Thank you and please dont change everything because of my grow. Always do what you are comfortable with.
that said. My theory was to do this looking at it like when i used to keep fish tanks.
Provide the environment and maintain like the how to keep a fish tank book said. Buy quality fish from a respected dealer. And then get out of their way and watch them adapt and thrive through the glass.
I had no experience at all growing plants. Honestly 5 years ago I barely ever even watered one. I never had interest in them before. Well beyond their beauty in the forest as I blasted by on bikes and snowboards and stuff.
So I read the two most popular books and probably every thread on multiple forums for a few years. Then greenhouse production guides and on and on...
And set up a 4x4 tent in the spare bedroom.
The way i do everything is pretty much still the way those two books describe.
Especially the perpetual garden stuff in ed rosenthals book.
And my breeder was a great help too. He helped teach me not to over care and let the plants do their thing with only what they need to thrive.
He had his own nutes made called Easy Pistils. Its Spanish because of his location but he tends to grow in an organic mix and add the fertilizer ( and calcium powder as he calls it) in flower as needed. Leaning toward longer dry cycles and light fertilizer.
So thats how i do it too. Hell, he had one of the best gallery of pics i ever saw on his old website.
Man i have been working too much lately. I need sleep. I just keep babling on. Lol. :)
Have a good day!
No pressure, it better work for me too. lol. In all seriousness I'm new to growing and haven't found my way yet. How could I if I haven't tried everything for myself. I need to see what I like and what works for me. For instance, my first grow was trying to SCROG. I think it came out good, and I know I can do even better if ran again now that I know what to expect and what I would do differently. My second/current grow I was a little indecisive early on. It was only to test genetics. However I used this opportunity to try bamboo stakes. I've learned I like the flexibility of being able to move the plants around and take them out if needed. But now I need to see how it compares to weight vs. SCROG. My third grow that's in veg I'm trying the manifold technique. Every grow so far has involved a ton of training, lst, topping, FIMing, and super cropping. (Plants in a constant state of stress recovery.) And I believe this is negating my plants to reach their full potential. I'll explain below if anyone cares to read my theory.
With that all said, what's next is trying out your style and letting the plant just do it's thing with minimal manipulation. I'll end up finding what I like and what works best for me after this trial and error phase. But based on my theory below, I honestly believe the way you grow helps a plant reach it's full potential and they grow much quicker without the undo stress.
Here's my theory based on what I'm seeing in my environment.
A trained plant will take longer to grow, and may not reach it's full potential when heavily trained.
Exhibit A: Birthday Cake Kush "Mom"
I trained her like crazy with topping, LST, FIM'ing, etc. just about every 7 days on average throughout veg. (constant state of stress recovery) She's bushy, cola's look very frosty, but fan leave have zero trichomes.
Exhibit B: Birthday Cake Kush "Clone"
I didn't touch this plant at all when it came to training until it grew into the light during stretch. So I supper cropped it once. The plants growth was more robust. It grew a lot quicker than it's stressed mom, and the fan leaves have trichomes. It also looked happier throughout.
My poor man conclusion and surprise points solely and directly at the fan leaves. The untouched plant, to me, shows better potential with the fan leaves having trichomes on them, vs. being absent on the heavily trained plant. I would suspect the "mom" will still be fire, and I may not have even noticed any different if I didn't have something to compare it to. But the untrained clone may actually end up a notch above it's mom without all that consistent stress and training in regards to quality.
This is all in theory in my own mind. Which is why I look forward to trying your method. Simple and just let the plant do its thing.
