This past week has been pretty good. All three plants have a lot of new growth. I am really enjoying growing photo periods compared to autoflowering plants.
With auto flowers, I would not be able to create a nice canopy like this, because the plants just do whatever they want and they have their own timeline to do it. I really like having the control over the plants so I can get them looking how I want before their flowering cycle.
The White Widow is still my largest and healthiest looking plant. The other two plants are doing what they can to catch up, but I have been bending the tops down under the netting to force the plant to grow sideways for a while so that the other branches and plants can catch up. It is cool going in the grow room each day and seeing new bud sites popping up and the branches getting longer.
Bending branches for netting is a lot easier than bending branches for super cropping. This is mainly because the branches are a lot floppier. I've been bending these two branches for the past week while the rest of the branches continue to grow upwards. These two branches are most likely going to have the majority of the bud sites because it has so many growing off it is.
Good thing that the main branches are so thick. Over the next two or three weeks, all of these branches will become less pliable and start to harden so they can support the weight of all the buds.
The main thing with using a net is to just bend branches along the canopy as they get longer and start poking up above the netting. Then when the rest of your branches are all at the canopy top, you are good.
The Purple Haze has finally gotten as tall as the net, so I have begun to bend those down as well.
It's cool how easy it is to do this and the plants just kind of go along with it. Incorporating a netting will really help to increase your yield because as the buds form, the net takes on a lot of that weight, tricking the plant into thinking that it is a lot stronger than it really is.
But the real benefit of using a net is so that you can have even light distribution on the canopy.
This Sunday, I am going to be switching the lights over to the 12 on 12 off cycle to induce flowering. Once I do that, the next week or two is going to be a mad dash for the plants to stretch branches and new growth upwards towards the lights.
During the next week, I am going to let the plants grow as much as they can and then I will do a heavy defoliation and remove any leaves or branches that haven't reached the netting. This is because anything under the netting is going to be blocked from getting any light and I don't want the plant to divert any energy into those areas since it will be wasted.
It is cool to see the differences between the plants right now. I really hope that the buds are different as well. You can see on the Purple Haze how thin the leaves are compared to the other plants. I think Purple Haze has a lot more Sativa in it which gives it the skinnier leaves.
I really hope that the Purple Haze produces a lot because I have heard it is an amazing strain. All of the new strains I am growing now, I have heard really good things about. This grow is going to be a lot of fun.
Things are going to be getting exciting in the tent. I am going to be buying a new filter for flower because I have a feeling there is going to be a pretty strong odor coming from all of these pretty soon.
