COCO COIR A Question of Timing

[golfnrl]

I'm planning to grow two Purple Haze x Malawi 100% sativa cultivars from Ace Seeds. Their grow guide recommends switching to flower 15 days from seed. I want to top at the 5th node but I'm confused about the timing. Will the plants have 5-6 nodes after 15 days? If not, will waiting to top until they do stunt them? I really want to control the height of these plants. My plan is to do that with topping and LST. Last grow produced big buds but the plants were out of control. I waited my normal 3-4 weeks of Veg before making the flip and that was waaaaay too long.

[Ckbrew]

Guides are just that a "suggestion". I have read that they need to be 21 days old to start bloom as a matter of biology. Here is what I got when they were flipped at 21 days and kept in their solo starter cups. They probably would have grown bigger if they were in larger pots. Then again you may have a unique genetic strain. Try it and let us know. I think it would be unlikely to have 5 nodes in 15 days. If they get to tall there is always supper cropping. I call it hitting them with a broom.

[golfnrl]

Yeah. I understand about the guidelines. I'm usually skeptical myself. I super cropped and had more yoyo's, plant tape, and twist ties going my last grow than I care to admit cause my Veg period was too long. Kinda funny. After I super cropped my plants they grew another 18" and grew right back into the light. I'm going to contact the breeder and see if they have any clarification.

[SoOrbudgal]

Hmm 15days growth and flip. Could that of been a typo? Mine are less than 20days old and just starting 3 nodes on my biggest seedling. Same strain on 2 of them and big difference in how tall they are. Same germination day same everything but one's just taller than the other like Ckbrew's. Would you want a low yield golfnrl ? I guess i've seen SOGs use this method but it's 8 plants.

[golfnrl]

I went back to make sure and this is what's on the web site. Nope, don't want a reduced yield. In the last grow in an attempt to slow down the stretch I used the 11/13 schedule for most of it. It seemed to slow it down some, but not enough.

"It can be grown indoors with strong light intensity and with enough space for its development.
We recommend to switch her into flowering after 15 days from seed, or starting from clones rooted for at least 7 days. We recommend 11 (light)/13 (darkness) photoperiod for the flowering indoors, in order to boost the flowering, and to avoid reflowerings or excessive stretching in early flowering."

[Bluey]

If you want to control stretch/height a few things that will help;

Keep daytime temps low and the spread between night and day temps as close to zero or slightly negative

Use a strong blue/violet spectrum with little to no red until the stretch finishes

Strong ventilation as in airflow blowing on them until stretch finishes

Give them all the light they can handle when the lights are on.

Something I haven't seen tried yet is messing with the hours in the day. Instead of running say 18/6 you could run 12/6 or 18/8 and give the days as many hours as you like. You are the plant God. You can pretty easily give your plants a 20hr or 30hr day when indoors. No idea what effect it would have.

[golfnrl]

My last grow was a 100% sativa. I had prolly a 6-8 day/night temp difference. I had read in recent research that the temp range should be narrow as you noted. I can probably accomplish that with the lung room set up. My tent is about 6 degrees different than the lung room. I only have one light. It's an Rspec. I understand the blue wavelength for Veg. I don't have the ability to swap out lights so I'm stuck with what I've got. I like it though. I can def increase the ventilation rate and run the lights a little hotter. They were on the 7th click out of 10 on the dial. I had to turn them down because the plants were too close.

After I figure out this timing question, I am really wanting to try this light schedule for veg. 12 on 5 1/2 off 1 on 5 1/2 off repeat. Flower 11/13 first two weeks. Then reduce lights on by 1/2 hour every two weeks until harvest. That is also supposed to help control the height.

[Bluey]

If you run less than 12hrs continuous darkness they will only veg

[Cougar672]

I have some Panama x Malawi seeds from Ace and they give the same guidelines for these seeds. While it does not specifically state to have them veg for "at least" 15 days before flipping to flower, I do think that is the intent.

[golfnrl]

Veg period for the last grow was 31 days from sprout. and that was too long. The plants wanted to be about 8-9 feet tall. I realize there are many factors that influence plant height. I want to get better at it because I want to grow landrace cultivars. Right now I suck.

[Bluey]

The sativas are not a difficult grow from what I've encountered but indoors height is an issue as the stretch is easily a tripling in height.
Indoors or outdoors mould is an issue if the buds ever get wet or if humidity can't be kept under 50%..balancing nutes under strong LEDs is a learning curve but like all I am guessing.

[Cougar672]

I emailed Ace seeds for clarification and this is the response:
" it means should let them veg for at least 15 days before flowering. And in case of small space indoors, don't let them grow more from clone more than 15 days"
I am planning on growing the Panama x Malawi from Ace for my next grow and had not read the grow recommendations so thanks for being this to my attention. Let us know how it goes!

[golfnrl]

Cougar672 thx! I left Ace a note on their 'contact' page with my question, but after several days have not received a response. I was going to email them today. That clarification makes sense. I will proceed accordingly.