explosive growth in coco coir

jguit said:

Just cut the trellises.. I'd hate to have to do what you're doing. haha. I'd do everything possible to make it work.

Click to expand...

Well, today things are slightly better than yesterday. All the weaving under I did yesterday is actually helping in that I only have a few spots that are more than 4 to 6 inches above the trellis. I thought perhaps they might unweave themselves or just grow their way out overnight. All in all, a gain of some time before running out of headroom. Here is how it looks this morning.

lookin damn good in there. would definitely recommend doing some defoliation. you're going to run into serious humidity issues sooner than later with how dense everything is in there.

tobh said:

lookin damn good in there. would definitely recommend doing some defoliation. you're going to run into serious humidity issues sooner than later with how dense everything is in there.

Click to expand...

I already went through some humidity issues. Removed the humidifier once I realized it wasn't needed. The RH is currently running about 53% with the light on, 50% with it off. I've worked the exhaust ducting and AC-Infinity controls to use the fan more effectively to control humidity as well as temp. And I have to say that the RH definitely dropped after I clipped, but the air conditioning has been on more lately as well, and that really makes a difference.

I'd like your advice on how and where to defoliate at this point, 2 weeks into flower. I'm scared to take too much in general, and taking the top fan leaves seems like it might be counterproductive as flowering stage proceeds. I wish I had clipped more earlier, flipped earlier, and had bought a taller tent. (Taller tent is on the way though.)

I guess I need to know what to leave between the two trellises, where it is pretty dark now, if anything. And whether or not to clip branches trying to get up to the top trellis around the edges. I've been thinking that as things stretch and with some more defoliation that some lower branches may see enough light to develop decently. If that is just a pipe dream, so to speak, then I should cut those branches now.

I don't mind some larf if it can be turned into a concentrate, as long as it doesn't detract from the main cola strength.

I'm still setting up my system (had to do a fresh OS install when my new video card came in), so I don't have editing software to draw yet, but any large fan leaf blocking grow sites below it should come off. Any sucker branches (anything that will never hit a screen) should come off. Don't go super heavy like i did in the the thread linked in my signature, but you can get away with being pretty aggressive since you're in coco.

Look at how @Dirtbag or @PK1 did theirs. @PK1 is probably a better example (won't be so traumatic for your first real defoliation). Primarily you're after two objective:

1. Keep the RH in check, especially during that hour immediately after lights out. That's when the girls will dump tons of moisture and if you're not careful, you'll see 90%+ RH within ten minutes of lights out regardless of having exhaust running full bore.
2. Facilitate solid bud development almost all the way down the plants. Instead of having a crop with primo tops and decent mids and extract-only lowers, you'll have primo tops and mids and decent lowers. You should see a decent bump in yield as a result as well.

I should caveat this with you must 100% ensure you're on top of your EC and pH. Taking more than a handful of leaves requires you be on your game since the plants will have little buffer room for error on your part. You also won't be able to catch deficiencies as easily since all your big-screen indicators will be gone. You're doing excellent so far so I'm not terribly concerned you'll fuck up, but you just need to be mindful of going heavy with the defoliation means you gotta be on point the rest of the ride.

Ok, I guess I'm prepared to cut heavily, even more than so far. I've been cropping up from the bottom, taking some sucker branches, and mostly going after the largest fan leaves. I'm going kinda slow partly because I want the plants to recover, partly because its just slow to do. Canopy is getting thinner.

I'm primarily worried about the timing, being in early flower. Not sure I want to take those fan leaves on top layer, but I'll hunt the ones covering sites.

Thing is though, I have most of the big branches aggressively tucked under trellis right now. Kinda hard to tell what's what just yet.

tobh said:

I should caveat this with you must 100% ensure you're on top of your EC and pH.

Click to expand...

I am keeping a close eye on both. Interestingly, the runoff EC is finally higher than the input for the first time. Ever since I turned the lights down the ec has been climbing in the runoff. I assume less nutrient uptake, partly due to less light, partly die to defoliation.

phxazcraig said:

I am keeping a close eye on both. Interestingly, the runoff EC is finally higher than the input for the first time. Ever since I turned the lights down the ec has been climbing in the runoff. I assume less nutrient uptake, partly due to less light, partly die to defoliation.

Click to expand...

likely, yeah. that's a good point I didn't touch on too. if you defoliate heavily, dial the lights back and drop the input feed for a few days while they recover. with your plants being so healthy, they shouldn't get terribly stressed out, but it's a good practice to not push em while they get over being chopped up.

I’m waiting for day 21 to lollipop and defoliate. Also I love the drain away drain trays. They have a level pedestal and then the rest is slopped to the drain hole so it creates flow marking it so you can use on a flat surface.

first picture is feb 15th and second 2 pictures are from feb 28th. Exploded and filled the screen perfect. Also I flipped on feb 15th

SofaKingHigh said:

I’m waiting for day 21 to lollipop and defoliate. Also I love the drain away drain trays. They have a level pedestal and then the rest is slopped to the drain hole so it creates flow marking it so you can use on a flat surface.

first picture is feb 15th and second 2 pictures are from feb 28th. Exploded and filled the screen perfect. Also I flipped on feb 15th

Click to expand...

looking nice!

jguit said:

Just cut the trellises.. I'd hate to have to do what you're doing. haha. I'd do everything possible to make it work.

Click to expand...

If your netting is buried in the canopy, just string a new one across the top. This last run I wanted to get the colas 8 inches above the net with the light at least 16 inches above that.
Lol, blew past that, more like 13" tall pillars and now I'm shovivg my light up to the ceiling of my tent.

GanjaFarmer24 said:

If your netting is buried in the canopy, just string a new one across the top. This last run I wanted to get the colas 8 inches above the net with the light at least 16 inches above that.
Lol, blew past that, more like 13" tall pillars and now I'm shovivg my light up to the ceiling of my tent.

Click to expand...

Yes, I have two more nets on order - and a taller grow tent. My plan is to cut away the existing trellis nets so I can move the plants and replace the entire tent. I've already raised the light as high as I can.

Although, if the plants have stopped stretching, I may be ok now that I've woven the ends of most of the big branches back under the top trellis. I can't look in the tent this morning for another couple of hours until the light comes on. Mostly it's been a surprise each morning as I see how much things changed overnight. My light (HLG-600r) recommends a 28-36 inch distance to canopy, and last night I was down to 21 inches. I can maybe get one more inch by raising the light - if I can figure out a fastener issue. Or I can swap out the tent for one that has a foot more height.

Today my Gorilla Grow 4x4 tent arrived, and I spent about 4 hours taking down the old tent and putting up the new ones. This is the consequence of allowing that 5th week of veg. I'll post pics of the whole thing in another post, but here are some.

phxazcraig said:

Today my Gorilla Grow 4x4 tent arrived, and I spent about 4 hours taking down the old tent and putting up the new ones. This is the consequence of allowing that 5th week of veg. I'll post pics of the whole thing in another post, but here are some.

Click to expand...

Glad that's mostly done! Went straightforward except the zippering together of various bits. A real pain to get the zippers started - took me 30 minutes of the whole shebang. Will have to spend more time reweaving the tops into the trellis. I lopped a few weakling branches while the plants were out, but got too tired to do a proper trim. There were a lot of branches hanging because of the weight - those that make it to the trellis will stay, and I'll pinch/break the stems so they grow back stronger.

The cost of all of this wasn't cheap. The result? I went from 17 inches of clearance to 27 inches. And if really necessary, I could raise the light another 6 inches or so, at some cost. Right now I have good coverage, and PAR 800 center, 500 corners. I did have the lights turned down a lot yesterday to help them recover from all the defoliating I did, and of course they spent 4 hours sitting on the floor of the bedroom today. The unweaving, moving and reweaving must be a fair amount of stress.

Today plants look decently recovered, though I had to spend more time repositioning the branches in the trellis net. I don't have a clue how much more they will stretch, but I'm able to unstuck the biggest branches and let them soar. Hopefully another few inches of stretch.

It's not lost on me that I may have only wasted time and money allowing them to veg too long. I could have filled the 4x4 space with shorter plants by more aggressively training when young. Hopefully taller plants make bigger buds.

I'm certainly glad I have a tall tent today! The plants have stretched pretty well, and are continuing. Including pot and risers, the plants are approaching 6 feet in height.

I'll probably need to add another trellis net to support the buds when they start filling out.

Keep tucking, also start defoliating from the bottom, if a branch hasn't made it the canopy by now, it's not gonna.

Here are some new pics of the (ongoing) explosive growth. I'm no longer trying to tuck under the new, which I may regret later I'd they keep stretching.

Here I check PAR levels in the center.

It's a jungle ya got there! I can't tell but get a fan blowing under the canopy if you dont already.

jguit said:

It's a jungle ya got there! I can't tell but get a fan blowing under the canopy if you dont already.

Click to expand...

I have a rotating fan underneath. I did have another, but I took it out a few days ago when I got an input duct fan. I closed the vent holes at the bottom of the tent, and the whole thing is pressurized. Trying to keep humidity under 55.

jguit said:

It's a jungle ya got there! I can't tell but get a fan blowing under the canopy if you dont already.

Click to expand...

I swear I'm cutting a bunch every day! Except really hard to get to the far corners. But I'm thinning, thinning, thinning, As I remove leaves, others become more obvious to cut - but I can only lie on one elbow for so long at my age. Next time I'll leave another foot behind the tent so I can get in the back side to trim.