Started flowering but I want to top 1 more plant & a ph question..

I had to start flowering because after I added 3 more CFLs the plants literally jumped 4 inches in only **2 days**, which I found rather crazy.
I would take a pic right now but they're sleeping lol.

My question is this. I have 3 plants, I topped 1 only being worried it might not work great, but because the plant is growing so much better than I expected, I now want to top just 1 more. The problem is I started flowering 2 days ago. The plants *appear very strong and healthy, and ever since changing to a better soil they really took off. But I know people say to top at least a week before flowering. What are the actual chances of stressing the plant out?

My second question, I did a test on miracle grow where I put 1 teaspoon in a gallon of water than ph'd it (because I really wanted to use more than 1 teaspoon). The ph was 5.0 exactly. I was extremely shocked (even as a chem major) to see that only a single teaspoon dropped my ph that much. I don't even think vinegar would do that. Although my plants are rock solid and strong, I tested the ph of the run off and its the same as the miracle grow (only my second time giving nutes) a flat 5.0.

I noticed today now one plants leaves are dropping a bit, although the rest are fine. My simple question is how do I fix the ph? Do I add basified water with a specific chemical or just attempt to flush out the acidity?

edit: wow I just realized my avatar pic was taken about 2 1/2 weeks ago, the plants seemed to have already double in size with the new soil... how crazy.

If you are worried about your height man LST your plants. They look like great candidates for it. Basically you just tie it down & continue to tie it down over the length of the edge of the pot. Show us some new pics so we can see the new growth. If you want to top in the future tho, I recommend topping twice. The one plant I did it to is just dominating everything else in my current grow. Take the time to fill your grow space as much as possible, it will be worth it if you veg another 1-2 weeks & get a lot more bud out of it. As long as you aren't experiencing any discoloration or burning don't worry too much about the ph of your feed. It's your run off after 7-10 days of not feeding that you need to ph. That will give you a better idea of what your plant is dealing with ph wise. You are probably closer to 6.0-6.5, otherwise your plants would look like crap, which they don't, so good job. .

Looking good, yeah same issue here with MG soil... runoff is 5.5-5.0 PH I have experimented with uping to 8.0 with tap water and run off was around 6 or so? I am a beliver that you should match your soil as MG 6.5-7.0 I see, but will say My girls have looked best with just stright tap water whch i know it is as low as 5 PH level...Idk but they look healthy..I will not use any MG produts next grow but so far so good..=)

Ok great! I hadn't even considered the fact I was literally just phing the miracle grow. That makes perfect sense though I'll ph again in like a week with regular H2O and see how it is.

As far as LSTn I'm going to have to take pictures tommorow because I fear the stalks may be too thick at this point (they're almost double as big as my avy now). If I push a plant over it DOES bend but when it gets at about a 45 degree bend I feel like I'm forcing it too much. I don't think the stalks will snap but I'll take a whole bunch of pics tommorow and let you guys decide.

As far as topping twice thats a great idea again I don't see no reason why I can't do it. If I'm just going to go back to veggn I suppose I can disturb them but theres still a chance I won't. Just to think I may get 2 males (hoping 1 at most) and will have to clone my 1 female 2 times, than wait another 4-6 weeks in veg vs veggin now for 2 more weeks, and just having them turn out male anyway. Its kind of a catch 22 at the moment but I'll make up my mind soon. I'll bump the thread in the morning with a bunch of pics, thanks a lot!

Bojangles69 said:

Ok great! I hadn't even considered the fact I was literally just phing the miracle grow. That makes perfect sense though I'll ph again in like a week with regular H2O and see how it is.

As far as LSTn I'm going to have to take pictures tommorow because I fear the stalks may be too thick at this point (they're almost double as big as my avy now). If I push a plant over it DOES bend but when it gets at about a 45 degree bend I feel like I'm forcing it too much. I don't think the stalks will snap but I'll take a whole bunch of pics tommorow and let you guys decide.

As far as topping twice thats a great idea again I don't see no reason why I can't do it. If I'm just going to go back to veggn I suppose I can disturb them but theres still a chance I won't. Just to think I may get 2 males (hoping 1 at most) and will have to clone my 1 female 2 times, than wait another 4-6 weeks in veg vs veggin now for 2 more weeks, and just having them turn out male anyway. Its kind of a catch 22 at the moment but I'll make up my mind soon. I'll bump the thread in the morning with a bunch of pics, thanks a lot!

Click to expand...

Don't go back to veg at this point, it was just for future reference.

& you'd be surprised how pliable a weed plant is. I've stuffed plants in rubbermaid totes before bent them completely over & they bounced back fine. & to be honest with you, 45 degree angle is better than no angle when you are talking about getting some of those lower branches exposed.

Ok so I took some recent pics and Im actually getting worried that these things are gonna overgrow my box. The tallest plants is 19" high, 2 weeks ago that same plant was 11" high. So in only 2 weeks it grew 8 inches! At that rate it seems they will definitely outgrow my 5 foot high grow box.

I think I may just top the tallest one (on the right) or maybe I'll even try to LST it somehow. But if it continues to grow 4 inches a week, in 8 more weeks that will be roughly 32" more in height. 32" + 19" = 51" or 4 1/4 foot high in 8 more weeks. I think you have to flower for 8-10 weeks so at this rate they will be pretty close to the top. I guess I can just get metal hangers though and redirect the plants if need be. I'm just not too sure how to bend the plant, maybe I'll try to bend the stem like an S just to widen it out a bit.

edit: just so people konw theres about a whole foot of space in front of the plants, so if I drag the 2 side ones forward they will take up the other half of the grow box. Once I do that the plants will be able to grow much wider, and I think when I align the lights to fit them that way I may attempt to LST somehow.

Ahh shit! I was just admiring my plants and moving the leaves around to see if theres any signs of sex yet.. and the bigger plant looks like its showing balls.
My camera isn't sharp enough to get that close, but on the very top of the plant underneath the new leaves it looks like 2-3 ultra tiny (a bit bigger than a pinhead) little green balls. I mean is there a point in preflowers where male and female parts look alike?
Do female flowers come in like tiny balls at first? And maybe open up or something and than the pistils come out? I guess I'll wait a few more days to be for sure. That was my tallest bushiest plants I'm so fucking pissed now. I'm gonna wind up killing it, then planting a clone, and now the clone is gonna be tiny a fuck because I can't keep veggin the other plants. Maybe I'll do 2-3 clones actually because they're gonna start flowering from the second they take root. Looks like I'm not gonna be having space issues anymore.

This is so damn hard to do because you essentially waste 4-6 weeks of electricity and time just so you can throw a plant away, so frustrating.

Be smart clone the females and never grow from seed again.

From my experience what your describing sound like early signs of a male. I'd give it another week just to make sure.