When do I start trimming?

[CANADIAN]

Hey Everyone. Awesome forum. I have a few plants started, and need help on when to start trimming, They are exactly 6 weeks from seed, regular seeds. I have 15 started and hope to end up with 8. Word is 4 will soon be legal to have here in July. Will give the other 4 to a buddy, He might end up with 2 or 3 , lol.
This is my first grow, from seed, I got a female last year from a buddy that was going to through it out after it got stepped on or something fell on it. broke the stem. I nursed it back to health and ended up getting about 6 ounces from it. It was only a foot high ( 30 cm ) when I got it.,
I pinched mine 10 days ago, shortly after repotting them in the 13 L bucket. They are all under 16 t8 fluorescent 6500k bulbs. and seem to be growing real good, One is stretching up to fast, searching for more light. I hope it turns out to be one of the males. I will try to put up some pics so I can get some constuctive criticism on them. Any help you pros can give me will be appreciated.
Another buddy is asking for some clones off them and I don't know if I should wait til they are sexed to make sure he gets female plants. or if I start a clone now, and the mother turns out to be female, is it a guarantee that the clone will be a female?
Also, I am still running on 7-24, When should I start to cut back on the hours of light?
I have 6, BC Ice. 5, Azura. and 4 M.Juanita.
Thanks in advance.

[StoneyTony]

Straight from the source:

http://www.growweedeasy.com/search-results?search-results%3Fq%3D=defoliating

The plants are looking good, however, I would recommend looking into plant training too:

http://www.growweedeasy.com/search-results?search-results%3Fq%3D=plant%20training

[CANADIAN]

Thanks Stoney Tony, I am reading there now.

[Canuck147]

Regular seeds should be getting light 18/6. I would trim them now.

[CANADIAN]

Thanks Canuck, I gave them there first taste of darkness, and I think they still grew some over night.

[ZigZag]

If you're going to train them then it would probably be OK to take some of the largest fan leaves to open the plants up a bit so new cola sites get more exposure and develop faster. If you're going to let em grow untrained then don't take any leaves off until they block bud sites or lay on top of each other and start trading condensation. Open up the bottom center first. For the clones_ wait until you can sex the plants for sure_ unless you're breeding you have no use for males taking up space. Clones repeat the sex characteristics of the parent plants. Unless you stress a female to the point where she turns into hermie. All in all they are looking really nice, good healthy growth. Keep on keep'n on!

[CANADIAN]

Thanks ZigZag, I did start training some of them last night, and already they turned back up to the light. Amazing. They just keep growing like weeds. lol. I did remove some fan leaves already to open up some hidden cola sites, I am sure they even poped up some. I cut some lower branches off as well, and I just couldn't trow them all out. I didn't have any root grow, so I cut a stock off my alevera plant and squesed some juice into the hole before inserting the clones. I just tried 5 and all but 1 are standing up nice and straight. I labeled them well so I know what plant they came off of. If nothing else it will be a test on if I can keep them alive. Practice for when I can take some off of the female plants. And Thanks, I think they are looking real good for my first grow.

[oldjarhead100]

I start trimming when I have 6 nodes then I cut back to 3rd node this will give you 2 main shoots then when they get 6 nodes cut them each back to 3 and before you know it you will have a plant with 20 to 30 or more bud sites .I try to keep my plants with a level canopy. the plants I just trimmed were 3 weeks old and I am trying to clone the main stems I cut off so far so good.when you cut the third node this gives the first 2 nodes to cacth up to the 2 thirds so you will now have 6 main branches.

[CANADIAN]

Hey Oldjarhead, I pinched the top when most of them were at 4 nodes and they all split very nicely. One I missed witch was real tall, I just cut it off above the fifth node, and bent the branches down to train it. I trimed the top I just cut off and tried cloning it in new soil, seems to be doing good. , I just found this site 2 days ago and I wish I had have found it a month ago, I would have done some things different. Thanks for your advice.

[StoneyTony]

Good advice. I would add that after you make your first cut to get 2 main shoots, you only have to wait until 4 nodes grow out before you cut again, and not until they grows 6 nodes again. Nothing wrong with waiting until then. You just don't have to.

[CANADIAN]

Thanks Tony.

[ZigZag]

Canadian_ yup, i'd handle your training like oldjarhead suggested. Good advice. It may put your harvest a little behind but worth it in the end.If you aren't in a time crunch. I usually add a week to ten days beyond what the Seedbank says, and for toping 2 or more times I'd add another week on top of that. My second grow I had time to top 3 times and got 8-12 large colas pre plant. This time I have a very tight time crunch so just toped once and then used LST. Still gonna have about 6 main colas. Sounds like your plants are doing great_ fast recovery means you have lots of options_ go for it and happy harvesting!

[CANADIAN]

Thanks ZigZag, I am in no hurry, and your advice is greatly appreciated.

[CANADIAN]

[StoneyTony]

Nice! The girls are looking great

[CANADIAN]

Thanks Tony,