5 weeks in do i need to prune?

i am a 1st time grower and here are some pics. right now i have 7 plants and i hope most of them are girls but cant find out until flowering. My question is do i need to prune back some of the larger leaves or just introduce some side lights? If i need to prune some of the larger leaves what is the best way to do so?

thanks for any input!

you want the large leaves to stay on the plant for sure, they are the ones that do the most work for your plants. If you want more light to penetrate the bottom you should try a method of bending the plants.

You could add more light when there, 1ft.

so guys i need to leave the larger leaves on the plant and thenmaybe add more lights once they get about a foot or so? and how do you think they look, good or is there anything you think i might want to do to improve them?

just dont prune. your killing the plant's source of energy. if you want to expose more growshoots paperclip them or you could lst them i didn't prune at all

uhm... I wouldnt necissarily prune but removing a couple (2 at most) fan leaves is perfectly fine... you want most of the vegitation on the plant but normally I will remove the 5th node fan leavesto let more light in as well as introduce side lights... you may also LST, never tried paperclipping due to fear of the sharp edges scraping stem or ripping off leaf anyway. Butremoving a couple fans actually keeps your plant healthy.

I have the same fan LOL

They look fine. Removing fan leaves always turns into a yes and no debate that ends up being scientific.
If they are healthy, let them be. If the fan leaves are dead or almost dead, cut them. If you are dead set on more light to budsites, clip them out of the way.

thanks guys for all the input i will not prune them i will look more towards either paperclip or LST.

i would put them under a HPS light

squints68 said:

i would put them under a HPS light

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i will think about it, thanks

listen, it all depends on what size you want the to end up being in last half of flowering, to a degree.
I do see sign of heat stress on that 3 rd pic I think-ur temps may be a bit on the warm side in that room and the humidity and the humidity too high at the same time- which is not really an easy feat- but common in below ground rooms that are heated.
try getting that heat down to balance this out. pick up a decent hygrometer as your plants are obvioulsy sensitive to these sorts of things.

looks like hydro. what ph r u running and ppm's?

I know this doesn't really pertain to your question BUT for your 1st grow, your plants look extremely healthy! Most first timers over nute or don't PH enough. Yours on the other hand look very well cared for and not rushed at all. 5 weeks they could be a little bigger, especially in hydro, but I am impressed with your success this far. If you keep them as healthy as they look now, in flowering, your going to have some very tasty bud man. +rep

I just took a better look at your setup.. is that the old aquarium setup with foam floating on top lol? After I looked at that.. I started to think... man there is no way I just repped someone who has healthy lookin plants from that method.. lol... when I first started hydro, I seen plans or info for something like that but I chose the Bucket/net pot method instead. I will shit my pants if you tell me I am right here... because then I want to ask if your doing everything else in a... "offish" kind of way haha. Would you mind settling my curiosity here and filling me in on your setup? Lights, Ph?, PPM, Nutes, Aquarium/foam?? lol, I didn't see a hose so how are you aerating the roots? Either way, whatever works bro.. your doing something right. Not trying to put anything down, just curious.

smokeybandit22 said:

listen, it all depends on what size you want the to end up being in last half of flowering, to a degree.
I do see sign of heat stress on that 3 rd pic I think-ur temps may be a bit on the warm side in that room and the humidity and the humidity too high at the same time- which is not really an easy feat- but common in below ground rooms that are heated.
try getting that heat down to balance this out. pick up a decent hygrometer as your plants are obvioulsy sensitive to these sorts of things.

looks like hydro. what ph r u running and ppm's?

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thanks for taking a look at my grow. and yes it is a real simple hydro. to be honest i dont check the ph or ppm's. i checked the ph in the water out the tap and it was 5.8. i do change the nutes every 14 days. and as far as the heat stress you are talking about yeah i seen that too and comes from that one plant growing faster than the rest of the plants and everyday it grow up into the light so i guess i need to raise it up a little bit more so it cant do that. but thanks and any more info will be helpful.

when should i start flowering do you thank?

Holy shit.

oscarmiya said:

I just took a better look at your setup.. is that the old aquarium setup with foam floating on top lol? After I looked at that.. I started to think... man there is no way I just repped someone who has healthy lookin plants from that method.. lol... when I first started hydro, I seen plans or info for something like that but I chose the Bucket/net pot method instead. I will shit my pants if you tell me I am right here... because then I want to ask if your doing everything else in a... "offish" kind of way haha. Would you mind settling my curiosity here and filling me in on your setup? Lights, Ph?, PPM, Nutes, Aquarium/foam?? lol, I didn't see a hose so how are you aerating the roots? Either way, whatever works bro.. your doing something right. Not trying to put anything down, just curious.

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LOL, LOL, LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!! yeah you seen it correct...the old fish tank and styrofoam setup. first let me says i am glad you like what you see and thanks for the rep! Ok my setup is like this...a 10 gallon fish tank, a piece of styrofoam cut to the inside size of the fish tank, a air stone in the bottom of the nutes, brown paper wrapped around the fish tank to block light from the nutes, air pump hooked to hose which is then caulked to a corner of the fish tank in the back and then hook to the air stone, 4 foot fluors with a 6500K color bulb, rockwool as the medium, 3" net pos, and a fan. i change the nutes out every 14 days and for the first 14 days i used 1/4th nutes then i went to 1/2 strength nutes and now i am at 3/4th nute next week i will go upto full strength nutes. i dont test the ph because i tested it out the tap and it was like 5.8 so with me changing the nutes every 14 days and inbetween i top off with tap water i dont test it. as far as ppm i have never tested that and to be honest i dont know how? please tell me how to do so. thanks and i hope i answered all of your questions if not please ask me anything nd i will try to answer you questions. if you have any other advise please give it to me i will be thankful.

oscarmiya said:

Holy shit.

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what??????????????

Ya i have not seen the fish tank method work so well +Rep to ya. I might have to keep my mother plant in a setup like this. youll have to keep us updated.

motoracer110 said:

Ya i have not seen the fish tank method work so well +Rep to ya. I might have to keep my mother plant in a setup like this. youll have to keep us updated.

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yeah it has worked good for me thus far. i will keep you updated.

I think he's just amazed that that system is working. The floating-foam form of hydro isn't really weed-friendly. It's usually used for things like lettuce and kale. It's generally accepted that marijuana needs more oxygen to the roots. This is often the limiting growth factor in hydro, which is probably why your plants are somewhat small for their age. I read about growing that way on a few sites outside this forum, and almost did it, but opted out after reading more here. This just once again proves that growing isn't an exact science... different things work for different people. It's obviously not an optimal system, but it's working. You might wanna look into an ebb and flow or dwc system for your next grow though, if you're wanting to stick with hydro. NFT is another type, but from my understanding, it's a little more advanced. I'd also look into buying some O2 and/or bubble wands(which would be really easy to add) for this grow. It can't hurt. I'm by no means an experienced grower though, so you might wanna wait and see what others say.

Check out my first grow journal if you want a comparison between your results and mine in an ebb and flow... I only veg'd for 4 weeks, but my plants were over a foot tall by then.