My sexy Afghan first grow with CFLs

[BlazedinBA]

secretgarden,
thanks for the tutorial, really appreciate it...im gonna try it out after i get my hands on some yeast!!! and yea ive had some stretch to my plants but im not too worried i got plenty of room for these ladies to spread out....thanks for checking out my grow, im def gonna be watching this one!!

[icbh707]

looking good! maybe a little overwater on #2, leaves look ribbed and curled down at the tips, should go away in a few days if you dry it out a bit.
looks to me like you have about 7 nodes on #1-2 with the bottom nodes having the longest branches, @1in long? now, i use 600hps to veg not cfl so its hard for me to know if that cloning method i was telling you about would work and how long it would take to get them to the point where you could take the cuttings. ok, lets say i want to flower when my girls are about 12in. (w/ 600hps from 4" clone, @2 weeks for sativa and 3 weeks for indica) i would over veg for a few days to a week until they were @ 15" and this should grow those branches at the bottom nodes from @ 2-3" to 3-4" which will be much easer to make clones out of. then i would cut the main stock back to whichever node was at the 12" mark, use the top 3" as a cutting, then i would count down 4 nodes and keep those. this should leave me with maybe 3-4 or so branches at the bottom of the plant that should be @ 3-4" long. i would cut those off as close to the main stock as i could and clone them. i would then veg the plants for a few more days until they recover from the shock and i could see new growth and then i would flower them.
this is for big plants under lots of light, soooo....
if you do want to top, dont want to mother, and maybe just get a few cuttings, i would top now by removing the newest node, which right now is just the little nub at the top of the plant. at the point youre at now that should leave you with about 7 nodes, that after topping, should all start growing taller together trying to become the new main stock. hopefully in a week or 2 your bottom 1" branches will be 4-3" long and you could take 1-2 cuttings off each plant. then finish with more veg time until they recover, and then go to flower.
are you looking at me like this now? :wtf:

ps. i use GH nutes and love em. just de-boned my first light today, looks like im getting about 1.1# per 1000. bubba kush, turned purp, powder coated, @3 week veg, 8 week finish, topped, 9 per light, no co2.

pps. I WOULD NOT TURN OFF FOR LESS THAN 6 HRS IF YOU HAVE BEEN RUNNING 24HRS. use a flor or a flash light or something to keep light on them. you need to try to keep killing that hormone that causes them to flower. light is the only thing that kills it. even if you turn it on after youve done your business and shes in the shower. any little bit of light will help.

[Shovelhandle]

yeh, those are nice healthy plants, Bub! I'm gonna keep look here.

[oSecretGardeno]

Shovel - Good to see you here! I see you all over the forum, so I'm glad to see you checking out my log.

Blazed - Glad I could be of help. I can't vouch for huge increase in yields, but I figure every little bit helps, right? I'll be watching yours.

icbh707 - I agree with the idea of over-water on plant #2. I sort of forgot that big#1 and lady#2 are different in size (and a day in age) so when I watered them on the same schedule, I probably was over-watering lady#2 by a little ... I imagine it adds up after a few waters. Also, I'm not going to lie, the first time I read your post through, I definitely gave that exact look (:wtf. But after I read it again, a little slower, it actually makes a lot of sense. I'm not going to lie, I have a lot of questions for you, and I imagine I will have more as time goes on, so here's a start (if you don't mind):

1) It sounds like you have cloned/topped high percentage indicas. How do you feel about topping them? Does the yield compare or does it cause problems? For some reason I had the impression indicas didn't always do as well if topped? (I can't source that)
2) Do you find it difficult when cloning a short bushy indica, or just more of a delicate process? I am nervous if you can't tell.
3) Do you use the bottom 3-4 branches (nodes) for your main clones? or ones higher up? I figure the lowest ones will be biggest, but I don't know if bigger is always better.

I'll get more to you later, especially when it actually comes time to cut my babies up. Any help now would be highly appreciated!

Thanks for checking things out everyone. I will definitely try to keep the shut-down to a minimum tonight. But lets say worst case scenario, the project is shut down for 12 hours (worst case possible), if I go back to 24/0, will it just start "flowering" (I know its not actually flowering perse) and then take some time to revert back to veg or will I really have f-ed things up? Sorry I'm so anal. I know icbh707 said no more then 6 hours, so maybe ill try to throw a little light in there to atleast keep that hormone out of there (I imagine complete darkness is the killer).

Peace all!

:smokin:

[Shovelhandle]

What ever happens under the circumstances beyond our control is 'lady luck'. Sometimes for all our attention and energies strange (bad) things happen. The other times, for all our faults and mistakes things work out better than they should have. So, what we do is wait and see how it goes.

Bon Chance!

[icbh707]

you just dont get as many clones out of the indica in the same amount of time. keep the top 4 nodes then use any lower branches that are big enough to make into clones. this also gives more space at the bottom which is nice for a few reasons.
if i did any more than 9 per light i would not top. topping with 9 per 1000 i can cover the light footprint a little better and by splitting my top bud into 4 smaller tops it lowers my chance of mold (kush loves to mold). no increase in yield as far as i can tell just functional. some of the smaller ones i dont top end up about the same size as the ones i do.
they could go to flower with 8hrs of dark or 10 but 12 will for sure do it. they could just be set back a few days by this or not. it will stress them but its hard to say what effects that stress will have on them. they will continue to veg once the light goes back.
you can grow a plant to finish, change the lighting back to veg, add grow nutes and after a while branches will start growing out of the buds.

[oSecretGardeno]

I hear that shov, usually when I leave things alone, they tend to do the best. I just like to increase my chances of "lady luck" by avoiding the avoidable. But you are right, sometimes trying to avoid all those problems only makes things worse.


Thanks for the words of wisdom from a wise man!

Peace,

:smokin:

[GoldenGraham84]

yay! veteran helpers! one thing i didn't see mentioned though, the lower branches are best for cloning because they have the highest concentration of hormones required for rooting (just thought i'd throw that out there). on a completely off-topic note, i got two opium strain clones today and i will be keeping an eye on them. seen pics on here of main colas big as a carton of newports!

[SwishaSweetz4Me]

Just read over your Grow Log. NICE! Seems like your "Ghetto" setup is working. I thought my Grow Space was ghetto but u got my Topped Anyways looks like you got things going good. I hope to see good results in the Future. I myself am growing with CFL's and i got to say I like them =DD Anways You Can check out my Log for any Advice My grow seems to be similar to yours. Anyways the link is in the Signature. My Plants ar about 4weeks Into VEG.
Best of luck to you man. Keep it the Grow!-
-Swish

[oSecretGardeno]

icbh707 - Thanks for the info on the cloning. How many days into veg before you clone? Do I need to wait until they are technically "mature"? I am obviously nervous about cutting up my babies. I am still trying to decide if I should do just LST or if I should top. Either way I am going to need to keep my girls low and hopefully have them cover the whole area.

When I first started I thought I would throw these girls into flowering after 3 weeks or so, so that I could have some quick bud ready for Christmas, but now I am enjoying this so much that I think I am going to take my time and see what I can create.

GG84 -Good stuff about the cloning. What do you think about the questions above? Oh and I'd love to hear more about those opium strains, so let me know how they are!

Swisha - haha, I do have you beat, but us ghetto growers gotta stick together! You at least have a real case! It looks like yours is going pretty well, I will definitely keep an eye on it, so keep up the good work!

I am going to post a few pics in a second, even though I posted somewhat recently. I had to go in there and snap a few pics because I am going to post on the problems forum about lady#2. I know she isn't falling apart or anything, but I'd like to correct any issues I have before I cause any real damage, ya know? It's just strange, the other plants in the exact same environment are doing differently, so I just want to see what people think.

Peace all,

:smokin: