My first post and my first grow!

[NickyChicks]

Thanks Obi-Wan , your plants look great so I definitely appreciate your input. When I did it last night it was pretty late and the plants looked kinda sad and tired especially after I took all those leaves. It was nice to wake up to see them so happy and perky this morning. I hope in a week they look nice and full like your plants are looking today

[Obi-Wan]

Your plants look great. IMO you didn’t go overboard with the defoliation, a little heavier than most first timers but you left plenty of leaves up top to keep pushing growth. Now that you’ve flipped to 12/12 you’ll want to wait 3 weeks before you do that kind of defoliation again. A few leaves hear and there are fine to remove.

[NickyChicks]

Today will be the first day of 12/12. I moved the NL plant out of the tent that was supposed to get rehomed. Looks like that fell through so I'll have to chop it. At least I have more room now for the other girls to grow.

Last night I did a water change and I did my first defoliation session. I thought topping was nerve racking, ha, defoliating takes the cake. Hoping I didn't go overboard and that they all recover nicely.

[NickyChicks]

This girl is getting a new home. It's one of the two northern lights I have going and unlike the other one, which is probably the bushiest of the bunch, it has been slow to grow. I think the space it's taking up is more valuable then what it will yield. Luckily, I have a friend who can take her. Slow to grow, but overall a healthy plant and I'm glad I don't have to kill it!

[DingusKhan]

I've personally let it go 2 weeks for smaller plants, up to about a foot high bush, in a 7.5 gallon tote bin. They started to look a little less robust, and had drunk down about a third of the tote, by then.

[SoOrbudgal]

Weed Bible sits near my comp. LOL

[NickyChicks]

Lol yeah I'm sure I've read it a dozen times and I'll probably read it another dozen but nothing beats experience!

[Farmall]

Just re-read the GWE tutorail on defoliation a few times.... Then it sinks in...(for me 4 times)

[NickyChicks]

Yeah, I think I'll take the time tonight to change out the water. I had the same thought of I've made it this far, don't start doing things different now.
As for defoliation, I'm sure it's going to be inevitable with my full tent. I'll definitely be asking for some pointers on that in about 2 weeks. Thanks Farmall

[Farmall]

If you plan on defoliation, wait about 1 week into your flower switch. These plants are quite beautiful but also very bushy. Unless you can absolutely insure you're going to be able to spread the branches apart wide enough to allow good light to reach the center core, you’ll likely need to defoliate. As for waiting on water change, I’ve gone 10-11 days for a similar reason, but I called it laziness, had to carry 35 gallons upstairs...when you defoliate, be prepared to do it again after 3 more weeks... it won’t even look like you did it

‘’your plants will show any great immediacy in need for a water change.... you’ve gotten this far nicely so trying not to stress them now would be a gooder thing. I’d say just watch....it depends on the residual chemistry in your buckets

[NickyChicks]

The plan is to flip to 12/12 in 1 week. I know they aren't large plants and I'm keeping veg time short but should I consider doing ANY defoliating? Wasn't sure if it would benefit me or hurt my yields.

Also, I have been changing the water every week. Is it ok to go 2 weeks before changing? I've been super busy and couldn't make time to do it yesterday or today (my days off). My girlfriend would normally help me but she has the flu, so changing out 30 gallons of water and measuring and adding nutes to 10 different buckets by myself is complete and total time consuming pain in the ass. If I should change it, I will definitely make the time tomorrow to do it.

[NickyChicks]

One month in from germination and I gotta say I'm pretty pleased. I'm really excited to see the growth over the next 2 weeks before I flip. All the plants seem to be responding well to being topped, lots of growth happening. The only ones I haven't topped are the solo cups and I'm debating on whether or not I will. I might just top the one in coco and see what happens.

[NickyChicks]

Thanks JohnEmad, Ill probably end up topping the other WW and the other GC today too. I'm sure it's going to become difficult for me to exchange the water in the buckets, and defoliating is going to be a challenge too. With that said, I am happy I chose to keep more than just 4 plants. SCOG is still kinda confusing to me lol

[JohnEmad]

looks great! They should make a nice number of tops.I have always been too nervous to try that many plants at once but will try it sooner then later. SOG or scrog or maybe both back to back.
lol

[NickyChicks]

I started topping some of the plants tonight. I topped to the 4th and clipped the 1st node, left the 2nd 3rd and 4th nodes and tied down to make a star pattern on 1 green crack and 1 white widow. I topped to the 4th, left everything else and bent the main stems on a 45° angle on 1 green crack, 1 white widow, and 1 northern lights. I have 1 green crack and 1 white widow that I just have bent on a 45° and haven't topped. The Chocolate kush and the other nothern lights I will let them do their thing, NL is a slow grower and the CK is probably unhealthy, didn't seem like a good idea to mess with it.

I didn't want to wait much longer because I'm flipping in 18 days. My thought was that if I wanted to do any topping that if I wait any longer I wouldn't have enough time to let the plants recover and grow bushy. Not sure how much they're going to really grow in the next 2.5 weeks, hopefully enough lol.

Honestly, it was kind of nerve racking to cut my girls but I think they look pretty good.

Let me know what you think! And if there is something I can do better or different I'd love to know.