Runts, what to do

[longbow486]

Hi guys,
have a question, out of the 6 plants that we are growing, one of them is a real runt, shes only 8inches tall and is 5 weeks old. we are on an 8 week veg cycle and i dont see her getting any taller before we start to flower. plus the other plants that are about 18inches tall now are over shadowing her and she is not getting much light any more. i have tried tying back the taller ones to give the runt some more room and light, but it doesnt seem to be helping.
so my question is, what to do with her, let her keep growing through the cycles, or kill her off?
the first pic is an overview of the grow.
the second is a close up of the runt in the center front in the overview

thanks for the help

-Longbow

 

[SmokeMedprop215]

its your choice really man but personally I'd just cut her down wasted space plus if your having to tie up the healthy ones for a runt than what are you gonna lose from the healthy ones? would she make up the difference? i'd have to say not. how much longer are you planning on vegging those girls the box looks like its full now...just wait till you flower

 

[longbow486]

planned on 3 more weeks of vegging, so 8 weeks total.
tying back the taller ones hasn't hurt them, if anything it helped the branches grow up and now they are making a nice canopy effect.

what i am really worried about is the roots after i kill the runt, will the dead roots in the water and nuts rot and cause issues? and if i pull it out, and try to get all the roots i can will it harm the others if some of their roots get pulled by accident.
and if i leave it in, is it just stealing nuts that the other could benifit from more?

 

[SmokeMedprop215]

planned on 3 more weeks of vegging, so 8 weeks total.

just think about this your plants will grow at a very fast pace once you enter the flowering stage and depending on your lighting that you have the lower foliage may not recieve adequate light to make a decent flower what you have in your box now already looks like its full as far as no wasted light. So now when you start your flower they will double if not tripple in size. I feel by looking at the pics you have posted that 3 more weeks would be a lil longer than needed they look like they are ready now or at most a week to flower but then its up to you also just know when the get to big for a box the flowers grow differently because they battle for the useable light (its all just my opinion I'm not telling you what to do )

[/quote]tying back the taller ones hasn't hurt them, if anything it helped the branches grow up and now they are making a nice canopy effect.[/quote]

are they nice thick branches? are you planning on trimming your plant when you put it into flower?

[/quote]what i am really worried about is the roots after i kill the runt, will the dead roots in the water and nuts rot and cause issues?[/quote]

not if you get most of the roots out and clean your res regularly

[/quote]and if i pull it out, and try to get all the roots i can will it harm the others if some of their roots get pulled by accident.[/quote]

try and be gentle if you take it out if they are severley entangled in eachother than they are already fighting for room.


[/quote]and if i leave it in, is it just stealing nuts that the other could benifit from more?[/quote]

not nessesarily stealing nutes but competing for root space in the res and branch space in the box the healthier ones will use up the space that has been being used by the runt in no time and you will be better off IMO getting rid of any runts that take special care. Not to mention focus off of the healthy ladies


good luck man

 

[longbow486]

Thanks for the input man, lots of great advice.
i need to get a few more lights for when we go into flowering. right now i have a 150W HPS and 2x 26W CFL's, i want to get 4 more CFL's. i also planned on trimming off the largest of the leaves about a week before starting to flower, so that the lower branches can get light, along with the 4 more CFL's. I had not planned on trimming any branches off unless they seemed to be sickly or deformed.

 

[JJD]

I say just keep it, even if its a runt you will still get that much more bud in the end, even if it is minimal

 

[longbow486]

one last question, i heard that another tell tale sign of a plant being male was that if the branch nodes where off-set it was male, and if they were even it was female. is this true?

 

[SmokeMedprop215]

not that I'm aware