Some Advice on Larger than Wanted Plants?

[TGT]

I have a grow I am in the process of triggering and I have came across a problem I wanted to ask all of you. I have 11 plants and I vegged them much too long. It is not that I don't have the room, its that I don't want to have the hasstle of tying them all up and having branches swaying every which way. The reason they got too large is because I was vegging them in another room and building the bud room, which took longer than expected due to uncontrollable circumstances.

So now I have 11, 3 and a half foot tall plants that I am wondering what to do. I have 9 feet head room and lots of space so that isn't the problem. I just wanted them more managable as I am getting sick of doing tree grows and wanted them a little smaller this time.

My question is, should I just tie them up as they are and bud them, or my other option is to trim them down to a managable size and then let them veg another week or two, and then bud. I want the largest yield possible, but if I have to sacrifice up to a pound I will for the sake of an easier grow.

Any suggestions and thank you in advance, I appreciate it greatly.

Ps: I am using 5 gallon pots with Promix and can use up to 4 - 1000 watt lights in the room if possible.

TGT

 

[Bud buster]

You have tree's coming I wouldn't cut them to bushes it seems like a waste. I'd strip most of the leaves it will slow the height making it branch out especially if you have vertical lights bud it out and strip them at end of stretch and 45 day's then a week or less before chop.

 

[vertigo0007]

Yikes! Strip 3.5 ft tall plants?

Unless you want to shock the shit out of them, aggressive pinching and topping, now and for the first 2-3 weeks, if theyre stretchy strains, is a successful method.

 

[MIway]

I bonsai my mom's a lot... Done a couple of blooms that way too, for the same reasons as you.

If u go that way, got to give em a good two weeks to adjust... Figuring the stress slows em up a bit. But once the tips take to new and healthy growth, can flip no problem. It's a major hack but u get to shape it by choosing which tips/branches to keep, which to toss. U still have a bunch of roots and iv always up potted at flip too. And the plant will still need support afterwards, and be taller than desired. It's work too.

 

[Penguin59]

Seeing as you said you don't want branches swaying every which way I would just prune a third of the fan leaves off right now which should slow a bit of the growth down before the stretch. Then I'd cut off most of the side branches off which will encourage the plants to lollipop. Wait a couple of days for them to recover then flip to 12/12.

Maintaining single colas will probably be easier for you and that way they can just go vertical.

Penguin

 

[SeaMaiden]

If it were me, I would whack her back on both ends, the top and the bottomside. I would whack the branches down, then pull her out of her pot and whack down the root mass. Otherwise, if you just whack back the branches the growth is, IME, weaker than what came along with roots. Also, if you don't whack down the roots then by the time she's mid-flower she'll be popping out of her shoes, which can lead to husbandry problems.

 

[Cali MedPatient]

You can stretch some trellis over them. Let them grow up through it, and that will hold them up. Might not work for every situation, but that's how I have my room set up cuz I hate tying branches up too.

 

[Floridian]

Work with them man,dont commit some of the dastardly acts described.Keep the lamps as low as you can during the stretch..you can pull it off without going all bonsai kawasaki on them

 

[joe guy]

I had no choice on my second run the light was at the ceiling and the plant was in the hood.. B4 a/c and i had to hack 2 feet off the tops twice all hacking dose is give u bunch of shitty fox tail flowers... Makes really good bho but thags about it... So if ur gonna hack it keep her on the 18/6 for at least a.week...
And sea maiden how would i go about that with smart pots? Incase it happens to me with this next two of my perp. Since the questions out there im sure some others could use it too.. Or would i not have to worry about the root wrapping and binding up since it essentially prunes it self? Good luck with what u do o.p. Gotta say it has to happen once to never happen again..

 

[TGT]

Thank you everyone with all the great advice. Sorry I haven't been around the last couple daze, I was busy building a friends garden, then had to tend to mine, and then went to the Smashing Pumkins concert. Great show by the way!

I read over everyone's suggestions and decided to transplant into larger pots and then trimmed the bottom foot of all growth. The plants are now in bud as of tonight and are at about three to four feet tall with the pots, so I guess I choose the jungle method lol. I didn't have the heart to chop the top growth so this is going to be one crazy grow.

I'll post pictures in the next couple days to show you all what I did. I think I will be able to pull it off with good yield as long as I do tons of tying. What I am going to hate most is crawling on the ground to water without knocking branches and plants over. Should be fun!

I am a little worried about the humidity this will cause as it is in a smaller room than I usually have for a grow and with all the lights she is going to produce mad humidity. I think my dehumidifier along with Can100 carbon scrubber exchanging the air quickly should take care of it, I hope.

Thanks again for all the quick advice, I'll post some pictures soon and if anyone has any advice or comments about humidity, please share.

TGT

 

[SeaMaiden]

I had no choice on my second run the light was at the ceiling and the plant was in the hood.. B4 a/c and i had to hack 2 feet off the tops twice all hacking dose is give u bunch of shitty fox tail flowers... Makes really good bho but thags about it... So if ur gonna hack it keep her on the 18/6 for at least a.week...
And sea maiden how would i go about that with smart pots? Incase it happens to me with this next two of my perp. Since the questions out there im sure some others could use it too.. Or would i not have to worry about the root wrapping and binding up since it essentially prunes it self? Good luck with what u do o.p. Gotta say it has to happen once to never happen again..

Smaller SPs are easier to do this with than, say, a 100gal pot (GOD those can be a pain, mine are now permanently situated), but I would lay it over on its side, peel down the sides of the pot, pulling it away from the roots, then get to work.

It's not the roots circling the pot that's such a problem, it's the total mass and what's going to happen by the end of flowering assuming they continue to grow throughout the cycle. They need someplace to go and every time I've simply cut back above-ground material and left the roots, I have issues. If I cut the roots back and let the green grow with them, no such problems (nutrient uptake, utilization, appearance of 'fuzzy' growth; i.e. those teeny tiny shoots that make bullshit buds, and watering/transpiration).

 

[headband 707]

I love to LST this would be what I would do if I was you.. I think the plants also react well to this so yeah LST it ..lol ,,It never bothers me when I have to string it up or stake it because the bud is too big for the stem ..I love that lol,,,headband 707

 

[TGT]

Headband, I am hoping I have the problem of too big of buds making me tie like mad lol. I have everything in the room and budding. I just transplanted and am now wondering if I should have followed SeaMaidens advice and cut back the roots before transplanting. It just scares the heck out of me to cut into those huge plants root mass, kind of akin to performing surgery without any surgical knowledge. I guess time will tell.

TGT

 

[SeaMaiden]

You're going to have to give the root mass cutting a try sometime. Once you do it you'll smack your forehead and go, "Jeez!" Remembering to go along the outside while you're still new to it is helpful.

 

[TGT]

Yes, I will definitely try it, and soon. I am just really relying on this grow, but the next one I can do a little experimenting, which I am sure will turn out just as you say. It's my own ability I don't trust enough. Thanks for giving me the idea!

TGT

 

[Talonted]

there is a trick to slowing the stretch in the transitional phase. When you switch to 12/12 keep you Halides on them, dont use the sodiums until around the 11th day of 12/12. The intensity keeps them from reaching. Right when you think the next day you'll see those little clumps forming into bud structure then switch the bulbs.

 

[TGT]

Thank you for the advice. I am actually doing this now but had no idea when to switch back to HPS. I was going to do it after stretch.

TGT

 

[TGT]

Okay, I'm back to this old thread to ask a question. Well, I had placed the plants in bud earlier, but had to alter my room, so they didn't actually start bud until about ten days ago. So now ten days into bud I realize much of the extremely large plants foliage is not getting light down at the bottom. I already trimmed the bottom foliage off when I triggered,but now noticed I need to do a lot more.

So my question is, what effect will this have on my monster plants lol. I swear I have never had plants this large compared to the grow room size. They are just to bushy for their own good and I am going to have to remove a lot. Should I remove everything not getting light, as that would be a third of the total branches?! Also, I find the extra branches not getting light are raising the humidity drastically and I have two dehumidifiers.

I never had problems like this in the past and it makes me angry I let them get this size. Anyways, any help would be appreciated, thanks!

TGT

 

[SeaMaiden]

Trimming out lowers won't harm them at all. You can easily remove 1/3 of the total vegetable mass above-ground without causing any harm or stress, IMO. However, I'm curious as to whether or not spreading them open is an option here, supercropping, LST, whatever method you prefer.

Also, I'm going to suggest leaving a bit more leaf material and simply pinching off BUD sites. If you have time to do a little reading, I'd like to link you to a site that helped me fully grasp the whole concept of canopy control methods like lollipopping and pistil-whipping. Medjool date farming for premium Medjool dates. It was when I was reading about the thinning process and why they do it that the light bulb clicked in my head. I said, "Aha!"

Basic premise is this: The palm (or fruit-bearing plant in question) has an ability to produce a given weight and yield. The goal is to get the biggest dates they can, as many of these premium dates as they can. Now, they can do nothing, and let what dates set on the bract grow, but then they'll get a mix of qualities, A, B, & C, or what have you. What they want are those gorgeous, gigantic jewels of 3" long dates. So they select OUT dates, first ensuring sufficient space and then sufficient numbers.

How do we apply that to cannabis? It's actually much easier, because we can look at the plant and say, "Oh, this bud site is getting damn near no light, so it has very little potential," and pinch it out. We also have the ability to move things around, because it *is* an annual, so as to allow more light to more areas of potential bud sites.

Don't be angry, look at it as part of your learning curve.

 

[Bud buster]

Okay, I'm back to this old thread to ask a question. Well, I had placed the plants in bud earlier, but had to alter my room, so they didn't actually start bud until about ten days ago. So now ten days into bud I realize much of the extremely large plants foliage is not getting light down at the bottom. I already trimmed the bottom foliage off when I triggered,but now noticed I need to do a lot more.

So my question is, what effect will this have on my monster plants lol. I swear I have never had plants this large compared to the grow room size. They are just to bushy for their own good and I am going to have to remove a lot. Should I remove everything not getting light, as that would be a third of the total branches?! Also, I find the extra branches not getting light are raising the humidity drastically and I have two dehumidifiers.

I never had problems like this in the past and it makes me angry I let them get this size. Anyways, any help would be appreciated, thanks!

TGT

I'd wait till the 21 day flower then strip the leaves over a couple of days letting the light get to the bottom buds lowering your humidity and increasing airflow it's a win win. This guy https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=235661&highlight=defoliation&page=11 started deleafing at the beginning of flower and did it three times total and the plant is 10 grams bigger than the plant he didn't touch