How big should my plants be before swithching to 12/12

[Rickreefer]

Hi, I'm currently on my 6th grow and so far have been following the advice given to me by the guy who helped me get set up in the first place and without that help I wouldn't have got out of the starting gate! However, I feel I need to start questioning some of what he has told me in order to perhaps raise my game. Firstly how tall should my plants be before switching from veg to flowering and secondly MUST I take my clones prior to switching to the flowering stage or can I take them when the plants have grown a little bigger during flowering? (I ve been led to believe that the clones will switch back to veg after being under my 125w blue spectrum cfl for a week or 2) One last thing that I need clarification of and that's my light set up. I have an Osram 600w Planta T for my veg and a Phillips Master Son T Greenpower for the flowering and I also hang a 125w CFL blue spectrum light in my tent during vegging and am wondering if this is working for me or not and I ve noticed that since I ve been using this extra light there has been an obvious rise in temperature. I guess that I should have already stated that I'm growing 4 plants in a tent 1m by 1m by 2m. Thanks in anticipation of your advice.

 

[jondamon]

Using a 600w hps for flowering you want your plants no bigger than 1.5ft during veg.


This will allow for a finished plant height of around 3ft. PERFECT for 600w.


You can take clones up to day 21 of 12/12 and yes they will revert back on a veg cycle. However be careful as flowering clones tend to branch out dramatically more than a non flowering version.


Are you performing any kind of plant training?

I can highly recommend topping and LST.





J

 

[Ninjabowler]

Dont take clones in flower if you can help it, the 600 should cover that space just fine alone, and if you want to up your game try LST or mainlining. That will up your game, but really, switching to flower is personal choice combined with available height. Good luck

 

[Ninjabowler]

Using a 600w hps for flowering you want your plants no bigger than 1.5ft during veg.


This will allow for a finished plant height of around 3ft. PERFECT for 600w.


You can take clones up to day 21 of 12/12 and yes they will revert back on a veg cycle. However be careful as flowering clones tend to branch out dramatically more than a non flowering version.


Are you performing any kind of plant training?

I can highly recommend topping and LST.





J

I disagree with the 1.5 foot tall part. Mine are around five feet when i switch them and im pullin great numbers everytime

 

[Rickreefer]

"I can highly recommend topping and LST."
Thanks guys for getting back to me. Topping and LST? I'm not sure if we are talking the same thing here but during vegging I ve been told to "remove the growth inhibitor" which is basicly pulling off the highest growing bud which encourages everything else to grow as for LST you'll have to explain lol

 

[jondamon]

I disagree with the 1.5 foot tall part. Mine are around five feet when i switch them and im pullin great numbers everytime View attachment 2716711

I'm just talking simple inverse square law of penetration and useable light.


600w's have a usable penetration distance of 3ft down from the lamp.

5ft tall plants are only fully lit up to 3ft down from the top of the plant.

IMO a 600w lamp gives you a workable area of 3.5ftx3.5ftx3ft.


Anything below 3ft from the top of the plant down isn't really receiving enough light energy to produce high grade quality buds.

Fluffy popcorn for hash/oil yes but not high grade.





J

 

[jondamon]

"I can highly recommend topping and LST."
Thanks guys for getting back to me. Topping and LST? I'm not sure if we are talking the same thing here but during vegging I ve been told to "remove the growth inhibitor" which is basicly pulling off the highest growing bud which encourages everything else to grow as for LST you'll have to explain lol

LST - low stres training. The art of manipulating the plant using ties to lower the leading growth tips to create more even canopy with more smaller colas.



J
J

 

[Ninjabowler]

I'm just talking simple inverse square law of penetration and useable light.


600w's have a usable penetration distance of 3ft down from the lamp.

5ft tall plants are only fully lit up to 3ft down from the top of the plant.

IMO a 600w lamp gives you a workable area of 3.5ftx3.5ftx3ft.


Anything below 3ft from the top of the plant down isn't really receiving enough light energy to produce high grade quality buds.

Fluffy popcorn for hash/oil yes but not high grade.





J

That makes sence, i do like hash and good oil too. It also depends what high grade is where your from i guess. After the stretch those get undershucked to create that three foot deep canopy you speak of. They need to be that big to fill the space from side to side to get maximum use of the space

 

[jondamon]

That makes sence, i do like hash and good oil too. It also depends what high grade is where your from i guess. After the stretch those get undershucked to create that three foot deep canopy you speak of. They need to be that big to fill the space from side to side to get maximum use of the space

So from this "undershucked" I guess you mean you clean off anything below that 3ft deep canopy?


But you grow 5ft to support the weight at the end.


This is another way for sure and very similar to what I do myself.


1-1.5ft tall plant in veg and strip off that lower growth to leave me 2ft of plant from the top down under my 400w.




J

 

[kryptoniteglo]

I like Jondamon's analysis of light penetration and plant height. Def something to consider.

I grow in a tent, so my calculation is determined by 1) the height of the tent and 2) the amount of stretch for the strain I'm growing. Jillybean was a 2-3x stretch and I had to buy a bigger tent when I flipped her about about 20 inches. I don't want to switch tents again, so I'm being very careful about the strain height on my next grow -- when I grow Jillybean again I will mainline and lst the hell out of her.

My next strain will be either Space Dawg (2x stretch) or Pennywize (1.5x stretch). So if I go with Pennywize I will lst and veg up to 2.5 feet. Space Dawg I'll lst and veg up to about 2 feet.

 

[Rickreefer]

Just checked out LST on here and on Youtube and I shall be going with as it looks like an excellent technique!

 

[PuffinTuff420]

Flowering and veg cycles are completely up to the grower preference, you can induce flowering in a rooted one inch clone if you want or you could grow a sativa dominant plant 14 feet tall before you induce flowering its up to you... What it really comes down to is how much time you have to wait for the plant to grow big, and how much room you have for bigger plants (obviosly while practicing "supercropping" techniques in veg such as topping, bending,bansai-ing, FIMing, lollipoping ect...will multiply your yield as many times as your patience and percistance allows. Hygrohybrid has good advice and vids on youtube) Just one thing though you absolutly need a seperate veg and flower rooms to maintain a perpetual harvest and get enough yield to make paying the light bill worth your wile. As far as cloning taking a clone from a vegitative plant is the only way to go in my opinion because you take a clone from a flowering plant you risk waiting up to 2 months for it to revert back to vegitative growth and in the long run will cost you extra nutrients, inefficiently used space in your grow show, and money to veg it extra long before your desired size. Also another important side note you can grow them bushy and wide rather than tall... I will post a pic of my finished product of suppercropping plant. The plant in this pic yielded over a pound after it was dry and cured! it was only 20 inches tall, but almost 4 feet wide! you can manipulate these plants to grow however you want! I took this Liberty haze plant when it was 2 ft tall and slowly and carefully bent the top branch where it met the branch below it and in the opposite direction and where there is a gap between main branches bend the horizontal smaller branches that are coming off the main branches into the open space where it will get more light ( you can even convince the plant to make side branches by carefully bending the branch just above a new node, if you bend it until it either pops or can be completly bend to the point it can touch itself then the new node below it recieves hormones telling it that it is now the new "top" of this branch!) check the bends daily tape over any splits that happen, its ok if your new bends leave the leaves upside down it will revert back to facing upwards in a little as an hour! every 5 days bend some more creating a big round bush, also apply the other supercropping techniques listed above (except basai in this method)you can top again every 7-10 days or so, skys the limit. Cannabis plants are like hoes the more you smack them around the more they want to please you!