It has been a few weeks since I topped and mainlined my four plants. With their height reaching close to a foot it is time to let them stretch to their final height. These plants are wildcards when it comes to how much they will grow. That is why I am starting flowering so early, some strains can grow upwards of three times bigger during flowering. Most indicas double in height which is expected, but those sativas can really grow depending on the strain.
The sativa?
This plant I think is a sativa, with its lightly colored wide spaced fan leaves it may grow to be huge. And in the past I have indeed grown them too tall, touching the light.. Which I never want to repeat. So better to be safe than sorry and start them small. When I have some known strains then I can dial in their vegetative cycle better and not be so conservative in my timing.
So now we start the two month cycle, with a new light bulb installed and their light timings changed they will transform into flowering bushes.
With the topping this plant got now I have four spots where it has new growth. The shoots are just a little too small right now for LST clips. I tried some on but just a tad too small right now.
So far the sativa is my favorite, partly because its the underdog.. went through a tough sproutling period. And because I love sativas. It seems stunted, ever since a seedling it grows very slowly. But I am hoping it wakes up and produces some great tasty sativa buds.
By topping the plant, it promotes new growth in side shoots. Giving you a higher yield, if trained properly. Otherwise you may have a cluster of buds all closer together, which can cause mold problems.
We can see where I cut the stem two new shoots came up. So when I would otherwise just had two main big colas now I should have four. :-)
The leaves are starting to get more sticky, and a distinct smell can be noticed when touching them. Soon they will smell regardless of touch, making my basement smelling quite dank.
I think the stem is looking strong enough to support four buds, if needed I can add a hoop around it. May want to do that sooner rather than later otherwise it will be hard to fit it with big buds on it.
For my pest management I currently have gnat traps deployed, but also use BTI or known as mosquitos dunks. These two things have really helped to keep them under control and now my plants are thriving.
The two indicas or hybrids?
Really wish I knew the strains, but they are short, dark and bushy. So at the very least they seem to be indica dominant.
I am growing these differently than how I did the sativa, doing mainlining I tie down the branches and trim them below. Giving me really long horizontal shoots. This should help with the buds not being too close to each other. Also increasing the plant from one major bud site to four.
Hehe looks like they have little bowties in their hair.
Most of the topped and mainlined branches are barely big enough for LST clips. These are known as "Low stress straining" and helps you form new branches in the directions you want them.
I am also trying out some plant cord, its a soft metal wire that can be used to help hold down off shoots.
The soft wire you can wrap around the pots as they have training holes in them, and then wrap ever so softly around the new growth of the Cannabis plants.
This is the first time I have done training like this, so I am trying to be very careful not to break the plants as I do this. I had to give up on the sativa as its branches were just too small.
I was barely able to fit them on one of the indicas, maybe in another week they will all fit better once they stretch a little more. I cannot wait too long though as they form woody stems after awhile and do not bend.
Moved my co2 generator to the top of my light. I think the warmth helps to accelerate production keeping the levels higher. But if it got too hot it would kill the yeast, but so far this has not seemed to happen.
The three females:
My fourth plant is not confirmed yet, so I will only talk about the ones I know are females. The first here is the sativa I believe. I did the topping on this one.
The next two are both indicas or hybrids, and I am training them using a mainlining technique. They also have hoops supporting them.
As for the mainlining I did it twice. So I went from a single bud site, then to having two, and now I have four as it multiplies every mainline. Unfortunately the first time I did the mainlining I trimmed it too tall, so I decided to just let them go to flower as I do not want them to get too tall as well. But more worried about the sativa doing that, hopefully by topping it and mainlining the two others that wont happen. As that 1000w HPS light gets quite hot and I cannot let them get much closer than 2 feet from it.
Whats next?
I will keep training the new growth during "the stretch" peroid. I will probably not see any forming buds for a few weeks. But excited for when they do form. I have bought some more pest control products if in the case I get spider mites. I have had to battle them in the past, so keeping a close eye on my plant leaves will be crucial over the next few weeks to months. By lowering the humidity they tend to show up and can be a problem right around harvest.
But I have not spotted any yet, so thats good. But I know they could be around the corner, or under the next leaf in this case just waiting for their chance.