Lovely plants there,
@Chef BrownSauce &
@Dumme - I'd say that goes a ways to show how there are many ways to go that are equally valid
(or... that cannabis is a very kind plant that no matter how we fuck them up, they still try and do their best? lol)
I don't have much experience with growing indoors & growing cannabis yet (currently on my 2nd grow and learning all the time
), but I do have a few years' experience handling plants (fruit/herb/veggie gardening) in general.
From this perspective, I agree partially with what both of you are saying.
Yes, root mass is important,
and yes,
some - definitely not all! - leaves (and side shoots) are indeed useless, and given the time, the plant would most likely shed them herself.
Looking at your plants, Chef BrownSauce, I find it intriguing how well the lower branches developed by just removing fan leaves!
While I did top mine (2x), I also think I may have removed too many leaves AND not enough side shoots, which probably contributed towards their growing too bushily. This then led to such close growth that side shoots couldn't develop as wished and leaves were actually crumpled up against each other for lack of space.
The beginning of my cray cray lol (day 27 from sprout):
View attachment 3562530
Looking at the bottom branches of the right plant (corresponding fan leaves had been removed) for example, in retrospect I think I should have removed
their side shoots to get them to grow out more ---
would that fit in to your logic of going about, Chef?
Did you LST your plant in that pic? did she have good internodal lengths in veg, and how long did you veg her for?
Just to show the effects of going about the way I did:
I lst'ed everything down from the stage depicted, exposing practically every last shoot to light - & thus spreading growth effort to all of them! Which wasn't good, as these plants weren't stretching much at all during veg.
I ended up deciding to flip to flower early because everything was in each other's way:
View attachment 3562532 (day 45 from sprouting)
And since I had up to 7 tips per scrog square (=5x5cm) by day 12 of stretch:
View attachment 3562534
I had to thin them out drastically to get the plants back into a viable form
View attachment 3562552
(and there are
still too many LOL, so I may have to pull another few budsites in the next few days - oh sacrilege!)
End of the day, nothing is lost, my plants are healthy and vigorous and beginning to bloom, BUT I do hope to learn from this and have a different progression next time!
Cheers!
(day 45 from sprouting)
