Hey all, Running 2 18gal and 20gal res. I’m having trouble with new side branching in flower. Like all over the place. I’m doing autos and this happened last time using jacks. I’m going to have over 50 bud sites per plant at lease making them all small. Anybody hav a clue why this is. In soil or coco I will have a few good mains and colas look good but no side branching in flower It’s crazy and can’t figure it out. Any help be much appreciated.
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Genetics vary some get tall some stay short . Some branch some won’t,t just trim it back after the stretch only keeping the main tips and shave or hack off the rest.
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Manage all the lower growth and fine thin branches.
Generally, you’re going to want to strip the lower half of the plant with big hydro plants. If light isn’t hitting a budsite, it’s gotta go. Helps with airflow, too. It’s hard to gauge how seed plant growth is going to be post-flower stretch, but you’ll know more next time. I’m always growing from seed plants so I know it’s impossible to get it perfect every time. Some genetics just grow like that, small buds and branches everywhere.
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Do you have any pictures?
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Light too far and plant is stretching?
Oh sorry didn’t read your doing autos. I have next to 0 experience doing autos . You may want to ask auto growers there is a few around.
Where as photo period u can strip and cut and top ect you only get 1 kick at the can with autos and chopping half its limbs may diminish yeild drastically
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Hi Litforlife welcome to OG, this is where you’ll get Good advice😊
I never had this issue. I ran 18g totes for years and I can’t think of a logical explanation other than genetics or maybe some kinda crazy nute regimen. Pictures would def help. I would have to tie my branches up about 4-5 weeks in flower from the weight. You’re main stalk may have too much stress and split if you’re not careful. Trim the bottom 1/3 slowly if you haven’t yet. Best of luck.
Thanks guys for all the reply’s! I’m pretty sure it’s not strain related as this is the 3rd time in Rdwc that this has happened except 1 I did with AP clones and they turned out great. I just cut the new branching out. ALot because it was doing same thing but photos are more forgiving. Last was 4 Bruce Banner auto and they did same thing. With these autos I’ve hacked on them a bunch even tho they say to not to. Even took clones off them that are now 2ft tall in dirt. Who said you can’t clone a autoflower!
There sour d plants by the way and this is my first go at them. These are some stretching beasts. One is about 2 weeks from finish and other is just starting to bud up. That’s genetics tho. I’ve been using Jacks 321@ 1.2 ec then at first sign of flower I lowered and put flower fuel a guy gave me to try and slow growth some. Didn’t work just burned some tips at 1/4 recommended. So flushed and back at normal ec now. Anyway the more I cut off the more she wants to put back on. I’m in a 5x5 with this run and my light is 45x30 480w bar light with 318 Samsung H diodes 3500k and in flower I run them at 600 pfd at edges and even higher 18 hr. So it’s not the light. These are very light hungry plants. I’ve even added more 460nm blue to slow down and nothing has worked. Main rookie mistake I made was I was super busy and didn’t get net table setup so it’s a free for all in there. Running out of room so going to have to finish other one out of tent. When I set this up I had to put a coke crate under buckets so I didn’t have to cut hole in tent and now I need that room lol. Will take my time next run if I can figure this branching thing out. Do you all think it may be the jacks causing this? What else could it be. To late now but guess Ill try something different next go to rule out. Sorry so long but trying to give all info. Here’s a few pics. Back one is thick. I didn’t pull from it near as much. 1st pick it would look like all the way down if I didn’t remove anything. You can see all the branches I removed from stalks. Something that’s not recommended for autos. Maybe it is tho! In hydro at least.
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They actually look pretty good. I think you just were not getting enough light to the lowers, and maybe actually allowed too many lowers to develop.
I bet if you thinned out about 1/3 of the lowers (next time), and removed the bottom 4-8 branches that don’t get enough light, the remaining lowers would fill in better.
Agreed. They look good. Not enough penetration for the bottom 1/3 of the plant. You may stress it too much if you go doing too much this late. Next round def remove the bottom 1/3 branches during weeks 1-2 of flower. GL!
Thanks guys, it’s not the worst I’ve seen. I was just scared to remove that much with autos. They just got to tall to quick plus me getting to busy i screwed them up. This indoor + dwc sure has been a learning curve. I sure do appreciate all the advice. Not a total loss on them tho. Have you all ran the Jacks 321 with good final results in hydro. Seems to be the bees knees in veg but I need to get all the kinks worked out in finishing.
I have no experience with jacks personally, but what you’re doing looks good. Maybe some calcium or potassium def? Curling tips could be a ph swing. DWC will produce fast results as you can see. I would LST the first 2 weeks of flowering all the while removing lower branches and growth along the bottom branches that were kept. Maybe those autos like to 4x their size when you flip?
Yes having cal mag issues right now. Trying to recover. The jacks is 3 part deal. 3 grams jacks 2 cal nit and 1mag. 15-12-26 alone. the cal nit is15 so 20 N all together. When I threw that booster in a buddy gave me it burnt tips at 1/4 dose. So I flushed 2 days later. Now going back up with ferts gradually. I put a little cal mag in with but regular feeding has it all. You can adjust those up down as needed. In flower people are using same or dif ratios. 2/2/2 with 1 mkp 1st couple weeks of flower then go back to normal. Just have to get it dialed in for flower. I wouldn’t had used flower fuel but was trying to slow plants down from my first mistake. So all off kilter now. That’s my story anyway ha. Thanks for the tips. And yes autos in hyper drive compared to soil for sure.