My outdoor garden....

[Luke Skywalker]

Hi guys, just wanted to know a couple of things in relation to my outdoor grow...But first, some background...

 

I've got two seed grown ladies outside, one's a definite sativa, (I had to take off two thirds of her veg height before I could even think about fitting her in my herb garden!), and the other is a Hell Fire Seeds Indoor Mix girl, the only one to survive from the small 5 seed order I got from Klozit King.... (I lost one seed, planted the other 4, two never germed and one was a male.... I used the male for pollinating a couple of branches on my last indoor lady....) Now, on top of these, I have 3 clones of my last indoor lady, (75% sativa 25% indica, I think....) one of which is fairly old and starting to flower, the other two younger plants are in small soil pots, around a foot tall and starting to flower as well. Finally, I have three seedlings of bbxww which are about a month old....

 

Now, to the q's... The HFS Indoor is flowering like mad! I planted her on 16th Nov, and she's stayed in the same 10L dutchpot in very coarse perlite from the time I planted out the rockwool cube, about a week after germ. Now, if this is a heavy indica, and the expected flowering time was 8-10 wks indoors, (according to kk's site, but I have a feeling this lady will be more like 6-7....) would that be the same time outside? Or would the plant take a little longer to finish off? What factors would affect this? Also, I'm doing a bit of an experiment on this plant with one of the main branches. Because she's been grown in less than ideal conditions, (I have to try and make her inconspicuous to the passer by... So she sits on a wall....) she's ended up fairly tall to reach the light..... I took one of the two main branches and did an air layering, hoping to be able to remove that branch in the future and grow it on as a much shorter, separate plant.... Now, the media is perlite with flecks of growool, the wrap for the stem is black stocking, and the layering point is about halfway up the total height of the plant.... The q is, how long should this take? She's been wrapped like this for about 2 weeks now, and I can see a callous around the stripped area of the stem forming, kind of like the callous you get just before rooting on clones, only this is quite large callousing.... I just hope that it has time to make enough roots so it can be removed from the main plant before I have to harvest! I can't seem to manage to get her to slow down flowering either, even when I regularly provide an interrupting light outside for periods at night.... Why wouldn't a plain incandescent slow her down a if it interrupted the night cycle? Because this lady just keeps charging....!

 

Oh, and one more q.... when I harvest my HFS plant in about 4-6 weeks, and she's still in the same dutchpot, would I be able to cut her down to the lowest nodes, then re-veg her under lights indoors? Are there any tips you guys may have for regenerating an indica dom plant? I've heard they can be tricky?

 

I know I ramble on a lot, but I really need some help here. I look forward to any input by anyone about one, some or all of the q's here. Thanks a lot guys and gals, I don't know what I'd do without you! (Probably grow crappy weed.... )

 

Peace

Yay for Hippies!

 

p.s. One more thing, how easily to flowering clones strike? Should you cut off the flowers before cloning? Or should they be left on and harvested after the plant returns to veg in the clone chamber? Or none of the above? Help! Drowning in sea of non-knowledge! Argh!! Thanks dudes....

[Luke Skywalker]

What, do I smell bad or something?

 

[pipeman]

ha ha. Probably hard for a stoned brain to read that whole post, process, and respond to it

 

I've never read that interrupting the night cycle with light slows growth, but unless you want hermies I'd stop doing that if I were you.

 

If you're worried about the plant flowering/finishing before you get roots from your "air layering" why not just bite the bullet and chop the clones now? what ya waiting for? if the stems got bumps roots are probably about to break through anyway.

 

as far as reveg, some say that revegged smoke is less potent, but I wouldn't really know. I don't see how revegging is a real advantage anyway. If you get going with the clones now you'll probably have new plants ready to flower by the time you harvest anway, plus you can use the leaves from your outdoors to make hash or canna butter.

[Tom]

I just hope that it has time to make enough roots so it can be removed from the main plant before I have to harvest! I can't seem to manage to get her to slow down flowering either, even when I regularly provide an interrupting light outside for periods at night.... Why wouldn't a plain incandescent slow her down a if it interrupted the night cycle? Because this lady just keeps charging....

Why don't you just remove the branch as a clone(s)?

 

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[Luke Skywalker]

If you're worried about the plant flowering/finishing before you get roots from your "air layering" why not just bite the bullet and chop the clones now? what ya waiting for? if the stems got bumps roots are probably about to break through anyway.

 

Why don't you just remove the branch as a clone(s)?

 

Thanks guys, I got some deodorant yesterday, looks like it's working....! Sorry about the length of my posts, I can't seem to control the typing whilst wasted..... Sorry! (Just to show I never learn, here's another long post.....

 

Well, when I did the layering I was aiming to be able to take the branch off as a larger clone than you would get if you just took a clone anyway... The aim was to get about a 50-70 cm plant removed from the main plant, re-potted, grown on and harvested, and then I'd have a much larger plant to start with as the season is getting on.... Anyway, the layering itself is about 50cm from the "ground" and theres a good 50cm of height after this, although if you let it grow naturally, (she's being tied down to inprove yeild and keep her short) there would be a good metre of growth after the layering... This was really just an experiment to see if the method would give me a bigger plant than a clone.... But since I'm restricted to outdoors at the moment, the plants flowering like mad, , and being so large I don't want to take her off too early, not only lose the new plant, but also lose the developing buds as well! So any advice? I should be picking up a new wardrobe this week, so if I took the "clone" off in a week or so, and after another week of acclimatisation and root growth, would the "clone" be okay to go under the hid indoors? Thanks for your patience guys.

 

Oh, and have you ever actually gotten hermies from an interrupted light cycle? Wouldn't that make almost all outdoor plants hermaphrodites? (The moon can be pretty bright....) I've never had this happen before, but then again, haven't been growing that long.... Wouldn't that depend a lot more on genetics and seed source than the light cycle, interrupted or not? I don't know about that one mate.....

[pipeman]

Well I don't know either. all i know is interrupting the dark cycle in flower tends to stress plant and create hermies. Whether or not it will happen in your case who knows. You'll soon see I guess.

[Luke Skywalker]

Indeed I shall....

 

So where did you hear this about night interruption causing hermaphroditism?

[Aussie_Smoker]

Oh, and have you ever actually gotten hermies from an interrupted light cycle?  Wouldn't that make almost all outdoor plants hermaphrodites? (The moon can be pretty bright....)

Interrupted light cycles can stress a plant. A stressed plant can do strange things.

The moon can be bright, but i dont think it effects flowering plants too much, its just not bright enough.

 

Im half baked @ moment, so im not sure about your clone dilema....your long posts are hard to read u know

 

Im My experience; Clones taken from the top half will root quicker, i usually take from bottom as thoes branches dont usually get enough light when plant is flowering & im in no real hurry for rooted clones. Ive taken clones as late as 6 weeks into flower ! they took a little longer to take root, but were ok once established. I usually aim @ taking them before lights r switched to 12/12 or within 10 days of light change. Either way its up to you, experiment,..im constantly doing that ::

[Luke Skywalker]

Well if the moon isn't bright enough to affect her, then it looks like my pissy 75 w outside incandescent 4 metres away sure isn't going to affect her.... Oh well, I can only take this very large clone off, and see what happens, can't I? I'll get my new cabinet first and then use this "clone" to make the genes for the next grow.... I hope this works! Thanks guys!

[pipeman]

Indeed I shall.... 

 

So where did you hear this about night interruption causing hermaphroditism?

its pretty much common knowledge. Its also why they say not to take pics with flash of a flowering plant at night, because that little flash can be enough to stress the plant.

 

also I've read when breeders want to create hermies out of females they use light cycles to do it. one hour on, one hour off.