Do you have an android phone?
I have a Samsung android phone. I have downloaded the app but not tried to use it yet.
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@beardless no I have the IPhone but it should work on both…You will have to pay to unlock the LED PAR function $5.99 but well worth it…I used my hand for years and I was burning/stressing my girls for sure…since I got this tool my girls are much happier
Left plant is 20 days and right is 30 days from breaking ground…
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Thanks
I have seen and read good things about Photone. I should put it to use.
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@beardless @Retiredoldguy
Fan has been started. Unfortunately I can’t control the light pars per se’ but I’ve raised my light to about 24” above the foliage, got RH at 65% roughly @ 74F. I have no other use for the CO2 bucket so I hung it any way.
Tomorrow I will post some profile pics. I want to try some LST on these girls and from what I’ve read, I think they’re ready to be “topped”. I’ll get the pics up with mark ups so I don’t screw this up. I’d certainly rather leave them alone but also want to try and coerce a little bigger yield too.
@BudzMS @Retiredoldguy @Flitme @beardless
2/23, 18 days from seed.
Girls are all looking pretty good I think, I’ll put some pics in this post later.
From memory, plants produce their serrated fan leaves starting from one at the node above the cotyledons that sprout from the seed, then 3, 5, 7 finger fan leaves. My understanding is that topping should be done above the 4-6 stalk nodes. It reasons this should be just above the branch nodes at the first 7 finger fan leaves produced. Please check the plant profile photo as I’ve tried to show where I should make the cut. Is this right?
Ok, now on to progress…RH was getting too high so I turned the humidifier down and opened the closet door further. I also got the Photone app. After a google or two this is what I used to adjust the plant positioning and light height to give me a reading of 310 +/- in the Photone app for LED lighting. From google;
So let’s talk benchmarks and the best PPFD/PAR range for your plants! Between 200-400 PPFD: This is great for seedlings, clones, and mother plants. Between 400-600 PPFD: This is great for early to late stage vegging cycles. Between 600-900 PPFD: This is great for the flowering, fruiting, or budding stage of plants.
Will my reading of 310 be fine? Logic says LST of the branching and colas should try to angle all towards the center of the light. The footprint of 600-900 during flowering will be much smaller than 400-600. I am concerned about light burn.
Plants1-3 progress in order:
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looking good, i have not topped before so the others will chime in
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That is about right. I would let it grow a bit more. It will give you a cleaner cut and avoid the little growth tips on the sides.
I think this shows pretty clearly what I mean.
You want a good stump on top. This helps if form big knuckles and prevents it from splitting when you spread the two tops out.
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@beardless @BudzMS @Flitme @Retiredoldguy
3/2, 25 days from seed.
Well I’ve pruned and topped all my girls. They’re named 1,2,and 3 with each having its own growth “personality”.
Plant 1 is my “Charlie Brown” runt but DID respond well after removal of the fan leaves and top. This isn’t the best pic but it does show topping and pruning locations.
Plant 2 is squat and spreading out with lots of bud sites on the lower branches. Lots more light to those spots. Looking good from yesterday’s amputations.
Plant 3 is my race horse and is back in full veg 5 days after her surgery.
Plan to do more pruning next week to open up the lower branches. Will experiment with some branch training to try and keep everything at the same height. It’s spooky to me but if it helps to get a better yield, it will be worth the anx.
I appreciate everyone’s comments and advice. Also to @beardless, your example pic is really spooky to me but I’m sure you’ve done this many times and that helped my confidence with trying these methods.
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3/9, day 32 from seed.
On 3/4 I thought I really messed up. Basically defoliated all the fan leafs from the girls. Thought I may have killed them. Moved the lighting down to 14” get near 400PAR.
Since, they have recovered nicely so I tried my hand at some LST today. Thought is to get more lighting thru the canopy. Keeping an eye out for burn. Seems too be going good at this point. Plant 1 was still to small for the LST but you will see in the pics Plants 2 & 3 what I’ve done. The ties are what I use after harvest for hanging to dry the buds (my dual use hack). Added a little soil as some settling within pots was happening. Watering and lighting schedules have not been changed.
Plant 1
Plant 2
Plant 3
I’ve tried to take these pics from an angle you can see where they were topped and are splitting into 2 main colas. That’s all looking good! Other than runt Plant 1, everything else I think looks good.
Comments, questions, and advice are welcome.
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never done it, so ill take any info given lol
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3/16, day 46 from seed
Pruned/defoliated 2 days ago. I think this is called “Lollipopping”. So far it looks to be working well for all the bud sites and is keeping the stem and branches strong.
Started putting “Girl Flower Power”, topfeed, 2 tablespoons every other watering because pre-flowering appears to have started. Reoriented LST to try and keep canopy even. Raised H2O to 6C ea. every other day.Temps 68-80F @ 45-75% RH. PAR is 600 +/-. Started carbon filter today, the perfume is starting to smell very nice.
Plant 1, the runt has not been pruned or had any LST. Looks like many bud sites. Also looks to be a few days ahead with flowering.
Plant 2, LST working good with an even canopy and good light penetration.
Plant 3, also looking good with lots of bud sites getting light thru out.
Thanks for everyone’s advice, support, and questions as you can see this grow technique is running rampant.
3/27, 55 days from seed.
Sorry, my update is a couple days late due to life issues around me. Plants are all doing well. I’ve not pruned anything further, and stopped adding GFP. Lighting on 18/6 with PAR at 750-800. Still watering 6C ea. every other day. Adjusted the height of the pots off the floor so lighting is consistent across foliage of all 3.
Plant 1, very small but budding nicely
Plant 2, largest of them all. Beginning to stretch.
Plant 3, also starting to stretch.
Despite defoliating several times, Plants 2&3 are thick with leaves, bigger in size, but behind in flowering. Plant 1 was always small and has never been topped or pruned. We’ll see and report differences noted at harvest.
Happy growing!
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When I top I always leave the leaves. I just cut the growth tip. I think they recover stronger.
They are moving forward nicely.
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4/2, 56 days from seed. Starting the 4th week of flower.
Posting in the forum late again, ugh, my bad, sorry. The plant pics were taken Wed., 3/30 per the norm.
Plant 1, The Runt, is continuing to bud without much stretch. Fabric pot is saturated after the Wed. Watering because there is run off and the pot is much heavier than the other two. I’ll be holding off water to this girl for several days and hopefully this will help the flowering process.
Plant 2 is thick with foliage again and flowering is clearly behind Plant 1. This is the tallest of the 3 and is stretching really good. Note that we defoliated this plant on 4/1 after the pics were taken. Updated pics will be taken next week and with some luck, the girls will have recovered and show some flower and bud improvement.
Plant 3 is the medium sized plant and the foliage is very thick and is in need to thinned out to get more lighting to the center of the plant. Flowering has started but is somewhat behind the other 2. Updated pics will be taken next week and with some luck, the girls will have recovered and show some flower and bud improvement.
@Retiredoldguy @beardless @BudzMS @Flitme, thanks for following this grow journal and offering your advice and encouragement. It is truly appreciated, helpful, and meaningful.
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looking good, the leaves are pretty dark, i could be wrong but maybe alittle to much nitrogen. im out of likes as usual, gotta wait 5 hours lol
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4/6, 60 days from seed
Plant 1, I’ve come to suspect that the stunted growth of this plant may be due to a couple of errors made by me. Not a loss as I will be wiser. First the soils in this pot were remixed from the last grow by mixing with some fresh super soil with the previous soils, then layering the pot with a fresh super soil bottom 1/3 and the refurbished soils above. After watering all pots the same thru pout this grow, this pot is much heavier than the other 2 and has mildew on the outside of the pot at the bottom 3” +/-. I think that tells me my planting mix was too rich in many things including nitrogen (thanks @BudzMS). I suspect the super soil base is holding water and roots have not run out of nutrients in the upper 2/3, and roots that may have reached the bottom are feeding an extra rich nutrient dose to the plant. This plant is less than 12” tall, and has never been topped or defoliated. Pistils have begun to turn so harvest should be about 2-3 weeks out.
Plant 2, tallest of the 3 at 24” tall. Lots of buds on this one. I’ve defoliated the fan leaves 3 times during the grow. Each time the plant responded good enough it needed cut again. Looks like this may have helped everything stretch. It’s getting hard to tell which branches are the 2 main colas from topping. A few pistils have started to turn. At least 3 weeks to harvest.
Plant 3, 16” tall and always “bushiest” of the 3. Looking good with lots of buds. Topped and defoliated same as Plant 2 but has consistently recovered faster and as thick with fan leaves as before trimming. Not a lot of stretching so I’m hoping the buds will be closer together and more dense. Guessing 3-4 weeks for harvest.
During the grow I’ve raised the plant supports on Plants 1&3 to keep lighting between 8-14” above the canopy. Getting PAR of 500-800 at canopy top. It will be interesting to see if/how defoliation effected lower portions of the plants.
Thanks everyone for your advice and support.
4/13, all plants 67 days from seed. Been rotating the fabric pots 90 degrees daily to help light distribution among all the bud sites.
Plant 1, 34 days in flower. This little plant is trying to become 1 giant bloom. Buds are fattening nicely but I’m afraid this little girl will not be the best producer. You will see in the pic, pistils continue turning red and are about 50% I think. Going to wait another week or 2 b for I hang her up to dry. Next week I will get a microscope pic to get a look at the trichomes progress.
Plant 2, roughly 29 days in flower. This plant took a little longer than Plant 1 to show signs of budding. Stretching has all but stopped and it looks as though the buds are growing and filing filling in along the branches. Pic taken from a downward looking angle shows the bowl shape of the outer branches have taken. This should help with the light reaching the lower buds. Pistils are turning red and look to be about 25%.
Plant 3, about 25 days into flower. This plant continues to amaze me with it’s vegetation recovery after defoliation. Still lots of fan leaves that should be supplying an extra boost of energy to the buds that have just begun getting red pistils. With time this plant may well be the best producer, if I have enough patience to wait.
I think harvest may begin around the end of the month and last a couple weeks due to flowering lag time between all of the girls.
Comments on progress are appreciated. Any edits or suggestions on my journal contents will be helpful too. I do this not only for my benefit but for any helpful real time grow activity others may find useful too.
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that one does look like one huge bud and thats awesome. pic 3 looks hungry, mine looked like that until I fed her. i was alittle late feeding. They look good and harvest is soon. well done.
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@beardless
@Retiredoldguy
@Flitme
@BudzMS
4/20, 74 days from seed. Harvest day for plant 1, the midget. This forum post update is mostly about “The Midget”.
Trichomes pics and size pics below are the “short” story for this plant. While trimming fan leaves and branches I discovered that this plant had been topped just like the others but never defoliated. I guess I must’ve forgotten the topping. Regardless, the topping may have added to the stress and helped stunt the growth.
4/16 Plant 1trichomes pics
4/20 Plant 1trichomes pics
4/20 Plant 1 size pics (don’t laugh)
Plant 2 I’m planning to harvest mid to late next week. Below are pics of Plant 2 trichomes.
Plant 3 is the “slow poke”. It’s still growing buds and has not yet shown any ripening signs such as pistils turning red. Stretch and fattening buds have almost matched plant 2 in size and number of bud sites. No pics for this one this week.
Well that’s it for 74 days from seed. As the girls get harvested and dried I’ll report when and how many grams dry weight gets jarred for curing.
Comments, questions and advice are always encouraged and welcomed.
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nicely done 
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