I’ve read to wait until you’re basically done with LST to avoid additional breaks. I’m sure there’s LST methods where that matters less though but using clips figured it was the safe bet.
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Noticed some little black specks building up on the floor but thought maybe I was just letting it get dry enough that the fans were blowing a little dirt off. Started looking closer after it increased drastically and saw a few moving. Wiped everything down with alcohol and then treated the floor with insecticidal soap. Pulled the sticky traps and put them under the microscope to find the bugs below. Thinking they’re Springtails which isn’t the worst from what I’ve read but it’s a sign of over watering. Guess I need to leave them a little longer after the wilt. I’ve only had one gnat on the sticky trap so far, 
hoping the Lift BMC and Nematodes are doing their thing and the Springtails just moved in because of too much moisture and low competition. Plan to treat the top of the soil with insecticidal soap and neem oil right after lights off tomorrow and once a week for the first few weeks into flower just to be safe.
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Was reading more about their benefits and decided I may just use these little guys as my am I over watering sign for now and will pull out the soap and neem oil if something starts preying on them. Good news is it’s a pretty solid sign that my treatments for gnats are working for the most part. Ready to get completely out of amended soils after this grow though to hopefully cut down on the big populations in the tent. I’ve been loving the texture and drainage of the promix HP so far with the clones and have heard it’s way less pest prone.
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Been a busy few days with the kiddo and our crazy pup… Had to do some work around the grow room to get ready for the flip too. Did a defol and training session Friday, gave the first bloom feed yesterday and flipped the lights last night. Did a mini light test in the flower tent and didn’t love the light coming through the tent vent from the clone tent. Ended up digging out my old spider farmer 6 inch carbon filter and then hooked it up to a port for fresh air and closed all the vents. The walls pull in significantly more but no creaking from the frame so it seems within safe tolerance. Nice to know it’ll have more positive pressure for smell, “cleaner” air in, and significantly decreased potential of light exposure. I did feel like they were starting to stretch already though at lights on and think they’ve been ready to flip for awhile now.
Did a small pruning on the mother plants to take most of the larger leaves. Trying to limit growth rate and optimize light to the nodes. Also transplanted the clone mothers to 1 gallon pots because they were showing root growth down and around the cups. Plan to transplant the rest of the clones and the remaining smaller clone from the first run by Tuesday to 3 gal pots. Waiting for the drainage pans to get here and then I’ll flip on the veg tent.
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Finally got the bases in after a little delay and got the clones transplanted into the veg tent. They’re not all loving it yet but the roots were looking happy. Kept a few extras in case of damping off though. The oldest one from the first cutting is pretty far ahead. Was considering putting her in the flower tent while the rest veg a couple of weeks and then flip that tent too and move her back over. Planning to do minimal training/pruning with the clones before flip per the sea of green guidelines I’ve found. Do y’all top ever with sea of green? That’s the other option for the larger girl I guess.
The main girls are looking thirsty at lights on but trying to wait at least a light cycle from when I see the signs until watering to avoid over watering again. 2 gallons seems to last about 5 days right now for them which I think makes sense with the size of the pots. They’re loving the stretch so far though and gained about 3 inches since last light check.
Bonsai mother’s are looking exceptionally happy and need to prune them back a little. Now starting to focus in on creating the cup shape from the guide I’m following. Waiting a little longer for more branch development and plan to take them down to the bottom node and it’s 3 branches where I’ll start creating the cup.
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Looking good Growmie, I super crop only when I run a SOG 
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Thanks Growmie! That’s good to know! I’ve read a little bit about that method but haven’t tried it yet. I’ll have to read up on it a little more because definitely think I’ll have to do something if I want the one to match up with the others canopy.
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No surprise Flora has been stretching faster so pulled down her main branches and retrained her into more of a rectangular shape. She’s almost filled her half of the tent. Evie is still growing strong if not as tall. Seems like she has better foliage coloration while Flora is always on the edge of deficiency because of her higher growth rate. Still not sure who will have better smoke, but feels like a pet safe bet that Flora will end up with a higher yield. @OGIncognito really glad you pushed me to flip. These girls would need an 8x8 in a few weeks when I previously planned to.
The sea of green was looking more like the dead sea for a couple of days but they’ve mostly popped back. Definitely pulled them too early from the dome without enough hardening off because the 2 backups I threw in for kicks at the end were instantly stable but the others had a heck of a time. The leaves on one even shriveled up like the wicked witch exposed to water. She popped back up though and I think it’s slowly reinflating. Some nitrogen, calcium, and magnesium deficiencies showing but I think that was just from shock more than anything. Turned the light west down to like 200 ppfd for them to stabilize. Will likely push up some tomorrow.
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Nice large and healthy canopies Grow Bro
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Thanks OG! Flora has a trunk like a redwood on her and man that tent was smelling tasty in response to the limb adjustments yesterday.
Kind of random but I’ve been shopping Autopots and plan on ordering some during their black Friday sale. Thinking I’ll do the 3 and 5 gallon geopot kit but was also eyeing the tray2grow kit. I know you love your Autopots and think you’ve had a few types. Do you have a favorite base model type?
Excellent choice Brother and I get better growth from the fabric pots. I have the 3.8 and 2 gallon older plastic pots as well but not very fond of the plastic pots
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Good to know! I’ll probably spring for the geopot kit then. I plan to get one for the veg and one for the flower tent and will probably run 4-6 plants on 2-4 week veg cycles from clone.
I was leaning toward 2 six pot kits but their website recommends no bigger than the 4 pot kit for a 5x5. I looked at the specs though and it seems like I could fit more than 4 of the bases in a 5x5. It looked like they were a little over a foot squared so theoretically I should be able to fit 6 in a 3x3 pretty easy too. How many have you stuffed in a tent?
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I can manage the plants and grow space with 2 in my 2 x 4 tents, anymore than that gets cramped unless I manifold them
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Nice, with your baseball bat buds that means I can fit like 12 in the same space then. 
I’ll probably go with two 4 geopot kits but still going to daydream about a sea of green in the 5x5 with 2 of those tray2grow setups going.
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Man call me Captain Jack and blacken my Pearl because that’s one pretty Sea right there. I really wish the tray2grow was small enough for the 3x3 because if so I think the 6 ish plant small grow is the way.
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The main girls are looking extra happy after a feed and increase in light. Starting to see the early buds developing and getting really excited for this flower cycle.
The sea is starting to turn slightly more green. Did some selective pruning and fed last night. Still figuring out the light following transplant. Started around 300 and they drooped have away from the sun then went down to 200 which they stabilized at and have started to turn. Bumped them back up to 300 and they seem happy though. New growth is a little light in color but seems healthy.
The Bonsai mothers are looking healthy. I lowered their light on hours from 18 to 16 a day and that helped slow the growth. They were almost going too fast for me to shape and prune because they were jumping up over night. Decided to do just a half feed every week instead of full every other because the pH perfect stuff makes it to where I don’t have to mess with pH which honestly makes feeding for them super easy. Basically a drop off this a drop off that and done. If you’re reconsidering large mothers this way is showing itself to be low maintenance with minimal equipment and cost.
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@OGIncognito well I listened to your reason, talked myself off the ledge, remembered my southern roots, handed my beer to a buddy, and flipped around to leap right off. Ended up getting 2 tray2grows and a 25 gallon flexitank. Going to hold off on putting anything in the veg tent for now. I’m going to try sea of green in living soil using the tray2grow beds from buildasoil. With that setup I should only be running veg for a few weeks which makes me less worried with how little water they need to start. Plus it’s easier to make 2-3 week breaks in veg cycles while keeping the grow going. So I’ll just keep hand watering in 3 gallons until the transplant to the living bed.
@Budbrother @Storm really hope you’re ready for my panicked am I doing this right questions. Sorry in advance! I’m going to try and follow the buildasoil season and his similar grow. Plan to try and get their soil blend too so hopefully I can keep it going if I start with the pre packaged easy mode.
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So here’s the overall kit I plan to go with so far. I have a good source for Promix HP I’ll probably use as the base of the soil 3.0 kit. I’ll still be keeping the Sensi Pro dry nutrients around for emergency deficiencies but really excited for a lower maintenance feed schedule and extra tasty nugs.
2 x Autopot Tray2Grow
2x Grass Roots Living Soil Bed
1x Buildasoil 3.0 kit
1x Buildasoil Bloom Kit
Then if I understand correctly I’ll just be feeding the bloom kit at stretch and then I’ll cycle out 25 gallons at a time with one of their refresh kits and let them ferment. I’ve got 2 30 gallon water tight totes already that should be perfect for letting them bake between grows that way I can cycle and amend without stalling the grow.
Obviously have to do what more research but have a couple of months still before harvest and the switch in technique. Just grabbed all the gear on the sale. I think that should give me an easy no brainier start into the method though and then I’ll be able to build out from there.
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Should probably drop the current grow update too. Main girls are growing good and buds are forming. Flora is showing some serious nitrogen deficiency I think, but newer growth is looking healthy and it’s 21 days tomorrow so I’ll be doing a defoliation. I’ve been feeding her 1000 ppm on the 500 scale because I kept seeing small signs but after one bad reading because of dirty catch basins I missed a little spike. They had a runoff of 1400 so I actually need to pull back on nutrients which does make the deficiency seem odd. Plan on doing a light feed after the defoil before the trip to try and get the numbers in line instead of chasing the leaves.
Cup shape is starting to form on the Bonsai mothers. They’ve been growing slow since I turned the lights down on time so I bumped it back up just to expedite forming the initial shape.
The Sea of Green finally started really booming but unfortunately it’s almost a week early because I should maybe flip them this weekend but don’t want to have them stretch while I’m out of town. Plan to wait the week and then I have some extra space in the 5x5 worst case.
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