it from there if you break it wrap it with tape. Afterward you could top each new sprout and also take them outwards with super cropping

I did want to do some supercropping. Should I start it tonight or wait for the plant to recover? Do I have to do any pruning beforehand/after? Some of these clones have a lot of leaf growth around 6-8" mark.

Gonna bang out a quick workout. I'll check back in shortly.

Could very well do it tonight, you know how they react to certain stresses just make a educated decision, make sure to feed afterwards with little nutes if you have them

I did a little LST where it seemed obvious. I tried some supercropping, but I'm just not confident enough to give it my all. I pinched pretty hard on a cpl of them and didn't notice a pop or anything. They got a lil noodlie in those spots so I think I could have bent them more, but I'd rather wait til they get a little thicker I think. My homie who does supercropping is coming by tomorrow, I'm gonna take a look with him and get a proper hands-on lesson. I took off a cpl small leaves too that seemed to be covering nodes. Hopefully that was the right move. I think I need to work on my patience lol.

Sounds good man the thicker the stem the more woody and brittle it gets just beware. Training the smallest flimsy stems is best

Manguy said:

Sounds good man the thicker the stem the more woody and brittle it gets just beware. Training the smallest flimsy stems is best

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That's what I figured but I think I may have pinched to hard, there was a small split in the skin of one of them. Nothing major but it scared me away. lol. Gonna try again tonight with my homie.