Advice on re-veg.....

[Luke Skywalker]

Hi there everyone. I've got the grow up and running again. Fucking rippers decided that outdoor growing was a no-no for me. But that's another story. Anyway, I have two bbxww ladies, planted outdoors in late feb, (hydro) which are looking very, very resinous. (YAY!) They aren't that big, and if I had to guess, I'd say they're about halfway through flowering. I've also got a couple of clones of another indica strain, (HFS) these were also taken around early jan and grown outside in perlite, they didn't get past 30cm! (not enough light).

I want to re-veg all four of these plants, and then clone them off to get the best out of them. Now, I've removed the top 2/3 of two HFS clones, they were nice and ready for harvest, and the other two plants are untouched as yet. I've got the light on 18/6, and I've kept the light a little high, just to make sure they acclimatise to their new conditions. Does anyone have any other advice for stimulating the vegetative response from already flowered plants? Are there any treatments, or methods which you have found more effective? I've never re-vegged a finished plant before, and I really want to keep these particular plants' genes if possible.

 

Thanks in advance....

[Tom]

I would trim the heads off them and have the light(s) on 24/0 until they revert to veg, you'll know when they start to turn as they start growing single blade leaves, then 3 blades and so on. Take the clones at any time after the single blade leaves show but I would wait for the 5 blade leaves myself.

 

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[Luke Skywalker]

Thanks tom, so should I just remove the top 1/3 of the bbxww plants? (I culled off the HFS clones soon after posting, they were starting to hermie, so no point in keeping it.... Oh well) And should the smaller budding sites be left on at the top of what's left? Any advice on nutes? Back to 1.6 ec (min for veg) or should it be a little higher?

 

Cheers

[white_cluster]

you need to leave a tiny bit of bud on there, cos that is where the new veg sites start from. But leave very much only a few. As every single calyx can become a new site. Give em a good dose of Nutes, full strength or 3/4, I've always used a bit of superthrive too. Haven't done it without so I cant tell you if its better or not. If you leave too much bud on, and the plant grows a million growth tips when re-vegging, cut the excess sites off and leave 2 sites per bud site for a good bushy plant.

 

Also I find the smaller you cut the plant back, the quicker it will reveg. No bullshit. I've cut 5ft plants back to 1ft and they have taken off like crazy. No hermying or nothing. So I say take a big chunk out of the plant. The less new growth sites, the quicker it will get big.

[Luke Skywalker]

Thanks whitecluster! I've seen one of my early indoor ladies (strong sat.) start to re-veg, it was nearing the end of flowering and the timer was accidentally changed up from 10/14 to 11/13, this was enough for the plant to start shooting out! I harvested soon after though, and the genes weren't worth keeping (bagseed) so I never really paid any attention. I hadn't changed ferts or anything, and like you said, the top of bud sites were where the new single blade shoots came from... How long should they take to turn? A week? Two? And I should take about 2/3 of the plant then? Leaving the bottom third completely alone to produce new shoots, right?

 

Okay, I'll get back to you all on this, I watered with 1.6 ec (my base tap water is around .8) "grow" nutes, and I'll increase concentration slowly as the new shoots appear. If I could only show you guys these plants! One has such densly packed floral clusters on it, and the resin glands just have to be seen to be believed! I suppose we all say that though..... :: The other plant is a little bigger, and that's probably more due to light levels in their infancy outdoors than anything else, although they are F1 crosses. No, wait, F1's are more alike than F2's, aren't they? Speaking of which, I have a male of the same type, could I fertilise the lower flowers before re-vegging? Would this have any effect on the process? I really want to see the F2 generation of these plants, see if I can stabilise these genes for future plantings. Any advice on that? I know you do some breeding, don't you whitecluster?

 

Talk to ya soon.

[white_cluster]

The plants should only take 2 weeks or so to get growing and the buds will all die off so pollination isn't an option I dont think.

But males can be revegged as well. Never done it though.

When the plant has revegged you will have heaps of extra bud to cut off. Dont smoke it.

 

If you wanna keep them genes you can just keep a female clone and backcross with a male of another strain. You know how to do that?? basically get pollen from a mix of males. pollinate your female clone. grow out the seeds and pick a few males from the mix. then pollinate female clone again. and then again with her great grandson and repeat the process a few times. After 6 generations 97% of the plants genetics will be the same as the original cross. But the vigour of the F1 hybrid will be lost.

 

If you wanna check out the F2 generation, which could give you some interesting specimens you will have to keep that male alive until you flower next.

I wouldn't bother myself, I regret every second I spent trying to breed. sacrificed alot of yield and grew huge plant numbers (500 seedlings at one point) for nothing. Its my dream to breed, but I'm gonna wait till I can get back out under the sun.

 

I've never had a plant that didn't reveg, some are slower than others but all have done it.

[Guest Field_of_Light]

Anyone that has reveged noticed that the leaves grow really weirdly?...like normal plant leaves beofre they take shape?

[Luke Skywalker]

Thanks mate, yeah, I thought that the flowers wouldn't be viable for fertilization, but I figured I'd ask some others anyway. I 'm going to cull the male, and store some of the pollen for any future seed production, maybe I'll just use one clone in the bunch as a seed producer, and keep the rest as sinse. Although I may just store it away and never pull it out again. I tend to agree with you on the breeding, it does seem to be the kind of thing you can only do professionally with any real sucess. I mean, we can get lucky, and I'm not saying that small scale pollination isn't fun and educational, but to really improve and expand genetic diversity, you need to do it with a large gene pool, something most home growers don't have.

 

Thanks for the advice whitecluster, I'll keep this post updated on my progress with this revegging and cloning out attempt.