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just looking for some opinions on how im doing so far week 6 starting to look like shes hitting preflower but not 100% sure on that. this is both my first hydro and autoflower grow so i did make some mistakes and ended up stressing her out a bit in the begining weeks, but in my personal opinion we have made a decent recovery over the last 2-3 weeks. Trying to avoid removing leaves as it is an auto and i dont want to add stress but there are a lot of them blocking light to some potential budspots should i leave them or cut a few off there?20180710_211125.jpg
 

Dannycfc91

Member
Im on my first ever grow using autoflower critical orange punch, i messed about an stressd it to bits so its way behind. Ive fed it nutes for the first time 2 days ago. Is it looking healthy? Sorry ive no input on your questions lol but yours looks good from what i can see. Is it easier in soil or hydro ? Have you done a bit diy with your hydro box?
 

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Somatek

Well-Known Member
Looks good, keep it up. I personally only trim leaves if I'm worried about airflow/mold issues. I've never heard a botanically logical argument for reducing leaves (which produce energy to grow) to increase bud growth (which need energy to grow). Light doesn't have to hit the bud to encourage growth, they need sugar to fuel it which is provided by the leaves & moved around by the vascular bundles.

I've never seen any plant in nature defoliate when flowering/fruiting is initiated. If it was beneficial wouldn't something have evolved that trait in the millions & millions of years of evolution?

The counter argument in that we're growing indoors with limited light. Which is completely accurate & why we learn to prune/grow plants in a way that we maximise that light. Scrog/SOG both achieve that with proper pruning/training or limiting veg to achieve a uniform canopy with good even penetration.

If anything I'd flatten the canopy out so the lower portions get more light. Short spread out plants have more uniform buds then tall plants since light losing power dramatically the farther it travels.
 

714steadyeddie

Well-Known Member
just looking for some opinions on how im doing so far week 6 starting to look like shes hitting preflower but not 100% sure on that. this is both my first hydro and autoflower grow so i did make some mistakes and ended up stressing her out a bit in the begining weeks, but in my personal opinion we have made a decent recovery over the last 2-3 weeks. Trying to avoid removing leaves as it is an auto and i dont want to add stress but there are a lot of them blocking light to some potential budspots should i leave them or cut a few off there?View attachment 4163518
The budsites don’t take in the light , the fan leaves do. Just keep her well fed and you’ll be fine. Don’t do too much. You could have topped it earlier
 

dannyboy602

Well-Known Member
just looking for some opinions on how im doing so far week 6 starting to look like shes hitting preflower but not 100% sure on that. this is both my first hydro and autoflower grow so i did make some mistakes and ended up stressing her out a bit in the begining weeks, but in my personal opinion we have made a decent recovery over the last 2-3 weeks. Trying to avoid removing leaves as it is an auto and i dont want to add stress but there are a lot of them blocking light to some potential budspots should i leave them or cut a few off there?View attachment 4163518
If it makes you feel any better try bending the stems to allow light penetration. Its not necessary but it'll put your mind at ease. Its a technique called Low Stress Training or LST for short.
Please don't fall for the defoliating myth. It stresses the plant.
Your plant looks great. Nice job.
 

Somatek

Well-Known Member
The budsites don’t take in the light , the fan leaves do. Just keep her well fed and you’ll be fine. Don’t do too much. You could have topped it earlier
I prefer LST or supercropping for auto's. Since they have such a short life I'd rather not prune any growth off when there's other ways to control growth
 
Im on my first ever grow using autoflower critical orange punch, i messed about an stressd it to bits so its way behind. Ive fed it nutes for the first time 2 days ago. Is it looking healthy? Sorry ive no input on your questions lol but yours looks good from what i can see. Is it easier in soil or hydro ? Have you done a bit diy with your hydro box?
i found soil was a more relaxed grow but i was always unsure of my roots and what could be crawling around in my soil i turned to hydro for the experience and more or less so i could have a clear view of my roots and theyre health as well as whats going on in my solution as well as my medium being airy clay pebbles its easier to move around and see whats going on right at the base of my plant. my switch to hydro was purely a decision of interest and clearer diagnosis of issues. always something i wanted to try one day and here i am today
 

SwiSHa85

Well-Known Member
Just try leaf tucking. Look it up. All you do is bend the large fans down slowly and tuck them under the bud sites that are covered.
 

Somatek

Well-Known Member
Just try leaf tucking. Look it up. All you do is bend the large fans down slowly and tuck them under the bud sites that are covered.
Sounds like a much better alternative to cutting them off. What's the advantage though when leaves produce sugar, not the flowers? Is there any tests that show a measurable increase by leaf tucking/cutting compared to proper prunning & leaving it alone?
 
If it makes you feel any better try bending the stems to allow light penetration. Its not necessary but it'll put your mind at ease. Its a technique called Low Stress Training or LST for short.
Please don't fall for the defoliating myth. It stresses the plant.
Your plant looks great. Nice job.
i have been lst just havent been tieing anything down light
The budsites don’t take in the light , the fan leaves do. Just keep her well fed and you’ll be fine. Don’t do too much. You could have topped it earlier
i thought that earlier i looked at her at about 3 weeks and said hmm i should top you but being my first auto grow i took everyones advice and let her do her thing didnt wanna stress her and push the limits, once i have a successful autogrow or two in the books ill be looking to do some experimentation but until then im just trying to stick to the basics and get a feel for the overall growth and development before i mess around with stressful changes, this will also give me a basis to compare my experiments to in the future.
 
If it makes you feel any better try bending the stems to allow light penetration. Its not necessary but it'll put your mind at ease. Its a technique called Low Stress Training or LST for short.
Please don't fall for the defoliating myth. It stresses the plant.
Your plant looks great. Nice job.
i have been bending and it does seem to somewhat work but its something i have to do almost everyday they pop right back up. thank you and ill keep up the work they were nutreint picky but i feel like im running pretty solid now at between 400-500ppm using advanced nutes sensi two part series with b-52, voodoo juice and z9 to keep my roots clean and healthy they didnt like the big bud (or i wasnt getting the ratios right) but since removing that from my feeding ive noticed a much happier plant
 
Looks good, keep it up. I personally only trim leaves if I'm worried about airflow/mold issues. I've never heard a botanically logical argument for reducing leaves (which produce energy to grow) to increase bud growth (which need energy to grow). Light doesn't have to hit the bud to encourage growth, they need sugar to fuel it which is provided by the leaves & moved around by the vascular bundles.

I've never seen any plant in nature defoliate when flowering/fruiting is initiated. If it was beneficial wouldn't something have evolved that trait in the millions & millions of years of evolution?

The counter argument in that we're growing indoors with limited light. Which is completely accurate & why we learn to prune/grow plants in a way that we maximise that light. Scrog/SOG both achieve that with proper pruning/training or limiting veg to achieve a uniform canopy with good even penetration.

If anything I'd flatten the canopy out so the lower portions get more light. Short spread out plants have more uniform buds then tall plants since light losing power dramatically the farther it travels.
in about week 4 i trimmed a few old leaves that were starting to show signs of leaf septoria (rusty circlular spots slowly turned to patches and dried leaves) i managed to rid my plant of infection before it spread but thats about all ive done when it comes to trimming
 

Somatek

Well-Known Member
in about week 4 i trimmed a few old leaves that were starting to show signs of leaf septoria (rusty circlular spots slowly turned to patches and dried leaves) i managed to rid my plant of infection before it spread but thats about all ive done when it comes to trimming
Removing old/dying/dead leaves is another issue, once a leaf is more then 50% dead I'll remove to prevent infections.

That has a sound grounding in horticultural practice, removing leaves to increase flowers/fruits doesn't. The only time I've heard of leaf trimming is with bonsai as a way of limiting growth to keep them small.

If you want to keep the top down longer to give lower growth a chance to spread out tie it down. Setting up a scrog screen is another way to control growth.
 
Im on my first ever grow using autoflower critical orange punch, i messed about an stressd it to bits so its way behind. Ive fed it nutes for the first time 2 days ago. Is it looking healthy? Sorry ive no input on your questions lol but yours looks good from what i can see. Is it easier in soil or hydro ? Have you done a bit diy with your hydro box?
leaves look fairly healthy how old? it looks about week 1-3 weeks i personally only used calmag and distilled water for the first two weeks, til my seedling had structure and and stance, once i seen it standing up strait on its own and on atleast on its second set of leaves, ill lower my light and started it off slow at about 50-100 ppm and see how it reacts. i can tell you any sign of stress with an auto in the very beginning if youre using nutreints that early, cut them out and run whatever calmag product of your choosing along with some distilled/ R/O water and your plant will tell you. mine flourished after i added to high of a ppm and corrected it with this method after about 3 days. watch your plant she will tell you as long you give a real effort in underst
Sounds like a much better alternative to cutting them off. What's the advantage though when leaves produce sugar, not the flowers? Is there any tests that show a measurable increase by leaf tucking/cutting compared to proper prunning & leaving it alone?
for the record i am not quite talking about the buds themselves but the leaves around them, i understand the cons of cutting them off but here i am i got these four fairly big fan leaves atop which could be great normally id leave them alone but i feel as if theyre shading my lower leaves which look fairly healthy but dont seem to be showing much growth and most arent even a half of the tops sides. The branches are holding their own but they arent really thickening out and sprouting quite as much as some of my higher branches. if anything i have a small concern of actual support during flowering.
 

Somatek

Well-Known Member
Like I said, with your plants I'd tie the top down (or use a scrog screen if you're worried about supporting the bud) to even out the canopy & get the lower growth growing.

The comment you quoted asking if there were tests done showing a measurable improvement is because I feel like people promoting alternate theories like leaf trimming/tucking should also be providing proof that it's beneficial. There's too many "theories" on how to improve things without any proof other then anecdotes or reciting what's been read. I'm a skeptic and always want more confirmation other then someone's opinion.
 
Like I said, with your plants I'd tie the top down (or use a scrog screen if you're worried about supporting the bud) to even out the canopy & get the lower growth growing.

The comment you quoted asking if there were tests done showing a measurable improvement is because I feel like people promoting alternate theories like leaf trimming/tucking should also be providing proof that it's beneficial. There's too many "theories" on how to improve things without any proof other then anecdotes or reciting what's been read. I'm a skeptic and always want more confirmation other then someone's opinion.
i can agree on that i read a lot of good about it and was almost convinced i however, also read a lot of bad about it so im also real skeptic so far ive only cut dying sick looking leaves at the base ( maybe two or three of em) and never (unless their infectious looking) before there is atleast a new set ready to say, "replace them." i need to get a scrog setup of sorts or even just a net, seems to be the one thing i overlooked putting my whole setup together, i was thinking even a cheap tomato fence i could easily tie down branches to need be and tuck branches under for a wider spread and even canopy. thoughts?
 

Somatek

Well-Known Member
There's lot's of ways, tomato cages work well but even just tying string around the pot & using that to tie off branches works in a pinch.
 
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