First Indoor Grow, Trim or not? Tips, please.

First, thank you for having this section and the site for all of us. Some have gone through this many times, others like me, well this is our first time. I have two indoor plants, strain unknown as it was bag seed from some decent stuff. These are actually clones from an outdoor grow that is in the curing process. With the plant outdoors, I let nature take its course, but indoors I prefer to get help with. Do I trim or prune these? I have not topped them, but I did top the original plant outdoors. Right now they have been growing for 30 days and are about 14 inches tall. How much longer do I Veg them? Do I trim anything other than the bottom? Should I cut the top? If you can see the pictures, I am not sure cutting the top will get me anything, will it? Please suggest some steps to help increase the yield. These are being grown under florescent and LED. Florescent is 250watt, 6500k, 10,000 lumen with 4 led side lights, which are blue with white chips I will have the same in the flowering room, except 2700k, 250 watt, 10,000 lumen florescent with 4 LED side lights, primarily red with a couple blue chips. Your help and suggestions are appreciated.

Were the clones taken from a flowering plant? Looks like it since they are so bushy. That is fine. No real need to top in this case. Maybe tie down or supercrop the tops to achieve a nice even canopy during flower. Just a little training.

They look ready to flower.

You need a lot of lumens to flower. Figure 7000 lumens per sqft of grow space. I can't tell exactly how large the plants are or what gallon pots you are in. I'd guess that you would need six 26w CFL's per plant to get an acceptable yield assuming the plants are small.

Best of luck.

sunny747 said:

Were the clones taken from a flowering plant? Looks like it since they are so bushy. That is fine. No real need to top in this case. Maybe tie down or supercrop the tops to achieve a nice even canopy during flower. Just a little training.

They look ready to flower.

You need a lot of lumens to flower. Figure 7000 lumens per sqft of grow space. I can't tell exactly how large the plants are or what gallon pots you are in. I'd guess that you would need six 26w CFL's per plant to get an acceptable yield assuming the plants are small.

Best of luck.

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Sunny747, yes they were taken from an outdoor plant that just went into flower, about a month ago. It was a surprise plant that I did not expect to actually grow as it was in a pot with another already budding plant.

The plants are about 14-15 inches high and 12 inches across, they are in 5 gallon smart pots.

Thank you for the lumen advice. I will double what I have. The flower room is a closet that is 22"x36". The grow room is only 18"x36"

Can you please steer me to a good place to look up how to tie down? There is a lot out there and I would hate to screw the plant up now. Would you suggest I tie it down and let it VEG for a few more weeks? I do need to trim the bottom, which I will use as clones, I should wait to flower for a couple of weeks after cutting these off, correct?

Hmm. If you have good roots cut your clones then let her rest for a day or two. Then just use string, or chord or zip ties to pull the tall branches a little lower. You just want an even canopy. keep messing with it through the stretch during the first few weeks of flower to even out the canopy.. I'd guess they will expand by about 30% during flower. so use that as a gauge. Nothing worse than outgrowing your space.

What you did by taking a clone from a flowering plant is called monster cropping. It produces very bushy plants. That's usually a bonus.

Your space will require around 30,000 lumens which is about 18 23w CFLS ( 4.5 sqft. 6000 lumens per foot. Each 23 bulb=1600 lumens). I hear you can get the larger 42 watt cfls at certain dollar stores for a buck.. sweet deal. Saves on space. Those are 2700 lumens so you would need ten or more.

Don't let them veg too long, as I said you may outgrow your space quickly.

overwatering @ the serrated leaf edges curling down like that.

Tieing down is like having an invisible scrog net over her. Tie the biggest shoot on a side that doesn't have shoots coming up. Go easy at first so you don't snap tho. If needed tighten next few days. I like to drill little holes on the top edge of plastic pot as anchor points.

I ordered the 42w a 10 pack for $17 bucks for ebay...I have used them to flower once, now there just for my clone table but they work

Everyone thanks for the replies and help! I will take another picture tonight, but here is what I have done so far with all of your suggestions.

I got some plant string from the nursery down the street. I took a wooden skewer that is 18 inches long and stuck it in the pot, took the top of the plant and tied it to the skewer using the plant string so that it is even with the rest of the plant. I did that last night and when I checked the plant this morning it had already started to turn back up towards the light.

Sunny747- Thank for the monster cropping term, I didnt know what I had done, it is nice to know it has a term, plus since I did not have any more seeds. I wanted to keep things going and thats the only way I knew how to get more plants. And thanks for the light advice.

I took Sunny747's advice and went out and got 2 more 10 inch reflectors, only 10 bucks each at Walmart and went to Ace hardware and picked up 2 - 55 watt CFLS that have 3800 lumens each in the 2700k brightness for flowering.

So now the flowering area has

• 1 - Apollo Horticulture 250 Watt 2700K CFL Light Bulb, Lumens- 15,000 / Color Temperature- 2700 Kelvin
• 2- 55 watt CFL (200watt equiv) color temperature 2700k with 3800 Lumens in 10 inch reflectors
• 4- Apollo Horticulture 24W LED Grow Light w/ Red & Blue LED Spectrum, Red - 630nm, 660nm & Blue - 460nm in 8 inch reflectors

I can't seem to find the lumens of the LED's and will try to figure it out over the next day or two somehow. I will add a couple more LED's to try to get to the 30,000 lumems that Sunny747 said I should have.

Desr - So you think I have watered too much? I usually wait for the soil to dry out before watering, but will pay closer attention. The smart pots work really well, usually they drain out quickly. And the smart pots do what they say, the roots do come through the sides (just tips) and they do dry up and prune themselves, it is kinda cool to see that. I am looking forward to the day I get to harvest and check out the roots as compared to my outdoor grow which was done in a plastic pot.

Dscorpion - thanks for the scrog info, after a quick google I got it, thanks! scrog seems like a smart thing to do, maybe next grow I will try to do something like that.

Weithe20 - Thanks, will shop ebay to save a few buck as I am sure the electric bill will need my extra cash and saving a few buck will sure help.

Again, my THANKS to all, Sunny747, Desr, Descorpion, Wiethe20.... please keep the suggestions rolling... I want some dense buds this go around. The outdoor plants are kind of airy buds, which some said it may have been too hot, not sure... but until the cure is done I wont know if they are good but airy or sucky and airy...

tomuch- will do.. I brought my outdoor plants in since we were threatened with heavy storms and the night temps were dropping. The big CFL (250w, 15000lumen) is set at the top and centered, the two 55watt cfls are at the top on either side of the big one angled down and into the one remaining plant..The 4 LED's are at the sides... I may add more LEDS at the sides or top, just gotta save a bit more $$ to get them.

So, my story is... I had a few seeds from stuff I got, mainly collected the 3 over a bit of time.. I honestly didnt expect the seeds to grow but since I had just moved and into a place with a little privacy, I decided to toss them in a planter when I was planting my little garden of tomatoes, peppers and such..So, 3 seeds went into the pot and go figure 2 came up within a week. This was back in May... two plants seemed to flourish and then to my surprise a 3rd popped up mid-July. All three were in the same pot and I had no clue what to do and felt they could not be separated at that point, so I left everything alone. Two plants started to bud in mid-August. I took the online internet google search crash course and learned a little about trichomes and such. Figured why the heck not, the plants were there and it would be a darn shame to screw it all up now. So, I watched and watched and got a 30x loop and watched more... The 3rd plant that surprised me seemed to be starting to bud, around the end of August or the beginning of September, so I took off the clippings for clones, which gave me the two plants in my first post. It took a week or two for the roots to get to the point I thought they were good, which was September 6th, thats the day I put them into the 5 gallon smart pots. (this time I am keeping a log, since I didnt with the outdoor plants) I cut the first buds off of the two plants outdoors on Sept. 23rd. Took more buds on Sept 28. Brought the outdoor plants indside Oct. 1st because of the forecast for bad weather (which didnt come, darn weathermen) and I harvested the last buds just this morning. The 3rd plant (the surprise) is still budding and may not be ready for a few more weeks. The first two plants, one smelled like skunk with citrus, the other smelled like pine, skunk and citrus (more pine and citrus then skunk)... That was the odor while on the plant. When the buds were drying after a few days, they smelled like hay... but when they went into the jars the hay smell started to fade a little, but is kinda still there. The one that had a strong skunk smell has an odor of diesel fuel when you shake the jar or gently squeeze the bud, the one with the more pine smell smells like faint pine and citrus when you shake the jar or gently squeeze the buds. I have no clue what I have, but figured if I learned a bit with free seeds and got some halfway decent smoke out of it, then its all worth it. And If I learn enough, well I might just buy seeds. But if I play it right, I can keep cloning what I have for a while, right?

Peter Berger - I understand taking clones at the flowering stage probably isnt wise and I appreciate the picture, I know that guy, but cant think of his name, who is he?? ....taking clones at flower worked and thanks to those here, it will probably be very successful. Thanks to Sunny747 for educating me on the term monster cropping, which I found a nice post about by Robert Bergman, which is here: http://www.theweedblog.com/monster-cropping-marijuana-plants/ ... After reading the post from Robert Bergman, I may try doing other clones from flowering plants to get that bountiful harvest...

Get non powdered gloves, will be your best friend

Thanks wiethe20!!! Sure could have used those this morning... I cut the buds this morning at 5:30am and have been at work since 7:00am and my fingers still have that glorious smell.... I sure as heck will have them before the next one is ready... I found the post put out by JoNny Pot sMokeR on here and he said to freeze the gloves and peel off the resin... gonna have to try it... https://www.rollitup.org/t/best-temp-n-humidity-for-drying-curing.332993/

There are a lot of good people and ideas here, glad I joined and everyone is so helpful...

Mount said:

Thanks wiethe20!!! Sure could have used those this morning... I cut the buds this morning at 5:30am and have been at work since 7:00am and my fingers still have that glorious smell.... I sure as heck will have them before the next one is ready... I found the post put out by JoNny Pot sMokeR on here and he said to freeze the gloves and peel off the resin... gonna have to try it... https://www.rollitup.org/t/best-temp-n-humidity-for-drying-curing.332993/

There are a lot of good people and ideas here, glad I joined and everyone is so helpful...

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WHEN YOU TRIM MAKE SURE TO CHANG YOUR CLOTHES IF HEADING TO WORK, YOU'LL SMELL LIKE YOU'VE BEEN ROLLING IN AN ACRE OF BUD...lol

Thanks!!! Trimmed in bummy non-work clothes..and its a good thing I am the boss, hard to fire myself...LOL... or send myself out to be tested...I even scrubbed my hands and showered before heading out the door.... I really only held the stems to trim with the occasional touch of the trim material then held the stems to hang for the dry... really sticky stuff and the odor lasts forever...

Mount said:

Thanks!!! Trimmed in bummy non-work clothes..and its a good thing I am the boss, hard to fire myself...LOL... or send myself out to be tested...I even scrubbed my hands and showered before heading out the door.... I really only held the stems to trim with the occasional touch of the trim material then held the stems to hang for the dry... really sticky stuff and the odor lasts forever...

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Welp, I wish you were my boss, we'd get a long just fine ...and on your growing plants rub the stems between 2 fingers up and down rigggghhht under neath the bud, best best best part to smell imo

wiethe20 said:

Welp, I wish you were my boss, we'd get a long just fine ...and on your growing plants rub the stems between 2 fingers up and down rigggghhht under neath the bud, best best best part to smell imo

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I will try that rubbing on my next harvest, thanks for the tip... but this time I may wait until it is the weekend to do it, providing the plants cooperate...

peter berger meant that clones taken from flowering plant take longer to root

dscorpion said:

peter berger meant that clones taken from flowering plant take longer to root

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Thank you for that clarification... being a newbie has its disadvantages... My apologies to Peter Berger for not clearly understanding.