When to flip 12/12 with picture first grow.

[iruleyou1]

I am looking for advice on when to switch 12/12. These plants are Royal Queen Northern Light. They are only about 10" tall at the highest point and most advice from my friends was to wait until at least 12" however most 12" plants I see are far skimpier than these. I resolved the issues with the 2 center plants which is why they look a week behind. The outside leaves are just about touching the tent walls now.

Should I wait until the canopy is full or do you think I am good to go? This is a 5x5 tent.

 

[Bernie420]

You can flip if you want they look healthy. If this was mine I would top the very top branches of the bigger plants strategically remove the big fan leaves blocking lower bud sites clean up what lower growth that isnt going to do anything wait 7-10 days and then flip.

 

[OldMedUser]

Do them now if you want. They're gonna get hella bigger once you do. Fill out that tent in no time.

What are you using for lights?

Any short ones sit on boxes or something.

Nice plants!

 

[Mr.me]

Id say flip them now! Remember, plants usually double or even triple in size during flowering. Good looking plants btw!

 

[iruleyou1]

Do them now if you want. They're gonna get hella bigger once you do. Fill out that tent in no time.

What are you using for lights?

Any short ones sit on boxes or something.

Nice plants!

12 Luminus CMX-22 3500k 90cri built into 2 frames so I can angle and raise independantly. I may add 4 more cobs to the same setup dropping the wattage per cob for efficiency. First 4 weeks I just used one frame and pushed the buckets closer together. I bought a lux meter and trying to veg at 25k to 30k lux. I'm going on the low side because I want them to stretch being as dense as they are. Dimmed to 75% at 30" I'm having no trouble hitting those numbers. Come flower I should have plenty of power. .

Note this picture is older.

 

[OldMedUser]

I'm an HID man myself but you seem to have plenty of power and if adding more you should get a sweet yield.

 

[Lucky Luke]

First grow? Flip em. enjoy the show.

For maximum yield wait until the canopy has filled the tent, like a lid of green and then flip.

I just grew some NL and they didn't stretch as much as I expected them to.

 

[iruleyou1]

Id say flip them now! Remember, plants usually double or even triple in size during flowering. Good looking plants btw!

I cleaned up the bottom few inches tonight and removed some of the fan leaves that were blocking nodes about to show through. I didn't top any more spots since the canopy is pretty even. On the larger plants I am seeing around 25 nodes up there. I think I will check again in 2 days since I stressed the plant and give it a chance to even out now that light is hitting a few more spots.

First grow? Flip em. enjoy the show.

For maximum yield wait until the canopy has filled the tent, like a lid of green and then flip.

I just grew some NL and they didn't stretch as much as I expected them to.

I think 9 or more plants would have been better for this strain in 5x5 being a small compact plant. The website did say strain is good for a sea of green grow. In sure the conopy will eventually fill the tent but at this point waiting may not be worth it. They seem to just get denser instead of filling out width wise. I'll consider changing tomorrow night but no later than Friday. They may fill in the space between plants by then anyway.

 

[OldMedUser]

I cleaned up the bottom few inches tonight and removed some of the fan leaves that were blocking nodes about to show through. I didn't top any more spots since the canopy is pretty even. On the larger plants I am seeing around 25 nodes up there. I think I will check again in 2 days since I stressed the plant and give it a chance to even out now that light is hitting a few more spots.


I think 9 or more plants would have been better for this strain in 5x5 being a small compact plant. The website did say strain is good for a sea of green grow. In sure the conopy will eventually fill the tent but at this point waiting may not be worth it. They seem to just get denser instead of filling out width wise. I'll consider changing tomorrow night but no later than Friday. They may fill in the space between plants by then anyway.

Once the go into stretch they will fill it up fast. Most people wait too long and end up having height issues and just too much growth for their space. Overcrowding brings on more problems like mold and mildew and if bugs get into a crowded space they can get well established before you know they are there. And you don't want to have to try to get rid of mites in the middle of flowering as you'll ruin your crop trying to save it.

With more room to grow you'll likely get a better yield than waiting too long. Each plant will get better light and air and that goes a long way to a better crop too. I'm always waiting too long and swearing I won't do it next time.

 

[iruleyou1]

Decisions, decisions . Should I wait at least 48 hours since I trimmed up the bottom of the plant for stress reasons?

 

[OldMedUser]

Decisions, decisions . Should I wait at least 48 hours since I trimmed up the bottom of the plant for stress reasons?

No need to wait for that. If you had just topped the plants then you need to wait a week or more to get the new shoots out tho I've topped and flipped right away and the shoots grew out really nice colas but I wondered if they might have got bigger if I'd waited a week. Dropped one and broke a toe as it was.

Pot plants aren't stressed near as much as most people think by losing some parts. They are adapted to animal and insect predation in the wild and quickly grow new parts on the surviving parts of the plant to make up for it.

Tough as nails and they have to be to survive the kind of neglect and abuse they get around here. I literally beat the crap out of them when they are young to make them grow tough stems and branches. They look all saggy and sad but by morning are up praying to the light.

 

[iruleyou1]

No need to wait for that. If you had just topped the plants then you need to wait a week or more to get the new shoots out tho I've topped and flipped right away and the shoots grew out really nice colas but I wondered if they might have got bigger if I'd waited a week. Dropped one and broke a toe as it was.

Pot plants aren't stressed near as much as most people think by losing some parts. They are adapted to animal and insect predation in the wild and quickly grow new parts on the surviving parts of the plant to make up for it.

Tough as nails and they have to be to survive the kind of neglect and abuse they get around here. I literally beat the crap out of them when they are young to make them grow tough stems and branches. They look all saggy and sad but by morning are up praying to the light.

I think you just sold me.

1)Should I lower my lights and raise the intensity or gradually build up over a few days? I also have to figure out a way to stop light through the passive air intakes in the tent however my basement is fairly dark. I can leave the lights off for a few days down there while I sort it out.
2) Would it be a good idea to close the passive air intakes and use the lower 6" ports with dryer flex tubing instead? I can cover the ends of the tubes with netting for bugs and make a couple 90 degree bends. I won't go too crazy with zipper pinhole light leaks since the basement is not exposed to almost any sunlight. That might be overkill.

 

[OldMedUser]

Leave the lights at the same height and I like to have the grow light along with a flowering light to help limit stretch a bit but whatever you got, use it.

Search for light baffles and I'm sure you'll find a good DIY solution to that. Bends in the hose creates resistance to air flow.

Definitely use something to screen for bugs. My vents have mosquito screen to support anti-lint wipes to filter out spores. mites etc.

 

[iruleyou1]

Leave the lights at the same height and I like to have the grow light along with a flowering light to help limit stretch a bit but whatever you got, use it.

Search for light baffles and I'm sure you'll find a good DIY solution to that. Bends in the hose creates resistance to air flow.

Definitely use something to screen for bugs. My vents have mosquito screen to support anti-lint wipes to filter out spores. mites etc.

I used a Vipraspectra 1200watt dimmable for the first 2 weeks of veg. In all honestly it was a well built light for the price tag when compared to others but no way in hell it was going to cover a 5x5 or even the 4x4 they said it will do. Realizing my noob error i returned it to Amazon and built the cob setup. I ran 6 of them for 2 more weeks and all 12 for the last week when the plants grew. Using a lux meter I maintained the same levels over a larger footprint. Next grow I may go with a better Veg light if my first try is a success.

Since I can't double up more on lights I went from 30,000 lux to 52,000 lux while maintaining height by raising the dimmer all the way. After all the work and reading I was too lazy to get in there and lower the lights . The 12/12 cycle will start at the next lights out. Now I need to figure out how many LUX is correct for my setup.

 

[OldMedUser]

During the stretch you want maximum warp speed Mr. Sulu! The plants feed up to 4X more during that growth spurt so all systems need to be full power. After the stretch feeding drops off rapidly to fast veg levels and slowly tapers off as the end nears and it's just the buds swelling and putting on weight.

I've done daily testing of ppm in my DWC tubs and went from a drop of 50ppm/day to 200ppm/day a week into the stretch after flipping then dropping down to 50 again. Good indicator of when stretch is ending and it's time to do a nute change to a later flower mix with lower N and P with higher K and S for massive colas and more resin.