Thinking about "mainline" growing, and got some questions.

LokoTrashman · Jul 9, 2014

Hey guys, I am searching the webs for info on how to do my 2nd grow.
At first I was thinking about doing LST and tying/bendind my girls to one side, to get light even on budsites and thus make buds grow towards the light, but then I saw mainline growing and thought, 'man that looks amazing' .
So I am now asking myself the following:

How long does it take to setup a hub with 8 mains (to produce 8 sweet thick colas) ?? if i were to use 300W CFL light power (4 bulbs of each 75W) and standard veg nutes, soil growing.

Would you recommend CFL for mainline growing ? if not what else.

I know the strain is important in all this, and even tho I dont know what strain I have (bag seed), I can say its indica dominant if not pure indica.

I got first grow down yesterday, and without knowing how good is my bud, or how much I got due to drying process, I suposse its not gonna be much, probably 4 - 5g , ... but hey thats learning

MonkeyGrinder · Jul 9, 2014

If you were to place your CFL's where the tops would get max exposure then I don't see why vegging them under CFL's wouldn't work.
As far as how long it would take that's all depending on genetics. Even narrowed down to indica/sativa some grow a bit more vigorous than others. The same thing with responding to topping etc. What I WOULD suggest is letting it veg for another 2 weeks after you reach your desired cola #. Not 2 weeks after the date you do your last topping but 2 weeks after they respond and actually start pushing out new growth. Like when the leaves are spreading out and it's pushing out another node on top.

Glaucoma · Jul 10, 2014

I used to use a screen, but now I go for 8 tops. Takes me about 8 weeks of vegging under HID lighting. I don't really follow a calendar, I go according to size.

Some strains are super easy to do this with. White Widow comes to mind.

LokoTrashman · Jul 10, 2014

MonkeyGrinder said:
If you were to place your CFL's where the tops would get max exposure then I don't see why vegging them under CFL's wouldn't work.
As far as how long it would take that's all depending on genetics. Even narrowed down to indica/sativa some grow a bit more vigorous than others. The same thing with responding to topping etc. What I WOULD suggest is letting it veg for another 2 weeks after you reach your desired cola #. Not 2 weeks after the date you do your last topping but 2 weeks after they respond and actually start pushing out new growth. Like when the leaves are spreading out and it's pushing out another node on top.

Will remember this, thnx for the tip

Glaucoma said:
I used to use a screen, but now I go for 8 tops. Takes me about 8 weeks of vegging under HID lighting. I don't really follow a calendar, I go according to size.

Some strains are super easy to do this with. White Widow comes to mind.

So under what power HID are you doing this ? how much in grams you get from 8 colas ?
If I would have some white widow I would be a happy grower haha.

LokoTrashman · Jul 10, 2014

another question that comes to mind,
If you do the topping all in vegging will this reduce the odd of getting a hermie ?
is it possible for a plant to become hermie from vegging stage ? or is that determined only in flowering ?
my plants are a bit sensitive to light leaks (had a couple of hermies so far), but i dunno how sensitive they are to topping.

Glaucoma · Jul 10, 2014

LokoTrashman said:
another question that comes to mind,
If you do the topping all in vegging will this reduce the odd of getting a hermie ?
is it possible for a plant to become hermie from vegging stage ? or is that determined only in flowering ?
my plants are a bit sensitive to light leaks (had a couple of hermies so far), but i dunno how sensitive they are to topping.

I suppose a traumatic veg life could lead to a hermie, but I can't say that it does for sure. As long as the plant has time to recover before you do the 12/12 flip, I think you'd be ok.

As for the lights I use, I veg with a dimmable 400W and flower under a KW in the winter. Summer time flowering gets the same 400 I veg with (well, but with an HPS bulb in it). Yeilds are obviously better with the KW, but heat issues are a bitch for me to deal with where I am. Comparing that to grows without mainlinging.. its all about the same as long as you do it right, just better quality buds with less 'popcorn'. mainlining just makes the plant grow out and flower much more evenly. It won't like, double your yield or nothin. It's just a great way to manage the canopy.

Dr.Pecker · Jul 10, 2014

when you flower try13 off and 10 on that might lessen the chance of a hermaphrodite. it takes about twelve hours for the plant to build up enough hormone to force a flower by having more dark you will build up more hormones faster. chances are with no play time in your lights such as 12 on 12off somewhere along the line your either not quite getting the proper 12 off time or its bad genetics. a hermaphrodite plant can pass those genetics down to the offspring. (bag seed) not saying they are all junk I had some bomb come out of bag seed but you have to think how did those seeds get there in the first place.Pollinated by a male or pollinated by a hermaphrodite?

LokoTrashman · Jul 11, 2014

Glaucoma said:
I suppose a traumatic veg life could lead to a hermie, but I can't say that it does for sure. As long as the plant has time to recover before you do the 12/12 flip, I think you'd be ok.

Comparing that to grows without mainlinging.. its all about the same as long as you do it right, just better quality buds with less 'popcorn'. mainlining just makes the plant grow out and flower much more evenly. It won't like, double your yield or nothin. It's just a great way to manage the canopy.

I see, so after all the topping to avoid hermies I should spend more in veg, makes sense, anyway thats fine, that also helps for getting fater colas right ?

Dr.Pecker said:
when you flower try13 off and 10 on that might lessen the chance of a hermaphrodite. it takes about twelve hours for the plant to build up enough hormone to force a flower by having more dark you will build up more hormones faster. chances are with no play time in your lights such as 12 on 12off somewhere along the line your either not quite getting the proper 12 off time or its bad genetics. a hermaphrodite plant can pass those genetics down to the offspring. (bag seed) not saying they are all junk I had some bomb come out of bag seed but you have to think how did those seeds get there in the first place.Pollinated by a male or pollinated by a hermaphrodite?

I did flower for the most part in my first grow under 13/11 and I got a nice dank female that is now in drying, but now I have a girl still needing to go couple more weeks of flowering that started growing a few nanners (due to some light interruptions, the power went off a bit in the last few days), thats why I dont think my seeds are polinated by hermies or at least not all of them.
I hand plucked a couple of nanners today of the plant and the smell on my fingers was great, unlike my first hermie which smelled like nothing and did nothing when smoked.

tommybomb · Jul 11, 2014

LokoTrashman said:
another question that comes to mind,
If you do the topping all in vegging will this reduce the odd of getting a hermie ?
is it possible for a plant to become hermie from vegging stage ? or is that determined only in flowering ?
my plants are a bit sensitive to light leaks (had a couple of hermies so far), but i dunno how sensitive they are to topping.

Your probably getting the hermies because of the bag seed your using, imo...

Dr.Pecker · Jul 11, 2014

I meant to say 13 off and 11 on sorry. if you have nanners then it has the hermie gene. are you missing your flower window? sometimes if you wait too long they will push nanners.

LokoTrashman · Jul 12, 2014

Like I said before, some plants show no nanners and some do, its possible the seeds were polinaded by both male and hermie polen, which makes it a lottery growing. And I dont think I pushed them to far in flowering as to develop nanners.
So I am plucking any nanners as soon as I see them hoping it will not spoil the flower and still get me high. what do you know about this ? of course some plants grow so many nanners its impossible to get them all.
Also I was thinking that maybe vegging outdoors would help speed up the process of creating the hub and X number of main colas for mainlining, and after force the flowering indoors.
Any thoughts ?

tekdc911 · Jul 12, 2014

pinched on every branch / side shoot
fim'd on every top / bud site
heavy LST
defoliated in veg
mainlined
was root bound for roughly 2 months in a 3 gal and around a month in a 1 gal before that
vegg'd for 2 long autoflower cycles so roughly 7 months on 24/0
flowered with 0 signs of male parts

i would say if youre having hermie problems then its genetic or you must be stressing the hell out of them
or both
i think its mostly stress in flower that does it like light leaks and what nots
inconsistent dark cycles

scarecrow77 · Jul 12, 2014

LokoTrashman said:
Hey guys, I am searching the webs for info on how to do my 2nd grow.
At first I was thinking about doing LST and tying/bendind my girls to one side, to get light even on budsites and thus make buds grow towards the light, but then I saw mainline growing and thought, 'man that looks amazing' .
So I am now asking myself the following:

How long does it take to setup a hub with 8 mains (to produce 8 sweet thick colas) ?? if i were to use 300W CFL light power (4 bulbs of each 75W) and standard veg nutes, soil growing.

Would you recommend CFL for mainline growing ? if not what else.

I know the strain is important in all this, and even tho I dont know what strain I have (bag seed), I can say its indica dominant if not pure indica.

I got first grow down yesterday, and without knowing how good is my bud, or how much I got due to drying process, I suposse its not gonna be much, probably 4 - 5g , ... but hey thats learning

If your on your second grow just grow the plants normal...and learn from them....mainling is an advanced growing technech...not for a newbie .....and buy proper genetics..and stay away from bagseed....good seeds are not exspensive to purchase....learning to grow from bagseed is a no ..no..when your new to growing the best yeilds you will get is by leaving the plant grow normally...learn to walk before you can run...hope this helps

LokoTrashman · Jul 12, 2014

scarecrow77 said:
If your on your second grow just grow the plants normal...and learn from them....mainling is an advanced growing technech...not for a newbie .....and buy proper genetics..and stay away from bagseed....good seeds are not exspensive to purchase....learning to grow from bagseed is a no ..no..when your new to growing the best yeilds you will get is by leaving the plant grow normally...learn to walk before you can run...hope this helps

Its possible that mainlining is maybe to much for a noob as me, but topping the plants just once I can handle, this way I grow 3 plants = 6 main colas, instead of 1 plant mainlined for 8 colas.

I gotta get a leak proof grow cabinet or something, Im sure that it will reduce hermies to a minimum.
As soon as I set up a good grow cabinet I will start experimenting to see whether LST, or HST is the better choice for my seeds.

scarecrow77 · Jul 12, 2014

LokoTrashman said:
Its possible that mainlining is maybe to much for a noob as me, but topping the plants just once I can handle, this way I grow 3 plants = 6 main colas, instead of 1 plant mainlined for 8 colas.
I gotta get a leak proof grow cabinet or something, Im sure that it will reduce hermies to a minimum.
As soon as I set up a good grow cabinet I will start experimenting to see whether LST, or HST is the better choice for my seeds.

Heat stress and light leaks are the 2 things that cause hermies..and of course bad genetics.. I was told to much nitrogen will also cause them...just my thought

Dr.Pecker · Jul 12, 2014

LokoTrashman said:
Like I said before, some plants show no nanners and some do, its possible the seeds were polinaded by both male and hermie polen, which makes it a lottery growing. And I dont think I pushed them to far in flowering as to develop nanners.
So I am plucking any nanners as soon as I see them hoping it will not spoil the flower and still get me high. what do you know about this ? of course some plants grow so many nanners its impossible to get them all.
Also I was thinking that maybe vegging outdoors would help speed up the process of creating the hub and X number of main colas for mainlining, and after force the flowering indoors.
Any thoughts ?

like scare crow said heat can cause this also. i think if the plant gets seeded it will stop growing in potency and focus on making seeds no reason to chop early let the seeds mature and you will have your own seed stock. bag seeds aren't all bad

LokoTrashman · Jul 12, 2014

Dr.Pecker said:
like scare crow said heat can cause this also. i think if the plant gets seeded it will stop growing in potency and focus on making seeds no reason to chop early let the seeds mature and you will have your own seed stock. bag seeds aren't all bad

Im getting all kinds of good info here, hehe all good to know

Its not that I dont want any more seeds but I already have like 60 more bag seeds that I need to use and I will for sure experiment some.

Dr.Pecker · Jul 12, 2014

when you pop a seed you never know what you will get. you could get a crazy phenotype that others will drool over one time i got some big fat bag seeds and some had buds on the leafs and some had tones of resin covering them even in veg and the shit was pure fire.

burgertime2010 · Jul 12, 2014

Mainlining is like supercropping, LST, and topping they serve many purposes but the production of Auxins is what all of them have in common. Auxins tell a mainlined plant to push growth towards new shoots. This is the worst example of it unless you bend the branch so it points downward. I use both HST to get cuttings and top, and Lst to shape and such. I leave a week in between any major stressors.

4Life2style0 · Jul 12, 2014

Glaucoma said:
I suppose a traumatic veg life could lead to a hermie, but I can't say that it does for sure. As long as the plant has time to recover before you do the 12/12 flip, I think you'd be ok.

As for the lights I use, I veg with a dimmable 400W and flower under a KW in the winter. Summer time flowering gets the same 400 I veg with (well, but with an HPS bulb in it). Yeilds are obviously better with the KW, but heat issues are a bitch for me to deal with where I am. Comparing that to grows without mainlinging.. its all about the same as long as you do it right, just better quality buds with less 'popcorn'. mainlining just makes the plant grow out and flower much more evenly. It won't like, double your yield or nothin. It's just a great way to manage the canopy.

So a plant that is main lined does not produce anymore flowers to a plant that has not been main lined?

Thinking about "mainline" growing, and got some questions.

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