Keeping Sativas small with Upstate

Beautiful job on the Training @Arbac sic design and concept…
Eating-up vertical growth is a pretty twisted sport

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That’s the best way to turn a tall lanky plant into a bush without topping it. I love folding or bending the tops of plants down. A spiral has always seemed like an even better option to me.

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i do both…it depends on how much stretching and max height limit as to which one to use. for spiraling you need to keep the apical node higher than the rest. I recently started using a training clip, and then immediately I tie down to the pot the bent over plant. but, i am not sure that lends itself well to the spiraling technique as it diverts the growth a lot.

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How would this work with a clone? Would it be the highest node on main stalk?

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i have done it with clones. depending on how your clone looks that could make things more or less like from seed. a single stock is best ime. it would be much harder to manage multiple nodes in unison, but you could try for fun. maybe keep in mind you will have to also manage all the lower nodes becoming tops. you may need to train each to widen out or fill a canopy. having too many new shoots can make for little light penetration.

i just took one down that had some spiraling, it wasn’t too wild:

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Love it man im about to do this with super autos indoors.
I have also done this with huge outdoor plants You can check em out here. i was calling it “scaffolding training”

edit- looking back, i did grow them to 20 nodes before starting to spiral it.-

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“Excessive Veg”, wonderful Title. I’ll check it for sure.

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Another tip I use is to apply kelp liberally as it contains cytokines that promote branching and reduce node length and stretch. The kelp I use is a mix of Laminaria, Sargassum and Ascophyllum nodosum.

The Sargassum in particular is high in cytokines. As a bonus the kelp will also increase the production of chlorophyll and boost resistance to all sorts of stresses. I also root prune plants pretty heavily when they are repotted and the kelp plus some fulvic acid all but seems to eliminate transplant shock.

I take my hat off to all you crazies trying to grow these massive long flowering trees indoors, y’all definitely got far more patience than myself lol .

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Good tip about the kelp meal. Where did you pick up that blend or is it custom made? How much do you apply, and when do you apply it?

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I’m currently using a pre made mix of this:

This is from a local company that has some awesome products for organic gardening. I’m sure there are similar products over there, being a much bigger market and all.

This stuff is a concentrated extract, I use two tablespoons to a watering can and I feed them this along with some liquid fulvic about every two weeks, you can also foliar feed them, but I don’t tend to do that for obvious reasons, though in veg it’s fine obviously, it’s still a brown liquid and is messy especially indoors.

I also use both the kelp and liquid fulvic in my indoor dwc, just because it means I can push the nutrients harder as both the kelp and fulvic increase plant nutrient uptake.
My current plants are getting 25% stronger nutrients before they reach the point the very tips of the leaves burn, if I do that without the kelp/fulvic I get tacos and leaf burn. Again I don’t exactly know why but I suspect it’s something to do with it increasing the plants ability to deal with abiotic stress like drought and higher levels of salts.

The difference in the plants structure is very marked, to the point that Ive had to thin the lower branches a fair bit, because the whole plant can branch so heavily that it shades itself out.

I’ve also never had a pythium problem with my dwc while using kelp/fulvic, even though the water gets significantly warmer than is ideal here. I’m not sure why this is the case, but it’s definitely a noticeable thing in water culture anyway.

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Kelp is really great. It’s a traditional horticultural amendment for good reasons. Farmers here used to go to the coast (sometimes meaning 100 miles or so, not easy a hundred years ago) to get kelp to bring back on their field. @slain summed up pretty well its effects :slight_smile: I use shred dried kelp, works great to help the soil structure and moisture retention too and slowly release its goodness. I find it works great with sativas cause it has just that liiiiitle bit of N they like, and really still has a boost effect as well as general health enhancement. But you have to be careful with it though if you want to keep your sativa small and not too branchy. Nowadays it can almost be found in any gardening shop here. I wouldn’t be surprised build a soil sell some.

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And rinse the salt off I hear too

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Indeed, unless your plants tolerate high salinity :slight_smile:

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That’s my plan too, I’m not far from the beach and it frequently has lots of kelp and sargassum wash up, pumice is the other thing I want to get a trailer load of next time there is an eruption in the pacific, it’s better than perlite imho.

How do you shred the kelp? Or do you buy it that way? I’m thinking maybe a mulcher would work, though maybe not with the fibrous stem🤔. I’ve collected smaller amounts before and just chopped it up with a spade, hosed it off and then used it as mulch, but I’d like to get it to a finer grind so I can add it to the soil mix.

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I admit I brought it ground, found a good deal, it’s quite cheap here. I guess it’s not easy to grind kelp given its texture, You probably have to get it real real dry to be able to get in in finer particles. Keep us updated of your findings.

Also keep in mind that not all kelp are equal.

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My 4 beauties from ACE :slightly_smiling_face:

Left and right side are Honduras x Panama
Middle front is New Caledonia
In back is Thai Chi

Right side HP was really fast and vigorous, topped her and have been practicing my bondage skills

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love me some sustainably harvested free seaweed. I’ll tell you whut tho.
It does NOT keep sativas Small.

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Just tried to keep some original haze small by keeping them in 1.75 gallons of medium. They bitch slapped me and told me to fuck right off and grew 7 feet anyways and are angry lol

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Don’t you know that the ocean is running out of seaweed?!