How to scrog up bushy nl#5xhaze girls?

calliandra said:

Actually, not sure on the smell theory - it's something @RM3 has been proposing - apparently his plants never smell at all in his very well dialed in environment, no matter the strain. It came to my mind when observing how the smell changed when I made changes.
Another theory of mine is that maybe they were taking on the smell of the neem meal I was adding more liberally during veg to ward off those gnats...

As to smell intensity, I grew 3 sensi superskunk autos before this one and they were skunky as hell from their 2nd tier of leaves lol - so the nl5xhaze is an innocent angel in comparison to me personally


Haha, thanks for asking!

They are in
day 21 of flower
today and looking good and scary too

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The canopy continues at 20cm with the shorter branches that are around 10cm still gaining a very little in height, and the budsites are beginning to fill out a bit in places -- and that's the scary part, if they just fill out and get fat from here - they DO have another 2 months to go! - they are going to be rubbing shoulders with another -- potential danger of mold? We'll see! I've moved my fan to above the screen in any case and will be letting it run more often than I have been to now.

Bit of an impression of how the buds are developing on dawn and dusk respectively:
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(yes, I need to find a better way to take pics haha)
I've found that Dusk is actually the one with the more grapey aroma, whilst Dawn is going more citrus-piney

I found Dawn throwing a few leaves in the undergrowth two days ago too; they had just wilted, as in shriveled up without changing color. As the marigold was hanging about too, it may just be that I should water them more... though the 3 day rhythm - watering them until runoff becomes visible (and then gets sucked back up within an hour) - I've gotten into felt just right to now. Observation mode for a bit more on that

I'm also still on the fence about removing the mulch. Been reading around and realizing the obvious: fungus gnats prefer eating fungi (duh? lol) and I have a nice fungus culture under that mulch, so whilst tending to the soil I'm actually also feeding them
I can't wait till those nematodes and bacteria arrive this week! It will be the perfect time to add them, as the adults seem to be dying off, and if they laid eggs those will just be hatching into their larval stage when I introduce their new room mates
Btw found a nice doc on their life cycle here: http://www.greenhouse.cornell.edu/pests/pdfs/insects/FG.pdf

Cheers!

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calliandra said:

Wohoooo! My Steinernema feltiae finally arrived today and as it was just lights out, I mixed them up, removed the part of my mulch that is still loose and watered them in immediately, covering the soil back up with the mulch.
According to the producer, I can repeat the treatment in 2 weeks - and I sure will
My "water more" scheme fits in nicely, as apparently I need to keep the soil moist for at least a week for the nematodes' comfort and success.

And nonetheless I am still a tad concerned and suspecting my plants are heading towards getting rootbound?!
After all, the 28L pot was meant for 1 plant only and I have 2 in there...
I have been watering every 2 days now, and towards the end of that time, bottom leaves are still starting to droop.

On the one hand, it does make sense, since in the canopy above, flowers are growing like crazy and of course they also need water!
But on the other, how is it that all of a sudden the girls won't tolerate any sort of dryness at all (which they did get during veg, so they're not weak spoiled brats that can't handle a few hours of "drought").

Also, I noticed that a leaf that had gone droopy before the last watering is now shriveling up.
Not really getting yellow first (which could then be a nitrogen issue), though they do fade a bit.
Here's an illustration of what is happening (the colors are exactly how they look in daylight):
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#3 is the leaf that was droopy yesterday, seemed to recover after watering, and was beginning to wilt today.
The other 2 are different stages of progression I found - notice how they begin wilting from the leaf base upwards - just as the wilting is progressing from plant bottom upwards.

Thing is, overall I'd say my girls are looking pretty healthy (today is day 25 of flower):
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The droop and and wilt is happening mainly on Dawn (the larger of the two, left side) - which is another thing that hints at roots running out of space below... larger plant, larger root system, quicker to become distressed by lack of space makes sense...

But, repotting now would be a nightmare lmao!
It would have to be done IN the closet because of the way the screen is fitted in.
I figure it would take 3 people, one of which has to be pretty strong - one to raise the screen at the same time as the second raises the plants by their main stems and holds it raised for a while. And how the hell is the third person going to crawl between their legs - the closet is only 90cm wide remember! - to remove the pot and slide a larger pot under?!

So what does this look like to you all?
And what can I do, apart from breathing into a paper bag and rolling a joint to relax?!

Here's pix of Dawn & dusk buds I took whilst I was at it:
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I think it's really interesting how the two are different in form - Dawn's buds more pointy and longer, Dusk's more rounded and crouched - since Dawn has consistently leaned more towards sativa-ishness and Dusk towards indica-ishness in small details throughout the grow.
Ah! May they be well!

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BowHunter666 said:

I didn't see it anywhere I don't think, but u was also wondering how long the stem should be until you start the screen

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ArcticOrange said:

I didnt get the notification for the update! Youre ladies are looking great! Flowering strong and they still have some time to go! Seems like im right at a month behind ya, i cant wait to see how your gals turn out!

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calliandra said:

Haha same here -- I think notifications aren't working right -- have found the "unread threads" page now tho, that helps

Yep our plants are pretty much a month apart -- I'm enjoying it aLOT watching yours grow and am getting the desire to be growing free-standing plants next just for the lovely optics of a plant growing out bushily and freeeeee like that!!

I'm not seeing much change now on mine on a day to day basis - so I look forward to comparing pix a week apart myself!
Cheers!

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Resinhound said:

Thats a nice looking scrog its cool how you lined all the rows of colas up

Classy

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calliandra said:

Haha thanks! There is a downside (or at least an iffey part) to that lineup though -- I'll photograph it when I take the update pix on the weekend

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calliandra said:

Day 28 of flower
time for a quick update

One moon ago the girls launched into flower - and this is them today:
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Ahh,have I been looking forward to doing these side-by-side pix - finally!

In the undergrowth, I am keeping the soil damp and sprinkle watering daily.
Right after watering:

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This is how I feed my soil
A month ago, the pot was up to the rim with fresh leaves & trim from defoliation -- the soil life has eaten quite a bit of it!

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TheStickMan said:

Looking fantastic, and great to see the side by side pics, I may half inch that idea off you and do it myself! lol

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calliandra said:

Day 35 of flower
So here it is, the long awaited update at 5 full weeks of flower!
Switched the bulbs for pix again to give you all a nice natural-colored look at them... one would think that taking pix regularly would improve my photography skills, but it seems the opposite is the case lol

The general view:
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The main action this week was in the fattening of buds. Without messing with the leaves, I'm counting 18 buds on Dusk and 51 on Dawn
A bit of stretch on Dawn, as I raised the lights a bit - I was hoping they would find more space to accommodate each other, which was wrong reasoning, as I will show you next

So here's the thing!
Whilst they look really orderly and spaced out on top:
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It looks like I unknowingly weaved part of the colas under the screen lmao
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Those little buds forming a real carpet down there are all on the stems of what looks so nicely aerated and lighted on top!

I only thought to show you the canopy from underneath after I switched back to HPS, but I think you get the idea of how they're trained?

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LOL!
(and yes, I do lay my head in the closet and look at the canopy from below now n then haha!)

So it's pretty tight in there. After I realized this, I checked on the other tall colas and yep, they are blooming right down into the net. So when I say the tall ones are 25 from the screen, that's flowers all the way down


Not sure if that is going to spell trouble!
Tho the prospects of them fattening up all the way down are hellishly appetizing

I still hate my circulation vent, so I tend not to turn it on.
Maybe I should change that?
Thing is, it makes the pistils dry out quicker -- does that matter? (ahh, you can tell I'm actually a noob now, eh? )

Otherwise, things seem to be well. I pluck 3-5 dried up leaves out of Dawn every other day, and am not seeing anymore fungus gnats. Keeping the mulch damp by sprinkle watering daily, with more water every 3 days again (the 2nd wave of nematodes is due to go in sometime next week). The marigold says it's good that way, and the girls aren't complaining either.

Perhaps a bit of a complaint: on two of Dawn's colas I saw some yellowing starting, not sure if that's not a bit early with ca. 5 weeks to go?
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One thing is for sure: they're dam sticky!
So, we'll see how they continue next week
Cheers!

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