Strain Mistake... How Do I get THIS mess to flower??

Strain. As a newbie.. looking at seeds online, frothing at the mouth to get started, I made what I will refer to as a "strain mistake". Also known as a "what the fuck where you THINKING? or WTFWYT!!

Had I known then, when I was ordering seeds, what I know now, I would have done things far far differently. Not knowing what to look for in seeds, I picked seeds with pretty names, or seeds with high THC.... nothing really that would help me out when I finally began growing.

I planted 10 strains.

Get your bong, take a hit.. and laugh your ass off while you think about how crazy this is about to get.

Did I buy seeds that all grew the same height? Nope.. didnt know that would be important. (roll your eyes now)

So now I am ready to flip the girlies into 12/12 lights.. but what is wrong with them? Why is one girlie huge tall and other girlies like short squat little tires? What did I do wrong?? Is the water not watering some of them? Whats going on!

Worry, concern ensues.

Friend comes over and says.. Do you know these strains? So I say.. Yeah.. they are marijuana.

Him: No.. STRAIN

Me: Yeah.. MARIJAUNA..

Him ::No.. what is the name of each plant?

Me: THC, Strawberry blue, LSD, Pineapple chunk.. Cotton candy, Candy Kush.... I dont know all of them!

Him: Well you should, because each strain grows differently. Some are far taller than others, some work for scrog, some dont.

Me: omg..I had no idea some strains would grow taller than others.

Quickly researched all my strains. I have five growing that will be under 18 inches. I have two growing that will be 3-4 feet, and I have three growing that I will probably need to raise the roof for. They say they will be 10-15 feet tall. FIFTEEN FEET??? What the hell??

I'm growing an alien... omg..

Now how in the hell do I get all of these bitches to flower??

I have a 1000k bulb, a 400k bulb, a ballast, but no bulb for a 600w. I have a 9 x 12 room. Help.

And being new sucks ass. Thank god for roll it up.

Being new means you don't know this shit. So take it easy on yourself and sit back and take a few bong hits! All is not lost, plus you learned a shitload Like similar strains usually work best under lights and Indica strains are better than Sativa strains for indoor growing, where you have height constraints.

Leave em in the dark for a day or two, then flip to 12/12. The females will definitely flower (the males you will kill). The problem with differing heights is the taller plants will be closer to the lights, and will likely yield more, bigger, denser and heavier buds. The ones farther away, not so much. Any possibility of adding that second light (400 or 600w)? If so, you can set heights for them fat bottomed gals and for those tall stretchy types.

Unless you really screw up, you'll have some smoke in about 2 months (about 3 with dry and cure) and you can put all this hard earned knowledge to use on your next grow

Good luck

Take it easy. A lot of people do multi strain grows. It's okay. You won't know how much they'll stretch until they stretch. You have a nice big room with plenty if lights so you're good in that sense. As far as how to flower.... 12/12. If I knew now what I knew then is a cooler saying too

Thanks folks.

@ rold2tight... Can I put two different lights in the same room? Wont the plants fall over to reach the higher watt light? I purchased feminized seeds, so they shouldn't change, but still checking them. "Fat bottomed girls..." I think I like that.. Maybe thats what I am going to end up referring to my grow room as... "Hey.. wanna visit my fat bottomed girls?" awesome. Thanks!


@Grandmah.. Do they choose strains that grow to different heights? The plants that I found out will be tall, the plant structure of those are just vastly different. I raised the lights, and immediately four plants grew about 4 inches in two days. When I started searching strains... guess which ones grew tall? lol...

So.. What I did was this.. I have all my plants in trays, one 4x4 tray, one 2x4 tray. The trays are side by side. I put up the 4 ft light mover and put the 1,000 watt light on it. By doing that, it gives me the most coverage with the best light. I put the short plants under the 1000, and the ones that will grow taller around them. Although I am dying to scrog, and have built multiple racks to scrog (photos of my design in grow journal), I dont think thats in the cards for me with this grow. I think I will just supercrop and see what happens.

I was thinking of hanging the 600 watt over the taller ones, so I could use more of the room space, but not sure how that will affect the plants. I have an 8 bulb T5 panel as well. Maybe I could hang that vertical by the tall plants?

lol.. Where's my bong? good grief. Hey Grandmah.. I'm 54 with my first grow. Not my first crop.. grew up raising grapes and peaches. This is going to be the only crop I will raise that will bring me personal joy. Pretty darn cool. Im stressing because I was a freakin perfectionist growing grapes.. lol.. I want these to be perfect. Oh.. and those mites... death to them bastards. Grow room is bug free!

JazzyLady said:

Strain. As a newbie.. looking at seeds online, frothing at the mouth to get started, I made what I will refer to as a "strain mistake". Also known as a "what the fuck where you THINKING? or WTFWYT!!

Now how in the hell do I get all of these bitches to flower??

I have a 1000k bulb, a 400k bulb, a ballast, but no bulb for a 600w. I have a 9 x 12 room. Help.

And being new sucks ass. Thank god for roll it up.

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I'd sort them by height, group them together and do the flip, the only problem is the light issues, the sativas will get more light, and you will still have to deal with cannopy issues. I dont know how you feel about PGR's like plant growth regulators, you could treat the sativas with that. But I would rather spend time training with a screen/ net or some string, Users choice...

I kinda know how you feel tho' I'm phenotype hunting, and I literally have been blooming anything I can get my hands on. So I'm running a screen over things just to keep it level.

As far as getting them to flower. I force mine by going 72 HR dark, and swapping to bloom nutrients.

Can't you just put the shorter ones on a table ( build it if you have to ) so that they are now the same height as the taller ones sitting on the floor? Be creative and just remember that in 2-3 months all of this will be behind you.

greenlikemoney said:

Can't you just put the shorter ones on a table ( build it if you have to ) so that they are now the same height as the taller ones sitting on the floor? Be creative and just remember that in 2-3 months all of this will be behind you.

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that's what I do to get my short ladies at even canopy level with the taller ones but I use cinder blocks and stack till at desired hieghr so far so good but ya sounds like its gonna b hell feeding to as some will prolly b fine and others r gonna b testy as hell so I'd go easy till u got em all felt out as best u can

Good luck

You can use tables. You can train your plants to get an even canopy. You can use your different lights for different heights. There are lots of possibilities.

I grow multiple strains all the time, with different results from great to downright awful. Like somebody says here try to group them together by size. The biggest challenge is getting them all to be the same distance from the lights. It will take some upside down buckets, flower pots, little tables,.etc... But it can be fun though. You should have a better likelihood of getting a nice gem out of the different selection.
Then theres the feeding. THATS where you will find out just how different they really are, and how its almost like growing different plants at the same time. They will drink differently, and they will need and take nutrients much different from one another. Figuring all that out will be a challenge for ya.
Good luck and happy growing !!

the blog rescue thing: https://www.rollitup.org/Journal/Entry/12-week-grow-sceneario-cervantas.29407/

GrowerGoneWild said:

I'd sort them by height, group them together and do the flip, the only problem is the light issues, the sativas will get more light, and you will still have to deal with cannopy issues. I dont know how you feel about PGR's like plant growth regulators, you could treat the sativas with that. But I would rather spend time training with a screen/ net or some string, Users choice...

I kinda know how you feel tho' I'm phenotype hunting, and I literally have been blooming anything I can get my hands on. So I'm running a screen over things just to keep it level.

As far as getting them to flower. I force mine by going 72 HR dark, and swapping to bloom nutrients.

Click to expand...

Ohh.. what is Phenotype hunting? I dont know anything about PGR's... but not in any hurry to learn more. I think I prefer a more natural route. But way cool of you to tell me about it.

Well.. I have had a wild day today. While in the process of changing the room from a veg room to a flowering room, the hanging beam system I was using to hold all the lights fell. It flattened 8 plants. I was sick.. just sick. There were pieces of plants everywhere that had been snapped from the force of that huge hood. All the main tops were gone, and some of the lower leaves were still there. Barely anything, really. The light was hot.

I knew I had to take them out, they were destroyed. But I just lost it. I sat down and just started to cry. lol... and as I am typing, I am again crying. So much work. I had no bugs, everything looked green, lush, healthy. I was just sick. I just didnt have the heart to go clean up all the plants and throw everything out.

I got a book out, havent done that in years, read for about four hours.. time sorta got away from me because it was a good book.

I went to the grow room to turn out the lights before I went to bed, and looked where the light had fallen. It was unreal. Nearly all of the plants that had not been snapped off had pulled nearly all their remaining leaves up to the light. Those that had broken branches and looked destroyed had begun to lift to the light. Except where there is two plants that have nearly half their plant gone, its almost difficult to tell where the light hit. They may be tiny little plants now.. but they are weeds, and into flower we go!

Too funny... I loved my plants so much I didnt toss them all away when they were damaged.

JazzyLady said:

Too funny... I loved my plants so much I didnt toss them all away when they were damaged.

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Might be salvageable, consider doing clones, a small clone with sativa qualities is easier to manage in bloom.

JazzyLady said:

Ohh.. what is Phenotype hunting? I dont know anything about PGR's... but not in any hurry to learn more. I think I prefer a more natural route. But way cool of you to tell me about it.

Click to expand...

Some strains have specific traits potency, vigor, aroma, etc.. I am looking for a C99 to work with, however when working from seed the traits can vary quite a bit. For example of all the seeds I've popped, I found a C99 with exceptional vigor I call it "monster"... Another C99 quality I'm looking for is the pineapple phenotype. So I run into canopy issues like you because of the variations found within seeds.

Plant Growth Regulators, Ill keep it generalized because you say you dont want to use them. PGR's is a group of chemicals that can force a plant to keep small, they inhibit, or are the antagonist pair of plant hormones like gibberellin. You can "bonzai" your plants with this. However the PGR's that I'm aware of are either for ornamental use only or suspected carcinogens, and some products were not properly labeled they PGRs. This however does not stop growers from using PGRs.

Cobnobuler said:

I grow multiple strains all the time, with different results from great to downright awful. Like somebody says here try to group them together by size. The biggest challenge is getting them all to be the same distance from the lights. It will take some upside down buckets, flower pots, little tables,.etc... But it can be fun though. You should have a better likelihood of getting a nice gem out of the different selection.
Then theres the feeding. THATS where you will find out just how different they really are, and how its almost like growing different plants at the same time. They will drink differently, and they will need and take nutrients much different from one another. Figuring all that out will be a challenge for ya.
Good luck and happy growing !!

Click to expand...

omg... This is scary as hell! They drink differently?? Need different nutrients?? omg. Ok... Why are they selling us nutes for the plants that dont work for all the plants?

Its a bigger challenge than you think.. I am growing in coco and using ebb and flow. If I raise the plants, they come out of the water. Not good.

GrowerGoneWild said:

Some strains have specific traits potency, vigor, aroma, etc.. I am looking for a C99 to work with, however when working from seed the traits can vary quite a bit. For example of all the seeds I've popped, I found a C99 with exceptional vigor I call it "monster"... Another C99 quality I'm looking for is the pineapple phenotype. So I run into canopy issues like you because of the variations found within seeds.

Plant Growth Regulators, Ill keep it generalized because you say you dont want to use them. PGR's is a group of chemicals that can force a plant to keep small, they inhibit, or are the antagonist pair of plant hormones like gibberellin. You can "bonzai" your plants with this. However the PGR's that I'm aware of are either for ornamental use only or suspected carcinogens, and some products were not properly labeled they PGRs. This however does not stop growers from using PGRs.

Click to expand...

One of my friends said that I should never grow a seed without taking a clone because not all seeds are the same, and I might get lucky and get an incredible one, and if I dont make a clone, I cant get it back. So now I just have more cuttings than I was ever planning to take! lol.. Sounds like you are doing sort of the same thing, but with a far sharper focus. How many seeds have you popped during your quest? What does C99 mean?

Holy cow! I would never use PGR now that I know what it does and is! Thank you so much for that information!

[/QUOTE]
Quickly researched all my strains. I have five growing that will be under 18 inches. I have two growing that will be 3-4 feet, and I have three growing that I will probably need to raise the roof for. They say they will be 10-15 feet tall. FIFTEEN FEET??? What the hell??

I have a 1000k bulb, a 400k bulb, a ballast, but no bulb for a 600w. I have a 9 x 12 room. Help.

And being new sucks ass. Thank god for roll it up.[/QUOTE]

LOL. At least you have equipment and light better than the cfl's I have to work with Those maximum grow heights would probably be for outdoors and ideal conditions, but training by growers is always one of the tricks you will need in your bag.

Watch videos, read posts, try things and build up your skill sets as a grower. Love your girls, keep their room clean, and you should do better every grow.

Just below is a link to a video I put up a couple days ago on YouTube of my second grow with soil and cfl's. I have serious health problems and am trying to save my life by growing cannabis to make Rick Simpson Oil aka Hash Oil.

My first grow was shit, but I did months of research, tried and failed, but kept learning. I have done much better on this grow, and will do better on each successive one, because I can't get the medicine I need any other way. I can't make video's for shit, but it was shot in HD, and there are good views on how I trained the girls, and how I work with varying heights of plants, to get the most light I can where it will do the most good.


Love your girls, and they will try to love you back.

JazzyLady said:

One of my friends said that I should never grow a seed without taking a clone because not all seeds are the same, and I might get lucky and get an incredible one, and if I dont make a clone, I cant get it back. So now I just have more cuttings than I was ever planning to take! lol.. Sounds like you are doing sort of the same thing, but with a far sharper focus. How many seeds have you popped during your quest? What does C99 mean?

Holy cow! I would never use PGR now that I know what it does and is! Thank you so much for that information!

Click to expand...

If I knew that nobody would consume the crop, I would experiment with a synthetic PGR, just to see what happens. My understanding is that some kelp and seaweed based products contain natural PGR's. I'm not going to attach any negative value to a PGR. Might be fine for ornamental flowers, but I am unsure of its safety in a crop that will be consumed, therefore I will not use synthetic PGR's on a cannabis crop.

I agree with your friend. Always get a clone.. Now it is possible to reveg.. however I have had limited success with it, I'd rather clone. You can have the best grow techniques but if your genetics are not selected well... You just end up with some so-so midgrade. Finding the best is part of the adventure.

You could use all those smaller cuttings to grow in a different way (Sea Of Green) small plants in bloom. I personally try to avoid this method, mainly because it makes my plant count too high and I'm trying to stay within the legal limits.

I think ive popped all 10 of my c99, / Cinderella 99. I did manage to find one I call monster, so its c99 Monster, the vigor is amazing. Gonna keep that one, I have it in bloom so I hope its potent too.

Jazzy,,,you get the RIU Pulitzer for your writing !

I'll bet you have Indica's and Sativa's and crossbreeds.
The Indies' will go 8-9 weeks in flower and are the shorter one's.
The cross's can be the same to around maybe 10 weeks.
The Sativa's,,, will be the tallest ones,,,,brace yourself here....can go up to 16 weeks.....Golly gee!

When you buy seeds. Look for the strain type "Indica/Sativa/cross of the 2 (they sometimes list the amount of each...aprox.) in the description of.

Indica's and Indica dominate strains are more forgiving feeding wise.
Sativa's can be very fussy feeders. Can be is the key, but as a rule that's they way they play.
I'm sure you have the jist of their height's so I won't recover that.

You can do something called "super cropping" to help with the tallness of them by simply taking the stem in between your fingernails and GENTLY pinching and bending the stem till it "folds" over with out crushing or snapping it off. Bend it 45 deg. and let it go from there. I do this to sometimes as much as 2ft of the main cola.
The bonus of that will be the buds on that stem will turn up to the light and grow bigger!!!

Best of luck and reading about the "weed" will help out......How about this book,

http://www.amazon.com/Marijuana-Growers-Handbook-Complete-Cultivation/dp/0932551467

This is newer and very complete....It will help you along greatly.

good luck