Super Cropping and Stress (myth or truth)

[Grandote]

You want two or more main growing tops on each plant. That makes them grow out to the side instead of straight up and skinny. Bending down the tips and holding them in place with twist ties does the same thing and can be done in flower stage.

There are lots of techniques, such as sea of green in which you take rooted cuttings and put them in like 4 per square foot. They grow up to about 24" at harvest and you get a better yield per square foot. The worst way to grow is letting them get tall. A 6' plant at harvest may have 2' of good buds, 1' of skimpy buds and 3' of ragged stuff you don't want. Outdoors its different because the sun gives so much light it can penetrate 6' or more.

[Goyakla1]

I have learned by error and try.. But i dont do any topping if i grow outside..as i only grow 100 Indicas .
When i grow inside i start with 250 cfl and top after appx. 4 normal leaves to keep them low and get max buds..and i allways flower under hps Light ..250 to 400 depending on grow space, heat etc.
And i only use soil.. Im a natural duede
Bending is also good when they start to flower.. Do it often depending on space inside and outside.

[Phobiartz]

Tanx Charon we do our Best .
Reg. Stress u Can let Them go for to long..popcorn buds..it they reach that stages  they Can/ Will get nannas.. So its a ? Of stopping when u dont reach that point. Never grown gdp..but its on my list and in the fridge as i know its one of the Best anxeity meds around... Really calming like vals peace and sleep to all !

Yes! Thanks again to Charon for allowing  the continuance of this topic! And thank you to everyone who has pitched in!

I have not grown that long! But love learning from non pompous providers..  I  have done it off and on for about 10 years...Still have a lot to learn, but it is all in due time. 

Goyakla1, you have to bust out the GDP, once you do, you will not want to go back! I have been scouring to find the ultimate genetics. Lol. I am sure you have some killer strains! With the time you have under the belt. I am sure you have a Skunk #5 in that fridge, somewhere?  I have been trying to find some old school genetics. 

I will say, I am grateful for the beans I got from the GDP, since I was unable to clone/propagate. The beans look really big and nice. I scored 13 solid ones. Would you say, that the pheno-type will be the same wth these? 

Darn, now I have another question. How does one get feminized beans? I know it is called something called (rodelization)??
Is that a chemical induced technique?

The effects of the GDP are calming and yeah I guess they are like a val, to me more of a rivotril.. lol

I love GDP for the taste and for the long lasting mellowness. She is one of the longer flowering types, but well worth the wait! This was a first with LED's. I was surprised by the results. I only used an inexpensive 300 W. For only 2 ladies. Results were 32 per lady. Not bad, considering there were a total of 60 5 watt bridgelux bulbs. 

I want a good SFV OG or true OG, obviously for the same therapeutic values, and of course taste! I have not tried some of the newer thought out varietal that exists mostly on the Pacific coast.

Specifically with concentrates. I find that they have helped with a lot of issues around anxiety, insomnia, depression, restlessness, appetite, etc..And W/D's from my bupes.

I have always learned to top about the fourth leaf set, I first hear, well you need strong and big roots. Check! 

Now with some of the more heartier ones, I tend to bend the limbs probably too late.  That is why am asking about stressing. 

Goyakala1 and Grandote.

Say, the first transitional period for flowering 1 - 4 weeks depending on strain. Do you continue to prune and continue to super crop? Or would you want to regress that to the vegetative stage only? Lastly, do you ever transplant to a bigger container prior to flower? Would you want to stay in one through out? 

Again, this is mostly for peace of mind in terms of stressing.  Goyakala1, I know you mentioned they are uber resilient, which I agree. It is that with some of the other forums, you know people over think it. Start telling you the don'ts, becomes more complex than it should. 

Thank you in advance!

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I have learned by error and try.. But i dont do any topping if i grow outside..as i only grow 100 Indicas .
When i grow inside i start with 250 cfl and top after appx. 4 normal leaves to keep them low and get max buds..and i allways flower under hps Light ..250 to 400 depending on grow space, heat etc.
And i only use soil.. Im a natural duede
Bending is also good when they start to flower.. Do it often depending on space inside and outside.

I have learned the best by trial and error. I love getting scientific on it. 
I do not mean, adding stuff to it and seeing what happens. I mean, taking notes on daily observations, writing down
behaviors. Basically, just NERD out on them!

Soil always! I prefer flavor over trichome and luster any day. You know what I mean. You can grow hydro, of the same strain and 99% of the time, people often prefer soil grown over water, because of the flavor it retains! The oleoresins and terpenes are so much more vibrant to the palette with NATURAL grown vs, a HYDRO grow. Not to say, I have not had good hydro. But nothing beats soil, nothing! Love that earth in the flavor. Got to have it for me to feel like I am having true medicine. 

I have been using coco as of the last
3 grows and have to say, I really like it. But it is not just coco. I took the super soil from BOG's mix, and I modified it 
a little using the coco as substrate. Works great. Seems to work with compost well too, so really happy with it.

Did you say, 100 Indica? OH my! That would be heaven on earth. Did I mention to you that I love indica? I wish I had that on hand. Lol..What I would do to work for you. Damn. Or even grab some of the trim from your dense garden. Wow! I can only imagine. Lovely mate. Just lovely.  I had to depart from the HPS due to heat issues, and I always leave the fan running on the start to give the stems a nice sturdy base. In fact, I believe  I left the fan on the entire 4 months, this last time. Would you advise against this?

I had mentioned in the post above that I used that LED fixture, which honestly was more of a whim choice, but turned out to be pretty decent considering I only had 2 ladies out of 8 total!
One of the last 3 was a hermie, but I cut it down within the 3-4 week mark. Maybe, that may've done the taint on my ladies?


Or maybe you hit the nail on the head and it was the photo period issue. Regardless, maybe it even was the light I used?
Nah, cause they did great during veg. But I used CFL for the 1st 2 weeks, then moved to LED and noticed a major change. Specially within 10 days of the switch. Kind of surprised me to be honest with you. Lol.

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You want two or more main growing tops on each plant. That makes them grow out to the side instead of straight up and skinny. Bending down the tips and holding them in place with twist ties does the same thing and can be done in flower stage.

There are lots of techniques, such as sea of green in which you take rooted cuttings and put them in like 4 per square foot. They grow up to about 24" at harvest and you get a better yield per square foot. The worst way to grow is letting them get tall. A 6' plant at harvest may have 2' of good buds, 1' of skimpy buds and 3' of ragged stuff you don't want. Outdoors its different because the sun gives so much light it can penetrate 6' or more.

Gandote. I appreciate the feedback. I think you just touched on my initial question about super cropping. So do you get your plant to the state that you want. I generally do not let them go past 30", if I can and that is total, including with flower. Small space here mate. Uber small. I am talking 2' x 2' and 4' in height.  Yeah I noticed, one time I let one go tall, with a 5 gallon container indoors. That was a waste of energy! I totally agree with you.

You mentioned bending down the tips, do you want to start this at around the 6 week of veg? Or when is it ok to do during flower? I mean is there a time where you just want to leave it alone and I was wondering about what time period that would be? Furthermore, in terms of bulking up your weight. You say, a SOG or SCROG is better than having larger bigger ones, correct?

In terms of re-potting. Do you leave in the same container or do you go from one smaller to 2x size fro flowering? Thank you everyone for your kind and patient responses. I appreciate the information. Thank you for sharing.

[Grandote]

You can top in flower but I never do it once they are clearly flowering because you are removing budding sites. You can super crop at any stage. I usually bend more so than SC because less risk of breaking the stem itself. BTW if you do break a stem you can just use some tape and bind it up a little and it will heal. I've seen breaks so bad there was just a thread connecting but I bound it up and at harvest you could see it had healed over a lot. If its a long branch hold it in place with string or twist tie plus taping it.

I bend down the growing tops and tie them or they will unbend themselves. If it slips out of your tie and goes back up, it will be stiffer and harder to bend down again next day and you have to be more careful of breaks. Thats because bending strengthens the stems, its a form of SC'ing. I do the same with side branches, just bend them back and forth a little and next day they are stronger. A fan on them especially when they are small guarantees a strong main stem. You can bend the main stem too because if they keep growing with no wind on them they get weak. I've seen branches break from the weight of buds when they weren't stressed properly. Outdoors wind stresses them plenty and they get strong.

When I was growing, I'm not doing it now, I let them go until at least 90% of the hairs turned red. Or even more than 90%. That gives you the best yield and a more mellow stone, more like an indica is supposed to be. If you want a more sativa trippy stone then harvest earlier. For medical use you want to go long and as a bonus, you get more bud. Another trick is to bake with it, crumble up the bud and put it in cookie dough and make cookies. I microwave mine or you can use an oven. This makes it more of a body effect and more mellow than smoking. Vaporizing is better too, both baking and vaping are easier on your lungs than smoking which I don't do anymore.

I advise against "all female" seeds because often you get all hermies and will have male flowers pop up which can ruin your crop. If you insist on making your own all females maybe for an outdoor grow that you can't come back to until harvest, silver colloid works. Put silver in water, run a current through it and silver ions will migrate into the water. The silver must be the negative electrode. Overnight and you have your silver water. Keep it in the dark and spray some on a female plant you want to produce female pollen. It will stop making female flowers and will make male flowers. Pollen from this makes all female seeds. Lotsa luck.

To sum up some of the important points:

*Top early in veg, above the first 4 leaves, some say above the first 2
*Put a fan on the seedlings to strengthen them
*Tie down the growing tops in flower stage
*Gently bend the main stem and branches from time to time to make them strong
*Let them go long for a more mellow effect and larger yield

Some sativas never seem to finish, they just keep stretching and making more buds which tend to be thin and stretchy. If you get stuck with one like that just harvest buds when they seem to be done and let it stretch as long as you have time for it.

If you do make seeds give them about 6 weeks to mature after pollenating for best results. 4 weeks will do in a pinch but less than that and most will be immature and not sprout.

[Goyakla1]

Just my 2c.,..i only work with 100prct. Indicas.. And i stay away from Skunk as its a cross of Afg.,colb, thai.. And Can get u anxeity .. I really dont need that. So i stay with 100 prct. Indicas... And they dont need much cropping . BIF u want a relaxing calm try Sihatsu Kush, The Black and Pamir gold ( Tadijk hasplant).. Or White China, chinse yunna, Matanuska Tundra, and anything which have been grown for long time outside. One Strange advise ... I only use normal urin for fertilzer.. It has been forgoten for many years .. Buts is awsome. Just Google it.. Very potent and ull save loads of money.

[classemlaff]

Had I not googled it and seen so many articles about it I would have never believed you. I guess it's way safer than the chemical fertilizers they sell. Thanks for the tip Goyakla, I am going to do more research on this. It would be interesting to do 2 grows using cuttings from the same plant. One using urine and one using regular fertilizers. Everything else the same and see which one ends up being better at the end.

[Grandote]

Raw urine will be a little harsh on the plants. outdoors it soaks into the ground and has a chance to break down but indoors it may be a problem. Also odor.

[Goyakla1]

Mix it 1/10 pr liter water... Every 10 days. It has worked for me for many years. But This Way has been forgotten as many Vendors want to Sell overprised stuff .... which do excatly the same. ?