Like this
And after afew days wil be like this
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Bent down or removed? Appreciate the figure, that helps quite a bit!
Your plants are gorgeous…I hope to reach that level someday.
Thanks man! It is a fun ride 
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Circles remove and
arrows just bent/push down
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Hell yeah that’s easy enough for me to understand 
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Afternoon of expletives and some minor victories against rockwool.
I received these micro seedling domes , which I ordered to preserve the Romulan cut recovery effort in full force while simultaneously allowing my newly-hatched seedlings a taste of the world. I cut holes in one of the trays to allow the rooting plugs to fit through, easy and nice. I’ve laid one of the inserts (comes in a 4-pack) on top of the clone dome to reduce ppfd to 100umol, while allowing my seedlings to receive about 200umol.
That was the easy, sedate part. Next I attempt to fabricate my own mapito. For those unfamiliar, this is shredded rock wool mixed with styrofoam, the sophisticates use additional plain styrofoam balls. It’s like growing in rock wool but with bonus aeration and very popular in European circles. Look how fucking sophisticated I am 
“You wouldn’t understand…it’s european!”
LOL probably my favorite show of all time. Anyway, I used a soldering iron to perforate my solo cups with what I figure to be an optimized layout of holes. And I procured a Uni-Slab.
You may note on the package the comment “Important: Do not remove UNI-SLAB from bag.” Now, I’ve read quite a bit about shredding rock wool by this point, so I go outside for the messy part: shredding the Uni-Slab and crumbling styrofoam. This is where the expletives started and largely ended. First of all, despite my heavy 9mil nitrile gloves, I still feel a persistant itch. It’s like fiberglass but somehow worse. I was prepared, but not quite enough. Anyway, with the wind at my back I complete shredding half the Uni-Slab. Now for styrofoam. It’s not as easy as I thought. Especially with the wind. I shredded what appeared to be about 30-40% the total volume when my fingers decided enough was enough. Wet it out with RO (should have done this FIRST) and added nutes to get up to about 800uS EC to buffer. Anyway, if you do try this at home, do the wool shredding with it wet. It seems like a 50/50 mix of the folks who do this online wet vs dry. Definately go wet. And foam is more work than it seems to break up into small chunks and beads, and you pretty much have to do that dry. That’s a step that works far better without gloves, I used gloves for 10 minutes and had white, styrofoam gloves. So, wet rock wool with heavy gloves for that part. Dry styrofoam and bare hands for that part.
I rinsed a cup of hydroton and tossed that on top, like a chef sprinkling pepper on his finished dish. Why not…I don’t think I shredded enough foam so I’ll make up the difference.
Hopefully I someday grow colas like you @tamimes!
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for the small cups i would break up the foam more and no hydroton (better more smaller foam than few larger pcs) i harvest will post a pic of the roots)
Just take a sawknife andcut/rasp the foam block
You could do these larger pcs in a bigger pot😉
Remember your pot is very small
I will send you a mail its about designing something to automate hope it will be possible😉
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OK, so you have a smaller ratio of balls:wool and smaller foam than many of the folks I looked at. I think I can swing this. I continued to process my foam and reduced the quantity of it overall. I got most of the hydroton out but there is still a couple beads in it.
I think only 3 of my seeds are making it, convenient. This look closer to what I’m after?
Like everything else, this first run isn’t going to be as good as the next one. Next time I’ll make one of the shredder attachments for my drill. And probably just buy the foam pellets. The styrofoam I found has been a royal pain in the ass.
A proper haircut (with guidance by @tamimes).
The back row, required quite a bit of work. Left to right, 907xNL1, 907xShisk, Runtz x Sour Bubble and another pheno of the 907xShisk.
Those left two are my current shining stars. Short, manageable, robust and fragrant. They are both freaks in their own ways, but I much prefer them to the stretchy, frail-stem phenos.
That looks MORE like the pictures you have been posting. I feel like I’m at least getting into the ballpark with the trim style.
With the rest of the rows populated.
Timelines, the larger plants have all been in the compartment since the 22nd (17 days - flower for 12 days), the 3 smaller ones since the 29th (10 days all 12/12). I had run the larger plants in veg for 5 days hoping to get the cuts rooted so they could all begin flower at the same time but I gave up on that plan. So it’s asymmetric.
That looking better? Thank you very much for your guidance with this! I’m listening…trying to follow as best I reasonably can.
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What is the use of the styrofoam?
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It’s for aeration, and with certain types of foam some moisture retention. It also seems to be a good way to recycle used rock wool. We’ll see 
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Yes the hair cut looks good
The long plants you can pinch to keep it all same hight and put the light closer on them
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Pinch - like top it?
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No pinch the stem then bent
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Ok, good. Topping sounds like the opposite of what I want to do.
To clarify, pinch, say below the second to the top node (similar height to the others) and bend her top over?
Basically crush/pinch main stem and reorient that horizontal. Want to be sure I understand before I do it, never done much beyond topping and LST before.
Believe this is “super cropping?”
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Yes just a cm lower
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when you pinch the stem there will be light in that corner if you dont do it then turn the plant for optimal light you have enough room😉
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Will do, will post what happens tomorrow before work 
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I always thought this stuff was more exotic … like at least a special type of foam? I guess not!
Are you going start/finish some in solo cups w/ mapito next to the rockwool cubes? I’m loving all the experiments going on here 
Your ladies in bloom are all looking healthy, growing some nice legs 
What does your irrigation schedule look like these days?
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I really need to make this tutorial. No, bending is an unnecessary step and wound for the purpose.
There is two school in “pinching” :
- the “crunch one” : pinching with a progressive pressure until you break the phloem
- the “heating one” : maintaining gently the section between your fingers, slowly turning it by 10°-20° radiant, until the portion become very soft (the heat of your fingers is enough).
The concept is just to create a wound to jugulate the phloem (during 2 to 3 days only, after this the plant is “repaired” naturally), then redirect the growth’s strength on the previous node during this time. With a daily care, it permit to perfectly balance all stems in balancing the “pinching” where it’s necessary. Not specialy only on the trunk btw.
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Hey @NoCal!
It seems like you can literally use whatever. Styrofoam is common, seen lots of pictures using pink/blue construction foam. I’d think a porous open-cell foam would help with moisture retention but I’m just starting with this stuff, it may become my preferred substrate. It’s common with the SOG crowd from what I can see.
Yes, I’m starting and finishing the Bahia Black Head, Cinderella Pineapple and a NL#2 for the solo cup challenge. It’ll be a fun way to try things out.
Right now everything floods once a day. I had read 2 hours before lights out (almost certainly bro science) or 2 hours after lights on. I have it 2 hours before lights out so I can supervise it before work
@Fuel wish I had read that about an hour ago 
I could use a piece of wire to put her back upright. “Crunch” technique
On the plus side, I have some pretty plants growing. Everything is going well with the Canna stuff using my hybrid water. Beautifully stable, and adding RO to top up reservoir. Chefs kiss 
It didn’t really dawn on me before but I think I’m going to be getting some decent smoke out of this. Not just an experiment to pick a couple plants to grow for smoke this summer. Pretty plants and the smell is intoxicating
Cheers all
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