Growing bottle neck. Vote for the best solution.

[JoeBlow78]

Okay so here is the question / problem:

Whatâ??s the best method of training /organizing the plants to maximize my flowering space and light?

Description of the room:

Room: 10â?? X 3.75â?? X 8â?? High. (The room is a little longer but I need that part for equipment)
Light: 1 - 1000W vertical bulb with a 3â?? parabolic reflector on a 6â?? light mover.

These are the circumstances:

I f*cked up! and have way too many in veg for the size of the flower room. (Long story + bad advice + more females than expected + FIRST TIME GROW)

The ones in veg are at least double the number that I can fit into the flower room. They are in 6â?� pots, range in age from 5 weeks to 7 weeks and from 8â?� to 12+â?� tall.
I currently have 9 in flower about a week in and am going to ad more soon. There in 3 Gallon pots and range from 14â?? to 26â?� tall.
I have them sitting on random things to try and match the canopies up.

Setting up a SCROG (screen of green or lattice) wonâ??t be possible as I have to be able to squish my fat ass threw to get to the other side. Side note: That bulb will burn your hair instantly and that stinks! (Literally and metaphorically).

I can tie the plants to themselves, their own pots, shit attached to their pots and even some to one another.

All I've done so far is defoliate every single mature fan leaf on the taller ones yesterday.

So what should I do?

Iâ??m asking for a vote and/or suggestions on how to most effectively move these plants along threw this process. The ones that can't fit in the flower room are going to be HUGE by the time they get a turn at it. Which means I can fit less in there which holds up more plants in veg.... you get the picture?

obviously I'm not going to get the ideal results from these plants in this cramped environment but I'm not asking for a miracle. Just an ideal solution based on the circumstances.

LST
FIM
DEFOLIATION
LOLLYPOP (SEE OF GREEN)
NATURAL AND PACKED TIGHT?
OTHER- PLEASE SPECIFY

[painretreat]

Hey JoeBlow...
You may want to check out the trouble shooting forum; as you are in trouble and not giving enough information, for anyone to help! As much to do with the plants themselves, as the grow space and lights. And probably why no-one has posted.

I f*cked up! and have way too many in veg for the size of the flower room. ;)(Long story + bad advice + more females than expected + FIRST TIME GROW)

I wouldn't exactly call that mucking up!:thumbsup: Sounds more like Lucking Up! Most people don't get those odds, with their seeds! And you may want to add another box for, ' cull' or gift out a plant or so. Idk, but, you need to fill in the facts. And of course, pictures, if you can figure that one out. I haven't, and I've been around awhile. lol no pc geek here! Not to mention the following....I think the trouble shooting list is in this (I copied from Dutch Pimps Signature). It wouldn't hurt to look in the signatures of the growers here that you like, either.
:postreadfaq:.....pearls before swine (http://cannabis.com/growing/index.html)

Not to mention, there are some recent threads on this issue:
http://boards.cannabis.com/basic-growing/204410-maximizing-yield-not-worried-about-height-what-best-techniques.html

Sounds like you are lucky and this will get worked out. One thing for sure, they will GROW! Best of luck growing.:rasta: pr

[XXXJAYXXX]

Okay so here is the question / problem:

What’s the best method of training /organizing the plants to maximize my flowering space and light?

LST
FIM
DEFOLIATION
LOLLYPOP (SEE OF GREEN)
NATURAL AND PACKED TIGHT?
OTHER- PLEASE SPECIFY

These are all kinda 6 of one, half dozen of the other kinda circumstances.. One thing for sure.. you DONT want them packed in there too tightly.. the light will only penetrate so far into the canopy.. so you want to make sure you have some space between the plants and branches to allow the light to hit all sides of the buds.. I highly recommend a combination of Lollypoping, FIMing, and LST.. but it sounds like your plants are already much too big to start this type of training.. If you are going to try it.. I recommend being VERY careful.. the thicker the stems are.. the easier it is to snap them when you try to tie them down.. I dont like the idea of defoliating the plants.. the leaves are what allows the plant to photosynthesize.. so by removing them.. you are less of the plant to do the ACTUAL work of converting light to plant energy... I usually lollypop my plants a few days into flower by taking the bottom 3 or 4 branches off.. then I dont remove any other leaves through the rest of the grow (unelss they have died and fallen off). LST is a great way to seperate the branches of the plant.. I highly recommend it if you can! It allows all the smaller side branches to reach up towards the light.. so you actually wind up with 5 or 6 tops on each plant.. This is also a really good technique for height control.. but it doesnt sound like you have that issue! once the plants are bent an lollypoped, I use the FIM technique to regulate the height of the canopy and keep it uniformed.. A uniformed canopy will help greatly to increase your yeild and make the most out of your lights! As for your mother plants.. there are various ways you can keep them from gowing really quickly.. Move the lights further away, and decrease your nutrients.. it may cause some slight deficiencies in the veg stage.. but this will effectively slow the growth of the plant.. and then you can nurse it back to good health before you pop it in the flower room.. another thing you can do is top the plants you have in veg.. cut each branch just above one of the lower nodes and then let that node re-grow into another branch.. Essentially making the plant "start over" from a lower point on the plant.. There are lots of ways to control how the plants grow.. the best is to decide plant by plant what needs to be done.. some of them will grow short and bushy.. not needing much height control.. but needing lots of leaf thinning.. some may grow super fast and need to be topped or bent to compensate.. the best method is whatever one the situation calls for! Good luck dude!

[Dutch Pimp]

Deja Vu

I had a problem like this in 2005. My first grow. 18 plants in veg; one 400 watt HPS.
Switched to flowering 12/12 showed 13 females.

There was only room for 7 flowering females under that light & that was crowded. :D

...but I did have a dark room nearby...soooo...I rotated half the plants every 12 hours from the light room to the dark room...for 60+ plus days. (I didn't have anything better to do)

I produced enough smoke to last me for almost 2 years :jointsmile:

Enjoy.

[JoeBlow78]

Hi. sorry I've been having computer issues thus the lack of updates.

Thanks for the tips guys. yes most are short and bushy with branches that are rapidly trying to catch up to the main shoot. But some are twice as tall with tinny branches.

A couple of weeks ago i striped all the mature leaves off of some a week into flower to see what would happen. the ones with longer branches are thriving with the extra light and space for the branches. But the tall ones that had small branches to begin with aren't showing as much enthusiasm.

From what I can see and have read the defoliation can be quite good giving the plant much bigger buds threw out as apposed to just on top. On the ones that are bushy both in veg and flower the branches are really being pushed against the bottom of the mature leaves. It just doesn't look as efficient as the ones that have been defoliated.

From what I can see I may go a head and defoliate more of them (mainly in veg) only this time just the leaves that are impeding branch growth. also trim the branches from the most aggressive ones down. so about the bottom two. Does this sound like a good idea?? What do you guys think?

[painretreat]

Deja Vu

I had a problem like this in 2005. My first grow. 18 plants in veg; one 400 watt HPS.
Switched to flowering 12/12 showed 13 females.

There was only room for 7 flowering females under that light & that was crowded. :D

...but I did have a dark room nearby...soooo...I rotated half the plants every 12 hours from the light room to the dark room...for 60+ plus days. (I didn't have anything better to do)

I produced enough smoke to last me for almost 2 years :jointsmile:

Enjoy.

I liked this idea! Save them all! :thumbsup: pr

[XXXJAYXXX]

I think you are confusing Defoliating with Pruning... There are differences! Defoliation is when you ONLY cut the leaves off of the plant.. leaving the branches in tact.. Pruning is when you remove the branches at the main stem.. Pruning the lower branches of the plant is also called Lollypopping (your plants look like a lollypop when you cut the bottom 5 or 6 branches off with a skinny stick at the bottom of a big fat plant) and this does help BIG TIME in allowing the top branches to produce bigger buds.. This is VERY ok! What you DONT want to do is start cutting the fan leaves, or any leaves at the top of the plant that are getting lots of light.. These are the "work horse" leaves that help your buds grow... so you want to keep those baby's as long as possible! Cheers!

[JoeBlow78]

thank you all very much. Ive hade a terable month (no relation to this) but now im trying to get things back on track.