Hey everyone… Wow the site has changed since i checked it over 10 years ago… I’m a beginner grower (grown a few plants from seed to harvest but not under controlled lighting)… Never had legit space until now (and it’s finally legal here in Alaska)
This was originally a question about leaf trimming but has since been changed to a grow log / Q&A regarding a CFL closet grow. I will post pics of my setup soon. Short summary - 3 plants using a stackable washer/dryer closet with an inline duct fan venting out of the 4 inch and actually just a high rpm general fan for intake / air circulation… I’ve basically turned the closet into a grow tent … I used a blackout blanket for the outer wall instead of the door so i can still open the door (and to bring in the wall a little bit and give an easy way to add the intake fan at the bottom).
Pics soon.
Any advice is welcomed and thanks in advance for reading and/or replying.
I never cut healthy leaves off. Don’t worry, the plant will stretch out in the first few weeks of flower and spread its wings. Many indicas do not want to branch out or grow much on lower branches, don’t fight it, go with the flow.
I leave as many leaves as i can. That being said if i think a leaf will smother another leaf, especially at night when the leaves go limp i cut it. If my room is getting crowded and the leaves from different plants are growing into each other blocking air and light i clean them up to ward off problems. Also it is a plant , if the leaf is annoying you and you will have less stress yourself by cutting it then chop it.
Good points mentioned above. Sometimes I like to just tuck bigger fan leaves under a bud site if I want to expose a certain area, but also think that maybe the plant could still use it. Then maybe pluck it later as the plant stretches in early flower.
Thanks for the replies. That’s what ive been doing; tucking the leaves around each other…using a few wire ties here and there to help expose. Having some fencing./ netting would sure help too… really fun just jumping in and learning as I go for sure!
I am also using CFL’s so i decided t put one CFL down under everything and it seems really happy… once they get big enough i can just hit them with the lights above but for now i need to do a little manipulating…
Cant wait to to a top/supercrop next time to have 4 main colas like this article explains:
Really fun- so far i’ve got 2 females and had to trash a hermie… friend gave me a female clone so i think i have 3 solid babies under about 1000 - eqiuv. watts of CFL lighting… extremely efficiently placed…takes a lot of work to do a CFL grow right… looking like its going to pay off - plants are very happy… doing a fairly small closet grow and didn;t have the time to set up proper hvac for HID so im starting with CFLs.
Defoliation can be a great way to focus growth where you want it on a plant, its one thing that really helps with the way I grow my plants, I generally get an explosion of growth once they hit the flower tent and if done right it should keep the plant in a much healthier, happier state Most defoliation happens in veg though, once they hit flower I don’t touch them till at least the stretch stage is over, once you reach this point it is fine to strip any inward pointing leaves that are blocking light penetration. I try not to touch any of the fans around the main colas as it forces them to foxtail
thanks man thats what i was personally thinking (1 leaf for 3 nodes that will explode into exponential amount of leaves seems worth it… but others disagree and just let the plant grow…) i guess im sorta leaning toward the “grow it how i want it to grow by controlling things with bending, topping,etc”
Also, I meant to say it was still vegging not flowering… they just shot out their first pistils this past week so they be vegging for another month or so
That’s it mate, it all comes down to the grow style which suits you and your space, I basically watch how the plant reacts to different methods at different stages of growth and apply it in my defoliation and topping schedule Different strains will also react differently to others, it comes down to what works best for each individual plant
It helps to really have a passion for the process too… I know im just using CFLs and people probably write that off as weak but i promise these things will be very pretty I’m messing with angles and light efficiency all the time.
I’ve only ever grown single plants on window sills from seed to flower… first time using actual electricity… think im doing pretty well… about 1.5 months in total… still vegging.
Started out using some old soil that must have been nute deficient as the plants literally grew in with (what i leanred) was a magnesium defiency… 2 weeks later deep green after researching how to use eggshells and epsom salt to create homemade calmag… wokred like magic… even sprayed epsom salt/water mix on the leaves themselves and brought some back from yellow to green…
just really fun watching it all, finding out what works and what doesnt… going to be a passion for life i can tell.
This is the hermie i had to cut down. others are looking similar: Any advice is more than welcome… first controlled grow of my life at 33 been smoking 16 years
pre-flowers, yeah. There were two obvious ones (crab claw shape and all pointing horizontially right below where a calyx would normally form (not the stipules) … i had never seen male in person but even had my wife look at a picture… i cut off a small piece and looked under a magifying glass… green crab claws 100%… i also noticed the female stuff on the main branch starting to slow down… pistils taking days to fully pop out of the calyx, etc. When i de-potted her, the roots were bizarre all clumped together and riding around the outside edge of the 4 gallon ceramic pot… had never seen anything like it before… like they had form “bands” like clumps of probably 15 roots alll stuck together and formed as “one” root circling the outside of the ceramic… that could have played into the stress as well. It had proper drainage but i think i was overwatering too.
I told myself i had to find at least 3 nodes with male pollen sacks before i would trash it… i found a site with two on one of the lower branches (main cola had calyx with white hairs already).
I think I stressed it by using the window sill to germinate (before my closet was ready on like a 20/4 natural light cycle and then placed it into 24/7 light in the closet…
Found another node a couple days later with male and cut it down… trust me i didnt want to…it was looking so happy and i had actually successfully grown it fairly horizontally and had like 4 mains forming on the backside you cant see in that pic… i could have probably waited and seen if i could have fended it off since the main stem was forming female but… was starting to stress me out more than it was worth it and a friend offered up a bubblegum clone so… yeah.
I was bummed but happy my other two are pumping out new pistils daily now.
May or may not be unrelated to the herming issue, but I generally tend to stay away from ceramic pots. The clay can get very hot and end up cooking your roots. Not saying that’s what was happening but just tip.
Sounds like maybe the plant got a little root bound and over watered a bit, like you said.
Yeah- I switched to all-plastic when i got that clone (other two are in standard plastic 3 or 4 gal plant pots) and will be using those cloth breather pots next grow.
I have a 1 gallon cloth breather that i might try to grow a little mini super-cropped bush in … keep it small
So much you can do if you just get in there and start tweaking things around after proper research… Epsom salt is a life saver if you are having magnesium deficiency as well… Made my own calmag out of epsom salt and ground chicken eggshell activated with a little bit of apple cider vinegar (acid) to break it down to water soluble / bio-available immediately.
That is cool @spillz907. A few of us on here have ferments, homemade cal-phos, and such. There is a lot of info on here for people trying to be a little more self sustaining. I love my compost piles a little more than i should and my worms eat better than me. Ha! Ha!
let’s do a poll 
I’m messing with angles and light efficiency all the time.