White Widow Aero 400W HPS

Hi guys,

First of all greetings from Spain and thank you so much for the wonderfull forum on which I hope to contribute a little bit more

This is my first grow on Aeroponics. Setup:

- 6 WWidow, very good strain
- Cellmax nutes
- Producer 505 with a little adaption (PVC board) so to avoid the roots to dive in the water
- Water 21 - 24 Degrees C
- 1 long aerorock to oxigenate water, conected all times. Sprinklers too.
- EC 1.2/ 1.8 during veg, now 2.5 - 2.8- Always adapted feeding to plant needs, if one pays attention they will tell you want they want.
- PH always between 5.6 / 6.0

I managed to find a balance when adding water and nutes - in veg they were drinking 3 LT a day. Now in flowering they are still balancing a bit but still 3 LT a day is a must. Funny thing is they managed to get the roots on the water solution, but none of the plants has stop growing or has growing issues. I rarely had to adjust the PH. Water is very good around here.

On 2 of them i've applied fimming. One was a no go but the other... man, never seen nothing like that. All the lower branchs are at the same height and have the same structure so I'm inclined to believe that all of the 9 stems are main colas.

So here comes the challenge. The plants are just too big and i'm thinking in making some LST to that main stems and since the other plants are a little smaller it would surely help. I need to maximize my 400 HPS. Go vertical?

What do you recommend? Maybe make some defoliage from the lower flower branches? Or maybe don't stress the plant and apply some LST?

Any thoughts? Could use some help.

Anyone? Please? I'm rather a newbie here... any help?

Plants are going bigger right now, and fan leaves and covering my canopy!!

LST is a little late that is something you do in veg stage and same with cropping. nxt time i would crop and do LST. but u cant doa whole lot other than hope it doesn't keep growing taller. i would always recommand from veg to flower the plant can grow 2 times the hight.

I use different forms of LST through out my entire grow. I shape the plant in the early stages of veg up to flowering. Then when my plants start getting large I just apply light pressure with string to pull them to the side just a tad to get more light down below. I never tighten it to shape them just kinda hold them over a little to get maximum light coverage.

thanks guys... after reading a bit i did some LST to all the main stems that lack light .... the main one has 10 main stems, after correct counting. I managed to bend them all over to the sides so the otherers i have may have a little more light. Let's hope it's worth it.

Dam join date is nov 2007 and only 3posts Where you been?

I start removing some of the larger shade leaves as flowering progresses to let light reach the lower buds.
That coupled with the training your doing now should work.

I see people go on and on about stressing plants and I never get how everyone got so worried about it. Plants can take a major hacking before they get "stressed". Their not nearly as delicate or quick to herm as many would apparently have you think. That's not to say you can't mess up your yields. Don't just thin the entire plant out in one go. Remove a few leaves a day so the plant can reach a balance between energy production and bud growth.

Share some pics of how they look now that you've trained them a bit.

hellraizer30 said:

Dam join date is nov 2007 and only 3posts Where you been?

Click to expand...

lol well yeah i've been bothered with other issues... in fact i've never had posted before! Shame on me really... So thank you very much for even watching this thread!

@MonkE

Yes, actually i share your opinion regarding trimming some shade leaves - these plants are very tenacious and has long as they're healthy and strong, cutting some leaves and micro buds that don't reach the light, I do believe that they can handle it very well.

Day in, day out i've been training them by bending the and now the plants are going great. They're drinking about 3 lt solution a day. My EC is a little bit higher than in veg, about 3.1 but the as said the plants are doing great. Also the PH is 5.8 and has been steady without using suplemments to rectify. Any comments or suggestions about these matters

I will get back with some pictures.

So I'm back with an update. Plants are going good but it's been 1 week and something that they are not feeding themselfs.... everyday i add 3 lt of water. Thing is, before i put water, the EC if off the chart, like up 3.9 (the limit of EC meter is 3.999). When I put water the EC goes to 2.5 - 2.9. Next day same issue, EC of the chart but the water is gone... PH is always at 5.8. So since I didn't write down the precise data of flowering start day, I can only assume that they are in the final week or so, because the plants look good - only the lower leaves are a little bit down, but i kinda guess that it's normal on this stage. They're feeding from fan leaves I guess. I've been thinking also, since EC meter measures the quantity of solids on water, and I know that there maybe 1 leaf as fallen to the solution despite all my efforts to prevent it. Maybe I'm getting bad readings? Any suggestions?