Newbie needs some advice! Wk 3/4 of Flowering! With Pics!

HEY EVERYONE!!! HERE's THE BACKGROUND!

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Plants - Dairy Queen (Hybrid - Sativa Dominant 60/40) and 3rd Dimension (Hybrid - Sativa Dominant 70/30) - Both TGA Subcool Clones.
Media - Soil, organic - Manna Mix, FFOF, Sunshine #4 with Fox Farms Lightwarrior and Perlite as a base - using 5gal air-pruning grow bags.
Nutes - General Organics GO box - utilizing their feeding schedule with very little variation (i.e. watching the plant's response and adjusting as needed)
Lights - A 4-bulb T5HO and two side CFL's...both are in 2,700 K right now - plus ONE side 5,000K bulb to keep stretch down.
Indoor/Outdoor? - Indoor
Pests? - A slight Spider Mite issue - slaughtered the lot of them with Mighty Bomb & will continue to spray until final flush. I've scoped ONE live one in the last week. Which rocks. I would suggest Mighty Bomb to anyone that has a mite problem. Scorched Earth Styleeee .
Water - PH balanced drinking water from the store - not tap water

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Hello RIU-ers,

So this is my first grow and I definitely have had my fare share of troubles. A bit of history, since I havn't posted in a while. The Dairy Queen spent 9-10 weeks in veg because my first 3rd Dimension got all sorts of f@cked - total newbie mistakes. Overcaring, overwatering, overnuteing, transplant shock, the works. So I killed that plant and bought another 3rd Dimension clone that was a bit further along during week 3 of the Dairy Queen's Veg.

I then vegged both the remaining time - ~6 weeks - and then threw them into 12/12 at the same time.

So far, I JUST ended week 4 of 12/12 - which means its more like week 2-3 of flowering (since I am using CFL/T5HO, they take a bit longer to mature...I've heard you add two weeks on your grow)

How do you think they look???? Healthy Buds???? Like I said...this is my first grow - I've done my damn homework on this, but now I just don't know what they should look like at this stage. I know they bulk up A LOT in the last two weeks of grow.

Every picture on the internet I compare to for a "3 week flowering" on google images looks like buds on steroids....so I am a bit nervous they are a little underdeveloped. Also, the 3rd Dimension (on the right of the group shot) stretched A LOT in the first few days or so of 12/12, so I put them back on an LST regiment, added that wide mesh screen for them to grab on to...and now the 3rd Dimension has big ass colas that are kind of more like this //// than this |||||. No worries though - just matured a bit funkier as I had less time to train it. I just don't have the space for a sativa to just take the eff over - so I've had to really focus on keeping them short. Might be a lower yield, but I'll dial the LST in on my next grow - get it to JUST fill the space. Right now I still have about a 1.5 feet left of grow space....so I could've let them stretch more.

Thoughts? Suggestions on how to bulk 'em up? Any and all words appreciated. Except asshole comments. Don't do that. I'm a newb with sensitive feelings haha j/k.

Thanks,

Smacks.

p.s. images from left to right

First 3 images - 3rd dimension
Second 3 images - Dairy queen
Last image - group shot!

p.s.s. +rep for awesome helpers.

hey man it's looking nice so far, Here's is some advice for you take it or leave it: The Screen Of Green Technique is all about flooding your canopy with light, IMO you have way to much growth under your screen. All those little tiny twigs are doing is taking away from the size of the nugs in your main canopy. if i were you i would drop your screen few inches and spread those nodes out to fill your screen and then trim everything that isn't above the netting off. It's alot of work but will be worth it in the long run. Check out this video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4FAqd8-Xmw ,this guy knows what he is doing. Good luck on your endeavors!

Calm down dude! That all looks good!You can buy some nutes and snake oils to fatten buds but you'd be wasting your time.Patience and time will definatly fatten up your buds.You still have 8-10 weeks to go.Ill go ahead and say it now...buy yourself a microscope,60x zoom at least....They'll be done when you start seeing amber trichomes.Start reading up on drying and curing.GL.peace

and trim some of that undergrowth

DankyMcNugerson said:

hey man it's looking nice so far, Here's is some advice for you take it or leave it: The Screen Of Green Technique is all about flooding your canopy with light, IMO you have way to much growth under your screen. All those little tiny twigs are doing is taking away from the size of the nugs in your main canopy. if i were you i would drop your screen few inches and spread those nodes out to fill your screen and then trim everything that isn't above the netting off. It's alot of work but will be worth it in the long run. Check out this video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4FAqd8-Xmw ,this guy knows what he is doing. Good luck on your endeavors!

Click to expand...

Go Hawks.

Thanks for the good advice - actually all posts.

Danky - that video is...outrageous. Not even sure what to say. One plant?!?! haha

Yeah, about 5 days ago I decided I was going to do some "heavy" pruning and I trimmed maybe 1 or 2 little twigs off the bottom - stepped back - thought to myself "that looks about right". Guess I'm a little off! hah

So what your saying is just cut off any unnecessary little twiggy branches that are attached to the MAIN branches? What about the ones with budsites? I was going to do a double harvest, cut the tops off at harvest, lower lights, and then let the bottoms get filled out?

Another problem - I FIMed both a couple of times, so my Dairy Queen it's hella twisted up. I almost did a spiral staircase of out it - so the main stem in the middle is now at least 2 feet, just bent over at like 4 inches via LST.

Just want to clarify before I start chopping. Just twigs and fan leaves? no branches or budsites?

lower the screen and give the other bud tops some light? Check.

I have a pocket microscope 60x-100x. Hard to use for trichs and I end up having to snip a piece to do a hundred count. Right now at the 60x, all it is is cloudy and clear trichs. I saw a few amber, but that could also be from me not being able to keep my grubby paws off that honey.

Other than that clarification, thanks for the help everyone! Another newb question. How do I give +reps hah

-Smacks.

smacksjack said:

Go Hawks.

Thanks for the good advice - actually all posts.

Danky - that video is...outrageous. Not even sure what to say. One plant?!?! haha

Yeah, about 5 days ago I decided I was going to do some "heavy" pruning and I trimmed maybe 1 or 2 little twigs off the bottom - stepped back - thought to myself "that looks about right". Guess I'm a little off! hah

So what your saying is just cut off any unnecessary little twiggy branches that are attached to the MAIN branches? What about the ones with budsites? I was going to do a double harvest, cut the tops off at harvest, lower lights, and then let the bottoms get filled out?

Another problem - I FIMed both a couple of times, so my Dairy Queen it's hella twisted up. I almost did a spiral staircase of out it - so the main stem in the middle is now at least 2 feet, just bent over at like 4 inches via LST.

Just want to clarify before I start chopping. Just twigs and fan leaves? no branches or budsites?

lower the screen and give the other bud tops some light? Check.

I have a pocket microscope 60x-100x. Hard to use for trichs and I end up having to snip a piece to do a hundred count. Right now at the 60x, all it is is cloudy and clear trichs. I saw a few amber, but that could also be from me not being able to keep my grubby paws off that honey.

Other than that clarification, thanks for the help everyone! Another newb question. How do I give +reps hah

-Smacks.

Click to expand...

No problem man i was in your position not long ago and this website helped me alot so i try and help whenever i can. I would trim anything that you don't think is going reach near canopy level in 2 weeks. other then that i would have just about everything else from maybe 2-3 inches below the net down trimmed like a lollipop stem.

As far as the twisted stock, yeah i COULD effect the overall production of that plant but i would be to worried about it.

That video blows my fucking mind man haha i showed some of my fellow farmers friends that video after i saw at, needless to say alot of my friends are SCROG-ing / LST-ing now lol.

as far as rep its the little sheriffs badge in the bottom left of the post.

Start a Journal in the forums if you want good advice that what i did. click marijuana in my journal

good luck on the grow

Big Trees said:

and trim some of that undergrowth

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Its unanimous you should trim some of that under growth!..lol..




@smacksjack
What's with those spotlight looking cfl's...those things are like flashlightsI think the regular 23 watt spirally type would be better.That's a goood idea about cutting your tops...WHEN THERE DONE!....and then lowering your lights,ive done it...and theres no way you should have any amber trichs this early...as for the +Rep thing its the sherriffs badge at the bottom of a post but i think you have to have more posts/forum usage.GL

Yeah - I've been having to spray with Mighty Bomb to keep the mites at bay...so I've been spraying right before the lights go off to make sure it doesn't burn them, but it could be from that. It's chalk full of natural oils...it's rad stuff.

Thanks for the rep button. I've probably pissed off some other folks getting good advice then missing that step hah.

So maybe a compromise in this situation. I trim out the bottom beyond where I feel comfortable...up to about 3 inches below the mesh. I'll go heavy this time..

Some skinny twig branches, leaving fan leaves as much as possible. Losing some of the possible budsites that are just lost causes.

Keep the ones that are kind of in the middle of 'lost cause' and popcorn bud - come harvest time, chop those big ones down, then flower the rest again?

I think that sounds like a plan! Thanks for all your help +rep (what ass decided to make that a sheriff's badge...haha) to you all.

Smacks.

Hey RIU,

Thanks again for the advice...

I just went in and attacked the undergrowth like y'all said. Took out most twigs, but I did leave a bit more than I think I should have, simply because I want to try to do two harvests.

So -- here's a pic of my adventure in pruning. It was stressful, but now I have a big ass ziplock of trich-filled greenery that went right into the freezer for when I decide to make some butter.

Side note/Dumb Question - do I have to worry about a strawberry plant being in the box too? Strawbs self-pollinate, so I am just a bit worried about my girls and the pollen. That said - I am aware they are different species of plants, so I doubt this is an issue. Just wondering, though.

Again, I do appreciate the quick responses. You all are champs of the grow-room. Keep it up roll it up.

Peace and love,

Smacks.