Grow Mediums Fast Buds and Sweet Seeds

[Nosias]

old school: I have grown FB Green Crack Auto and it is a very good smoke as well as great rosin. Starts off mild head buzz but keeps building to an up and aware buzz with good pain relief.

Thanks for your report.

Congrats on you seed victory with your video. Videos from AFN members are the real thing and we need more here to continue to build a library.

Again a great job !!!!!!!!!

 

[Screwauger]

Please clarify your "super crop" technique for me. What exactly did you do?

My main stem was easily 6" taller than all others and getting too near my lights.
I pinched and rolled and pinched and rolled that main stem at about 6-7" down from the top.
Once easier to bend after pinching and rolling, bent it right over 90°
Because it was quite far into flower, the stem was quite tough.
One side split fairly seriously.
I gobbed on some molasses and taped it up and she grew quite well.

 

[lunarman]

My main stem was easily 6" taller than all others and getting too near my lights.
I pinched and rolled and pinched and rolled that main stem at about 6-7" down from the top.
Once easier to bend after pinching and rolling, bent it right over 90°
Because it was quite far into flower, the stem was quite tough.
One side split fairly seriously.
I gobbed on some molasses and taped it up and she grew quite well.
View attachment 887338

I read about this recently and tried it out tonight and it worked almost too well.

Take needle nose pliers and wrap tape around each jaw. Then you can just lightly squeeze a branch and get pretty darn precise with how much you squish it. I find it has much better control than using just fingers.

I took it one step further and on two plants I gave a squeeze to a few side branches that might get big and heavy later. No bending. Just light squeezing. I'm thinking that might make them stronger. Might even make this a regular practice to strengthen branches.

 

[Nosias]

My main stem was easily 6" taller than all others and getting too near my lights.
I pinched and rolled and pinched and rolled that main stem at about 6-7" down from the top.
Once easier to bend after pinching and rolling, bent it right over 90°
Because it was quite far into flower, the stem was quite tough.
One side split fairly seriously.
I gobbed on some molasses and taped it up and she grew quite well.
View attachment 887338

OK that makes it clear even for me. I tied my two bigger ladies down with the coated wire. I bent them over more than 160 degree. This AM I removed the wire. There is now a big "S" shaped stem. Now I always pinch off the very first set of side branches with my thumb and finger. I find they tend to get less growth than branches further up the stem. So I pinch those two off.

Thanks again.

 

[Nosias]

I read about this recently and tried it out tonight and it worked almost too well.

Take needle nose pliers and wrap tape around each jaw. Then you can just lightly squeeze a branch and get pretty darn precise with how much you squish it. I find it has much better control than using just fingers.

I took it one step further and on two plants I gave a squeeze to a few side branches that might get big and heavy later. No bending. Just light squeezing. I'm thinking that might make them stronger. Might even make this a regular practice to strengthen branches.

I like to bend the stems, also. I also do it to keep all the tops sort of even with each other. I seem to always have a slower growing lady. With the bending the slow poke can grow and the others are kept from sky rocketing up.

 

[Olde School Player]

... I did bend over the top of the two faster growing ladies. I use the wire that is coated with rubber. I really like the design of the auto pots. They have the big curved over edge and it is the perfect to hook one end to the plant and the other on the stem. I appreciate your offer on the pics. Feel free to post some here so others can learn. A pic is the best tool for learning.

I will also bend over the side branches and open up the ladies to the sunshine from my light. It is a true 400 watts being drawn from the outlet. It has very little waste to heat and that is good for my tent.

It is grow and learn with these autos. So I know it was a tough call to wait as long as you did but we all want them to pop. I agree you should let both companies know what you experienced. Any GOOD company knows what customer service is and how to help the customer. So I am glad you will let them be aware of your experience.

Love the root riots

thanks for adding to this thread. You have a LOT of info and I appreciate you sharing.

Thanks for the kind words & offer on posting the pic's. I have to dig those out so I may take you up on that when I find them.
As I started researching autoflowers I developed this preconceived notion that topping & super cropping are not a good idea for autoflowers. But I'm the first to admit, that notion was formed from research and some makes-sense opinions I read on a medical autoflower website. Those opinions being that any plant will take time to recover from either of these training methods, and for autoflowers that time is lost from putting energy into growing. With photoperiods you can veg as long as you want & the yield results will show. So from my first auto grow I've exclusively done LST training. And the results have always been so good that I never deviated.
So I'm not disagreeing with others whose methods are different, but I'm going to stick with what has worked so well for me. My good luck with LST is why I'm so interested in how to encourage stretch when growing under LED's. None of my LED grows have stretched, and that really makes LST less effective.

Now that Blimburn Seeds' Mamba Negra went in the rooter plug this am, she's gotta pop so I can start testing my theory. I hate to hurry up & wait!!!

 

[Nosias]

You are right. Each one of us has a certain idea how to grow. One is really left up to our own research and experience. With all of the growing you have done there must be a lot of knowledge you can share. So spill it out here whenever you feel the urge.

Thanks for the kind words & offer on posting the pic's. I have to dig those out so I may take you up on that when I find them.
As I started researching autoflowers I developed this preconceived notion that topping & super cropping are not a good idea for autoflowers. But I'm the first to admit, that notion was formed from research and some makes-sense opinions I read on a medical autoflower website. Those opinions being that any plant will take time to recover from either of these training methods, and for autoflowers that time is lost from putting energy into growing. With photoperiods you can veg as long as you want & the yield results will show. So from my first auto grow I've exclusively done LST training. And the results have always been so good that I never deviated.
So I'm not disagreeing with others whose methods are different, but I'm going to stick with what has worked so well for me. My good luck with LST is why I'm so interested in how to encourage stretch when growing under LED's. None of my LED grows have stretched, and that really makes LST less effective.

Now that Blimburn Seeds' Mamba Negra went in the rooter plug this am, she's gotta pop so I can start testing my theory. I hate to hurry up & wait!!!

 

[Olde School Player]

Hey Nosias, found my notes on LST so I'm taking you up on your offer to host the pic's. Hope this helps a few.

So you're ready to begin low stress training (LST). Either you're in the vegetative growth stage of your photoperiod plants and you don't want to top them (not sure WHY you wouldn't, but OK...), or you waited too late and you're in transition from veg to bloom, and/or in the middle of the plant's stretch as it starts blooming and wants to double or triple in height.
Or you've decided to try auto's. If / when you decide to do this, you need learn to do Low Stress Training (LST). I never recommend toping auto's because of their limited vegetative growth window. Topping or supercropping stops growth while the plant is recovering from the stress, and I feel that minimizes the veg time where the all-important vertical stretch is gained. But auto’s LOVE LST.



So how do you LST? The principle is to bend the plant over, starting about 1/3 above its base, so that by the time you are 2/3 up the trunk, you have created a right angle in the trunk and the rest of the plant trunk can be trained to grow horizontally. This formula is approximate, you need to go by sight and feel. Start with some good string - surveyor's / lineman's cord or even the fat sisal packing cord used for tying packages. Assuming a 15" plant, form a loose loop around the main trunk at about 4 - 5" up the base of the plant. Tie that to a tent post horizontally OPPOSITE the direction you want to bend the trunk. This first tie is critical as it anchors the plant so subsequent LST’s bend the plant above this anchor point without disturbing the roots of the plant. Go about 4-5" up from your first tie, form another loose loop around the trunk, and pull AWAY from the first tie to bend the plant trunk over a few inches. Tie or clamp the other end of the string to anything that will hold that bend in the plant trunk.
You need to go slowly with this first bend, just a few inches per day. Bend, clamp, wait, come back tomorrow and do it again. Before you're done you might have to re-orient this second tie upward so that all subsequent / higher bends continue to pull the trunk downward. This may sound confusing while reading this, but as you perform the acts, or review the pic’s that follow, you’ll understand. And in a few days you should have your 90 degree bend. Then, every few days, the top tip should have grown a few inches, trending back upward. Tie that down too.


The fine point of LST - plants contain a compound called auxins that encourages the tallest point of a plant to grow with more vigor than the rest of the plant. By training the main trunk / top to be at the same height or lower than the secondary branches, the secondaries receive this compound and in turn try to become the dominant branch / top leader. With a secondary round of LST to each side branch, you can train them lower so the lowest side branches catch up. The secondary ties are simpler, only one per branch. Before you know it, you have created a plant with a true top cola for each branch. You’ll end up growing 10, 12, even more "top colas" and your yield increases exponentially.
Next question - what if it breaks when you bend it? Well, Mama’s gonna fuss at you if you tell her so don’t. Or tell her your brother did it. But if you go slowly and complete this over several days it’s usually OK. And if it DOES break, eat a popsicle. The kind with a stick. Use this as a splint and securely wrap a gauze strip around the stalk and stick. It may wilt for a few days but the plant will be just fine. With photoperiod plants, what you just discovered is super cropping. I never intentionally do this with auto's, but point is, if it happens just fix it and go on. The sun will come up tomorrow. You’ll just lose some stretch time.
In case any of these instructions are not clear, I'm posting some pic's for you that should clear up any questions. And maybe motivate you to NOT throw away the instructions before you try to assemble the parts



Here's a pic of my Kalishnakova-Auto growing in my little 2X2X5'3" party tent under a 250W-HID, veg-ed under metal halide and bloomed under high pressure sodium (FYI, Kalashnikova is a rework of the original Cup Winner White Russian). This was taken on 5/24 and shows the initial LST process done over the first week of training. If you zoom and drag around the pic you should be able to see four LST's

And here are the beginnings of the results six days later on 5/30. Note that the second LST up from the base of the plant has been repositioned on this day to go out and up, holding the trunk in place so the remaining two LST's can continue bending the upper part of the plant more toward horizontal. The 3rd and 4th LST's are continuing to bend her over.

Here's the results two weeks later on 6/13. I took this pic in portrait orientation & it looked fine on my picture hosting site. But posting here it went landscape mode on me. So work with me & turn your monitor on its side or tilt your head over or whatever it takes. In the two weeks since the last shot you can really see all the side branches, even the lowest bottom ones, have caught up with the rest of the plant. The main terminal leader is still being trained but I'm letting it turn upward now too. Results - a nice, even canopy with a shit-ton of top colas instead of just one.

If you look closely at the last pic above, or you've been really paying attention to the number of LST's, you'll see some extra work. As each of the side branches try to stretch upward to become primary leaders (that's NOT a political term ), a single LST is applied to pull each branch downward, even the canopy, and open up the interior of the plant to more light. Not all of these can be seen later as the plant fills the tent, but you'll see the results & the idea becomes obvious when you see the last two pic's.



And here's today, 8/1 She's gone a lot longer than the breeder said. I love breeders but they all say all their plants will finish in 3 days from seed, will yield 2 kilos under a 23 watt CFL, and are 30% THC. This one has done all she's going to do. I'll take all the top colas tomorrow, give the bottoms another week to get some color, and they will come down.
Just a side note, I took the center cola out earlier this week. It was dead center under the cool tube and I was afraid it would bleach out. It was 14" long. Took a quick count, and there are at least (16) top colas in the 12" - 14" range. I may have missed a couple too, some of them have fallen over in the picture & you can't see them.

Last but not least, here's the cover shot. 11.2 cured oz. of ganja nastiness. Nothing the others haven't shown, I just liked the composition and framing in this one the best. I believe this one is plenty of justification to learn how to LST. Now, for my photoperiod plants, I'm always going to rely on topping. Better results for a different product. But for auto's, and when the time is right for traditionals, learn to LST.

Final shot - here's a pic of a different plant I took after a serious Fiskars infestation. The side-branch LST's have been removed but you can still see the effect they had on training; and the main LST's provide a pretty good illustration of the extent you can go to with LST.

Hope this helps, shout out if any questions.​

 

[Nosias]

Thank you so much @Olde School Player. This is really good.

 

[Screwauger]

Fantastic write up @Olde School Player

I've learned a bunch just reading it quickly once. Looking forward to trying the techniques. I agree 100% with how you recommend to treat auto's. Having not truly done effective LST on my Green Crack, the need to supercrop the main stem ended up having the overall effect you describe ie colas. Thanks very much @Nosias for hosting and this is accruate and invaluable information.