Addressing the question, "Does it matter at what size I train my plants?"

[Guest]

With my 20 plant grow done, I have a ton of space to fill with the planned perpetual harvest that will be my growing style for the foreseeable future. I'm going to continue with the 20 plant setup, going with four generations of five plants each. This is possible with the extended flower period the SC X Ortega showed, 63-65 days, meaning a five plant harvest every 16 days or so.

The first generation of through wil consist of 10 plants not five, because I have the space for 20 and will need to buffer in the extra 2-3 weeks veg growth that training (and I will be training them again, as you'll see) allows me to have. One group of five was trained early, at about 5-6" from clone. They were tied for a week, released and allowed to grow with it's new stature as a multicola plant with little secondary training before flowering. The second set of plants will be grown pretty much like the 20 in my last big thread, allowed to grow with an apical meristem until at least 12" tall. The day they are moved to flower, I will train them LST style using a variety of methods to move the tip below the next highest node. You'll see. :wink:

 

[Guest]

The little plant in the foreground of the third pic on the R was a same size clone that failed to strike roots.....for almost two weeks after the rest. but strike roots it did. I kept it cuz I like it's spunk and it's node spacing

 

[strain_searcher]

I love your grows.

 

[Guest]

Three days into initial training and all the tops are doing great, still well below the next highest node, forcing a plant hormone called auxins to redistribute to the branches below the top. Auxins determine the dominant tip of the plant and always accumulate in the very tip of of an untrained plant. This redistribution of auxins when the top is tied or removed seems to be a defense mechanism that continues to force the plant to thrive with growth, even if knocked over by a strong wind or animal abuse or whatever. We indoor cannabis hobby growers best use this known reaction to grow bushes so that our relatively small flower lights can reach as much green foliage as possible for as much photosynthesis as possible. We want to use every ray of light as soon as possible

 

[Guest]

Cap,
I love your style of growing and writing,Count me in,I wanna learn!!!

 

[Guest]

On day eight I let them loose


This one got quite twisted in it's attempt to resume being a single cola plant


A new tie is put around the base


and the plant is pulled over and tied off on a screw inserted in the rim of the planter. My finger is pointing at the tip which will be pulled opposite of the screw with a new tie

 

[Guest]

Cap
I started training at like the 3 or 4th node.. And i laid the plant all the way down..
its growing like a vine along the ground or pot. Then i will let it come up, At that point i will bend it Again, But not to the ground. I will let it stay up.. It looks pretty crazy right now.. its like a bushy vine.. i will try hard to get a camera. My wife got one from her sister.. To only be dropped or thrown by our 2 yr old.. I guess he didnt like the name brand. Which was a no name.. lol.. Anyway i will check back hopefully with some pics.. peace.

sack :friends:

 

[tokinjoe]

Hey Cap. Thanks for the informative thread as always my friend. I'm thinking I'm going to LST my outdoor plants this year, not only to improve yield but also for stealth reasons. I'm be sure to post pics of them. Peace. TJ

 

[Guest]

Hey Cap...quick question> I notice you use pipe cleaners for tieing down. I see a lot of guys using string or baling twine or whatever is at hand. Won't that harm their plants? by getting too tight as the plant grows?

 

[Guest]

I love your grows.

Cap,
I love your style of growing and writing,Count me in,I wanna learn!!!

Thanks ss, red, I appreciate it.

Cap
I started training at like the 3 or 4th node.. And i laid the plant all the way down..
its growing like a vine along the ground or pot. Then i will let it come up, At that point i will bend it Again, But not to the ground. I will let it stay up.. It looks pretty crazy right now.. its like a bushy vine.. i will try hard to get a camera. My wife got one from her sister.. To only be dropped or thrown by our 2 yr old.. I guess he didnt like the name brand. Which was a no name.. lol.. Anyway i will check back hopefully with some pics.. peace.

sack :friends:

Great to hear sackoweed! Be sure to keep the vegetation up off the ground as much as possible, especially after waterings. And don't get me started on two year olds, I know all about it.

Hey Cap. Thanks for the informative thread as always my friend. I'm thinking I'm going to LST my outdoor plants this year, not only to improve yield but also for stealth reasons. I'm be sure to post pics of them. Peace. TJ

No problem joe, I like doing them. I would love to see some pics of an outdoor plant trained. Never seen that before.

Hey Cap...quick question> I notice you use pipe cleaners for tieing down. I see a lot of guys using string or baling twine or whatever is at hand. Won't that harm their plants? by getting too tight as the plant grows?

It will if you use a tie that needs to be cinched tight. The pipe cleaners I just started using and I like them a lot. I can keep track of and organize plants by color, reuse them, and they're cheap as hell. They usually aren't bent all the way around the stem, but in a crook made by a 180 degree bend. If one is around a stem, it's a loose tie with plenty of expantion room. I used to use twine, and that was nice to use too. It has great deal of friction against itself and also holds loose ties well, leaving that all important expantion space. 10,000 foot rolls that lasted me 3 years cost >$5

 

[Guest]

This is a 1/4 turn to see the other side of the trained plant. This is where the second tie will be anchored


Tie in place


And the top is pulled down

 

[Guest]

This single cola plant is showing a deformity in its upper growth, almost like it was burned on the fluoro tubes, but I dont think that what hppened, it just looks like that.



an example of the single cola plants



and both sets together

 

[Guest]

Two days later......

 

[Guest]

Three days afer that, it's watering time. Full strength 3-1-1 with kelp extract and epsom salts in preventative doses

 

[Guest]

Those cheap chemical ferts sure do a terrible job of growing thick root systems



Transplant time



Any yellow leaves you see are a result of the cloning phase



Time to train the foot tall plants!

 

[Guest]

The deformed plant from earlier. Still deformed.



The first tall plant will use white wire. It's pulled back like a small plant. You can see another example of small plant training in my sig thread



Because of the size, I'm going to gently train this plant with a middle splint. It should be fairly obvious why it's done and how



Adn the final tie down to keep the height below the next highest node

 

[Guest]

This one will be trained the normal way, with a low tie and a pull down tie. It's different than the first plant but more like how I usually train plants. I wasn't sure if the stress would be too much for this style, but it seemed to work out fine

First the base tie and then the tie to pull the top over



The next plant will be trained with the pipe cleaner made into a circle. Basically, I braced the plant upright with my finger in the middle of the circled wire and slid it over the plant so it bent. Just picture my finger in between the circle againt the stem and pushing opposite as the wire goes on. Hope this is clear, if not, ask me



This is the two different plants side by side



And moved to the flower room with some flowering lants on their last day in 12/12

 

[packn2puff]

Going Full Circle

Going Full Circle

I like all your threads Cap. Hopefully, no more of those mites around. I was wondering, what if you trained the main stalk to go all the way around, so it left a 360 loop, and headed back on the main stalk line? Like your 2nd pic in the last post (yellow pipe cleaner). Is it possible to continue the circle "O" instead of the "S?" Would it even be able to make the bottom turn? Would it benefit in any way? Like I said, just wondering. Keep up the good work! Thanks for stopping by my thread, albeit to respond to bluevelvet, but you stopped by. Don't worry I'm not going to go post crazy on your thread, just this one pic from 4/24/05. This I call the SLOG (ScreenLess Of Green). I have just been training rotating light hot spots and moving tops, letting the branches and leaves hold them up. Topped once at fourth node. 4th day into 12/12. I hold your opinion in high esteem. Good luck with the new SOG project.

The Slog