New Grower Mephisto Strawberry Nuggets, 4 Assed Monkey & Fantasmo Express x Sour Stomper

[NiceOption]

looks like you’re sleeping in the tent with the girls tonight @NiceOption

If only my tent was big enough for that, I’m not sure I’d mind so much haha

Hahaha not sure I'd fit sadly.

One day it will finally be legalised I'm sure and my multi-tent dreams will be realised (or the attic will come into it's own) but for now I'll have to run the lamps 24/7 and wait for the tube heater to arrive, picked up a 120w 60cm for £20.99 inc shipping, seems reasonable.

I've just never had to think about getting temps UP before, it's always been a battle to keep em under 30c. New challenges eh?!

One of the great things about this hobby though is that you can buy things things when they're needed rather than all at once. I dread to think how much I've spent on everything, but as it's been over the course of a year it's pretty manageable. It also goes without saying that I've saved a massive amount by doing this over buying low quality meds in the black market. In other words, I'm not complaining.

Did I mention that I fucking love growing cannabis? Because I fucking love growing cannabis.

 

[davisgirl]

Me too! Growing it is as satisfying as smoking it!

 

[Medimadness]

@davisgirl i would say more satisfying than smoking it, haven’t had a chance to smoke my own yet but all i know is i’ve already been spending £100 less on my stash, monthly, smoking a good half ounce less a month so i’ve basically cut my intake by half.
it’s like most of stress and anxiety eddies i was taking aren’t necessary as often it’s pretty amazing

@NiceOption believe me if i had to buy all this at once i wouldn’t have done it.
being able to slowly buy things because autos are so hardy and seem to be able to wait a few days in less than ideal conditions and then fix all the stress overnight makes it perfect for a new grower to discover what they need!

 

[mcpd_refugee]

Hello. I just thought I’d drop by and have a check in on your grow. It looks like your working your way through it and everything looks pretty healthy so far.

I hate to dispense advice at all since I am a total noob and I don’t know what I’m doing 90% of the time. I especially hate to give advice after the fact and when it’s not asked for. I also dislike that people cannot read intonation and sincerity in a forum post. So, with all of that said, I’d like to offer some general advice. Please take my advice with a grain of salt. I mean no offense or disrespect. Above all, these are your plants and you can do whatever you want.

For your Strawberry Nuggets, though, why did you decide to top her? Is it just because you wanted to or do you have a specific reason? She is a slow growing indica dominant strain that stays compact and bushy. She grows huge fan leaves and on that compact bushy structure - more colas means more leaves. More leaves will increase the amount of work that you have to do later on to expose her bud sites to light. And since she is slow growing and indica dominant, odds are that you increased time to harvest by a couple of weeks to a month or more. Had you let her grow in her natural structure, you’d easily have one huge main cola and several satellite grapefruit sized nuggets. On Mephisto’s description of her, they only recommend some light leaf tucking to expose lower bud sites. I’m all for experimenting. Most of what I do is experimenting. I was just curious about your decision.

Also, Strawberry Nuggets grows some pretty thick stems. Should you think about trying to LST her later, please be very careful as you might accidentally snap her stems.

Finally, the droop that you’re seeing might be from overwatering. Clawing, if that’s what it is (I don’t see it, though), can be caused by nitrogen toxicity.

Keep up the good work and happy growing.

 

[Medimadness]

Hello. I just thought I’d drop by and have a check in on your grow. It looks like your working your way through it and everything looks pretty healthy so far.

I hate to dispense advice at all since I am a total noob and I don’t know what I’m doing 90% of the time. I especially hate to give advice after the fact and when it’s not asked for. I also dislike that people cannot read intonation and sincerity in a forum post. So, with all of that said, I’d like to offer some general advice. Please take my advice with a grain of salt. I mean no offense or disrespect. Above all, these are your plants and you can do whatever you want.

For your Strawberry Nuggets, though, why did you decide to top her? Is it just because you wanted to or do you have a specific reason? She is a slow growing indica dominant strain that stays compact and bushy. She grows huge fan leaves and on that compact bushy structure - more colas means more leaves. More leaves will increase the amount of work that you have to do later on to expose her bud sites to light. And since she is slow growing and indica dominant, odds are that you increased time to harvest by a couple of weeks to a month or more. Had you let her grow in her natural structure, you’d easily have one huge main cola and several satellite grapefruit sized nuggets. On Mephisto’s description of her, they only recommend some light leaf tucking to expose lower bud sites. I’m all for experimenting. Most of what I do is experimenting. I was just curious about your decision.

Also, Strawberry Nuggets grows some pretty thick stems. Should you think about trying to LST her later, please be very careful as you might accidentally snap her stems.

Finally, the droop that you’re seeing might be from overwatering. Clawing, if that’s what it is (I don’t see it, though), can be caused by nitrogen toxicity.

Keep up the good work and happy growing.

I disagree on the point of topping, sure you may end up with more work but with a little LST to those stems the moment you can and let her grow into the bend then it’s just a case of minor adjustments over the course of then grow, and you end up with more than just popcorn satellite buds, and it’s more about even spread of light throughout the bud mass to increase exposure and production.

Also can anyone corroborate an auto taking longer after topping?
It’s an autoflower so from what i’ve seen the whole point behind people not wanting to top is because they possibly lost growth and won’t recover due to the fixed life cycle but ofc i could be wrong. All i have to go by are my topped plants which are moving along the timeline normally

But it could be overwatering for sure, but the guys in a coco/perlite mix so unless the frequency is too often it’s pretty hard

Btw man this is all a discussion and no one here try’s to read negative tone, we’re all here to help

 

[mcpd_refugee]

I disagree on the point of topping, sure you may end up with more work but with a little LST to those stems the moment you can and let her grow into the bend then it’s just a case of minor adjustments over the course of then grow, and you end up with more than just popcorn satellite buds, and it’s more about even spread of light throughout the bud mass to increase exposure and production.

Also can anyone corroborate an auto taking longer after topping?
It’s an autoflower so from what i’ve seen the whole point behind people not wanting to top is because they possibly lost growth and won’t recover due to the fixed life cycle but ofc i could be wrong. All i have to go by are my topped plants which are moving along the timeline normally

But it could be overwatering for sure, but the guys in a coco/perlite mix so unless the frequency is too often it’s pretty hard

Btw man this is all a discussion and no one here try’s to read negative tone, we’re all here to help

I just didn’t want to seem like I was butting in with unwanted an un-asked-for advice contrary to a previously made and executed decision.

And I was just curious as to the decision-making process. Like I said, I’m all for experimentation. Personally, I’m all for keeping things as simple as possible to eliminate variables that could lead to trouble down the line.

 

[Medimadness]

I just didn’t want to seem like I was butting in with unwanted an un-asked-for advice contrary to a previously made and executed decision.

And I was just curious as to the decision-making process. Like I said, I’m all for experimentation. Personally, I’m all for keeping things as simple as possible to eliminate variables that could lead to trouble down the line.

DW man i get you i’m a pretty socially anxious guys so before i realised how friendly people i was just the same, afraid to get my voice out a little. But bouncing differering opinions off each other is how we grow as wel, growers haha

But yeah I think it’s two separate schools of thought really; keep things simple to ensure a consistent yield or take a few risks to possibly increase quality and yield but also chance a detrimental effect.

I like taking risks simply because if it goes well and you learn a lot from it, i becomes less of a risk every time you attempt it


Check out @Vapo69 for some awesome results from advanced trainings techniques on autos, you’d see there that topping autos isn’t as experimental as older posts might let on!

also @Rollin_along has had some great results topping, just goes to show what a little care and attention and brutal techniques can achieve

 

[Medimadness]

@mcpd_refugee p.s. Emoticons help a lot with conveying tone, can lighten the mood of advice and get rid of that condescension that might come from us wordy types

 

[NiceOption]

Thanks @mcpd_refugee for chiming in.

There's no opinion here that's unwanted, everybody's insight is useful and appreciated.

First off, overwatering isn't the issue here. I'm not sure it would be possible in my mix to be honest. I think the SNs are just a little more hungry than the 4AM. There is clawing rather than drooping, it's minor but I want to catch any potential issues as early as I can.

in short, I agree with @Medimadness on the issue of topping. It really does seem to be a controversial one though!

There were a few reasons I decided to top this one. Mostly I'm just curious and want to see what happens. I have two plants of this strain on the go and it seemed like a good opportunity to experiment and run a side by side comparison. I also think the structure actually lends itself very well to the technique. Yes it will create an even bushier structure but will also allow a little more room to play as the other untopped SN basically can't be trained at all.
I would usually train a plant by bringing the dominant growth down and letting the rest of the growth reach upwards thus creating an even canopy. It just isn't possible to do that with this plant. By topping her, she was immediately exposed to much more light and as far as I can tell, more light = more tops and more tops = more buds.
I don't think that topping will create a longer growth period. I might be wrong, but I've never seen this happen. Sure, it might create a smaller plant in the long run but I'd be surprised if it affected the timeline too much. We'll see!

As far as breeders recommendations go, I've never seen one recommend topping an auto, I don't think Mephisto even really recommend LST on any of their strains which is clearly not always the best advice. I take breeder info with a pinch of salt.

The stems are relatively thick on the SN, but just as flexible as any others really, I train them very slowly and gently, I've never had a stem snap on me during this stage and hopefully I won't this time around either. I'm pretty careful with it and don't really mind if it create more work. There's not really that much to do in the garden so a little more work here and there is welcome really. I love spending time with my plants and relish the opportunity to get on with little tasks here and there.

Anyway, the main point that I'm making is that it's an experiment and therefore there is no bad outcome as far as I'm concerned, just an opportunity to learn and so far, the topped plant is looking much better than the untopped one.

 

[mcpd_refugee]

Thanks @mcpd_refugee for chiming in.

There's no opinion here that's unwanted, everybody's insight is useful and appreciated.

First off, overwatering isn't the issue here. I'm not sure it would be possible in my mix to be honest. I think the SNs are just a little more hungry than the 4AM. There is clawing rather than drooping, it's minor but I want to catch any potential issues as early as I can.

in short, I agree with @Medimadness on the issue of topping. It really does seem to be a controversial one though!

There were a few reasons I decided to top this one. Mostly I'm just curious and want to see what happens. I have two plants of this strain on the go and it seemed like a good opportunity to experiment and run a side by side comparison. I also think the structure actually lends itself very well to the technique. Yes it will create an even bushier structure but will also allow a little more room to play as the other untopped SN basically can't be trained at all.
I would usually train a plant by bringing the dominant growth down and letting the rest of the growth reach upwards thus creating an even canopy. It just isn't possible to do that with this plant. By topping her, she was immediately exposed to much more light and as far as I can tell, more light = more tops and more tops = more buds.
I don't think that topping will create a longer growth period. I might be wrong, but I've never seen this happen. Sure, it might create a smaller plant in the long run but I'd be surprised if it affected the timeline too much. We'll see!

As far as breeders recommendations go, I've never seen one recommend topping an auto, I don't think Mephisto even really recommend LST on any of their strains which is clearly not always the best advice. I take breeder info with a pinch of salt.

The stems are relatively thick on the SN, but just as flexible as any others really, I train them very slowly and gently, I've never had a stem snap on me during this stage and hopefully I won't this time around either. I'm pretty careful with it and don't really mind if it create more work. There's not really that much to do in the garden so a little more work here and there is welcome really. I love spending time with my plants and relish the opportunity to get on with little tasks here and there.

Anyway, the main point that I'm making is that it's an experiment and therefore there is no bad outcome as far as I'm concerned, just an opportunity to learn and so far, the topped plant is looking much better than the untopped one.

I like that you are experimenting with your grow and you seem to have thought through the process.

I am not against topping autos at all even though my original post may have made it seem that way. In fact, had I known then what I know now about my current grow, I might have topped my gal. I think topping is a good way to break main cola apical dominance, increase side branching and stunt the height of a plant. However, in my experience, it doesn’t increase yields. And if I were to top a plant, I would probably choose a strain that was: 1.) large in stature; 2.) a vigorous grower: and 3.) more sativa dominant.

As far as being careful with LST goes, when I say the stems on the Strawberry Nuggets are thick, what I mean is that on my little two liter bottle grow with her, her main stem was about an inch and a half (3.8 cm) in diameter and her side branches very early on were about three quarters of an inch (1.9 cm) in diameter. As time goes on, they become very rigid, too. I wouldn’t say that it’s impossible to LST, but I would be very careful and I would probably only pull out the side branches to open up the middle a bit. I just let mine grow naturally, and I found that she kept a fairly even canopy until after the flowering stretch was finished, with the main cola only slightly above the side branches (maybe only an inch or two (2.5 to 5 cm) difference in height). The large fan leaves on her created a very flat looking almost table-like top to her. I had to tuck the fans twice a day to make sure the side branches got enough light. I’m a very big guy. I’m 6’9” (206 cm) tall and I weigh 300+ pounds (135 kg), and the fan leaves on this were bigger than my hands (!!!). I know that @Vapo69 has had some excellent results with topping and mainlining his Strawberry Nuggets. And he did it very early on. What he did was actually quite masterful.

All in all, I was just trying to make the points of 1.) thinking it all through; and 2.) exercising caution and not being too aggressive with her. That’s all.

Happy growing.