Kill few plants/lollipopp/do nothing (cramped space)

[widow0maker]

Well 7 of my plants turned out female and I switched to a grow tent part way through my grow for better design, head room and just my box all around sucked. My tent is 20x36x62 and with 7 plants it is getting a little cramped. I am on the 9th day since starting 12/12 (not from showing sex) and my plants are continuing to get cramped. So I'm trying to figure out what to do for best all around yield AND quality. My ideas are/stats:

400 watt hps 1.75 ft above plants
7 plants in 1 gal grow bags
sizes range from 13in-19in. from soil line
435 cfm fan sucking through carbon filter
2 6 inch fans hanging constantly circulating air around.
Link to log at bottom, I'll post a few current pictures for you to see in this thread

1. Kill the two worst plants to allow only 5 plants left. From there I will space them out more and then put some 42 watt cfls lower then the tops of the plants, close to the soil line to help develop all the buds on the plants and not get any popcorn buds.

2. Lollipopp all the plants, probably lower 1/4-1/3 (not sure how much for my size of plants) and only develop the top half of the plant which can get some light. circulation will be better even though I don't think its bad right now. I would need to do this in the next few days to stop wasting energy on the bottom parts since I started flowering.

3. Do nothing, hope plants stretch enough that I can eventually fit some cfls in the lower parts and develop those buds and hang cfls up above plants 6 inches away and hope it penetrates a little deeper in the plants, until I move them lower, and if I can't fit cfls in the lower area then maybe harvest top part of plants and let bottom parts mature for another week. Not sure how I would do this since I plant on putting the plants in 72 hours of darkness before hand and also because I do not know if I will be around to harvest 1-2 weeks after my first harvest, so I would be pushing this VERY close. I can bring my curing buds with me when I leave for a while, but hard to bring drying buds along with or the plant to harvest.


From now on I will only have 4 plants in here at a time and most likely LST all of them in a circular fashion around the pot to maximize all the space and get larger better quality yields, but thats a different day different grow. What do you guys think would help?

https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/233404-white-window-indoor-soil-grow-5.html

 

[phreakygoat]

honestly you can go any of these routes. killing (or putting outside) a few while openning up up the remaining plants is a great idea, but you can also just take off hella leaves and cfl it...

 

[widow0maker]

any other thoughts or agreements out there?

 

[timmythetooth]

any other thoughts or agreements out there?

keep em all- make sure you get a fan to circulate the air above and below - as long as they get enough air they should be fine. Im only on my first grow but my second (its in the works already) in planning on doing 3 plants every 2 weeks (with 2 55-65 day strains).

 

[JimmyT]

I seriously don't think lollipopping all of them will help increase yield and eliminating 1, 2 or 3 of them won't make matters better.

I realize you're running out of the little room you have but, from the way it seems, you're better off just leaving them alone and working out the kinks as the grow progresses. When that does happen, I'd suggest simply clipping the fan leaves (it's not the best thing for the plants but it's better than eliminating one) that begin imposing themselves onto surrounding buds. And if you can't get to the lower buds with the cfls, I suppose you could have them surround the reflector and have them cover what the HPS can't.

Hope that helps some. Good Luck

 

[maurice*del*taco]

dont kill any of them , hike to a secluded area and put 2 of the worst ones outside and see where that takes you .. never kill them thats just disrespect, only kill the males hahaha

 

[exidis]

I wouldnt kill cuz if it was me it would be too precious LOL. I would concentrate on 5 and let two just grow whereever you have room in the corner or something.

 

[phreakygoat]

personally I'd rather have four plants with excellent light penetration and killer buds all over than 6 plants with only a decent top canopy... And killing a plant is no big deal, but of course its best to keep it around if possible. you could also just trim your plants back a bunch.

guess it depends on the strain somewhat as well

 

[widow0maker]

Well even if I had a place outside to put them that would be their death wish. It is starting to get below freezing at night where I am at and likely snow within a week or two. Here is what I am thinking is the best plan. Keep all the plants, lollipop the two worst ones a good amount and leave the rest. That way I am still getting bud from those plants while opening up more space and light penetration for the other plants. One plant I can't decide if it should be one I lollipop. It is avery short and bushy and has about 10 bud sites. I never topped or did anything to the plant, just those side branches that you want to grow out when you top it naturally grew their way out of the plant which is pretty cool, just not sure if this is waay too many bud sites for this plant to make a good product overall. I'll also hang those cfls eventually either way. I figure more light cant hurt at all.

 

[Don Gin and Ton]

any chance of mothering 1 or two? even cfls in a cardboard box ? i would say you should be lollipopping anyway.

 

[widow0maker]

any chance of mothering 1 or two? even cfls in a cardboard box ? i would say you should be lollipopping anyway.

No room for that and not possible for me to have a continuous grow going at this time.

Well I lollipopped two of the crappy plants and decided I need to do a little pruning of the other plants since I had never done this during veg and a lot of the plants were very cramped and getting almost no light past the top few inches. Definitely can tell I hadn't pruned before, might have pruned a little too much,....... I guess we will see how the plants do and hope some of the big fan leaves I clipped that were close to the top but covering up the majority of the lower plant are not ones that were absolutely needed. There are still fan leaves on the plant and at the top, just I took some of the largest ones away. I didn't think this one out too well. I guess we I will have to wait and see how the plants recover over the next few days. I guess you live and learn.

 

[Don Gin and Ton]

don't worry man she's a resilient herb in that case id probably chalk it up to experience n cut one down maybe 2. do you know anyone that shares the same hobby???

 

[tinyTURTLE]

supercrop. it's early enough where you could do it 4 nodes from the top (between the 4th and 5th nodes from the top ).
then build a screen. I've seen people use that orange construction barrier mesh. SCROG those bitches after you supercrop.

 

[widow0maker]

don't worry man she's a resilient herb in that case id probably chalk it up to experience n cut one down maybe 2. do you know anyone that shares the same hobby???

I wish, but no one that I know grows or really knows that I grow either. Overall I think my pruning is alright, maybe a bit too extreme, but I'm worried about the fact that I did it all at once. Didn't even think about it at the time. Started reading some on it after and realized it was a bad idea. haha, I always need to remind myself to not get ahead of myself and take my time and research, but once in a while I have one of those brainfarts and just go ahead.

 

[Don Gin and Ton]

its a learning curve eh ahahah im sure it will work out and the above poster has a good point. super crop then scrog, would give you the best yield for the light and space used

 

[Corbat420]

theres one smaller one in the back..... i think you know the one im talking about......

try and clone it. take it out and place the rest of the plants so they get the best light penetration, then make a small box with 2 30W lights in it and clone the living shit outs that weaker one (so you can put clones in there when you harvest your seedlings.)

 

[Corbat420]

No room for that and not possible for me to have a continuous grow going at this time.

Well I lollipopped two of the crappy plants and decided I need to do a little pruning of the other plants since I had never done this during veg and a lot of the plants were very cramped and getting almost no light past the top few inches. Definitely can tell I hadn't pruned before, might have pruned a little too much,....... I guess we will see how the plants do and hope some of the big fan leaves I clipped that were close to the top but covering up the majority of the lower plant are not ones that were absolutely needed. There are still fan leaves on the plant and at the top, just I took some of the largest ones away. I didn't think this one out too well. I guess we I will have to wait and see how the plants recover over the next few days. I guess you live and learn.

ouch, gota say......for later use. NEVER CHOP OFF TOP FAN LEAVES!!!!!!!! those are the sunleaves teh plant needs, the newer ones (the ones ON TOP) are going to stay longer and be of more eficent use for the plants.
when pruning fan leaves allways cut lower growth, lower fan leave growth is older and not as useful to the plant as older fan leaves.

and, NEVER cut off more than 20% of foliage at one time, and never prune duering flowering........

honestly after what ive heard, i wana see how badly this is going to effect harvest.

 

[widow0maker]

ouch, gota say......for later use. NEVER CHOP OFF TOP FAN LEAVES!!!!!!!! those are the sunleaves teh plant needs, the newer ones (the ones ON TOP) are going to stay longer and be of more eficent use for the plants.
when pruning fan leaves allways cut lower growth, lower fan leave growth is older and not as useful to the plant as older fan leaves.

and, NEVER cut off more than 20% of foliage at one time, and never prune duering flowering........

honestly after what ive heard, i wana see how badly this is going to effect harvest.

ohh its going to effect it horribly, haha this might need to be a sticky when is all is said in done. To add to the sadness/funniness of this thread I am adding some pictures. I'm starting to realize I may be the cannabis antichrist reincarnate....

I did about everything wrong possible for this pruning. I think I'm in shock since all I can do is laugh at myself. Heres my hoping to get even 2 oz off these now. Hope you all enjoy

it looks worse in person since you can easily tell which leaves are the plants and not ones from the plant behind it making the plant look bushier in the pictures.

EDIT: my thought process was remove the leaves blocking bud sites, leave ones that arent in the way which is ones towards the bottom..... lol

 

[JimmyT]

I guess you live and learn.

That's what it's all about!! Hell, lollipopping and pruning for the purpose of comparing the differences in weight and growth should be your ultimate goal (and, of course, space saving ). If there's one thing I've learned is that cannabis wants to grow!!

 

[Don Gin and Ton]

don't beat yourself up it could be a lot worse.

9 days in 12/12 is not too late to switch back?!?!?1 just throwin it out there...