First time manifold attempt

I'm just getting started, but take a look at my first manifold attempt... how am I doing?



The two plants in the back, both unknown strains one is a cross of bag seed with Ayahuasca Purple, the other is unknown crossed with OG Kush... This was taken a couple of days ago, in week 3 of veg. This is right before I did the second top and screwed up a little bit by trimming off the wrong two growth nodes on one side, so that side is one node length higher for those two colas. I'm going to try and train it so it doesn't grow into each other because they are the two growing the opposite direction.

The one in front is an Ayahuasca Purple, a clone taken during third week of flowering that is finally starting to go crazy... Will post updates, welcome advice.

Also for those who have done this before, how long does it really take to get to eight colas ready to flower? At the rate this is going, I'm guessing at the least five or more like six weeks is what it will end up being. They're under three 300 watt LEDS... PPMs in the water going in are around 450 total, is Fox Farm Big Bloom and their veg stuff a little tiny bit like 1/2 tsp. Soil is Happy Frog only. Those are 3 gallon smart pots... Thankfully I do have a lot of vertical space for flower and even more lights in the red spectrum. I wasn't sure if I'm training them hard enough to stay low.

My usual indoor routine is to top @ 4th node, retain 3rd node and strip everything below. Let those develop a few nodes and then remove back to the 1st node. That leaves me with 8 main colas and after 6-8 weeks and a good trellis net, a sea of tops and buds are far as the eye can see...I'll see if I can snap a few pics this evening when lights come up.

GBAUTO said:

My usual indoor routine is to top @ 4th node, retain 3rd node and strip everything below. Let those develop a few nodes and then remove back to the 1st node. That leaves me with 8 main colas and after 6-8 weeks and a good trellis net, a sea of tops and buds are far as the eye can see...I'll see if I can snap a few pics this evening when lights come up.

Click to expand...

I think that's more or less exactly my plan... Topped at fourth node as fifth was just getting going, and topped down to which ever node it was that had the best candidate for being the new growth, honestly I can't remember if I did the 3rd or 2nd, but it was which ever was more developed...

https://drive.google.com/open?id=161SUX_RNC_poCINCnKaTyLMvkCEecRekuw
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1URMnl9OPbkzvVIU6uV2dYmOD1howwE7e2w
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1bb4ApVBoi6YR3pgTDHUVeM_rQRKRZ1lEpg
This gives me 8 main colas and a TON of bud sites. Takes about 6-8 weeks of veg time so it isn't a quick turnover.

For a true mainline top earlier as the nodes lose there symmetry.
https://www.rollitup.org/t/dynamos-method-for-seedlings.967818/

https://www.rollitup.org/t/dynamos-emerald-harvest-coco-run.947061/
The top link covers the first few weeks the second is a full journal

Wow, ok yeah that's a lot earlier than I topped, I think i was afraid to do it too early...

Oh yeah, when you top, is there any down side to cutting right below the growth node you're removing (so it leaves a long stem above the two growth nodes you leave that then sorta shrivels up over time), or is better to cut right above the two growth nodes you leave? Looks like from pictures I've seen online, most people don't leave a stem sticking up, but I always feel like this leaves more room for error...

Here's what they look like now. I can see from looking at your threads that I'm waiting way too long to top I guess... Still will get the same basic result I hope though, just probably going to take me longer. I think I will go ahead and top those little guys on the left as soon as it matches what I'm seeing in your thread instead of waiting as long as I have been. Oh and that's some mint in the front ha ha.

I top as close to the node I'm removing to remove the chance of accidental F.I.M.