Day 32 Blue Cheese Auto, vertical growth question

[yamas sun]

Hello, new member [and grower] here. I had started this thread yesterday in the journals section:
Blue Cheese Auto Nirvana 32 Days old indoor grow log.

All I was wondering is that based on where that plants at currently will vertical growth still be put on as it ages? It's already within the 4th week heading to the 5th week here in a day or two. I know after reading muddys 'lifecycle of autoflowers' pinned thread, along with following FullDuplexs 'Way of The Fox' nute schedule for autos' thread I seemed to gather that growth should continue and stop somewhere within the 5th week or potentially the 6th week?

The one other question was - should I be bending leaves and/or doing minor defoliation to get more light penetration to the lower sections of the branches, or does everything look par for the course so far?

All my growing details are in that link. I appreciate your time.

Here's a few pics:

 

[Fitzy]

Hello, new member [and grower] here. I had started this thread yesterday in the journals section:
Blue Cheese Auto Nirvana 32 Days old indoor grow log.

All I was wondering is that based on where that plants at currently will vertical growth still be put on as it ages? It's already within the 4th week heading to the 5th week here in a day or two. I know after reading muddys 'lifecycle of autoflowers' pinned thread, along with following FullDuplexs 'Way of The Fox' nute schedule for autos' thread I seemed to gather that growth should continue and stop somewhere within the 5th week or potentially the 6th week?

The one other question was - should I be bending leaves and/or doing minor defoliation to get more light penetration to the lower sections of the branches, or does everything look par for the course so far?

All my growing details are in that link. I appreciate your time.

Here's a few pics:

View attachment 1253716View attachment 1253717View attachment 1253718View attachment 1253719View attachment 1253720View attachment 1253721

I don't think you will see much if any stretch @ this point it will how ever get a bit taller stacking buds but not much now normally by 6th wk it should not keep growing taller now with that said I have seen more than once a plant go past that but it's pretty rare but you have wat I call pompoms forming so again it's not going to be much taller.

 

[yamas sun]

I don't think you will see much if any stretch @ this point it will how ever get a bit taller stacking buds but not much now normally by 6th wk it should not keep growing taller now with that said I have seen more than once a plant go past that but it's pretty rare but you have wat I call pompoms forming so again it's not going to be much taller.

Awesome, that's basically what I wanted to know, and what I sort've figured through reading but wasn't sure. Appreciate the response!

Being so dang bushy at this point I'm going to try bend some leaves out've the way and possibly defol a few leaves if they're shading any of the lower sections/bud sites.

 

[Arthur]

Once the plant is thru the stretch of early flower, and into stacking, that's about the end. They will get a little bigger, but for the most part, that's when the push for size stops and the push for fruit begins.

Leaf tucking is always a good idea, leaves are the food banks of the plant, so I try and leave what isn't blocking flowering sights.

 

[yamas sun]

Leaf tucking is always a good idea, leaves are the food banks of the plant, so I try and leave what isn't blocking flowering sights.

Thanks for the reply!

Yeah once my lights turn on and are up for a couple hours I'm going to go down and see what can be tucked/defol'd based on what sites are being blocked. I know from looking over the past couple days that within the middle of the plant - it's a big bushy mess when looking from the top of the plant lol. I'd go to move nearly any leaf with my fingers from the top and it'd reveal area after area of shaded stem/s from within the middle of the plant where i can clearly see a few pistils forming here and there on many of the stems.

All this is why I primarily was asking the question about vertical growth in the coming week/s, was because 'if' it wasn't going to be growing vertical much anymore, then I'll know to start trying to open up some of the middle of the plant through tucking/defol, otherwise if it were going to grow vertical more - then i wasn't going to mess with much tucking/defol.

But yeah thanks for the replies guys/gals. Gives a clear picture now. I'll continue all this in my grow journal. Cheers

 

[Fitzy]

Thanks for the reply!

Yeah once my lights turn on and are up for a couple hours I'm going to go down and see what can be tucked/defol'd based on what sites are being blocked. I know from looking over the past couple days that within the middle of the plant - it's a big bushy mess when looking from the top of the plant lol. I'd go to move nearly any leaf with my fingers from the top and it'd reveal area after area of shaded stem/s from within the middle of the plant where i can clearly see a few pistils forming here and there on many of the stems.

All this is why I primarily was asking the question about vertical growth in the coming week/s, was because 'if' it wasn't going to be growing vertical much anymore, then I'll know to start trying to open up some of the middle of the plant through tucking/defol, otherwise if it were going to grow vertical more - then i wasn't going to mess with much tucking/defol.

But yeah thanks for the replies guys/gals. Gives a clear picture now. I'll continue all this in my grow journal. Cheers

Tag me if you don't mind would love to pull up a seat and watch.

 

[Mañ'O'Green]

I just got off my soapbox in another thread on the same subject. Your plant looks a bit short and I would suspect it is due to your lights being the limiting factor here. They do look healthy . More red light will improve the stretch but you need to be providing 28 -32 DLI as a minimum for optimal growth. Lower your fixture to get the PPFD up to the most it can provide. As long as you are not running HID lamps do not worry about light burn it will not happen with LEDs unless the plant actually touches the diode. Do not use time as a measure, plants do not have a calendar. Do not compare your plants to others, no two seeds are the same and growing conditions are way too variable. Just grow the plant in front of you.

Watering wrong can stunt a plant. The tap root can grow 9 inches in three days and the laterals are just a couple of days behind. Roots stop growing in dry spots - think air pruning. Be sure to water/fertigate your entire pot so this cannot happen.

To Defo or not to Defo? That is the question. Why is it that outdoors we don't even talk about this? It is because the sun has all the power to reach every leaf and every leaf is a little factory producing energy for the plant to grow. Perhaps we are asking the wrong question indoors then. Maybe we should be asking is my light strong enough? Does it have the correct spectrum? Do my walls reflect the light well enough. I think we should improve the indoor environment instead of chopping off the little factories that produce the energy needed to grow big beautiful flowers.

I used to do heavy defo but my yields and quality just did not live up to the advertised characteristics from the breeders. Then I took another look at what I was doing and why. I did the research and built COB lighting and put Orca grow film on my walls. The COBs were full PAR spectrum and the Orca Grow film wastes no photons reflecting them all around until the plant gets to absorb as many as possible. I stopped defoliating to expose bud sites. The quality and yield of my crops soared. I knew I was on the right path. Last year I grew a Lil'MOBstar that had near top cola quality buds on the bottom of the plant. They were far from wispy. This year I bought some of the best grow lights on the market. I overpowered the space by 20% and run the lights at about 60% of maximum for a very efficient PAR/watts output. Again my quality and yields have improved. I only defoliate for air flow now. Air flow is even more critical now because my buds are so big and dense. unfortunately I got some bud rot in two of my latest plants as I learn I need even more airflow than in the past. I will add another fan from the other end of the space.

So should you defoliate IMPO not to expose bud sites. Don't waste those little factories except to keep the plant healthy later and only if air flow becomes a problem.

 

[yamas sun]

I just got off my soapbox in another thread on the same subject. Your plant looks a bit short and I would suspect it is due to your lights being the limiting factor here. They do look healthy . More red light will improve the stretch but you need to be providing 28 -32 DLI as a minimum for optimal growth. Lower your fixture to get the PPFD up to the most it can provide. As long as you are not running HID lamps do not worry about light burn it will not happen with LEDs unless the plant actually touches the diode. Do not use time as a measure, plants do not have a calendar. Do not compare your plants to others, no two seeds are the same and growing conditions are way too variable. Just grow the plant in front of you.

Watering wrong can stunt a plant. The tap root can grow 9 inches in three days and the laterals are just a couple of days behind. Roots stop growing in dry spots - think air pruning. Be sure to water/fertigate your entire pot so this cannot happen.

To Defo or not to Defo? That is the question. Why is it that outdoors we don't even talk about this? It is because the sun has all the power to reach every leaf and every leaf is a little factory producing energy for the plant to grow. Perhaps we are asking the wrong question indoors then. Maybe we should be asking is my light strong enough? Does it have the correct spectrum? Do my walls reflect the light well enough. I think we should improve the indoor environment instead of chopping off the little factories that produce the energy needed to grow big beautiful flowers.

I used to do heavy defo but my yields and quality just did not live up to the advertised characteristics from the breeders. Then I took another look at what I was doing and why. I did the research and built COB lighting and put Orca grow film on my walls. The COBs were full PAR spectrum and the Orca Grow film wastes no photons reflecting them all around until the plant gets to absorb as many as possible. I stopped defoliating to expose bud sites. The quality and yield of my crops soared. I knew I was on the right path. Last year I grew a Lil'MOBstar that had near top cola quality buds on the bottom of the plant. They were far from wispy. This year I bought some of the best grow lights on the market. I overpowered the space by 20% and run the lights at about 60% of maximum for a very efficient PAR/watts output. Again my quality and yields have improved. I only defoliate for air flow now. Air flow is even more critical now because my buds are so big and dense. unfortunately I got some bud rot in two of my latest plants as I learn I need even more airflow than in the past. I will add another fan from the other end of the space.

So should you defoliate IMPO not to expose bud sites. Don't waste those little factories except to keep the plant healthy later and only if air flow becomes a problem.

Hey MoG, thanks for the lengthy input, especially regarding defo and whatnot. I ended up looking up the chart for PPFD on this light, the various distances, etc. Alot to chew on here lol. Live and learn haha.

Thanks for the info regarding the watering bit also. Truth be for that plant I was only watering a small circle with a spray bottle for the first 10-11 days or so..., when after doing some reading on here after reading what you'd wrote about dry spots and how quickly the roots grow/search - from now on I think i'll be watering the whole pot decently, after its first few days sprouted have passed.

I ended up removing a few leaves, tucking most out've the way, prior to your post.

I also pulled up the plot chart for the given distances for the light, hang distance, coverage, and respective PPFD for the various distances. Not really sure how to interpret this chart as far as what values/range of values I want to be within for effective PPFD/growth. I've had my light @ 24 inches this entire grow. I ended moving it a handful of inches closer, seeing as how these numbers seem to really drop off from between the 1ftx1ft - 2ftx2ft range. I'm still a newb to all this stuff.

BTW, i never mentioned my tent/size. It's a apollo hort tent, 36"x20"x62".

Thanks again.

 

[Mañ'O'Green]

@yamas sun There is a formula for calculating how fast the PPFD drops with distance but no one ever uses it. . The goal when running your lights 18/6 is ~1000 PPFD. If running Co² 1500 PPFD