Why cut fan leaves in half

[JSB99]

I see many pictures where three of the fan leaves on some branches have been cut in half. Why is this, how much does it help, and what is the proper way to do this?

Also...

This is my first grow. Using lot of research I think I've built a fairly descent system.

- Grow box is 4' x 2' x 6'.
- MH conversion and HPS (both 400 watts).
- Six 18" bubble bars on three air pumps in two 12 gallon sterilite containers
- Water level at 5 gallons (about half full and about 3 inches below the net pots)
- Turbo yeast CO2 with a pump on a timer that turns on for 15 minutes 7 times a day while my exhaust fans turn off at the same time for 15 minutes
- Using mylar
- 18 hour light cycle for veg
- Duct fans mounted inside 6" intake on hood keeps temps down to 80 - 85 degrees in box
- 2 x 5" fans blowing in and 2 x 6" duct exhaust fans for ventilation and breezing the plants for stem exercise
- Ph between 6.0 and 6.5
- Nutes (Aurora Grow Synthetics) PPM at 990
- Plants are about 4 weeks old
- Tallest plant is 16" tall
- Hydroton grow medium

So, my question is, how much can I expect to yield?

JUST KIDDING!!! I know that's the question everyone hates.

My real question is...how am I doing? Is there anything I should be aware of? It seems like my newer leaves have a yellowish tint. The older leaves are quite green. Is this normal?

Any help, comments, advice, etc is surely welcome. I tried to do all my research beforehand so I didn't ask dumb questions that I could've easily looked up, on my own, online.

Thanks everyone

 

[bobbyboy34]

your system is sit up very nicely, im assuming you are not wanting you plants to get any more than 2ft in veg, closet area is small, but well put together, plants look great

is that bucket the yeast you have set up?? tell me how that works, how you set it up and stuff, im thinking i might use that method

 

[MrFishy]

Nice lookin' plants.

 

[bleezyg420]

like on clones? you cut leave tips to encourage root growth. Lookng healthy as could be.

 

[Seamaiden]

Yeah God DAMN those babies look luscious! I trim fans if they're very damaged so as to prevent entry points for disease without defoliating the plant. I trim leaves of clones so that they don't put energy towards supporting leaf when I want them to put energy towards growing roots.

 

[sb101]

wow those babies look nice! props on the setup!

 

[Mowbuss]

Welcome to Rollitup..

Nice grow man.

As far as cutting leaves, cut off half the veg matter it has to support...which leaves more energy for roots....less stress on plant.

 

[bobbyboy34]

i personally like to trim about 1/3 of the plant on the bottom to make plant hormones go to the top of the plant

do this about 3 weeks before flowering and watch your buds be monsters!

 

[JSB99]

Thanks everyone

Yes, BobbyBoy34, that is the yeast bucket.

From everything that I've been reading, adding CO2 drastically improves plant growth. So, here's what I do (and it seems to work well).

Go to your local brew store and ask them for "Turbo Yeast". This is supposed to be a pretty ambitious strain of yeast. If they don't have it just ask for yeast to use for CO2 for plants. They'll know what to get you. It's a fairly common request.

I got a five gallon bucket, a couple of threaded pipe attachments and washers to attach the nylon tube to and use as the valve for the top of the bucket. Get a small air pump (don't spend more than $10 - $12 for this as it doesn't need to be anything powerful).

After drilling your hole for the nylon tube and the small hole for the air fish pump air line, fill the five gallon bucket with three gallons of room temperature water. Add 12 cups of common cane sugar, and 6 teaspoons yeast.

I was a little ambitious with mine. I used PVC pipe and ran it into my box. I drilled holes in the pipe that sits in the box. I sealed the holes where the pipe goes into the box so that no CO2 escapes (it smells like old dirty socks and can be a little overwhelming at times). I also sealed my box really well.

You'll want to get two timers (unless you can find one that allows for alternating power on/off for individual outlets). You can get the ones you see in my pics at Home depot for about $20 a piece (or on ebay for less). Set the on/off times opposite of each other so that the fans turn off when the CO2 pump turns on.

Here's an example of how I have mine...
Fans
12:15 - Off 12:30 - On
4:30 - Off 4:45 - On
9:00 - Off 9:15 - On
etc...

CO2 Pump
12:15 - On 12:30 - Off
4:30 - On 4:45 Off
9:00 On 9:15 - Off
etc...

You will want to add a cup of sugar and some water to the bucket about once a week. After about a month I'd probably dump it and make another batch. I read that the mix can go bad after a while.

I hope that helps. I know the description is long and detailed, but I had to do lots of research and try different things before I found what worked. Hopefully this helps others.

PS: In one of these pics you'll see a pressure gauge attached to PVC. I read that the CO2 pressure can really get up there so I wanted to make sure I didn't blow the top off by watching the pressure. This is not needed. With this setup there's not much pressure (which is why we need the pump to push extra CO2 at times). You'll have enough pressure to keep providing CO2 to the box, but not enough to have the results that we want. I measured 200 ppm at the plants without the pump and above 1000 ppm with it.


I've also included some pics of the inside of my box in case anyone's looking for ideas. I really like the pulley system I set up using pulleys, a couple latches, a cleat, nylon rope, and key rings. I tried the yo-yo's and really didn't like them. They were hard to work with and just didn't seem all that strong. If I get bored waiting for my girls (many of them I hope) to grow up, I may rig up a small motor and switch to make it motorized. I'd probably have to be really bored to that that though.

Enjoy

 

[bobbyboy34]

Thanks everyone

Yes, BobbyBoy34, that is the yeast bucket.

From everything that I've been reading, adding CO2 drastically improves plant growth. So, here's what I do (and it seems to work well).

Go to your local brew store and ask them for "Turbo Yeast". This is supposed to be a pretty ambitious strain of yeast. If they don't have it just ask for yeast to use for CO2 for plants. They'll know what to get you. It's a fairly common request.

I got a five gallon bucket, a couple of threaded pipe attachments and washers to attach the nylon tube to and use as the valve for the top of the bucket. Get a small air pump (don't spend more than $10 - $12 for this as it doesn't need to be anything powerful).

After drilling your hole for the nylon tube and the small hole for the air fish pump air line, fill the five gallon bucket with three gallons of room temperature water. Add 12 cups of common cane sugar, and 6 teaspoons yeast.

I was a little ambitious with mine. I used PVC pipe and ran it into my box. I drilled holes in the pipe that sits in the box. I sealed the holes where the pipe goes into the box so that no CO2 escapes (it smells like old dirty socks and can be a little overwhelming at times). I also sealed my box really well.

You'll want to get two timers (unless you can find one that allows for alternating power on/off for individual outlets). You can get the ones you see in my pics at Home depot for about $20 a piece (or on ebay for less). Set the on/off times opposite of each other so that the fans turn off when the CO2 pump turns on.

Here's an example of how I have mine...
Fans
12:15 - Off 12:30 - On
4:30 - Off 4:45 - On
9:00 - Off 9:15 - On
etc...

CO2 Pump
12:15 - On 12:30 - Off
4:30 - On 4:45 Off
9:00 On 9:15 - Off
etc...

You will want to add a cup of sugar and some water to the bucket about once a week. After about a month I'd probably dump it and make another batch. I read that the mix can go bad after a while.

I hope that helps. I know the description is long and detailed, but I had to do lots of research and try different things before I found what worked. Hopefully this helps others.

PS: In one of these pics you'll see a pressure gauge attached to PVC. I read that the CO2 pressure can really get up there so I wanted to make sure I didn't blow the top off by watching the pressure. This is not needed. With this setup there's not much pressure (which is why we need the pump to push extra CO2 at times). You'll have enough pressure to keep providing CO2 to the box, but not enough to have the results that we want. I measured 200 ppm at the plants without the pump and above 1000 ppm with it.


I've also included some pics of the inside of my box in case anyone's looking for ideas. I really like the pulley system I set up using pulleys, a couple latches, a cleat, nylon rope, and key rings. I tried the yo-yo's and really didn't like them. They were hard to work with and just didn't seem all that strong. If I get bored waiting for my girls (many of them I hope) to grow up, I may rig up a small motor and switch to make it motorized. I'd probably have to be really bored to that that though.

Enjoy

im sorry but WOW

 

[JSB99]

Thanks

I saw the price of CO2 generators and really didn't want to invest that much $$$ for a smaller setup. So basically, I made the most out of a very inexpensive solution.

It works really well if you set it up correctly. It's not nearly as accurate as the CO2 generators, but I would bet that it's working well enough for what I have.

I think the total cost came to about $30. That includes the pump, bucket, yeast, sugar, and hose. I wish CO2 gauges weren't so expensive. I'd love to have one to see what I'm consistently putting out. I've got a cheap glass tube tester right now.

 

[Londoner]

like on clones? you cut leave tips to encourage root growth. Lookng healthy as could be.

Leaves are cut in half when cloning to reduce the surface area of the leaves to prevent excess transpiration of water from the clone, in theory reducing clone wilt, since it has no roots to uptake water to replace the moisture lost through transpiration.

I used to do this but now i dont and it makes no difference to the time it takes for my clones to root.

 

[JSB99]

Thanks. I was hesitant on cutting any leaves before I got some feedback. Based on what everyone's been saying, it's not really necessary to cut leaves back, it just helps with certain things.

I'll probably just leave mine alone since this is my first grow. One thing at a time

 

[Londoner]

Thanks. I was hesitant on cutting any leaves before I got some feedback. Based on what everyone's been saying, it's not really necessary to cut leaves back, it just helps with certain things.

I'll probably just leave mine alone since this is my first grow. One thing at a time

No dont cut any leaves. it doesnt help anything.

 

[MrFishy]

Trimming the leaves back caused my 3-4 weeks stalled clones to root in 2 days?
Once I saw this, I started clipping all my clones and have since had 100% success in much less time.
It certainly appeared to help in this case.

 

[JSB99]

Trimming the leaves back caused my 3-4 weeks stalled clones to root in 2 days?
Once I saw this, I started clipping all my clones and have since had 100% success in much less time.
It certainly appeared to help in this case.

Thanks for the advice. When I get ready to start my first clones (in about 3 weeks, after I sex the plants) I'm going to do tons more research and ask everyone in the forums about their experiences and what worked best for them. After that I'll use my best judgment to find what works for me.

Any and all advice is welcome.

 

[born2killspam]

Very nice indeed.. Tips on the fermentation though, for 5 USGal, regular baker's yeast can successfully ferment about 4.5kg (10lbs) of sugar.. At that point the ABV of the bucket will be about 14%, and baker's yeast will die off..
Yeast also need some nutrition.. (Molasses works well)
Calculation-wise you get about 1 mole of CO2 (44g) for every 100g of sugar.. 1 mole of a gas will fill ~23L at standard temp/pressure..
So a 5 Gal ferment can produce about 45 moles of CO2 over 3-20 days depending on temperature, and recipe etc..
2000 ppm is ideal CO2 level, so thats a dilution of 500 times.. That means that one mole of CO2 will produce about 11500L, or 425cuft of ideal plant air, and the bucket will produce about 19000cuft of ideal plant air..
Your area is 48cuft, so that works out to about 400 exchanges/bucket..
Amount of CO2 is directly proportional to amount of fermented sugar.. Your addition method will keep a steadier rate, but pay attention to the total inside.. The numbers you quoted are pretty lightweight..
Also, contamination is only an issue if it smells too bad, or you want to drink your fermented product..
I just realized that you are using turbo yeast.. Personally I hate the flavor turbos give to a fermentation, so I stick with baker's yeast, EC-1118, or Carlsbergus because I'm not concerned with max capacity.. Turbos can survive up to maybe 18%ABV, so you could go up to almost 6kg sugar/5Gallon, but the production values will be the same..
BTW, champagne yeast is actually a little tougher than turbo yeast..

 

[born2killspam]

Where are you taking your temp readings? At the tops under the lights? The faint color in the new growth could be heat related..
Any idea what kind of cfm your fans are pumping?

 

[Londoner]

Trimming the leaves back caused my 3-4 weeks stalled clones to root in 2 days?
Once I saw this, I started clipping all my clones and have since had 100% success in much less time.
It certainly appeared to help in this case.

Different horses for different courses eh. Just a question, How do you know they wouldnt have rooted in another 2 days if you hadnt cut the leaves??

 

[la9]

Thanks

I saw the price of CO2 generators and really didn't want to invest that much $$$ for a smaller setup. So basically, I made the most out of a very inexpensive solution.

It works really well if you set it up correctly. It's not nearly as accurate as the CO2 generators, but I would bet that it's working well enough for what I have.

I think the total cost came to about $30. That includes the pump, bucket, yeast, sugar, and hose. I wish CO2 gauges weren't so expensive. I'd love to have one to see what I'm consistently putting out. I've got a cheap glass tube tester right now.

Looks like you can setup co2 for around $200, is that the price you were seeing ?