my 1st hydro

[redeye_samurai]

So I am using a c.a.p. ebb and grow system and have 5 jilly bean, 3 Apollo 13, 2 power plant and 2 vortex. Front what I know (or think I know I guess) is these produce well if topped young. My ? Is how tall should they be before I top them? any info is appreciated, and this is a great forum I'm new to all of this but my first soil run was good and decided to try out the hydro world. Thanks guys

 

[audius]

most growers usally start topping when the plant gets 3 to 4 nodes on the main stem. but i got to ask, are you growing from seed or clone? now if your growing clones i would wait till i got good root growth before i start topping.

 

[redeye_samurai]

Clones, the roots were thick and hanging out of the rockwool when I got them but they've been in the hydroton and pots for 5-6 days

 

[reggiebaseball]

You should try (in flower especially) to put spacers under your cap buckets, to help the roots from sitting in water. This eliminates any chance of root rot and allows for more root space.

Option 1 is to buy styrofoam 4x8 insulation panels and cut them to squares to fit under the outer bucket.
Option 2 is to buy 3" pvc couplers for .69 at HD and insert them between then inner and outer buckets.

I do both, if you want bigger yields you should do both too.

OK now when to top your plants, it also depends on how large you want the final plants to be-- I would top first after 4 nodes,
If I was going to flower out all those plants in a small space I might not top at all.

 

[redeye_samurai]

Thanks for the info esp. The spacers idea and I have a 10x12' room dedicated to them so I think its enough room

 

[reggiebaseball]

10x12 is really nice, you would ideally want maybe 2X1000 or 3X600 watts to flower using that much space with 12 plants, but you could easily use less with proper planning and get great yields too.

if you are in a hurry you can let the plants grow without topping to 24-30"
or you can top them and let them bush out and flip at maybe 18-24" tall.

Get some nice tomato cages and get them installed BEFORE the plants get too huge, these can help you to train them into place and will support the big bushes you will produce. make sure the rockwool cube ends up above the water flood level because it is the only thing in there that can retain water and potentially rot.


Since you have multiples I would consider this an opportunity to test your theories on topping by trying some and not others. You could also read to see what Subcool says to do with those strains (those are his seeds), whether he recommends topping, etc.

You can also test lollipopping. Maybe with those jillybeans do one as nature intends , one topped only, one grown natural but lollipopped and one lollipopped and topped.

Those are some killer genetics you got there, TGA makes nice stuff.