first grow of cheese

[cosmic]

hello peeps,

i was hoping you could take a look at my first plant. i have made some errors but luckily have just found this site and the info here is great.
i didn't top the plant which has resulted in a massive christmas tree shape. i also didn't have a frame which resulted in the plant toppling over twice !!
the lower branches are looking ready to me cuz the hairs have turned orangey/brown, but the main central bit is still growing ! only the lower half of the central bit is turning orange/brown, the top half is all white, and i thought it would be at the end now as i'm into my 8th week of flower.
i have a house inspection in a couple of weeks so i can't just let it grow, which is a shame. i've started flushing now for a week and then it gives me a week to hang dry. i did take 6 babies off this plant and 3 have already rooted and are in big rock wool cubes already, so they'll be going straight in after.
how long does the plant stay in that harvest time for before the plant starts losing potency ?

any comments appreciated, thanks for your time and attention

 

[Loc T Smoke]

if you let some strains go too long, they will herm on you. this i have seen in my own growroom. good to see youre gonna have some smoke to show for your first efforts:) thats the goal, right, so pat urself on the back.

i really looked over your pictures, and i wanted to throw some stuff out there... im not the best in the world, so second guess it all.

first... please pick that ballast up off of the floor. GO DO IT NOW. lol. get it on a shelf or something. its creating heat by being under the light, anyways, but its a fire hazard like a mofo. i keep all electricity above the waist, and all water below the waist in my room. but thats just me.

second, it looks like light and/or heat stress is causing that plant to bolt a little...its more pom-pommie than it should be, if that makes sense. what are the temps, whats the lighting, how far is it from the top of that plant, etc?

everything looks cool, though... id cut it within a week.

now go get the ballast off of the floor. please.

 

[cosmic]

thanks for the tips, i like the idea of keeping the electric box and stuff waist high. the reason why its on a major tilt is cuz it toppled over, another mistake i made of not having some kind of support or frame. its under 400 watt about 12 inches away from the light.
really looking forward to doing it second time around. it would look alot different if i'd topped it, is that right ?

 

[Zonkerly]

Put a screen in there and scrog or sea of green method on one,you will get way more for your effort.Put that ballast on the outside if you can.I'm doing my first cheese also this time around.Nice job anyways,enjoying your own work is way better then paying for it.:bong-hits:

 

[cosmic]

Put a screen in there and scrog or sea of green method on one:

what does this mean zonkerly ? do you mean some support?...

 

[Zonkerly]

SoG abbr. Sea of Green. Technique of growing that encourages smaller, more numerous plants to be grown and harvested more frequently in a continuous growing operation. Anecdotal evidence suggests that yields can be higher to roughly equivalent to more traditional methods, but with lower risk of failure and more regular harvests. SoG is also a technique of producing multiple generations of plants quickly for breeding/hybridization purposes.

 

[Zonkerly]

Put a screen above your plants,spreading the braches out filling the screen and letting all the new growth to grow on top makeing a Sea of Green nugs on top.Look around more here and you will find several grow journals totally srcogging and pumping out the nug's.

 

[hashrip]

Scrog Tutorial

 

[cosmic]

thank you so much ! will defo look into that. can i ask a dumb question most probably, but is that what you are talking about when you top the plant, sometimes a couple of times ? i've got topping on the brain cuz i didn't do it with this one lol.

 

[hashrip]

Not really... topping is a form of training that is very helpful (basically essential) when you scrog but it's not the same as scrogging. Topping is when you cut the main growing branch, right as the new growth is starting. After you cut that little growth, the other branches will try to take the place of the main branch, giving you more bud sites and more "main colas". It's much more simple then how I described it. Let me try to find you a tutorial on that as well. I believe there's a tutorial about fimming which is basically topping only you don't cut all the way through the growth. That way even more branches will try to become main colas. For future reference, not to sound rude, you can use the search engine at the top right corner of the forums page to find little things like that. But don't sweat it. Everyone starts out somewhere.

Here's a great article that includes a brief description of topping along with some youtube vids and other great techniques. Read the whole thing, it will get you on your way. Good luck sir.


*note* you should know that what mr.greenthum says about hydroponics is a widely debated issue. I myself believe organic soil is the way to go because you get more colorful, delicious buds. Everything else is pure gold!