Super Bending and Resulting Bud Growth Along Lateral Colas

[aintdedyet]

Good day fellow members and guests. Hope y'all are staying safe during these troubled times. Long time since posting, but still aintdedyet (never gets old does it?) I tend to post when I feel I have something to share, when I think I can generate some useful discussion, or when I could use some input on alternate courses of action. Most of the questions I have are answered by a thorough reading of the site material, or the most excellent answers offered by our members, particularly the veterans who continue to stick around and patiently help out others.

A challenging season for the outdoor grower, particularly here in our nation's capital, eh? What with the forest in my back yard, the extremes in temp., constant high humidity and several early frosts, makes me glad my outdoor harvest is always a plan B bonus.

So this year I grew a Super Silver Haze from seed generated from last year's 11 foot tall creation ... that turned out to be a decent harvest but not without a ton of problems. On a positive note, got a ton of seeds out of her and her two Blue Dream buddies.

Thought I'd hedge my bets this year and invested in an inexpensive greenhouse. Worked out ok, but no temp or humidity control. And the Silver Haze got all leggy on me and quickly outgrew the tent ... a good problem I suppose. Tried to supercrop, but couldn't massage the stems sufficiently, even with needle nose pliers. Ended up bending the colas through long arcs radially out from the centre. The resulting bud structure down the length of any (now) laterally oriented cola is predictable but still pretty cool. The "topside" buds grow straight up and are reaching a decent length. The "underside" buds develop much more slowly, and strain to grow around to the top side. The ripening pattern appears to be the same .... pistil browning and curling much more advanced on the top side. I suspect this would complicate any sort of staged harvest.

I regret lollypopping her to the extent I did. Bending the colas outward opens up the interior significantly, and I suspect I sacrificed some yield. Live and learn.

I was thinking that with unlimited space in the x-y plane, why not bend each cola directly out from the centre, like spokes on a wheel, arcing almost to the ground. i couldn't do that because I needed to get the Silver through the door, and I'm not sure the greenhouse would have enough real estate. What would be the pros and cons of such a structure with respect to bud exposure, plant management, effect on yield etc.

So as I mentioned, we've had several hard frosts the past few nights, with temps below freezing. I knew it was coming so last week I moved the greenhouse into the garage, covered the whole thing with tarps and quilted blankets, put in a fan and heater, and picked up a TS 1000W to try and help with the ripening. She's on a 12/12 cycle, with as much of that out in the sun as possible. I mule her around in my grandson's wagon, following the sun all day. I must have put 160 km (100 miles) on that dang thing this summer. LOL! Hope she repays me with a decent harvest.

So here's a question, with respect to the topside/bottom side bud difference. Would it help to shine another light up from the floor? Seeing buds grow down would be interesting. Anyone with experience doing this, perhaps from past supercropping efforts? I know side lighting is fairly common, not so sure about lights from below.

Enjoy the pics ... thanks for reading, and thanks in advance for any input, be it appreciative or constructive ...

[ChadWestport]

At quick read, the first thought in my mind to answer your question is apical dominance. This is the phenomena where plants send the most hormones for growth to the tallest branch, the one with apical dominance. So while lighting from the bottom may be adventitious, the bottom part you are illuminating will have far less growth hormones available. Lots of people talk about making a nice even, spread out canopy instead of a Christmas tree shape, one of the reasons for this is to manipulate apical dominance.

[aintdedyet]

Thanks for the input. She was topped 3 times and LST'd during veg in order to break the dominance. You can see the chop points in the structure. One might consider the "superbending" to lie on the more aggressive end of the LST scale.

I think it's more a case of the underside buds simply not receiving the same amount of light.

Maybe I should hang it upside down until the underside buds catch up? Just kidding ... or am I?

[aintdedyet]

Greetings members & guests. Beautiful fall day here in the True North's capital, sun is shining, leaves are turning & falling, 77F and 57% RH. I can almost hear the buds ripening, or at least see them, and I can sure smell 'em!

Just a quick update. Couldn't bring myself to hang the Silver Haze upside down, and can't afford another light, so I'm using the Illudium Q-36 Space Modulating Reflector. Not sure if it helps, but it can't hurt, and I need to capture any stray phucking photon I can at this point. If nothing else, it helps with underside inspections and photo ops.

So the whole girl in the greenhouse in the garage thing is panning out OK. Nipped a but rot issue that was developing in the ..... well, in the bud actually. Seems to be liking the TS 1000W; I'll move that into the veg tent once this emergency measure is done.

Bud development along the lateral cola is kinda neat. Many of the topside buds have now grown tall enough that they are providing a little space where their stems are. Many of the bottom side buds are using this space to sneak around to the top side at an accelerated rate. Gotta love plants ... opportunistic, good at maximizing value, and ruthless sometimes, in a good kinda way.

I figure a week or two to go , another 100 km on the transport wagon. Still putting out a few pistils, and ~50% cloudy in the trichomes. Buds are kinda fluffy; I'm hoping they'll dense up.

Thanks for taking a look. As always, any suggestions greatly appreciated. Enjoy the pics, good luck with your grows!

[SoOrbudgal]

Ain't we all fighting for the last spectrums of out door light LOL. We are going to get some great fall sun shine in the coming week also don't know for how long but the fires are getting soaked by the rain so all is right in Oregon. It is a great day and the smells are getting so strong of weed now around town My Thai skunk is 1st up to harvest going day by day with her anytime now like you waiting for " denser "

[aintdedyet]

sorry about that Chief ... try again on the pics...