So this is my first successful indoor grow and I’m confused as hell!! After looking at all of these pics of massive buds with fan leaves, in the forum, and reading HellRaisers grow journal (Day-21 Cut back all fan leaves and lush all energy to the buds.). This is what I’m left with…I’m hoping I just didn’t butch the feck outta my crop.
My office is my room, it’s open with 4 Fecida 1000w LED Grow Lights.
Do I let the solid buds grow a stem up towards the light from the interior big branches?
Thats a heck of a hair cut , while there are many thoughts on trimming I just do the bottom 1/3 of the plant and any fan leaves blocking light. So you end up like this
Dont feel like an idiot, if you would have known you wouldnt have done it. Not like they taught you how to grow weed in school.
When thinking about leaves, think of them as solar panels for your stems that collect the energy to promote growth. When defoliating, generally the bottom 1/3 of the leaves and buds ONLY are removed. This will focus more energy towards building buds in the upper sections.
Hey, this was all new to every one of us when we started. Keep your chin up, lesson learned, grow on.
The long stretch in between nodes indicate more light is needed as well. Keep on growing on!!!
You might have gone a little farther than I would have on the defoliation. A lot of missing solar panels!
They did a lot of stretching and that was partly due to the lights.
If the lights were too far away during the grow that would cause the nodes to be far apart as they are.
With adequate lighting at the proper distance from the plant it will develop tighter node spacing which would in turn give more bud sites in a more compact space. The thing is the closer the light to the plant the smaller the area of coverage (footprint )
While they “advertise” 1000W they are actually only 130W.
Growing indoors lighting is just about the most important aspect right up there with water.
The chart below references 2 x 2 feet as coverage area but only show results (ppfd number) out to 16” as each square represents 4”
To me it looks like one light will cover a 1.5 foot x 1.5’ area. The corners of that size box would be a little low but otherwise at 14” above tops at full power in flower they will work.
Not banging on your light just sharing what I learned.
If it were me I would turn some tunes on and play musical lights and pots and arrange to get things as tight and even as I could and enjoy the bulking of the buds.
Solar panels (leaves) help growth.
At some point take a look around for more capable lights I learned that and never looked back.
I’d take those tops and bend them over and tie off so it fills the sky more and flattens the top so you can lower the lights for more bud sites to get more light for bigger thicker buds.
Just looked at pics again and had an idea thought I’d share
Flatten those suckers just go slow over a couple days
Pick a spot on the stem and roll it between two fingers squeeze harder a little more at a time and you’ll feel it start mushing up a bit. Do that to the ones you want to bend a couple times a day and when you can bend to angle you want without it breaking then tie it off. You can do it quicker just figured fast is slow and slow is fast when learning.
Practice on lower one you aren’t as concerned with as those down low aren’t getting enough ppfd (photons light) to do much. If they were sitting 14” under light that would be optimal.
There isnt anything wrong with your defoliation per say. Im a canopy tech and at work, thats pretty much how we do it. We have a “family of three” leaf rule. At 21 says flower we take all fan leaves except the top 3 on any branch. The only exception would be inward facing leaves. At home, I do things a lil different but tbh I intend to defoliate my next run much as you have now. Usually I take away any branch that doesnt make it 3/4 of the way up the plant. This usually eliminates the bottom 1/3 of my plant. I would do no more to them as far as leaf removal, maybe some lst on the top, bend it some so you can bring your lights down closer to everyone as suggested avove.
Your lights are not that great, may want to invest in better lighs in the future. Not that those wont work just that they wont give you the full potential of what your efforts could be giving you. Sometimes the dealers can be deceptive. They list the light as a 1000w light but its actually only 130 watts from the wall.
Cannabis is a light hungry plant. You want a min of 40 watts per sq foot of full spectrum light. Lights arent cheap and a true 1k watt light is gonna cost you about a buck a watt for a decent light, more for that Gucci light. Look for something with samsung lm301b diodes, its worth the investment.
Your ladies look healthy, good work! Feel free to tag me if you got any questions or need a hand figuring something out, happy to help when I can.
I’ve seen this before, but plants are pretty resilient so I wouldn’t give up on them yet. I keep doing the opposite and not remove enough. There’s definitely a lot of different techniques out there. Good luck with the grow!
No worries don’t feel bad , its a learning process for all of us. Always picking up information there a is a ton of different techniques. They may actually be just fine let them grow see what happens. Cannabis is actually very much a survival plant.
Don’t sweat it. She will be very sluggish for a few days and then she will start kicking some leaves out. Leave those leaves alone and let her build those buds.
It will be just fine.
Thank you everyone for the encouragement and newbie laughs at my expense
I have take the advice of all and have managed to learn about side cropping. Thanks to everyone that chimes in; saying my lights suck and how to get the most outta this grow, THANK YOU!!
Your suggestions saved my grow and allowed me to realize that my lights suck. Any suggestions for lighting?
I have a 14x 10 room, but only utilize 8x8 to 10x10-8 Ft ceiling.
I am becoming addicted to grow the best herb I’ve ever smoked and my next quest is my lighting problem.
I bought those cheap mofos from Amazon-$60/each.
Any suggestions? I’ll post pics of my “Golden Arches” in the morning.
I sincerely cannot thank you guys enough, you just increased my yield by…pffffttt
Common indoor growing setups are 2x2, 2x4, 3x3, 4x4, and 5x5. So must of lights you’ll be looking at are designed for one of those. Having an 8x8 is pretty simple as you can just go with four lights designed for a 4x4.
Where you will likely run into issues is cost and infrastructure. Most of the lights that would actually do a good job for you are going to be like 1 fixture per 15 amp circuit. For those and other reasons I would consider shrinking your grow space down to something like 5x5 that is fairly easy to run with one light. Get a few grows under your belt and look at expanding later when you can take a more experienced approach.
