Thanks for the compliment. I used to support a PVC pipe screen from the bottom but dealing with the legs was kind of a pain in the ass and I would kick them all the time on accident. But then again my room is crammed with plants so you may not have that problem. I like the hanging screen (4 wires on each screen) cause I can just swing it out of the way when I'm done so I can clean and what not.
I spend about 15 minutes a day in there once they hit the screen. Honestly I don't know if two screens is worth it; or at least not on a larger scale. It takes allot of time to tie shit, even worse, after harvest you have to UNTIE everything which is really a drag. Again it's a scale thing. With one or two plants no big deal, but with 66 square feet of screen...ughh.
All I basically do to train is pull the center stalks out to the side while pulling the outer stalks towards the middle and up through the screen. This is done to get the outer stalks (which are typically lower), higher than the central growing shoots. This will cause them to become the dominant shoots (by virtue of auxin distribution) and grow slightly faster. It also bulks the outer stems up a bit. The only marathon training comes in during the stretch.
Towards the end of the stretch I move the branches around so that all the apical (growing tips on the end of each branch) are positioned directly under the lights. For instance: a middle stalk is trained towards the edge of the screen. Once side shoots are big enough and passing through the screen the branch and shoot tip are trained back towards the middle. When the stretch is pretty much over I take one very long session to ensure each bud site has it's own square then I don't fuck with it again.
You'll get the hang of it. As you get better and re-invest in your room I can't over emphasize the value of a proper co2 system. The plants grow so much faster and bigger, it's almost comical.
Cheers,
LF
No worries man, wouldn't compliment ur grow if u didn't deserve it. Yeh i see what u mean, i would DEFINITELY not do a grow like this if i had any more than 1 plant. I'm not growin this one for money or maximum yield, just purely for fun as an experiment to get some crazy looking plant, and some killer smoke on the side!
Hanging a screen does definitely make more sense generally speaking, but i wana K'nex this shit! And with K'nex is a piece of cake to move the screen up. Got a rough plan i'll run by you before jumping into anything. Screen 2 will have 4 legs that attach to screen 1. Time is not a limiting factor in this grow, and ive put so much effort into it already that i might as well put all the effort in required to make it as good as possible now, so i'm still gona make a second screen, plus it'll help perfectly space all branching out.
Seems like ive got a lot more branching than required, in fact i could flip her today and she'd still fill up the second screen easy, but i'm going for a particular look so im gona train her to the edge of this screen. I dont know how to pick which branches to keep and which to cut other than size obviously. If all are at the same height, are there better ones to keep i.e. branches that come from lower parts of the main stalk (will use less energy suckin nutes around the plant due to shorter distance from roots).
My plan to handle the stretch is exactly as u've stated above, by pulling the taller stalks out to the sides and letting the shorter ones grow straight up. I'm hoping though that i wont have to do much of this, ideally i dont want to pull any branches out, again due to the look i'm going for, but its no big ting if i hav to. Only marathon training comes during stretch?! Not if u train a plant like me! I spent 3 1/2 hours today on her tying down the branches trying to make the plant as flat as possible and expose as many branches. Check the update in a bit.
Its funny u mention CO2, i was literally looking up prices of a proper CO2 system. However if i were to implement such a system i'd have to make drastic changes to this set up i think, and its not worth it, as i'm only gona get one more grow out of this cab before i gotta move out. Something ive definitely got my eye on for the future though. Thanks for all the info man, very very useful, and very reassuring to know that my plan to handle the stretch is the way to do it properly and not just an experiment of mine that could go wrong! I did a lot of research on scrogs and flicked though loads of journals before starting mine, so ive always had a rough idea of what to expect and how to manage things, probably why things are still running smoothly and not out of control.... yet... however, as i stated before, experience plays a much bigger part than research in such a hobby.
