The switch to 12/12

[NickyChicks]

Sunday funday! Today is going to be the last day before I transition into flowering. They've been in veg for 6 weeks, all of the plants were topped and trained to have 6-8 mains (with the exception of the solo cup bucket). Today I'll do a water change, tonight I'll swap out the bulbs and change the timer to 12/12.

​​​​​​Being my first grow, I have have high hopes and low expectations. I've done plenty of reading on the GWE page, I lurk through the posts here and I really don't want to screw anything up now. I would love to hear any advice/tips or things to keep in mind as I transition into this next stage of my grow. Thanks everyone!
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[Obi-Wan]

I see you mentioned switching the bulbs. I like to run the MH for the first few weeks of 12/12. I feel like it helps keep the nodes a little tighter during stretch. It’s not something you have to do but it’s something to think about.

 

[NickyChicks]

Interesting! Whats the benefit of tighter nodes? More buds?

 

[Obi-Wan]

When the nodes stack a little more tightly during stretch you can more effectively use the grow lights. Basically packing more buds into whatever your plant gives you for stretch. 12” of stretch with nodes at 1/2” apart will fill in better than the same 12” at 1” apart.

 

[FunkyButtLovin]

I leave the MH bulb in for the first10 days after the 12/12 flip.

 

[Gluteous]

Nice even canopy. Looks great. I'd just say let em stretch and keep the lowers clean.

 

[dphipps1020]

Have you considered doing defoliation? Right before the switch is a good time and 3 weeks in to flower. May be something to consider to up your yields. Full tutorial on GWE. Looking good though, keep it up.

 

[quirk]

Great technique to get effective light penetration. Lot of shadows under those beauties.

 

[NickyChicks]

dphipps1020 yeah I definitely have considered but wasn't sure exactly when to. I was planning to defoliate 1 week into flower and then 3 weeks after that. Lots of different info on when and how much to defoliate. I fear taking to much and hurting yields.

 

[NickyChicks]

Would it be beneficial if I were to defoliate now while it's still in veg? How much time should I give it to recover before I switch to 12/12? I can probably spare another week tops for veg but I am on somewhat of a time constraint. I was also a bit hesitant about doing any defoliating in veg, the gwe tutorial basically said for first timers to avoid defoliating in veg and stick to light defoliating during flowering to avoid hurting yields

 

[homegrown]

hey NickyChicks you can do it either way..Defoliate now before you switch, or switch the lights and do a defoliate in a week.(maybe the best bet, if your concerned about hurting yield)-get a better idea of strong growth and trim off the weak stuff. And you'll be amazed at how fast those plants fill out again....so next trimming wont feel so freaky lol

 

[NickyChicks]

Alright I opted to defoliate now. I felt like Edward scissorhands, I hope I didn't get too carried away. Should I still plan to switch to 12/12 tomorrow or give it time to recover? I tried to get rid of all the lower leaves, and any leaves blocking light from the middle of the plants. I also tied them down a little again to space the mains out a bit. Oh, I almost forgot, I broke two branches in the process of trying to maneuver the shears. I taped them up so hopefully they recover.

 

[homegrown]

Nice job! Their gonna love that trimming along with the LST. Go ahead and flip them..they'll fill out in 7-10 days. Then trim them again as needed. I'v never broken a branch but have seen many pics of them..as long as their tied/taped/glued back into place, they seem to recover more times than not. Good luck. your gonna have a jungle in a couple of weeks.

 

[dphipps1020]

Looks good so far. I wouldn't worry too much about the branches, they should mend if you taped them. I had a "wishbone" split on one a while back, when I first started. I didn't tape it or anything right away but it just kept on growing nice and green. It eventually was moved around so much I lost half my plant but I don't think there was much I could have done since she was in flower and the buds were already getting heavy. Unfortunately I hadn't heard of this forum at that point but I was getting my information on GWE and things were going fairly smooth. I'm glad you got the chance to find the forum right away, definitely get some good advice and tips on here. And everyone here is so positive it's great! Maybe because we're all high as a kite most of the time, but that just makes for some interesting conversations. Would have been nice if you had a bit more time to grow them a bit more, I think you would enjoy the bigger ladies too. I think they're going to come out great though, just don't get anxious and harvest early. I'm including a picture of a clone I took that's been in hydro for about a month, maybe month and a half. All this talk of hydro made me want to pull out my hydro setup too (it's all your fault lol). There's 3 mains I've been laying flat and letting them fill in. She needs some defoliation cause she's really filling in since I finally changed the water. Neglected the water for almost a month and the tub was almost dried up, maybe 2-3" left in the bottom, but she kept growing anyway. I moved the other 4 out of there because as you can see, she kind of took over. Anyway, good job again can't wait to see the results.

 

[NickyChicks]

Damn I cannot believe how lush that plant looks even with being neglected, looks good. I wish I had a little more time for veg but I usually have family visit late spring early summer and not living in a legal state so my time was constrained. However if I don't have visitors, I ordered a bunch of auto seeds last week and I will definitely be growing them. I honestly would've grown auto plants this time but I was dead set on photos for my first grow.

 

[dphipps1020]

I know the feeling there. It's legal here but I have way more plants than I'm supposed to so I have to be careful who sees since my big tent is my entire dining-room. Lucky for me all my friends smoke weed and they're always excited to see the progress, and I have a couple friends that grow and like to ask advice. One of them caught the "bug" like I did and is already wanting to expand from his homemade refrigerator grow box even though he hasn't even got a plant to flower yet. Poor guy got some clones from his brother and they happened to have mites, pretty unlucky for his first plants. He tossed those, cleaned everything out and has 2 seedlings going now. Pretty cool setup he has, wish I had a picture of it to post. Yeah I can't believe that plant is thriving so much, even with the neglect. My smaller hydro plants have almost doubled in the last week too. That's the one thing about hydro that I love, the fast growth. So I'm assuming after your visitors leave, you'll be trying again? Have you thought about doing half photo and half auto? You can run 18/6 the whole time until your autos are done and by that point your photos should be huge and you can switch to 12/12 and flower those too. Just a thought. I was thinking about trying that eventually but I have a lot going on already so I'll probably wait a bit. I have been lucky so far and haven't had to buy seeds yet, and my seed stock is growing still cause I usually get at least a few from each plant only none are autos. Oh how I love free seeds though! Best part is that they should be female too. Maybe you'll have a little luck and find a few as well for a future grow. Hoping all my next ones get some seeds too, would be nice to have a few seeds from the 7 or 8 strains in there that I don't have extras of. Anyway, now comes the fun part for you, watching the buds form and grow and change. Do you have a jewelers loup yet? If not, you're going to want one preferably 30x or higher IMO.

 

[NickyChicks]

It's fun you mention running photos and autos at the same time, I was just talking about it last night with my girlfriend. Pretty sure that's the route I'd like to take. I'll know before I harvest this grow whether or not my family is going to come visit, but yes either way I'll be starting another grow sometime before summer. I'm excited about the auto strains I ordered blueberry cookies, glueberry og, blow dream, and strawberry cheesecake. So the sooner I can grow them the better! Yes I do have Jewelers loupe, I also have a digital microscope that I connect thru the wifi on my phone. It was pretty cheap but works great.

 

[dphipps1020]

Nice! Sounds like you're well on your way then. Those strains all sound tasty too. All the ones I have in soil in the tent with my hydro are different, and getting huge. They grow a little slower than hydro but the flavor of this last harvest was pretty good (the ones I didn't harvest early). I want to see the difference side by side so I have 2 strains that have one in soil and one hydro. I've heard the flavor is better with amended soil but haven't really had the opportunity to compare yet. Also, do you have jars for curing or are you trying the Grove bags? I got me some of the oz size bags and they work great, better than jars I think and about the same price. I have some that just finished the 2 week curing mark and they're fresh feeling still when I break up the buds, super sticky, smelly and potent. And it tastes great too! I've been smoking it since it dried and the 3 strains I have all got better and better. I knew they would but I get curious about how they are so I smoke them to compare. Quality just gets better with every harvest.

 

[NickyChicks]

The more strains the merrier right?! That's a pretty cool idea, soil vs hydro side by side. Interested to see your results! I have a bunch of jars but I did see the thread about the Grove bags and I'm pretty much sold on them now lol. At least worth giving a try, so far it seems everyone who has tried them likes what they've seen/smoked so far.

 

[dphipps1020]

Yeah it should be an interesting comparison. I got a 25 pack of the oz size bags for just under $30 with tax and shipping, totally worth it!