Shortened Veg Time. How to Maximize the Grow ?

[Bootsy]

Hi folks. We just booked a vacation, that ended up having to be 3 weeks earlier than planned. As a result, my next/current grow must be rushed. the girls are as seen in the photos, with 6 or 7 nodes. I will have lots of head room so let em get stretchy with the light up high. so now in order to be sure of harvest, i must switch to 12:12 now. My question was gonna be whether I should top em, or do the bending LST thing. I have only done the bending over on autos, not epecially well. As I am writing this, it is becoming obvious that I dont have time for the recovery from cutting them. So I will just finish with question - with this many nodes, the stem is pretty hard. is there a technique someone would suggest to get them bent over to spread them out? Would i supercrop the main stem? Thanks in advance. The photos show the bunch, and then a single to show the typical size.

[SoOrbudgal]

Hmmm tough one Bootsy but.........I'd remove the very lower single leaf uproot and bury deeper. Just cut the lower leaf off

[Bootsy]

cool. done. they are to be tranplanted tomorrow into 5 gal (couple in three gal) and i will do it then. timing changed now

[MagicMike66]

No point topping them as they won’t get time to develop into anything big enough to grow bud so better just leaving as a main

[Bootsy]

Hi. Agreed that is Very possibly the best solution. just leaving em was one consideration, but I am gonna do as much bending as possible. will see how it works out.

[OldManGrower]

Howdy Bootsy. If you were to super crop them, they would stay shorter, so you could lower your light. To do the bending: Find where you want to do the bending and squeeze and roll the stem between your fingers until you can feel it soften. Bend it over as far as you feel comfortable doing, then tie it down. I use a big paper clip and wire plant ties on my fabric pots.

[Bootsy]

Hey. thought i was going to have to supercrop two stems. it was weird in that they were so flexible even when quite thick. must be because so young? made training easy at least.

[Rootsruler]

How long will you be gone for? If it's less than a month then I would top the newest node, set up an auto irrigate system and go on your vacay. I'm assuming your lights are on timers?

f you want to check on them while you're away setup a camera so you can get a visual as to what's happening. I use this one and it does the job.
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I DIYed my own irrigation system and left for 6 weeks. This was at the end of week 2 of flip. My dehumidifier drains into my reservoir so I don't need to top it off much. I made watering rings out of the 1/4" drip feed line but I'm going to replace those with watering plates from Floraflex. It's super easy to make. All you need is a reservoir, a pond pump, a timer, a 6 or 8 port drip distribution head and a roll of 1,4" drip feed line. 6" riser to mount the distro head and a 1/2" barbed adapter to connect the pump to the distro head.

[Bootsy]

thanks. I am not going till early November for 3.5 weeks, and the girls were already started with the expectation of a late Nov harvest. they will be harvested before I leave, and that is allowing 9.5 weeks so possibly some even then wont be done.

[alltatup]

Bootsy I know I'm stating the obvious, but they are just too small to flip to flower. You certainly don't have time to do any kind of training that would shorten them even more.

As Nebula says, the secret sauce to a good flowering is to let them veg long enough. Ya know, it's just not fair the way life interferes with our growing schedules!

[alltatup]

You're right: I've never grown under those conditions. I wish you good harvest!

[Rootsruler]

I understand Nebulas claim but it depends on the context and condition of the grow.

3 letters would dispel Nebulas claim. SOG.

Honestly, and this could be broscience as I have no empirical fact to back it up, from what I know of basic plant biology, it would seem that a younger plant would have more vigor than a larger, more mature plant. Plants, like humans, go through hormonal changes the older they get. It would seem desirable to use the younger growth hormones to effectuate larger, denser flowers with higher trichome counts.

I guess a good parallel would be to compare an 18 yr old lifter to a 40 yr old lifter. If they both used the same nutrition and workout program I can say that the 18 yr old would see more gains faster. Why? He's at a stage in his physical development where HGH is peaking. I would say if you can determine where that peak is for weed you could take advantage and use it to improve yield and quality.

[alltatup]

Rootsruler Comparing weightlifters to cannabis plants is just silly. There's no basis for such a comparison. We all know that a photoperiod cannabis plant has to vegetate long enough to pick up growth steam before it's ready to switch to flower.

[Bootsy]

thanks for the interest. I am very curious and am gonna post as these babies grow, and will try to be not-wordy. I am doing LST only, and tarted 2 Sep. attached are photos of the day started, and this morning. One thing i like is that there were 2 strains i really wanted, and they are both responding well - Durban Poison and Rose Garden. Cheers all.

[SoOrbudgal]

How are they looking Bootsy any update pics?

[Rootsruler]

alltatup - I'd love to see the science confirming that. I've grown countless SOG style grows. Explain to me how the flower quality suffers. Yield wise I can produce as much quality flower as a scrog or traditional grow in SOG so no real advantage.

I could very well be wrong so I'm offering you the chance to confirm that this is the case.

[alltatup]

Ok, Rootsruler We may not be understanding each other. I'm talking veg length--not plant height. We can fiddle with lights to accommodate shorter, scrogged plants, but we can't fiddle with nothing if the plants are not mature enough when we flip to flower.

How many weeks does it take to set up a good SCROG or SOG before flipping to flower? It adds some weeks of veg time to use that technique. I always mainline my plants, so that adds time to my veg. LST techniques are going to lengthen veg time. Again: my point is not how tall they get, but how much time they've had in veg. We all know what a plant looks like in veg when it's begging to be flipped to flower, when it's ready. There are dozens of websites warning that a precipitous flip to flower will result in a smaller yield, so you don't need me listing them.

I grow in two BCNL grow boxes with 36" vertical limit, so I have to be careful with how tall my plants get in veg. Even with my limitations, but using my LST techniques, I usually veg for a full 7 weeks before the flip. I grow strictly photoperiod plants, mostly hybrid with a good flower stretch, and I end up having to super crop which gives me a horizontal grow and takes best advantage of the lights.

We all have to adjust what we do according to our grow rooms and climates. Bootsy originally wrote that s/he had to flip 3 weeks earlier than originally anticipated: we don't know how many weeks the plants had already been vegging: was it 3 or 6 weeks? It would make a big difference.

This is what the end of flower looks like for me: everything stretched horizontally under the light. No larfy bud. Not the largest harvest I could get, but all the bud is top shelf quality. Just so you can see what I do with my growing conditions.

[Bootsy]

Hi. i dont see where I put the dates in. sorry. from photos it looks likt the seeds sprouted around Aug 4?. started 12;12 lighting on 26 Aug, so three weeks after. i belive that is the minimum growth time before flowering will happen, even with 12:12 from seed, as Nebula's tutorial says.

[alltatup]

Bootsy I am looking forward to seeing the finished product. I hope you get some good nugs!!!

[Rootsruler]

In SOG I veg no more than a few weeks before I flip.Trim side branching and use apical dominance to my advantage.

[Bootsy]

Photos this morning. I didnt do any cutting, jusr bending LST with results as seen. No question that the haul wont be super large but doing what I can. All except one are well into flowering but one. Criticall Mass is just barely showing some pistils (see photo) and is very odd in my experience- so maybe she couldnt go into flower that early. I am guessing the hardest part of this grow will be to get some spread between the buds due to lack of length, but will see. Also - i now expect the critical mass will not finish in time, but I do have a home for one of the girls later on so will see, and this now has become a fun challenge. More next week. Yeah - i know - gotta work on my photography. Time to try out my new torch (old knives though) and contemplate the storm Lee just hitting.

[SoOrbudgal]

My look how much they grew Bootsy stay safe an dry, hope all goes well with the storm.

[Bootsy]

Just a quick update. see photos. all are growing. two are way behind regarding flower development. one in bigger bag is showing watering issues. must read what to do (too big a pot for coco can lead to overwatering - I think). Now - which, if any will make it prior to Oct 30 - 5 more weeks. Always fun. Cheers all.

[Bootsy]

Photos soon, but in brief - I fucked up. got lazy with zipper and wife didnt realize so lights got left on a couple times and now half have re-vegged. And - I didnt think of it till saw bunch of 3 spline leaves showing up DUUH. I assume this will set things back a bunch so harvest seems unlikely unless i find a volunteer to check em for awhile while we are away. F>>>>>k! and bud tor outdoors like i have never seen! But - the striped bass are biting awesome so life not too bad

[Bootsy]

so now I must figure out what to do with the girls. I am gonna post the question of how long it takes now after re-vegging. do I restart the timing? , or ??? A couple at the back (of course the ones i have much of) seem normally developing and can see them ready in a month, but the rest - how long will they still go? anybody go through it?

[SoOrbudgal]

I'm not sure at all about how long it takes indoor photos i've only experience outdoor early flower then revegg. It was ugly experience for me i salvaged all of them with alot of work. As all the fluffy flowers and 1 then 2 leaf started to dry out i had to strip and clean that's the way i did it to allow the bud sites room. It's hard to explain but it something i never want to do again. Just guessing i'd say 6wks to get them back inline and that's just guessing. Sorry Bootsy

[Bootsy]

thanks S0Orbudgal. I am evenb more f...d now that i noticed the real mees up. when i started em flowering, I meant to set timer at 11 on, 13 off. noticed lights on early, and timer is actually set for 13.5 on. even the plants at the back are looking weird. hoping i can find someone to feed em while I am gone and try to recover as another "experiment" Duhhh - very unobservant of me. at least nop super need so its not hurting anybody except my feelings. now no chance at all of any harvest pre-trip so onward ho!

[Bootsy]

the grow is long finished, and I thought it might be of intewest to show what happened in finishing the grow after the major mistake re-vegging. I now have an appreciation for what SoOrudgal said, and in retrospect I might not do it again if reveggingg happens. I am gonna start another post to show the results, but in brief -, I got an average of 35 g of very frosty but looooose buds from each plant. Harvest was end of November, so the girls required around another 6 to 8 weeks after the restart. Most were almost ready, but I cut a week or so earlier than i wanted due to the white powdery mildew expanding crazily. The cured bud from the rest were/are quite potent, but all have a slight taste that i am not a fan of,
The two Tropicana Poison Fast plants grew normally and were harvested end of Oxctober at 1.5 oz each, I assume since they have some autoflower genetics that led to not revegging. photos attached show one just after i finally noticed the revegging in October, one showing the thick girls hanging after chopping and one showing after full trim (very annoying, but super sticky trim left over).
I do maintain that i would have obtained more than an ounce per plant, so the minigrow worthwhile (noting flowering didnt start till around 3 weeks, as Nebula s articles say. Duhhh to me for the lack of observation abd then the timer f...k up (13 hrs on and 11 off doesnt work well). . Other post of photos coming unless I hear not to bother.