The Laughganis were getting way too crowded in the veg room floor. Since it will be over a week until they go into bloom, I decided to take the breeders advice and do a major thin down od the outside of the plant. The breeder of this strain advises to remove all fan leaves extending outside the shoots approx 1 week before bloom. This enables you to get more plants into a given area, and gives the growing shoots 1 last blast of veg light prior to blooming. He says that while removing all these leaves
may slightly affect yield, the additional plants that can be put in the same area more than makes up for this...therefore increasing overall density of buds in a given area. Since I'm new to this strain, and the breeder has 10 years experience with her, I chose to listen to him and do some major trimming.
It took 2 hours, but I'm very happy with the results. Prior to trimming, the plants were very crowded and light was only hitting the top canopy. Now, you'll see nice clean rows with light hitting all the way down the outside of the plants. I know some people NEVER remove healthy fan leaves, but I've done so with good results over the last several years. Anyways, here's the results:
Before trimming
After Trimming
Pretty fat stock for a 2 foot tall plant
Trimmed plants allow for nice bucket spacing. You can see some light on the floor, telling me that the sides of the plant are getting some nice pre-bloom light.
The Bubba on the right was going to be our mother. At second thought, we decided we really don't need a dedicated mother. We can just take a couple cuts from the plants before they go into bloom. So, I assigned Helper D the awful task of killing her today. The room she takes up can veg 4 Laughganis. I called him an hour ago and he hadn't done the deed yet. I don't know if he's got the stomach for such a mission. If not, I'll do it tomorrow. I wish I had an outdoor space to plant her in. What can I say; she's doing more harm thatn good. There's no room in the bloom room and we need the space for the plants coming off of the table.
2 more DWC Bubbas. The one on the left is Rodan (Godzilla fans will recognize the name), and the one on the right is Little Rico.
So, there's the veg room floor. Helper D is transplanting all of these Laughganis to 10 gallon pots today and tomorrow. Then 7 - 10 more days in veg and off to the bloom room. They seemed to have maxed out in the 5 gallon buckets they are in. I saw the rootball on one as I was leaving today. I've never seen so many roots from a 2 foot plant not topped or trained in a 5 gallon bucket. If we end up trying for 4 foot plants, I believe we will have to go into 15 or maybe 20 gallon pots.
