Jack Herer First Grow. Nervous to lollipop?

[picklesrskankin]

Hey guys,

I'm currently on my first grow. I have 7 Jack Herer plants currently now on day 3 of flowering or almost four weeks into full grow. I've got a 400w light, a m squared x 6' grow tent. I've read tons of good stuff through forums and I believe i'm on the right path. I've heard many things about cutting the under brush to give more light and fatten buds. I've been a little hesitant to do this because it seems like a bad idea to just go and cut perfectly healthy leaves off the plant. I know it can be good for the buds and make em' more juicy and powerful. Again, i'm a little nervous to just start cutting and lop off a good branch that might have the possibility to make a nice bud in a few weeks. I've noticed some of the leaves at the bottom of the plant starting to wither away and die. I think it's because of the light exposure. I'll take this first grow as a learning experience, and hopefully have some pretty decent buds to go along with it. I'll update on the grow as it moves along.. Patience kills me, but i know that's what it takes. All my set up instructions and nutrients i use are in another language due to living in europe now, so it's fun to add my own mixtures through what i've learned. Attachment 287439Attachment 287440Attachment 287441Attachment 287442Attachment 287443

picklesrskankin Reviewed by picklesrskankin on 10-23-2012. Jack Herer First Grow. Nervous to lollipop? Hey guys, I'm currently on my first grow. I have 7 Jack Herer plants currently now on day 3 of flowering or almost four weeks into full grow. I've got a 400w light, a m squared x 6' grow tent. I've read tons of good stuff through forums and I believe i'm on the right path. I've heard many things about cutting the under brush to give more light and fatten buds. I've been a little hesitant to do this because it seems like a bad idea to just go and cut perfectly healthy leaves off the Rating: 5

[picklesrskankin]

A few other things i didn't mention was i'm using Hesi nutrients(a company out of nl), now that it's in flowering the light is 12/12(not changing the dawn time of the plants). I'm usually watering 2-3 times per week.. more like once every 2-3 days depending on soil wetness. It takes around 10 liters to water all of the plants equally, and at this moment 50ml/10l Bloom Complex, 50ml/10 root complex(which i will stop next week), Power zyme(20ml/10l and 3 small drops of super vit. Temp sits at about 20 at night and 25-28C during the day, humidity stays around 50-65%.





5

[picklesrskankin]

I decided against topping the plants. I've been having alot of the bottom leaves fall off. I think due to the lack of light at the bottom. I'm now on day 10 of flowering. The pics aren't so great due to me using my camera phone. Best i've got at the time. This would be my newest pics at day 7 of flower. As you can see it's getting pretty congested in there. Attachment 287580Attachment 287581
Another problem i've been having is when watering or touching the plants. I'm getting a rash sometimes from handling the plants. Some plants are drinking more then the others so my water schedule has changed a little.

[silent leprechaun]

Hey dude.

Nice grow show.

I too grow in a small space, 90cm x 90cm x 150cm. I found a few things out the hard way when I first started growing. The biggest issue was space for the 7 - 8 plants I expected to grow in there.

As the plants get bigger they will fill out. The strongest plants are the ones which begin to take over the tent. This in turn reduces the light the weaker plants get and stunts them.

It would be a good idea to lollypop the plants as you will reduce the diameter of each plant. Just take the smaller branches on the lowest part of the plant.

These branches produce very little bud, mainly what they call, popcorn buds. These buds are of no real value and most of the plants energy is better spent at the top and the tops of the stronger branches.

I had to cut my tent down from 8 plants to just 2 in my first grow because of over-crowding. The plants I cut down did give me some bud but not much. What I did notice was the explosion in the remaining two strongest plants. It was quite obvious that when the plants were fighting for the light they didn't start a full effort into bud production.

As soon as the plants were removed the last two packed on bud like crazy. So I guess what I'm saying is, sometimes less is more. I can only fit 4 normal plants in my tent. I can fit 6 autos, even though I have 7 at the moment.

Perhaps some Low Stress Training might be a good idea so you can manage your canopy better. This should give a more even distribution of light. Just tie the plant down slowly with some twine attached to the bucket. be sure not to choke the ladies though. Keep the twine loose around the trunk.

Personally I wouldn't top the plants when they are already in bloom. This could stress them out too much and they could hermie on you. LST is much more comfortable for the ladies.

Anyway, I hope this helps.

Take Care

S.L.

[picklesrskankin]

Great help man. I'll wait until I feed with nutes again and cut off some of the new growth on the bottom. LST was something i was thinking about also. I'll hopefully have some new pics up with the new haircut in a few days. Thanks for the reply.

[Esteban1]

Agree with "SL"

Less is More & "LST" is the way to go but don't believe what we say, gotta learn on your own (no disrespect).... Your trees look nice & they will get way too crowded & will witness this in a couple weeks!

Sic Semper Tyrannus

:s4:

[emilya]

Great help man. I'll wait until I feed with nutes again and cut off some of the new growth on the bottom. LST was something i was thinking about also. I'll hopefully have some new pics up with the new haircut in a few days. Thanks for the reply.

I would like to highly discourage you from chopping on your girls during flower. You are risking severe stress and may cause them to hermaphodite on you. Plants in veg can be whacked on and trimmed up very nicely and they will simply adjust to it. Clean up all the lower branches and get rid of everything that won't be in the upper canopy BEFORE you go to flower.

Lollipopping is something you would do in the last 2-3 weeks of the grow. By this time all the lower fan leaves are dying anyway and the plants are concentrating on the upper bud growth. Removing all the extra growth at this point is indeed stressful, but there is not enough time at this point to change sex, and the removal allows additional airflow into the tender buds that are susceptible to bud rot and mildew, as well as allowing plenty of fresh air to get to the buds so that they can do that final swelling that they do at this time.

[picklesrskankin]

I read up alot on this, but maybe i didn't do so well with the cut job. I didn't see these last few posts before i went cutting. Fortunately I only decided to take maybe 3-4" off, and only the bottom few branches. Most of the branches i took off were breaking when I was feeding them. I didn't touch any of the canopy up top. I didn't want to start the LST because after i read the posts i thought maybe that would be too much stress. I'll keep an eye out for hermie's. The plants are about 22-25". Live and learn either way. Attachment 287591Attachment 287592Attachment 287593Attachment 287594

[picklesrskankin]

Nothing bad happened with the cuts. It worked out well and gave me a little more confidence. Here is day 15. It looks like some goodies are finally starting to show face.
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[emilya]

Because of all the stress, note down somewhere that you are not really on day 15 of flower now. Looking at your pictures you are now at least a week behind that schedule, maybe more. It looks from this last picture like you are just about a week into flower and the stretch is about to start now that the plants are getting over their multiple shocks. Keep us posted.