Mr Cockup - plants 11 weeks in veg, what's best to do to them?

[Rural Buddha]

I made a mistake. I've not grown photo-period before and have been waiting for the RGS Freezland IBL S1 I had planned as a guerilla grow to start flowering. It dawned on me - almost literally, 5am this morning - they're not autos!

So a mass sort out today, Seedstockers seedlings put in RDWC, Auto RGS Girl Scout Cookies currently out in conservatory, Freezeland put in my 'old' small tent.

I hadn't planned to grow any photo-period plants just yet but here I am with some that have been under LEDs 18/6 for 11 weeks now

Photos below, what should I do to them before switching to 12/12? Remove straggly lower branches? Top? Supercrop? There's not a great deal of space in the small tent for two big plants!

Advice needed, and gratefully received.

 

 

 

 

RGS Girl Scout Cookies Auto - I'm sure I can smell bacon! These are a couple of weeks or so away from harvesting.

 

[Guest anarchycamp]

They are some healthy looking plants! I'd lollipop them a bit and supercrop with a net over..you'll probably need the support 

[Owderb]

Cut them both in half. They will still fill the tent

 

Owd

[badbillybob]

What Owd said...

[Hempire Road]

Try and clone the tops somewhere and you will have another few plants for next time. A 4 inch grodan cube would do the trick. (If you have space to clone).

[Michael Luchóg]

They'll be initiating ,converted to flowering hormones anyway and because you're probably not going to veg them for a bit ,well I wouldn't cut them in half ,not now . I'd run with them as they are and jam them in at an angle or the main stem kinked and bent over . That isn't a priority though . Cut them in half and they may still stretch enough and fill the space with a more even canopy ,just I wouldn't at this stage ,although I would give them two or three shots of a mix of abamectin /ivermec ,neem ,rosemary and a drop of wash up liquid . Maybe even a pyrethrum root drench as you really don't want to be bringing in creepy crawlies . 

It's a nice complaint .

I've grown a few autos this year and others ,and they weren't all autos but they were leaning toward it sometimes .It depends on the lineage ,a semi-auto that is well established but seems to be a bit more photoperiod like with the timing may just flower on a 15/9 light cycle and likewise when it comes to starting them ,some are tough to keep in veg but can be grown large if given 24 hours of light indoors ,in a fairly sizeable pot and put outside in June . Let a small plant get droughty or pot bound and they'll show you the latent auto gene very fast !

[Guest Donnyronny]

35 minutes ago, Michael Luchóg said:

They'll be initiating ,converted to flowering hormones anyway and because you're probably not going to veg them for a bit ,well I wouldn't cut them in half ,not now . I'd run with them as they are and jam them in at an angle or the main stem kinked and bent over . That isn't a priority though . Cut them in half and they may still stretch enough and fill the space with a more even canopy ,just I wouldn't at this stage ,although I would give them two or three shots of a mix of abamectin /ivermec ,neem ,rosemary and a drop of wash up liquid . Maybe even a pyrethrum root drench as you really don't want to be bringing in creepy crawlies . 

It's a nice complaint .

I've grown a few autos this year and others ,and they weren't all autos but they were leaning toward it sometimes .It depends on the lineage ,a semi-auto that is well established but seems to be a bit more photoperiod like with the timing may just flower on a 15/9 light cycle and likewise when it comes to starting them ,some are tough to keep in veg but can be grown large if given 24 hours of light indoors ,in a fairly sizeable pot and put outside in June . Let a small plant get droughty or pot bound and they'll show you the latent auto gene very fast !

they aren’t autos and they don’t seem to have been outside at any point as I read

 

so yes chop them in half, add a net and let them fill the tent out as normal. 

 

 

 

[Michael Luchóg]

Just now, Donnyronny said:

they aren’t autos and they don’t seem to have been outside at any point as I read

 

so yes chop them in half, add a net and let them fill the tent out as normal. 

 

 

 

Sorry I did misread that . I understood they aren't autos though ,mind you some batches of supposed '' longer flowering autos'' can have a few that just aren't but sorry for digressing anyway !

[kronic420]

Soon as I see the pic my first thought was to chop them in half

[Rural Buddha]

@Owderb @badbillybob @Hempire Road @anarchycamp @Michael Luchóg @Donnyronny @kronic420

 

Thank you all for the advice - chop in half (super top?) is what will happen then I'll get some grodan cubes and see if I can nurture the two tops in to new plants - if I can find room!

 

Michael - I wasn't brilliantly clear about where/how the plants came to be in this state. They did have a few of weeks outside in pots before I chickened out of doing a guerilla grow in some maize fields. The GSC have got some whitefly that now have some Encarsia formosa wasp eggs to deal with them. I'm reasonably sure nothing got in to the coco coir they were, and are, growing in.

 

 

[Guest anarchycamp]

Sounds like a plan pal, a lot simpler than supercropping and you've the potential for a cut or two. Good luck!

[ratdog]

i'd get a bigger tent and flower as they are

[Guest Donnyronny]

43 minutes ago, ratdog said:

i'd get a bigger tent and flower as they are

Over the last few years I’ve started growing 36L trees under a few lights and If you transplant a 2 or a 11 or 15L plant into 36L and flip the same day in soil they stretch fuck all, they put it all into root production

 

ive been doing it years to reduce stretch on big plants, then you spread them out to form a 1 or 2 metre canopy.  

i flowered this one at shoulder height but everyday squashed it down, so I basically tower over the plant and just put my entire body on top and squash the plant down, moving all vertical growth into horizontal growth but expanding the canopy 

 

 

it works great for over vegged plants, in this case maybe not, but in a 240 by 120 tent those girls would be 15/18 ounces after banging them into 36L Batmix in my experience. Under a few lights
 

it’s all about the final flowering space, they look perfect as owderb said if chopped in half and trained under a net 

 

those bottoms have to go tho they are floppy and will just let the side down in flower

 

 

Edited August 22, 2021 by Donnyronny

[Rural Buddha]

Both my big girls now reduced in size and flipped. If I take the ratchets off I can get the LED 8-10 inches higher perhaps. As @Owderb says - they'll still fill the tent! Might be pushing them down like @Donnyronny does.

 

 

Halved, side buds seriously trimmed, but not too much defoliation.

 

Tops and a load of cuttings in propagators - what I'll do with them next I don't know. Tops, if they root, I can find room for probably.

[MindSoup]

That looks a lot better, over the next few days you'll be able to gently tease the net/canopy a lot further down than it is now. Just go nice and slow, bit by bit, try not to snap anything but don't worry too much if it happens,.