Manifolders only

[Mr Pot]

Hi guys,
Imma specifying my setup first then I'll ask the questions.
I have a 250W MH running right now with an exhaust vent, 2 clip-fans and a 2,6ftx2,6ftx6ft (80x80x180 in centimeters) grow tent. I'm growing Belladonna (mostly sativa) and Durga Mata (mostly indica) from Paradise Seeds. Watering with pHed water (5.5-6.5 range) and the GH trio only (I'm following Nebula's chart for quantities) in coco coir. Belladonna it's 4 inches tall and the 5th node it's just starting to appear, I've transplanted from a solo cup to a 5 gal smart pot (that's more to 4 gal coz it's not full) in the past days and watered it with 1/4 gal following the week two in the nutes chart. She's 16 days old now from germinating.

My temperature ranges are 26-28C at night with a RU between 65-75% (8 hours) and 29-31 with the lights on (16 hours) - RU between 50-60%. I'm working on a way to lower these temps, since they've reached higher than that on the first week, and the temps are slowly lowering because of the season changes where I live.

I do know and experienced how higher temps stunts growth and would like some advices about manifolding my babies.

Donna isn't thick at all as you can see in the pictures. As I compared with other grows from here, it kinda disappointed me. I'm trying to follow the tutorials the best way I can and I'll probably won't manifold it the time 6th node appears because of it's thickness and slow growth.
I was wondering... has someone here experienced anything like that and could give me some information about it? I'm thinking in chopping the first time when the stem it's thick enough for it.
Regards,
Pothead

[Mr Pot]

NebulaHaze how would you advise me?

[9fingerleafs]

I think the plant looks pretty good. Those 4 cm won't make much of a difference on a mature plant and you can always put more soil on top to cover the stem and new roots will sprout. About the toping. Once you see developement on the side growth tips of a node it's safe to top in my opinion. The great thing about weed is that grows like weed. You can always bend some more. Suppercrop there. Tie a branch or put some support. So once you topped the first time let the plant grow a few inches. You don't have to guide every inch they grow. Its easier and faster to let the plant do its thing and bend branches when they're long enough to give some space to the main branch. The biggest mistake you can make is to try to rush the training cause it will stunt the plant and become slower

[Mr Pot]

9fingerleafs I know I can't rush training. I was just wondering how subjective the date of the 1st training would be. If some growers starts on the 2nd week and others after the 1st month.
And do you know any technique to thicken the stem? Some here say to refresh them with some air a bit, but I don't wanna get them wind burned.
The heat really does stunts the growth maaaaan...
My best

[9fingerleafs]

Good air circulation is key to strong branches. I've never had any wind burn. Also suppercroping thickens the branches in a cupple of days but requires some more trial and error

[StoneyTony]

I have moved my Solo cup seedlings to 5-gal smart pots in the past. You WILL NOT have to water very often for a while. Also, growth will seem slow for a while as the plant develops roots for the big pot. I've gotten faster growth by going to a 1-gal pot first. Follow the advise on Nebula's article about waiting until the 6-node develops. The plant will respond much faster (at least in my experience). The plant will thicken when it thickens. Just keep giving them what they want when they need it. Like 9F said, the circulating fan/s will help harden them off too. Otherwise with manifolding - Patients, patients, patients.

[Mr Pot]

StoneyTony I'm avoiding any chance for me to stress them out since this is my very first grow and I'm already trying to train them, but I know that solocup>1gal>5gal sounds better for their growth, just don't know if it'll best suit me.
I'm waiting for the 6th node for sure!

[StoneyTony]

No worries. You're on the right track. I moved them straight away to the 5-gal for the same reason. Your plants will still do great going to the 5-gal first, but it just takes some patients when checking on the plants and not see any significant growth at first. I've learned since then that I get faster growth if I did a transplant in between first. But once the plants have established it roots in the 5-gal it'll start growing like crazy!

[NebulaHaze]

Your plant looks perfectly healthy, which is a good sign. Like you said the heat can definitely slow things down. Also, when you have a smaller plant in a big pot like that, it can be easy to give them so much water that it takes a while to dry out again, since the seedling isn't drinking much. I've found seedlings seem to do best when you give them just enough water that you have to water them every few days. The wet/dry cycle seems better than if the soil is wet for long periods of time, because it helps get more oxygen to the roots. Sometimes it can help to avoid oversaturating the medium by watering the seedling in a circle around the plant at first, until it gets bigger and drinks more. But overall your plant looks great, and it could possibly just be that individual plant. There are always some plants that grow faster than others, and sometimes it has nothing to do with you! Now that it's cooler and the plant is bigger, I think you're going to see it start growing much faster!

[Mr Pot]

I've just watered her 4 days after the first watering in the 5 gal. She wasn't so dry and maybe I've rushed a bit, but she is looking healthy and I wanted to give a shot. I'm probably overwatering her a bit, this is my second 1/4 gallon w/ nutes (week 3) and I'm wondering how to follow your GH trio nutrient chart with a 5-6 weeks veg. Do you repeat w2 and w3 how many times? I know that's subjective but since I'm following your tutorial thought you should now it haha.. Dunno if you realized but my setup it's similar to yours 250w tutorial. I'm wondering if the 1gal/4 plants it's a good proportion throughout the whole vegetative growth and how differently photoperiod and auto strains should be treated when it comes to that.
Anyway, Imma watching her do it's job and when the six node develops I'll chop it a bit.

[StoneyTony]

Watch out giving nutes with every watering. It's better to alternate nutes then plain PH'ed water so, you don't get the salt build-up, which can inhibit the roots from utilizing the nutrition fully.

[Mr Pot]

StoneyTony I'm aware of that. My next watering will be pure pH'ed water and maybe the next one from it too. Donna it's actually growing fast right now, she's getting used to the 5gal quicker than I thought and I don't want to slow it down for nothing..

Anyway, I was wondering about the chart cause I'm manifolding her and do not want to screw things over by missing any proportion.

[StoneyTony]

That's great she's responding well! I'm assuming you're talking about Nebula's chart? Just like she says start low and work your way up. Stop (or sometimes back up a bit) when you see the tips of the leaves starting to turn brown, or if you see any other stress the plant might be displaying. The Wonder Woman I have going love the nutes at the lower end of the scale (at least for now).

[Mr Pot]

Yeah I'm following Nebula's chart. But I kinda figured it out my proportions. Anyway, there are some differences with nutes when it comes to manifolding and I wish I knew more about it.

[NebulaHaze]

Mr Pot You mentioned there are some differences with nutrients when it comes to manifolding. I'd love to hear more about what you've read or your experiences! I've always given my manifolded plants regular vegetative strength nutrients, and then adjusted the levels based on what the plant is saying, like how StoneyTony does.

I've found that besides the strain and growing medium, the humidity and temperature seem to make the biggest difference when it comes to the plants needing higher or lower levels of nutrients. For example, if it's hot and dry they tend to need lower levels of nutrients because they're drinking so much water and easily get nutrient burn.

As far as training, I've found that if you take off a lot of vegetation off the plant (for example manifolding, or a big defoliation session) that the plant seems to slow down drinking for a few days, but I'm not sure if I've noticed that they need different levels of nutrients overall, at least in my plants

[StoneyTony]

That's a good point Nebula. It's easy to overlook the temperature and how fast the plants are drinking up water with the nutrition.

[Mr Pot]

NebulaHaze My thoughts are more about a not perfect environment. As you said the temp + rh combination really matter for the growth. The climate where I live it's hot and humid so my guess is that duo slowed a bit things with drinking and growth. I'm saying that if I follow your chart vigorously, I'll have to repeat a few times w2 and w3 till flowering (along phed water course), chop her will slow down things a bit. Dunno if someone ever reported a grow with a climate similar to where I live but that's the challenge for now. Anyway, I'm really watching them so if anything comes up I'll be there to act fast. Durga Mata isn't in the pictures, she's 10 days away from Belladonna and I'll try less watering with more frequency as you said when I transplant her to the 5gal pot.

[South Sierra Dude]

I planted in those tiny peat pellets for my first grow. My plants got bigger eventually.

[StoneyTony]

Eventually..... LOL. Nice turn out - yum!

[Mr Pot]

South Sierra Dude I'm just worried about the time spent in vega to optmize my yields. Anyway, every setup is different than each other...