2 strains, 2 tents and 2 nets. One confused grower.

I use bricks and cinder blocks to raise my short plants up to the same height as the taller ones. That way they're all getting the same light intensity. You can use buckets or plant risers if you want. I just have plenty of brick to use and I'm cheap.

FirstCavApache64 said:

I use bricks and cinder blocks to raise my short plants up to the same height as the taller ones. That way they're all getting the same light intensity. You can use buckets or plant risers if you want. I just have plenty of brick to use and I'm cheap.

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We should all use bricks, they work great to raise or level out plants! Scrap lathing can angle them a little too. I'm cheap too!

FirstCavApache64 said:

I use bricks and cinder blocks to raise my short plants up to the same height as the taller ones. That way they're all getting the same light intensity. You can use buckets or plant risers if you want. I just have plenty of brick to use and I'm cheap.

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Fixed all that this morning. We're about level. This is all unnecessary work. If the plants cooperated and weren't freaks, they would all be where they started. Four BB's a week after transplanting. One looks like too much light I'm short. The vines won't stop, even now they grow straight into the light with spaced out nodes. Even with the net12 inches away from the light they just keep growing. Here's the 4 BB's where they started. The one on the bottom right turned into a vine. Top left can not be bent.

Great job! It's hard to plan everything out if you're growing from seeds. Different strains and even the same strain from the same batch can have phenotypes that are all over the place depending on how stable the breeder made them. If you want a nice group of plants that will stay close to each other in size you should clone the plants and then flower the clones.
Clones are genetic replicas and will be identical just about to the plant they were cut from. Clones cut from the same plant will be great to run together.
I like variety so I'm almost running multiple strains. I just use topping and super cropping along with the bricks and stuff to keep everything as level as possible in the canopy.

Clones sound like the way to go. Autos don't benefit much from using a net. Not even for practice like I thought I'd do. Cloning is not far in the future for me. I want a cultivar I can rely on.
New plan for next time - start 8 photoperiods and top them three times to make 8 tops on each plant. Sound right so far?
Pick the four best and most even plants and put them in the 5x5 with the net.
I'll construct a net with 32 squares and try and train the tops into each square. Then flip to flower.
Is my math correct? 3 toppings will make 8 tops?

Yea it will but the side branches might catch up and you got more tops there too. I've got a couple photos I've been vegging to death and neglecting while my autos finish this round. All the side branches are about the height of the tops now

Each time you top a plant it has to recover and that can take a couple days. I prefer to supercrop the main stem at the height of the secondary buds and that way it's just one time of stress and I can set my canopy height right before I flower.
Here's a pic of the healed break from doing it.


There's nothing wrong with topping, I've just found this to work best for me. To answer your question, 3 times of topping will get you 8 primary stems. This is a pic of the plant that's in the above photo. It was an OG Kush I just finished this past month.

FirstCavApache64 said:

Each time you top a plant it has to recover and that can take a couple days. I prefer to supercrop the main stem at the height of the secondary buds and that way it's just one time of stress and I can set my canopy height right before I flower.
Here's a pic of the healed break from doing it.

View attachment 5242726
There's nothing wrong with topping, I've just found this to work best for me. To answer your question, 3 times of topping will get you 8 primary stems. This is a pic of the plant that's in the above photo. It was an OG Kush I just finished this past month.
View attachment 5242727

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yup Kushman them up until second week of flower! Monstercropping works best for me! I can get them to root and not die. It takes a bit but I'm learning! I always want to prune them at this stage, settling for LST

Nice healthy plants! Super cropping looks like it takes some practice but I'm not afraid to give it a shot. I took the net out of the 4x4 last night and cleaned up the plants and tied them down a little better. They look so much happier tonight. The buds are starting to fill in nicely. I cut the end off one of the branches of the vine like plant to stop it from growing. In a few days it split in two and started growing again. If we could cross breed cannabis and a hop vine you could get weed that comes up every year and produces 100 or more buds exactly the same size. For 30 years or more.

I fixed a bunch of mistakes in the grow room. Thanks for the advice. I freed two plants from under the net and tied them down a little better. The two vine like plants I give up on. One slowed down but the other still won't stop growing. Hashish or cannabutter, that's all. After 40 to 45 days, two plants are getting sticky and smelly. A few are not far behind. With about 40 days left to go I hope I wind up with some nice buds. I have so much weirdness going on I just found another freak of nature. A flower growing out of the base of a leaf. I have an example of every mutation going on right now. The only thing that makes sense is "Doc Bruce Banner, belted by Gamma rays turns into the Hulk." And spread throughout the grow room.
I'm changing the name to Strawberry rhubarb banana.

I'll give them some time to straighten out. I don't think I'll have to stake them up. Movie Magic, you can't see the fishing line in the pictures. I have a lot of tension on them to get the plants to spread out.
Trying some amazon dirt in a bag in the small pots. Fungus gnats shortly after it got wet the first time. Trying rice hulls, sand and 50/50 combination of sand and hulls as mulch to combat the fungus gnats. My own soil mix dries out on top in a few hours after watering. The plant in the red pot is already showing a problem in the lowest leaf. I may have splashed a bit of neem oil on the other leaf, I don't know. Or care.

Try using a product called Gnatrol for the fungus gnats or else use hydrogen peroxide at about 1 part peroxide to 3 or 4 parts water. You also need to grab some yellow sticky traps to snag the adult fliers. Usually knocks them out in a week or so. Also keep an eye on the fishing line so it doesn't cut into the stem, I like unwaxed kite string for tying them up or else garden twine.

FirstCavApache64 said:

Try using a product called Gnatrol for the fungus gnats or else use hydrogen peroxide at about 1 part peroxide to 3 or 4 parts water. You also need to grab some yellow sticky traps to snag the adult fliers. Usually knocks them out in a week or so. Also keep an eye on the fishing line so it doesn't cut into the stem, I like unwaxed kite string for tying them up or else garden twine.

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The fishing line is tied to some used, loose-fitting squib wire using a palmar knot. I tape the ends to the pot so the tension can be adjusted. The Gnats are only a problem in my experiment. FF and OF. I use a combo of mosquito bits and neem oil sprayed on the surface of the soil. I add sand to my mix which helps it dry quickly and I don't think the gnats like sand. No other bugs in the room.
Peroxide will definitely kill microbes. Keep that in mind.