Need some tips for one big lady under 600w hps ....

[Alcan]

First of all, this is one awesome site. Good vibes on here and peeps always helping each other out. So, no better place than any to outline my situation right now and look for tips and suggestions from experienced growers on how best to proceed.

One LA Choc female. Vegged for 6 weeks and now 6 days since I switched on my 600w hps to a 12/12 lighting schedule. Soil grown with Fox Farms Ocean Forest potting mix. Feeding about once per week every other watering. No def noticeable. Plant is really healthy looking. Height was 3.25 feet at end of veg. Now about 4-5 inches taller since I turned the switch to flower. All indicators look ok so far.

Qst is now to max yield on this sole female. The two other starters sadly turned out to be male .

All things considered especially since I am only in first week of flowering , would toppiing be viable in my quest to max yield.
I am considering just dropping my 600w cooltube to a 45 degree angle from the current horitontal placement ....

I wonder if topping at this point and leaving my lamp at horizontal be more beneficial than leaving plant alone untopped and just dropping lamp one end to cover more growth ?

Any and all suggestion or insight is really appreciated

 

[DabSnob]

topping in flower is pointless. i have topped the day i switch to 12/12 before, that seemed to make most of the colas and side nugs equal size. never noticed a big enough difference in overall yield to continue this method though. what did work to increase yield though was topping twice in veg and pulling the plant arms out right when i flip the lights. i averaged an oz. more PER plant doing this. hope this helps son

 

[Alcan]

Thanks DS. You know ever since the other two plants turned male , I am looking at ways to not make this whole grow project a waste of time. If I can achieve 3 ozs from this lone female ,that would be decent. An extra oz or two would make all the difference , giving me enough smoke to tide me over till next grow.

 

[DabSnob]

i would take cuttings now and get started on another crop early. i have taken cuts from flowering plants 3 weeks in without any problems.

3oz. should be easy to achieve with a plant of that size, especially since its alone under a 600w. To maximize this yield try just pulling the top down to the side with twine/rope etc... to allow the side branches to get more light, that should help a bunch.

 

[Alcan]

Da ya think dropping the 600w cool tube to an angle would help any?......\ like this to cover more plant area ?

 

[DabSnob]

no, i would leave it above the plant as normal. pulling the top over would increase overall light coverage.

 

[dickcorn]

How much soil is it in? If you want Max yield, give extra root space and veg as long as you can or until it nearly fills space.

 

[Alcan]

It is just in flowering now . 5gl pot . only thing to watch for is feeding this large lady as it advances in flowering over the weeks ahead . I think this female is going to be quite big.

So , how would you get more root space at this point of plant growth?. I don't think transplanting is an option . Or is it?.....Just doing what I can to get as many oz's as is possible .....bare in mind just one plant now.....the two others were males and shown the door very fast..

 

[DabSnob]

transplanting the first few days of flowering is possible, but after around week 3 the rootmass stops growing. best bet would be dump some Mykos WP mycorrhizae to maximize nutrient uptake and help expand the rootmass.

 

[Alcan]

Cool . Never knew that even existed . Lets just say , judging by current growth progress, that the plant gets to 5 or 6 feet. We are already at 3 ft 8 inches at day 6 of flowering. So I know from prior exp that she will put on another foot or two in height . Would the plant have major survival issues down the road. I hope not as I always understood the growing rule of thumb of one foot of growth for every gallon in the grow container.
Somewhere else they mention about letting it dry out completely and then to pull whole thing out of container into larger one. I can just imagine stress would be incredible .

 

[DabSnob]

i use to follow the 1ft per gallon rule, later down the road i found it to be BS. MY general rule of thumb is a gallon per MONTH of growth. all my plants go into 3 gallon pots from clone till harvest. never have an issue even with 4 week veg and 9 weeks flower. only downfall is frequent watering the last 2-3 weeks around every 2-3 days, but this allows for more control over nutrient uptake at critical times of the bloom phase. allowing you to fix deficiencies much quicker IF they arise at all.

i actually have a plant i threw in flower a few weeks ago thats under a 600w in a 5gal. by itself as well. she use to be a mom that i decided to flower. she stand 5'4" now and only stretched a total of 1'4". most stretching stops around week 3-4, so you should be completely fine for the rest of the cycle.