I Was Told I Should Top My Plants Can Anyone Help with Some Advice (Pics Attached)

[CatEyes420]

Yea thats what i was trying to explain to my husband that they need more water than nutrients and watering is like every 3 days or until the soil is dry right? i dont use tap water i use bottled water, i was told tap water will dry out or burn my plants =/ so basically wat i am missing is the to balance the ph in my water? so even when i water my plants its not going to be plain bottled water its going to be bottled water with ph?

Your plants look beautiful short and fat thats how i want mines, my poor indica is just a long skinny stem and like 10 crappy leaves at the top lol hopefully she bounces back, im gonna cut the top off the sativa, do you think i should do it to my indica too???

 

[lambofgod]

sure top them both, it will convert all the energy to side branching and make them look like beautiful little bushes. Tap water will not burn your plants, but in a perfect world we want to water our plants with 0ppm that being completely plain water. Distilled is a little past this point it having all the minerals taken out (I don't recommend distilled, although some may say different). I used tap water for years with good results, but will say that using RO (reverse osmosis) water is far better, if you consider the price you will pay for X bottles of water over the period of your plants life....you may want to look into getting a RO filter as you will generally see a return on your investment, these can be found from $100-$500...usually the $100 ones working just as good as the higher priced version. I recommend the hydrologic stealth RO100 (google it) as its the only one I've used and can comment on.

Yes you defiantly want to wait till the soil drys out...but isn't too dry! you don't want to see your plants drooping down! As your plants develop larger root masses you will see watering/feeding will be more frequent.

Yes you want to PH your bottled water first, like i said get that water test kit, it comes with ph up and down ( so you can adjust accordingly) a tester, and test solution, or you can order a digital meter and a bottle of ph up and ph down. Digital meters tend to be more accurate.

Cannabis likes slightly acidic water. the ph scale is from 0-14, 0 being acid, and 14 being completely alkaline. in a hydoponic setup we want a ph of 5.5-6.0 roughly. in soil we up it a bit, I believe most fox farm soils ffof, happy frog like a 6.2-6.8 ph. in general your tap water will be in the range of 7.0-8.0...which is no good and has to be adjusted.

If you dont keep you ph in check you will run the risk of nutrient lock out.

Cannabis is a very resilient plant, as long as you dont over stress and over worry she wont either...less is always more in this game.

 

[CatEyes420]

Thanks so much the ph system and digital reader will have to be my next investment then the ro water probably after i harvest these 1st 2 plants, thank you so much for all your input, you seem to know a lot about growing you know you could be getting paid for giving people feedback on these forums, your doing a great job of helping me =D

oh here are some of the pictures of the ballast in my little closet end,

 

[lambofgod]

take this a grain of salt, wire the black to the black and the white to the blue, the green is your ground....You can try it, or find the local riu electrical guy and have him answer this. But on my ballasts this is the way it works. You can also take this in to your local hydro shop and ask, but Im about 70% this is correct.

And if you know how I can get paid for giving advise on here, please let me know! lol

 

[lambofgod]

https://www.rollitup.org/newbie-central/937-how-grow-marijuana.html

if you didnt happen to see that, its like 5 posts above yours....always check the stickys

 

[CatEyes420]

Yea i seen it on one of the forums in the top corner i been using this one and grass city it might have been on grass city but you should look on this site if you already have 200+ post with good advice, im sure you wont get rich but a little side cash for something your doing anyways would be nice huh...

as for the ballast i tried that and i also tried the opposite just to see, and still didnt work, then i completly unscrewed all the wires going into that box and re did them =/ i bought this from a family owned hydro store, i guess ill just take it back tomorrow morning and have them figure it out for me and ill ask them about the ph balance kit they were great there i bought all my stuff and spent less than 100 bucks, but kept talking to me like i knew wat he was talking about lol

so looking at the picture of my little closet what do you think i need to make a great grow room in there, i have the ballast the 2 different bulbs a little fan organic insect repelent and for my nutes i only have the one i told you i need to go out and buy one for the flowering stage, do you think the same brand would be good? or is there better stuff out there?

also i seen some reflective roll at the hydro store too that would be great for the walls huh??

 

[cabanaboy]

Can I top a small lowryder plant in a PC grow, would anyone recommend that?

 

[CatEyes420]

oh wow i didnt see that post, that is super great and simple i was reading and it says veg nutes should be about 20-5-5 and mine is 3-2-4 that is a huuuugggeeee difference, did the guy at the hydro store sell me something wrong =/

 

[CatEyes420]

awww your plants are so bushy and cute, why did you put them side ways like that? i was reading about that in my growing bible but i was scared to do it with my plants especially because i didnt know if it would help or make them worst lol

 

[lambofgod]

LOL hes low stress training. just bend ur plant to 90 degree angle and tie her down....no issues, it will majorly help side branching, and I suggest you do it with that sativa dominate plant you have.

@cannaboy...lowrider is a autoflower strain if I'm correct? I've never grown one so I have no advise for it, but couldn't see why it would hurt.

@CAT I would defiantly take it back to the shop, have them hook it up and make sure it runs...Here is a tip about some hydro shops, they are a dime a dozen...and most will try to sell you anything...like anything its a business and they are trying to make $. Of course they talk to you like you know everything, and they could careless if you don't lol.

Yes use the pandafilm/reflective mylar roll you have, you want to make the most out of your light, reflective walls helps this. I dont know where you live or how hot it get in there, but I can tell you that 250watt hps/MH is gonna put off much more heat then your 2' floro fixture. You might want to look into a small 4" exhaust fan, votex and hydro farm make good ones, you can also find nice cheap deals online. If your worried about smell, might want to look into a carbon filter also.

If I where you, the next thing I'd buy is ph up, down and a tester. There is a good chance your hydro shop carries exactly what I had posted earlier.
May want to look into a cal/mag supplement (you wont really need this till flower though)

make sure your fan oscillates, if your looking to clone those plants, to keep the genetics running, might want to get some peat pucks and some rooting hormone.

Thats it off the top of my stoned head lol.

as for the information I've given you...all of it has been learned here at RIU (and a little experimentation), Ive never been on another forum. This place has everything I need, and a great community.

 

[CatEyes420]

So how do i go about tying it down? just get a string and hold it down to the side of the pot? does she stay like that forever? or at some point should i let it go?

 

[Gmz]

So how do i go about tying it down? just get a string and hold it down to the side of the pot? does she stay like that forever? or at some point should i let it go?

You can just tie it to the side of the pot, what ever you do the top of the plant will grow up towards the light naturally, once it gets long enough you can keep tying it down around the pot like shown in this picture, but you can tie it in any direction as long as the stem doesn't snap. If you decide to lst your plants, i'd recommend tying the main stem to the pot as well so it doesn't get uprooted.

Just keep in mind that the little new growths between each node (Picture 2) will grow out to be a new cola when exposed to the light.

View attachment 1592674

 

[Jason2011]

question?
what type of ballast do you have ? HPS or MH?
one wont run the other will it ? -->> lambofgod
just a thought..

 

[CatEyes420]

@GMZ thanks i will surely be doing this to my sativa =)

@jason Ummm i just have a basic bat winged ballast the guy at the hydro store said it should run any mh or hps light but i think the ballast is broken because it doesnt work any way we connect it, i uploaded pics of it... first thing tomorrow morning we are taking it back to have them connect it see if it works so my babies can be under some warmer lights

 

[Jason2011]

i was under the impression that a MH ballast would only fire up and MH bulb and same for HPS. i know you can get converters/adapters that you screw between the MH globe and the fitting on a HPS ballast to be able too use the MH on it.
ive got the old magnetic ballasts that i use too. might have too upgrade too digital one day. once they become more popular and come down in price lol
oh and cat chuck up some pics of your lsting effort after. am always interested in how others do it esp new people seeing it with a different perspective

 

[lambofgod]

Fresh bondage.

CHEISEL PRE LST.


AFTER LST


SKUNK #1 PRE LST


AFTER LST


thats just yarn holding them down. As you can see it really opens them up so you can have more light available to branches that wouldn't normally get so much. These where done last night right after my last post (as this post reminded me to go do my work). They are 1 week into flower, I should have started the process sooner, but was dealing with nute burn on my skunk. You will know how far your branches can go before they snap, you will sense it.

TBH this is pretty minor lst, I've done more hardcore bondage, and have seen EVEN more hardcore bondage out there on the net.

To do this with your tall sativa cat, just bend her top down to a 90 degree angle and tie her off or use something as a weight to hold her down (fishing weights work amazing) then after 24 hours, move the wieght/tie down clockwise....basically rotating the stalk in circles this will keep her short.

 

[CatEyes420]

So we finally got the light connected. stupidest problem ever...!!! but thats out of the way and my babies are super happy under their warm light and i did the lst yesterday and i am seeing the results already cant wait to see how she is a week from now =)

here are some pics i berly added the light now ill take some new pics tomorrow and show you guys the progress thanks so much for all the help =D

and for the lst i used sewing string and made a lil notch in the side of the pot with a blade i just improvised with the stuff i had

And This is the indica plant =/ still kinda yellow and weak hope she gets stronger with her new light

 

[CatEyes420]

So im noticing my sativa plant is getting that salty look on the leaves =/ what should i do to get rid of this, and on the indica the leaves are starting to curl, i have bat guanos and beg nutes and silica blast, my last watering had nutes in it, i as reading about making a guano tea? what do you guys think?

 

[Gmz]

Is that wire holding your sativa down tight? Cause i used a little string to lst my plant, but when i found out it was male i chopped him, and when i looked at where i lst'd it there was like a pretty deep indent where i had lst'd it.

 

[CatEyes420]

Its just regular sewing string, thats wat i was thinking about too i dont want the string to hurt the plant, im going to get a ph kit and ill prolly just get some thicker string or some wire, i seen a guy using zip ties but idk