Subcool's Super Soil - Page 2

cream8 · #11 01-24-2008, 11:02 AM

awesome thread thanks!

subcool · #12 01-25-2008, 07:49 AM

Good morning.
I am redoing my files with my new camera and while I am at it I will show you guys a neat trick I use on plants that have poor internodal spacing or just those spindly style plants that waste space if placed in a large pot.

First lets set up our pots on our trusty tarp the same one I used in mixing this soil. We line all the pots up and place 4-6" on concentrate into the bottom of each container:

Ok the veg room has reached the size when I wont to change pot size.

subcool · #13 01-25-2008, 07:54 AM

Ok Now we make a space in the far side of the container and place in Tiny Bomb so she has one leg facing out.

Then we place her in

Fill in the sides

Then we make a whole in the other side of the container making sure the third leg faces out.
Nice Roots

One 6 headed plant ready for more veg.

subcool · #14 01-25-2008, 07:59 AM

Ok lets look at a full room all transplanted and happy!

Next up Bondage

subcool · #15 01-26-2008, 08:06 AM

One of the things that is very important in a garden is canopy management. There are so many ways to grow cannabis but in the US in legal medical gardens we have number restrictions. This means we have to learn to get the same yields to supply our meds from less plants. We accomplish this by employing several methods that I will cover here today. Once we have our plants topped properly with multi heads and our girls grow up a bit we should have 18-24” plants with at least 3 heads or more. Cleaning off all lower growth and using as clones is how we do it. The light can’t penetrate this far under the canopy anyway.

I take a small drill and some twine. Drilling a hole in the rim of the pot under each branch I carefully secure the twine and gently spread open each plant. Be careful not to split the main stem and if you do so you can bind it with wire ties. It doesn’t seem to hurt things even if you do. Each plant is now much wider and takes up a lot more room but all lower buds are exposed and we have reduced the total height of the canopy.

subcool · #16 01-26-2008, 08:13 AM

Its also very important to clean out all the lower shoots. They will not get enough light and they will take energy away from the top buds. The Fluff also sucks to trim. We have noticed that plants that are injured or stressed by bending and breaking produce much larger buds. WE go far past the old super cropping methods and really wound our plants so that when they repair they have much stronger stems and produce larger heavier buds.

These are all forms of LST.

Here is my Article on Bondage

Tie Her Up!

Words and Pics by Subcool

How do larger yields and bigger buds with only the cost of some string and some of your time? Would you like to fill the same amount of stash jars using less plants, taking less clones, then lets explore the science of Plant canopy management
It is amazing what can be accomplished using plant bondage (LST) and canopy management. This can be very useful in medical gardens where the number of plants is limited but everyone can benefit using this technique by achieving larger yield per plant. I get amazing results with much larger plants using simple topping and spreading the plant open and using string or floral wire to tie her down. This method can help in many areas.
First we want to top our plants very early and close to the soil so they have multiple heads and there left in the vegetive phase for long enough to form a large bush with a height of about 24-36”. Once the plants leave the vegetive area and enter the flowering room tie them down so that there over all height is much shorter and the plants are wider. This allows your lights to be a bit lower maximizing lumen efficiency. With taller grows some time the lights can be so high that the over all lumens reaching the shorter of the plants have diminished so much that those plants end up with poor yields. This method also allows you to fill a rather large area with far less plants and it requires fewer plants to be cloned.
The second thing this training of the plant allows is more light to the second level buds or lower shelf as I like to call it. Before we employed this method or tops were huge but the lowers were airy and mainly fluff. This trick assures large buds even at the lower levels.
Last and most importantly it increases yields per plant, when the number of plants are limited that’s extremely important. Many state medical programs have strict plant limits. So with larger topped plants tied up to maximize yields and manage the canopy height we get a good 4 ounces per plant minimum and on some strain we get 5 and 6 ounces per plant. That’s enough to last and make enough cookies for our patients and other friends who have cards.
With my set up I run two grow rooms one for the vegetive phase ( Metal Halide) and one for budding phase ( High Pressure Sodium). I grow the plants in my own mix of concentrated super soil containing worm castings, bat guano, bone meal, Epson salts, lime, and other organic ingredients including endo/ecto mycorrihizae, which I find extremely beneficial to young plants. I start rooted seedlings and rooted clones in straight high quality potting soil so the super soil concentrate doesn’t burn the fragile babies. The clones are started into rapid rooters and then they are transplanted into 1 gallon pots, and when there firmly established I top the meristem ( Main Stem) nice and low so that the plant develops a nice short bush shape with 3 to 4 growing heads, as long as I leave to sets of fan leaves the plant always recovers well and gets a great start.
Seedlings are a bit different and you must allow the seedling to develop and have at least 4-5 internodes before topping. If you top a seedling to early the shock will slow the plant down tremendously wasting time. Clones and seedlings grow under a 18/6 light cycle until I can see roots in the lower drain holes. They then get transplanted again into large 7 gallon lowboy pots, using my super soil in bottom 2/3 of pot and straight premium potting soil in the top 1/3 and placed back in 18/6 under the same 1000 watt MH. Once the plants have been in veg for almost 60 days almost everything is finishing up in the bud room and harvest is approaching. One everything is trimmed up and the old pots moved out and the soil recycled it’s time to clean everything well, washing the floor and tarps with bleach and making sure everything is mold free. At this time I clean off the glass in the vented hoods with glass cleaner. A clean room is the sign of a good grower! The plants are now placed in main bud room that measures 10x5 with 2- 1000 Watt HPS Hortilux bulbs.
This is the time when we clean up our plants removing any smaller shoots that are shaded still so that this energy that would have gone to produce fluff and added time to trimming can instead go to the upper buds that are actually in the light. This also allows more air to circulate under the canopy so that O2 doesn’t stratify. This in it self will increase the yields and make your trimming a bit easier. I am not sure everyone will get this analogy but the plant looking up should kinds look like broccoli with everything up top.

Tie your mother down!

Using a small drill I make 4 holes directly beside each main branch. I use floral wire now and secure the branch about halfway up and then gently pull that branch down opening and exposing the center of the plant allowing more light to penetrate the canopy. As we have discussed this also makes the plant shorter and this can allow more veg time and a larger base stem all things that can increase your yields. Don’t be so quick to bud your plants a few extra days can make a huge difference in how long your medicine holds out. Super Cropping is the next technique I want to cover here. In laymen’s terms super cropping is bending or pinching the stem causing slight damage, the plant repairs this damage making a stronger stem that for some reason creates much larger buds. Some people completely break there stems and then repair them using bandages or splits, we don’t need no stinking bandages! Try treating a room of plants and not a garden, get in touch with each strain or hybrid you grow determining how much it will stretch and if it does best topped or like a rare few better untopped. Try some of these techniques on your plants and I know you will be amazed at the outcome.

subcool · #17 01-26-2008, 08:17 AM

To get a good start on this style it’s important to top the plants early. As soon as my clones have rooted well and have started to grow I chop out the meristem causing the plant to divide into 2 growing shots. If this is performed low enough the plant will actually develop 3 heads just leave 3 nodes

subcool · #18 01-26-2008, 08:17 AM

Hey how about let me know someones still alive out there are you guys still with me on this thread?

Subcool

bearo420 · #19 01-26-2008, 08:33 AM

i read everything you post.

subcool · #20 01-27-2008, 08:58 AM

Thanks Dank just trying to improve the state of cannabis in the world

Ok so now we simply make sure our plants have good airflow. In winter make sure in dark it dosn't fall below 70 as mold and mildew can take hold. Make sure you have lots of good air flow and keep your plants cleaned underneath.

Its so important to create a nice even canopy to maximize yields and trophy buds.

Lets look at a healthy canopy