Any help appreciated..

[newbutoldgrower75]

Hey guys and girls.
I am new here, thank you for accepting me to the Forum. Firstly wanted to say that the growweedeasy is one of the best sites I have been on since getting back into growing, very informative, and you all seem like a great bunch of people.
I'm just getting back into indoor growing after approx. 15 years, so any help, advice, constuctive criticism or even a point in the right direction would greatly appreciated. The strain I am growin is the Incredible Bulk. Ended up veging for just over 8 weeks due to the usual mistakes of a newbie and putting them in shock for around two weeks, felt like a virgin grower again haha. I put the girls into flowering on the 8th of August, and have only touchrd them once to get rid of some of the larger fan leaves that were in the way. My plan was to do another defol after 2 weeks of flowering and to strip any new growth that has regrown underneath th canopy. What are people's thoughts on this? And what are your thoughts on taking off lower bud branches that arent getting enough light? I now know I should have taken more off earlier in veg, another rookie mistake. I have a few more questions but will make other posts during the week. Also sorry for pics, if anyone can let me know about a filter or better camera to use please let me know. Thanks guys and girls.

[crucialbunny]

Only criticism is it's not mine. I'm a outdoor grower so I'm not one to offer advice but it looks dialed in to me.

[newbutoldgrower75]

Haha..thanks for the comment. I have been an outdoor grower for the past 15 years, done some indoor prior to that. But a fair bit has changed since then. This might sound dumb, but what does 'Dialed In' mean?

[crucialbunny]

Dialed in simply means that you have a good grip on what you are doing. Like an old analog radio and you are "dialed in" to the wavelength.

[newbutoldgrower75]

Thanks, haven't heeard that being used before, but I do live in Australia though haha. That boosted my confidence a bit, I appreciate it.

[dphipps1020]

Looks good to me so far.

[Tersky]

Plants def need a good defoliation IMO but look good otherwise.

[SoOrbudgal]

Gotta agree with Tersky i've not seen such a dense canopy in a long time and all plants look so full.

[Tersky]

https://www.growweedeasy.com/defoliation

[newbutoldgrower75]

Tersky SoOrbudgal thanks for the advice guys and gals, appreciate it. I did a little prune yesterday and uploded some pics today, be great to get your opinion. Tersky I had another read of that Tutorial, 5th time haha. It was just something new to me so was a little hesitant to do it. Thanks for the help

[MeEasy]

They are lookin great... only thing I would do is thin out some of the fan leaves to increase light penetration and airflow.... this is just what I would do but it's probably not that important until you do your switch to flower to increase your harvest... of course this is controversial like everything is .... short, fat, and flat on top

[newbutoldgrower75]

I did a complete defoliation just before switching them to 12/12 11 days ago now. Also took a few of the bigger fan leaves off about 4 days a go, so was going to wait maybe another week or so before giving it another defoliation. Or in your opinion, should I be taking some off here and there when needed up to around the 3 weekish time. From what I have been reading you shouldnt really touch them once turned to 12/12 until the around the 3rd week. But then some people say you are better taking a bit off here and there for the 3 weeks to not shock the plant. I'm guessing the taking off bits here and there might be more for the less healthier plants maybe? Just a little confused haha. Thanks

[MeEasy]

Ya you're getting close to where new leaves won't grow normally around week 3-5 after switching to flower that's why everyone says not to cut after that point. I will cut leaves all the way to harvest if one starts covering a bud but very carefully choosing which ones because you can't put em back on and leaves are where they store needed energy to ripen at the end. They're lookin really good just keep an eye on your light distances because they can grow 3-5 inches a day during stretch at 11 days they are probably already stretching. I burnt mine once (was put in the hospital for a few days) got home to a nightmare

[newbutoldgrower75]

MeEasy thanks for all your avice and help, really appreciate it. I have uploaded some pics of a bit of pruning I did yesterday, what do you think?
Bugger, that would have been devastating to come home to that, I would have literally cried. They have been stretching quite a bit already, been adjusting the lights twice a day the last couple of days.
Hope you enjoyed your birthday buddy, getting closer to the big 50 myself, 45.

[newbutoldgrower75]

Thanks guys and girls for your help/advice, I took it onboard ang gave them a bit of a prune yesterday(Australian time). Not sure if I took too much or too little, what do you guys think? And I'm glad I did, found a few wet spots where the leaves were really thick, guessing that could have ended up being a problem further down the track. So thanks again. I have only taken off the older shade leaves that the stems were starting to change colour and that were in the way if bud sites, air circulation and under the canopy. Its hard to see in the pics I have taken, need to work out a better way to take them, but they are looking a lot better. Was surprised at how many extra bud sites there were once i started trimming haha. Going to get in there today and do some more LST and some leaf tucking, which should open up a few more bud sites.
So my plan from here is to only take any leaves that are in the way of bud sites that I cant tuck away until around the 3rd week of flowering. Then around the third week of flowering I will do a defoliation of all the large older fan leaves, and any new growth where I lollipopped them before turning to 12/12. And then just leave them unless they start getting yellow leaves or They are covering a major bud site. What do you guys and girls think? Cheers.

[MeEasy]

Yes sir lookin good... SoOrbudgal pointed out a fact to me the other day about taking fan leaves early in flower. I put her name here so she'll get a notification and hopefully she'll fact check me because I'm sure I'll butcher her earlier advice on the subject. Here I go I'm gonna try lol.

if you take off to many of the fans early on in flower it's more likely that your buds will make more or maybe just larger sugar leaves which shade your buds taking energy away from your buds bulking up. So it's something that experience with training and trimming will be the best teacher but her advice definitely made me think about some grows in my past where I had buds with a lot of large sugar leaves and it's very possible it was because I went crazy with defoliation..... I'm still learning after 35 years growing but only 2 years indoors with actual training

remember you can always take more off later but you can never put them back on 👈 learned this the hard way

[newbutoldgrower75]

Thank you. I actually just saw a comment on a post earlier that SoOrbudgal about trimming the fan leaves, and I found it very helpful. It was about looking over your plant and trimming away the fan leaves around the middle and the underneath growth. Also to make sure that ther is light getting down to the medium. SoOrbudgal will hopefully quote me on that as well as I would also like to get her opinion on a couple of things as well when she has the time.
'if you take off to many of the fans early on in flower it's more likely that your buds will make more or maybe just larger sugar leaves which shade your buds taking energy away from your buds bulking up.' that makes a lot of sense to me. 'remember you can always take more off later but you can never put them back on' and this is what I'm going to do for now until I get bit more experience and confidence in what I'm doing. Thank you so much for your advice and help that you have given me, I really appreciate you replying back to me.
I do have one more question if you dont mind giving me your opinion. I am coming into my third week of 12/12, is it better do gradually take off the new growth underneath the canopy where I first lollipoped them over the week, or should I wait and do it all at once towards the end of the three weeks? I'm just wondering what the difference in shock to the plant would be? And if the undergrowth would just start growing back if I did it gradually? Sorry again for all the questions, I have researched a fair bit, and have all these questions in my head haha..

[MeEasy]

I see people doing it all at once all the time. Of course while topping and training I do alot of trimming but for the most part I prefer to look in on my girls every day and if I see something I don't like, I take care of it right away. In the past I had to do alot all at once because where I was growing (the great outdoors) I could only visit my girls once a month or so. There was a couple of occasions that I returned to a hermie I can't tell you if it was because I shocked em by cutting so much at once or something else caused it.

[newbutoldgrower75]

Thanks again for your advice. Thinking I might do it gradually over the next 5 days which will be the end of the third week. Like what happened to you, Im a little worried about stressing them out too much and turning them hermie. What are your thoughts on taking off the thin weaker branches underneath, that arent really getting any light, with small bud sites on them? I want to keep some to experiment with Monster Cropping in a couple of weeks.

[MeEasy]

I strip everything left on the bottom that doesn't see the light my opinion is it just sucks energy from what could be great up top..... and keeping the bottom little stuff to reveg I believe is what you mean I have zero experience with that I did read about it probably a year ago but unless you want me to start telling fish stories I can't help with that.

[newbutoldgrower75]

MeEasy thanks for that. That's exactly what I had in my head that I was going to do, I guess I just needed to hear it from someone else before I went ahead and started doing it, newbie nerves. The reveg/monster cropping is just something I want to experiment with. I have clones coming from a friend, still waiting for seeds from overseas, so it won't affect my next grow or anything. Thank you for your continual help and advice.

[newbutoldgrower75]

Hey guys and girls. Here is an update on my journey into the unknown(for me)..the world of defoliation during the flowering period. So over the last couple of days I have started doing my 3rd week into 12/12. Here is a few pics of what I have done so far, going to tidy the girls up and do some more defoliation through the bottom over the next couple of days. The plant on the right has been my test plant for topping and training, and has only been under a 400w light until today.18 days on 12/12 light cycle. All advice, help and criticism more than welcome. Cheers

[MeEasy]

I like that better you have airflow between each cola, which is important to avoid mold and bud rot. Now you probably won't have to cut to much more, as time goes on just watch your buds and if you see one not growing because it's not getting enough light try to tie it to a stick or something like that or cut off the leaves if you have to. Keep in mind that you are close to the point that no new leaves will grow, the little ones will get bigger but no new ones
Good luck keep posting updates........ one more thing if any of your girls are shorter than the others put something under it to make the tops even for light distance is what I mean

[newbutoldgrower75]

MeEasy sorry for the late reply, I have been quite sick with a virus that caused problems with my kidney's. Ended up in hospital for a couple of nights. But feeling a lot better now.
Once I had cleaned out the underneath and bottom out a bit, I have only been tucking the leaves and taking the odd leaf if it's in the way. I have seen a massive difference in the bud sites filling out, will post some pictures and updates shortly.
I jumped on once during the last time I spoke to you and had a quick look at your comment. I released all the branches that I had tied down just after reading your comment, a lot of the bottom/lower branches have caught up or are catching up. Would it be a good idea to start using bamboo sticks now to start leaning the taller ones in the middle towards the sides a bit? And also any of the side branches that are getting too close together? I'm sort of stressing a bit about mold and not getting enough light into the lower parts of the buds. It's a bit hard to work out when you have 25 to 40 tops on a plant haha. Next time I don't think I will be topping them so much. And will get rid of more lower branches next time which don't seem to be doing much except for making the plant more dense. Have learnt a few things that I will definitely be doing different next time.
I have nearly got the plants to the same height now since replacing the last 400w for the 600w. Can see a difference in the size of the buds though. But unfortunately finances at the time could only allow me to biy two lights first. But thank you for that bit of advice, will raise the smaller one as soon as I'm finished on here.
I really do and have appreciated your help and advice, with yours and a couple of others help, I'm really quite happy with the way my first grow is going, thank you.

[newbutoldgrower75]

Hey guys and girls. Just a bit of an update on the girls. They seem to be filling out nicely so far, now 4 weeks 4 days into 12/12 lighting cycle. I have had a problem or two, first with nutrient burn. Went over everything I had been doing, realised I hadn't flushed my medium since I started. Because I had been reading on the net(before I got to this site) that some people didn't flush Coco, and I didn't see it when I was first reading my nutrient chart, I went with that. But on rereading the chart and booklet I got with the nutrients, guess what I found, flush every two weeks. So have been working on rectifying that, and they seem to be doing good now.
The second problem ended up being a good thing. I thought I found seed pods growing in my buds, so started stressing a bit. Then a couple of days I started seeing more pistils coming out of them🙂.
Anyway, here are some more updated average quality pics. As you can see I am struggling a little with the training, too many tops, so could be a future post. I have tried to put a lighter in the pics for size comparison, but hasn't really worked, shit camera on my shit phone. They are around two and half to three feet tall and wide. The average bud size on the biggest plant is 17cm's long and 5cm's wide, some smaller some bigger. Will have a couple of bud one's following as well..cheers.

[newbutoldgrower75]

Couple of more pics..

[lalaland]

They look great!!