Outdoor to Indoor to Outdoor

[HeyYou]

For the past several years, a friend and I have been keeping a Northern Lights strain going by alternating from indoor to outdoor to indoor, with clones in between.

Originally, I acquired a healthy clone, planted it outdoors, and at some point cloned it for the indoor guy. He saw it thru the winter, harvesting and cloning it himself, and every spring since then I've been presented with healthy plants for a renewed cycle.

The time is close in the south for spring planting, and I have a question. This years plants are much taller, thinner at the bottom, and more leggy than in the past. Are there any suggestions for topping, prunning, planting deeper, etc. that would be beneficial, since I am starting with such large plants in such an early planting stage?

thanks

[stinkyattic]

First off, don't plant deeper. While tomato plants love that treatment, pot doesn't appreciate it so much. Ungrateful genus, lol!

Your friend may have been using less light, or light further from the plants. You can top if you like, or bend them over if height is an issue for you. Once you put it under natural sunlight, the strain should behave the same as last year.

Some growers report a loss of vigor after a plant has been re-generated by cloning only for several years- you might also consider buying a fresh set of beans, and doing a seed run (Northern Lights is stable and reproduceable) so that you always have that option. I personally have not noted this, but that's just me, and I've only been growing for about 3 years. Well, pot anyway. I've been trying to master the Elusive Chia Pet 'Fro for years :D

[HeyYou]

Thanks, Stinky. My friend thought that since tomato plants like it deeper, so would our large clones. I'm glad you told me this because by Wednesday, it would have been too late.

My friend's room is fairly small and our 4 clones were competing terribly. Now they're tall (4-5 ft), and can barely support themselves. I usually start them outside in tall wire baskets, but I'm inclined to try to make them more bushy since they are so tall and leggy. Don't have much experience or knowledge about topping, pruning, etc.

We have not noticed any reduction in potency, but we would like to try some new seeds (AK47, White Rhino, etc). It's just a matter of getting them......

Also, thanks to Master Wu, the Green Dragon has become a mainstay!!:clap: