Canopy Managment 101

I see many grow rooms in my travels and I also see lots of bad practices and nasty looking canopies. I thought I would try and shed some light on the problems I see popping up the most.

#1. Improper use of lights!

It is common for growers to want to group all there plants under the hoods but this can cause a few problems. Many Sativa varieties will fox tail and form dready buds if the light intensity is to high.

Your wasting space if your not covering 6x6 with a 1000 watt hood!
Lets discuss a few ways to construct a indoor grow room. According to your local laws, each state has a different limit of plants that can be grown in a space. I find it best to always have less plants budding than allowed so we will be learning to keep our plants in the vegetive state longer than normal all the while training and shaping the plants for maximum production indoors. In my youth we would run as many as 40 plants under 1000 watts in a 6x6 area. Now we design bud rooms to run between 4-6 plants in the same area with the same wattage lights. The yield is very similar and the main difference is the amount of time the plant is grown under an 18/6 lighting schedule. The plants are topped and shaped to form a wide bush that will finish with multi-headed and at a height of around 5-6 feet. Think of each area covered by a 1000 watt light as a 6x6x6 Cube that you are going to fill with Cannabis. By using 3 separate areas designated as Cloning area, Vegetive area, and Budding area, you can continually harvest medicine every 60 days.

We are going to use some firm measurements in this teaching example but almost any configuration will work that allows the three areas to be constructed. Every light/bulb has a foot print. This means the area that can properly be covered for maximum production.
They are as follows
1000 Watt Hoods…………6x6
600 Watt Hoods………….5x5
400 Watt Hoods………….4x4
250 Watt Hoods………….3x3

The design we will be teaching is a 12x6 Budding room with 2000 Watts of HPS lighting. The vegetive area is 6x6 with 1000 Watts of MH lighting, and a starting area 4x4. I also use a small shelf with fluorescents for cloning.





Top Plants early!

Transplant your plants early!

Do not start plants in small ass cups and then leave them untill there root bound and legged out.

Pictures are of proper applied methods.

This should prove to be quite helpful, but I do have a couple of questions if I may.

First, what do you mean, specifically, when you speak of canopy management? At first I was thinking the canopy formed by the plants, but now I'm not so sure after reading this.

Second, you say to top early--how early? (Nodes' worth of growth, or how do you gauge this?)

Third, your wattage and coverage "chart" there, is that something that applies to any/all HID lighting, or is it specific to HPS or MH lighting?

Fourth, I can't draw for shit (what was I thinking going for a graphic arts major?), but have you got any type of drawing to help visualize how you've coordinated and designed your different areas? Are they completely physically separated from each other?

Fifth, you mentioned fluoros for the clones, are you very particular in terms of wattage, output (lumens) or color temperature (in the Kelvin scale as oppposed to the Color Rendering Index provided by some manufacturers)?

Oh! Another question; Recommended reading. What would you recommend? I can tell you're not just reading books about growing Mary, you're reading a lot of other stuff, too. Right now my expertise in gardening is limited to Sunset Western Garden book.

I am just starting this thread and I hope when done you all will have a etter understanding.

This should prove to be quite helpful, but I do have a couple of questions if I may.

First, what do you mean, specifically, when you speak of canopy management? At first I was thinking the canopy formed by the plants, but now I'm not so sure after reading this.

Canopy is your crop when I speak of it. When set it should look like you can walk across the buds without touching the floor.

Second, you say to top early--how early? (Nodes' worth of growth, or how do you gauge this?)

I top extremly early notice the pics

Third, your wattage and coverage "chart" there, is that something that applies to any/all HID lighting, or is it specific to HPS or MH lighting?
It applies to All HID lighting

Fourth, I can't draw for shit (what was I thinking going for a graphic arts major?), but have you got any type of drawing to help visualize how you've coordinated and designed your different areas? Are they completely physically separated from each other?

Fifth, you mentioned fluoros for the clones, are you very particular in terms of wattage, output (lumens) or color temperature (in the Kelvin scale as oppposed to the Color Rendering Index provided by some manufacturers)?

No my clones only stay under flos long enough to root so I am not so concerned about spectrum. As soon as plants are old enough to place under HID I recommend doing so.

Sub

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

You can see how the plants respond to intense light and early topping nice even growth and nice short spacing. This is maximizing lumens and canopy management at its max.

Ok so as far as grow books I can't really recommend any because its rare that a person is a good writer and a GREAT grower.
I can recommend you read every single post in this forum

TGA Online Growguide - BreedBay

Its my online grow school
I am slowly building it over here IE like this post I am doing now to teach you guys some yielding and quality secrets.

OK so now lets talk about transplanting ok?

If you have seen the outdoor gardens I cover online have seen the tremendous plants he grows in the ground.
One of the keys to this is some of the roots grow some 30 feet across the garden bed before the plants do any visible growing at all.

So lets apply this to an indoor garden and how most people grow that i see.
You may not be able to apply the concepts here if your on a small scale but at least work towards them ok..

The biggest mistake I see indoors is to small a container combined with letting the plant get root bound.

If your using a 16 ounce cup stop!
At minimum you want to start your baby plants (seeds and clones) in 1 gallon nursery pots.

This is good for about untill the plant gets established but as soon as the plant starts showing roots in the bottom holes of this pot its time to transplant again.

This is how it works I believe. As long as the plant has room it will continue to establish its rooting network to accommodate a plant of that size. Transplanting before the plant is root bound fools the plant into thinking its been in a bigger pot all along similar to in the ground. I use 7 and 10 gallon pots for this reason AND so I only have to water every 4 days in the hottest parts of my season.

The plant will build a large root system and then once budded (12/12) the plant will then grow into a large bush. This is not how most people grow and why not 2 hours ago I had someone tell me the most he ever yielded was 4 ounces in soil. We get twice that on Space Queen with my methods.


So Don't let your plants get root bound.
Don't sit on ya butts playing video games or with a hangover or any other excuse when its time to transplant you do its that simple. I see so many procrastinators when I travel from garden to garden and I can't criticize them directly I just come off like an asshole if I attack your garden and your method when you invite me over dig?

I am hoping by teaching my method in detail I can start seeing some people get better results.

Clones and new seeds are always placed into 1 gallon nursery pots without any Super soil or added nutrients Use only a good balanced potting soil that won’t burn your baby plants. They will only stay in these smaller pots for a few weeks while the roots get established and you shape and top them. Its very important to not procrastinate when it is time to transplant out of these smaller containers. If you get lazy and let your small plants sit around in their starter containers, it will slow the transition process after transplanting. I have seen first hand the huge difference when I gave some clones to a card holder. The day I transplanted I had 4 extra clones that I passed to him. Instead of transplanting right away he waited until they were root bound and looking poorly. I was able to harvest 30 days before him and the quality and quantity difference was hard to believe. My method is not for the lazy or procrastinating type, the more on top of each technique you become the better each harvest will become as well.
When I am ready to transplant into the final pots. I use #10 nursery pots now that will hold a full 7 gallons of liquid. Seven may not sound much bigger than a 5 but let me tell you these slanted #10 pots hold a bunch of soil! Make sure to lift properly using your legs and not your back when moving one that’s just been watered.
I fill each pot ¾ full with the super soil. I then fill the top half with plain potting soil. This buffers the roots and gives the plants time to get used to the hot soil I use.
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 between ½ and 2/3rds of a container of concentrate into the bottom of each container. Stains that have heavy nutrient requirements get more and short slow Indicas that require less food get less concentrate. Remember its better to under feed and fade a bit to early than to over feed and burn your plants up. Plants grown in this organic soil that fade early produce amazingly potent, smooth and tasty buds and the loss of yield is small. Some strains can grow fast and have such heavy nutrient requirements. For these plants top dressing half way through the flowering phase can be beneficial. We will discuss this more later in the book.

After the first step then layer some plain commercial potting soil on top of the concentrate, about 2" worth. Use your hand or a small trowel to lightly mix the two layers. This allows the plant to be buffered as it hits the hot soil on bottom. Make sure the roots do not touch direct super soil use your hand to mix the plain potting soil around with the super soil. Then go ahead and fill the container with plain potting soil leaving a small hole in the center.

It’s important to water the plants well before transplanting. This helps prevent shock a nice damp root ball will make a happy plant. Gently flip the plant upside down. Wack the bottom with palm of hand to loosen the root ball. Support the plant by placing hand on pot allowing stem to protrude though fingers. Remove from pot and support the base. Flip upright and place in hole made into the soil making sure the root ball is even with the top of the soil. Gently pack the soil level and don’t forget your label.

If your wondering How I figured all this out its simple.
I have been growing successive crops for 20 years over and over and over again.
As I told Ed if you do it 24/7 you learn things

Before I continue please ask any questions regarding the information so far.

I will be

Wow! I am new and in a small space for personal meds. I have already made a lot of mistakes, but learning from them.

No questions now, only absorbing your (free!)knowledge.

Thanks!

Hayduke,
no worries bro its all about people helping each other and healing ourselves.
I am a caregiver for 3 others and myself and we grow a 100% legal set up and even stay under guide lines and except no consideration for our work (free meds to our patients)
My methods do not cover DWC or any simple hydroponic methods and I apologize Its just not my specialty and I believe the best medicines are produced naturally without chemicals and it mother earth albeit enhanced a bit

I agree, I am using soil and all organic.Totally legal here though the county does not like the law, and I am not fortunate enough (yet) to be away from the city.

Great thread. very infofat

so you don't pre-moisten the soil in your containers? i find it much easier when x-planting to get the medium evenly moist before putting the plant in the new pot. if not, then it's difficult to get everything wet, without creating wet/dry pockets. and there is a pretty good grow related book out there. Bushy Old Growers (BOG) "Bonanza of Green" is a pretty good read.

subcool said:

If your wondering How I figured all this out its simple.
I have been growing successive crops for 20 years over and over and over again.
As I told Ed if you do it 24/7 you learn things

Before I continue please ask any questions regarding the information so far.

I will be

Click to expand...

Thank you very much for the above, both specifically and preemptively answered questions. Of course I have, more, I always have more.

I recently found this book online, but have not seen anyone mention it. I think that there are basic terms used in gardening that I need to become more familiar with, along with those used for gardening mj, for that Sunset West, bu.
Marijuana Botany; Robert Connell Clarke--Google book results. Have you run across it, and if so do you have an opinion on it?

Do you have any recommendations on where to find suppliers of those nursery pots at more inexpensive prices, or on the pot types (I notice yours have a big lip around the edge)? Or are these something you're able to find locally? Where I live access to certain supplies can be a problem. I've discovered early on that for this plant big pots means happy girls, and bigger is better. I can't use any of the "soil" on our land, as it's red, thick clay broken up by rocks, so I have to buy enough ready soil or the stuff to make your recipe. I would have to place them in their permanent spot, as I doubt I could move 7-10 gallon pots at this point anymore.

Speaking of which, the potting soil you use for the filling the pots the rest of the way, is that a potting soil you make yourself, a pre-bagged soil, or what?

If I'm annoying let me know to slow the hell down. I tend to think of things all in a rush, that whole 'one thing leads to another' bit.

My soil is already moist from preparation.
water is just a conductor of nutrients I try and stray away from over watering in my tutorials because it is such a problem with new growers
Bog learned his soil method from me in the OG forums over a decade ago but in the end this was to much work and Bog switched to Miracle grow soil and pre added nutrients.

I was very disappointed to hear this the Earth dosn't need more man made fertilizers but some love and attention.

Thank you very much for the above, both specifically and preemptively answered questions. Of course I have, more, I always have more.

I recently found this book online, but have not seen anyone mention it. I think that there are basic terms used in gardening that I need to become more familiar with, along with those used for gardening mj, for that Sunset West, bu.
Marijuana Botany; Robert Connell Clarke--Google book results. Have you run across it, and if so do you have an opinion on it?

Yes it has some good information especially as a core discipline but unless you just want to understand basic Mendelian theory to Cannabis it may be a bit complex to most. A cool story is when I was inside MzJill printed it for me but substituted any reference to cannabis with fruits like Blueberry and mango and she replaced references of THC with ABC etc.

It got me through many boring days in the joint.



Do you have any recommendations on where to find suppliers of those nursery pots at more inexpensive prices, or on the pot types (I notice yours have a big lip around the edge)? Or are these something you're able to find locally? Where I live access to certain supplies can be a problem. I've discovered early on that for this plant big pots means happy girls, and bigger is better. I can't use any of the "soil" on our land, as it's red, thick clay broken up by rocks, so I have to buy enough ready soil or the stuff to make your recipe. I would have to place them in their permanent spot, as I doubt I could move 7-10 gallon pots at this point anymore.

Think hand truck or casters

I recommend any nursery if your on a budget just wash em well with Bleach water I buy mine from a grow shop that I have an account with and with discounts I pay about 7$ per pot but since I reuse them and have been for almost 5 years it is more of an investment than a purchase


Speaking of which, the potting soil you use for the filling the pots the rest of the way, is that a potting soil you make yourself, a pre-bagged soil, or what? I use a product callled Roots please review my Super Soil thread

If I'm annoying let me know to slow the hell down. I tend to think of things all in a rush, that whole 'one thing leads to another' bit.

Actualy I dig the interaction.

Sub

subcool said:

My soil is already moist from preparation.
water is just a conductor of nutrients I try and stray away from over watering in my tutorials because it is such a problem with new growers
Bog learned his soil method from me in the OG forums over a decade ago but in the end this was to much work and Bog switched to Miracle grow soil and pre added nutrients. I was very disappointed to hear this the Earth dosn't need more man made fertilizers but some love and attention.

Click to expand...

i have his directions from og. it wasn't miracle grow, it was (wal-marts) sam's choice soil with pre added nutes. his mix was also amended with bone and blood meal. he mentioned you in those instructions. said you turned him on to letting earth juice sit for 20 hours before use. less acidity or something like that.

I miss Bog we had been in touch but when the whole Gypsy thing happened he just decided to be a grandpa and grow some herbs I think.

Yeah in the old days we used to flip back and forth between super soil and what we called Poo stew but the poo stew was never as consistent as making large batches of super soil and using as a concentrate. For me anyway.
Sub

To me there is nothing like the flavor of properly grown organic cannabis. The subtle flavors and aromas created when using mother earth is over whelming to the senses when done properly. As with many vegetables a rich Organic soil can bring out the best in a plant. Over the past 20 years I have tried almost every possible way to cultivate our favorite plant and while hydro is certainly faster and the yields blow soil away, I have developed a soil that performs extremely well and there’s very little guess work. I don’t worry about ph or ppm I simply have spent a few years developing a sound recipe and in combination with 7 gallon nursery pots I can run from start to finish using only water. Other than a bit of sweat equity every 90 days or so it takes a huge amount of science out of the garden and puts nature back in charge. This recipe is slightly different from my last and from the one so many use as gospel that I have passed around for years from grower to grower








I always start with at least 6-8 large bags of high quality organic soil. The selection of your base soil is very important so don’t cut corners here. I cannot begin to discuss all the different products but I will discuss a few in this article. A good Organic soil should cost between 8-10$ per 30# bag. I want you to get a real good idea what I consider a balanced soil to be so take a look at the ingredients of a product called Roots Organic:


Lignite*, coca fiber, perlite, pumice, compost, peat moss, bone meal, bat guano, kelp meal, Green sand, soy bean meal, leonardite, k-mag, glacial rock dust, alfalfa meal, oyster shell flour, earth worm castings and Mycorrhizae.
I have always believed in giving my plants a wide range of soils and additives I figure it's like a buffet they get all they need

“Lignite, also known as leonardite, mined lignin, brown coal, and slack, is an important constituent to the oil well, drilling industry. Lignite, or leonardite as it will be referred as hereafter, is technically known as a low rank coal between peat and sub-bituminous. Leonardite was named for Dr. A.G. Leonard, North Dakota's first state geologist, who was a pioneer in the study of lignite deposits. Leonardite is applied to products having a high content of humic acid. Humic acid has been found to be very useful as a drilling
mud thinner.”


The Roots produced a more floral smell in the finished flowers while the Harvest Moon generated larger yields.

If you have access to a good local mix like these then I highly recommend starting with these type products. We have also had decent results using commercial brands as well but not as is. The best results we have seen from well known soil that is available nationwide is Fox Farms “Ocean Forrest” soil combined in a 2-1 ratio with Light Warrior. On it’s own the Ocean Forrest is known for burning plants and having the wrong ratio’s of nutrients but when cut down with Light Warrior it makes a pretty good mix for a base soil.

You can also just use 2 bales of Sunshine mix #4 but this is my last choice and plants growing in this may not complete properly with this “Just add water” method of soil growing. The concept to this concentrated soil is to not have to worry with mixing up nutrients after the soil is made. The concentrate is placed in the bottom ¼ to ½ of the container and blended with base soil. This allows the plants to grow into the strong concentrated soil and in the right size container need nothing else but water throughout the full harvest cycle. With strains requiring high levels of nutrients we go as strong as ¾ of the container with Super Soil but this is only with a small percentage of strains.

Here are the amounts we have found that produce the best tasting buds and strongest medicines.

8- Large bags of High quality Organic potting soil with a coco and Mycorrhizae
1-[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]25-50 pounds of Organic Worm castings
5# Steamed Bone meal
5# Bloom bat Guano
5# Blood meal
3# Rock Phoshate
¾ cup Epson salts
½ cup Sweet Lime ( Dolimite)
½ Cup Azomite ( Trace Elements)
2-[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]TBS Powdered Humic Acid



I would like to thank Vic High for his original recipe which I modified over the years to create my own.


Super Soil Mix



1 Bale sunshine mix #2 or promix (3.8 cu ft)
8 cups Bone Meal - phosphorus source
4 cups Blood Meal - nitrogen source
1 1/3 cups Epsom salts - magnesium source
3-4 cups dolmite lime -calcium source & pH buffering
1 tsp fritted trace elements
4 cups kelp meal.
9kg (25 lbs) bag pure worm castings

If youd like to accelerate your learning read every word on this site

bcgrowers title

Very duly noted, thanks. I'm currently using something called Gardner & Bloome, their potting soil and their organic mulch to top dress into. I really need to get bigger pots, the logic is just too.. it's just like keeping fish. I don't know of a fish that doesn't do better if you give it more room.

Ok so we have topped early and transplanted earlier than youd think and we are vegging under our largest light.
What steps can we take next to insure a good canopy?

How do larger yields and bigger buds with only the cost of some string and some of your time sound? 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.



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.