Original SOG plan ruined...

[jets fool]

I have 15 SSH clones which were cut just as their mothers were sexed, and put back into the veg room. I experienced user error which caused my clones, which had just rooted, to re-initiate their flower cycle.

My original plan was to take all of these cuttings, and throw them into 1gal pots as soon as they rooted, veg for a week, then put into flower. They were to stay in 1gal pots the remainder of their life cycle.

However, I needed extra veg time due to the problem explained above. The issue at hand is that I have 15 plants in 1gal pots that are really bushy and have lots of side shoots stretching, almost as if I topped each plant once or twice. I'm getting a fairly crowded canopy, and the soil is drying out faster than I want. This Monday will mark week 2 of their flower cycle.

My questions are:

• Should I increase pot size from 1gal to 2gal? 3gal would probably be too big for the amount of plants and the square footage I'm working with, but I was thinking that 2gal pots might alleviate some of the hassle of watering so often.
• Should I SCROG this group of plants? Or should I prune/lollipop come flower week 2, and hope that the plants can support their own flower weight?

Some quick info:
4'x6' floor
1500W HPS
77F-81F temps @ 45%-50% RH
Roots Organic Natural & Organic Soil
FloraNova Bloom @ 0.5tsp/gal every other day

Any other tips or suggestions will also be very much appreciated.

Thanks!

-j

 

[High Country]

I have 15 SSH clones which were cut just as their mothers were sexed, and put back into the veg room. I experienced user error which caused my clones, which had just rooted, to re-initiate their flower cycle.

My original plan was to take all of these cuttings, and throw them into 1gal pots as soon as they rooted, veg for a week, then put into flower. They were to stay in 1gal pots the remainder of their life cycle.

However, I needed extra veg time due to the problem explained above. The issue at hand is that I have 15 plants in 1gal pots that are really bushy and have lots of side shoots stretching, almost as if I topped each plant once or twice. I'm getting a fairly crowded canopy, and the soil is drying out faster than I want. This Monday will mark week 2 of their flower cycle.

My questions are:

• Should I increase pot size from 1gal to 2gal? 3gal would probably be too big for the amount of plants and the square footage I'm working with, but I was thinking that 2gal pots might alleviate some of the hassle of watering so often.
• Should I SCROG this group of plants? Or should I prune/lollipop come flower week 2, and hope that the plants can support their own flower weight?

Some quick info:
4'x6' floor
1500W HPS
77F-81F temps @ 45%-50% RH
Roots Organic Natural & Organic Soil
FloraNova Bloom @ 0.5tsp/gal every other day

Any other tips or suggestions will also be very much appreciated.

Thanks!

-j

Mmm, bit of a dilemma, isn't it. Those plants are going to go big on you in the stretch phase. I would put them straight on to 12/12 and just keep your eye on them. Light may be an issue for the lower growth, if so, cut it off. I wouldn't re-pot them yet, just see how they go.

1 week veg time for a SOG is OK however I prefer clones straight on to 12/12 for top to bottom single colas, 4 per sq/ft.

Keep it going and bring on the pics.

 

[jets fool]

@High Country: I agree with your opinion about straight to flower from clones, and that's what I'd like to get in the hang of. I wanted all of the 1gal pots to be as close as possible to each other, touching even. Can't happen now, though, not enough space.

Note: the pics in my first post of this thread are of the flower room.

 

[señorsloth]

increasing the pot size will allow you to water less often, however if you are 2 weeks into flower already your plants will probably be fine in 1 gallons, i have found that once flowering starts they don't root much more, so if you do transplant you will likely find on harvest that you still have your original 1 gallon rootball in the pot with mostly loose soil still around it.

if you stick with 1 gallon pots you will obviously have to water more often, though that can be a good thing if you can get over your gardens dependency to you. watering more often means you can use more dilute nutrients, and salt flushing doesn't last as long, vs say if you water every 8 days and have salt buildup...your only option really is to water with plain water and allow for 8 days for the soil to dry before your plants can get nutrients again, leaves can yellow prematurely because the soil takes so long to dry. i have had this issue using large pots and have since made it a practice to finish in the smallest pot that i can, allowing for 3 days in between waterings and no stunting. more frequent watering also allows for more oxygen to reach the roots. in my cab my plants never get above 26 inches tall or so and though most of my plants finished in 1.5 or 2 gallon grow bags this last round, they yielded no more than the same plants in 1 gallon grow bags, and were indeed still in 1 gallon root balls, barely rooting out into the new soil i transplanted them into. this is my first grow in a long time but i went with larger containers this round simply because they were all from seed, and i need a month to veg them so that i could identify sex before final transplant and flowering. now that i have mothers again i'll be using 1 gallon pots exclusively, even double planting with strains like og kush! personally i would say even with your longer flowering time and stretchy sativa genes you would be fine in 1 gallons, but if you want to water less and play it safe with root-binding near the end transplanting wouldn't hurt, though i don't think it would help your yield much at this stage of flowering.

 

[Dislexus]

Hmm I have found that my plants continue rooting throughout flower..

Basically if you're having water problems now you'll continue to have them.

SOG isn't really scaleable with soil..

But one thing I have done is veg in cups for a longer rootspace, and put 4-5 of these in a 3 gallon.. Watering isnt as bad and you get the SOG results.

If you bought a bunch of 1gallons just for this.. sorry..

I remember doing the same when I started, obsessing over containers that would fit in my growspace perfectly and maximize rootspace hehe.. and it didnt turn out like I thought either hehe..

 

[Dislexus]

btw High Country is on a SOG-crusade but I have recently returned to this website to consider SOG/hydro *GASP*

Normally I do organic soil trees and get delicious results, but I'm tired of trimming man!!! That's the only reason I like SOG... quick trim..

I prefer SoQuick's drip semi-SOG methods tho... He'd veg a week until his clones perked up and showed new growth, then switch to 12/12... fucking nice results, more yield than straight-to-12/12 SOG, and just as easy to trim.

 

[Dislexus]

BTW your SOG plan isn't ruined.. how much veg time did you end up with?

On your next run try throwing the clones into flower after only a couple days.. that will probably solve your watering problems.

Tweak out your methodology rather than scrapping all those expensive 1 gal pots

 

[High Country]

btw High Country is on a SOG-crusade but I have recently returned to this website to consider SOG/hydro *GASP*

Normally I do organic soil trees and get delicious results, but I'm tired of trimming man!!! That's the only reason I like SOG... quick trim..

I prefer SoQuick's drip semi-SOG methods tho... He'd veg a week until his clones perked up and showed new growth, then switch to 12/12... fucking nice results, more yield than straight-to-12/12 SOG, and just as easy to trim.

Another one converted to joys of SOGGING and like you say, single colas are far easier to trim

 

[Dislexus]

LOL I don't know about joy's yet... shutting down my old grow currently.. will be starting with a fresh outlook in a couple months.

I was 100%-organic tree-ing on a continual harvest cycle. Lovely lovely results but too much damn labor. All to maximize production without crossing the Rubicon of 99 plants... which I ended up blowing away as I expanded lol.

Thing is... I hate that chemical salt taste of hydro bud... No matter how much those motherfuckers flush their shit I still taste it gack gack gack. That will be my first challenge.. and somehow finding something that provides the wonderfulnesses of blackstrap mollasses but for hydro.

Cuz my shit now, I got it tasting so crazy good... mofos will be dissappointed, sayin'.

 

[High Country]

LOL I don't know about joy's yet... shutting down my old grow currently.. will be starting with a fresh outlook in a couple months.

I was 100%-organic tree-ing on a continual harvest cycle. Lovely lovely results but too much damn labor. All to maximize production without crossing the Rubicon of 99 plants... which I ended up blowing away as I expanded lol.

Thing is... I hate that chemical salt taste of hydro bud... No matter how much those motherfuckers flush their shit I still taste it gack gack gack. That will be my first challenge.. and somehow finding something that provides the wonderfulnesses of blackstrap mollasses but for hydro.

Cuz my shit now, I got it tasting so crazy good... mofos will be dissappointed, sayin'.

Shit, I'm going the other way, thinking about doing another SOG in soil. I was finding hydro to much of a mission. I'm thinking about filling up my ebb/flow tray with soil and hand watering or drip feed, drain to waste. And to get in to the organic theme of things I've got 40 indica clones on the go.

CLONED IN DIRT

 

[Dislexus]

Fucking up my plans HC... lol..

Shit if you are filling your ebbflow tray up with soil you dont need to do much other than water every 3 days... which is easy when its one big pot lol!

Yeah as I was phasing out my continual-harvest-organic-trees setup I did a soil SOG, lots of plantlets in large pots, to squeak out one more harvest before the move... The roots barely reached the bottom so I think your tray will be perfect depth.

Trimming was such a breeze ahhhhhhhhhh..

It had gotten to the point where I was falling behind on trimming lol.. thats bad. real bad. continual harvests stack up quick.

 

[Dislexus]

Also soil was nice when that hurricane hit... all the hydro grows were knocked out... everybody in the city was dry but me.

 

[High Country]

Also soil was nice when that hurricane hit... all the hydro grows were knocked out... everybody in the city was dry but me.

We get tropical cyclones here, same thing as a hurricane, very nasty. This summer tropical cyclone Yasi hit far north Queensland, category 5, the highest, luckily population numbers are low in that area of the country.

 

[habeeb]

re-due..

nah.. you have a couple options

-re-due your plan if you want SOG plants.
-flip them and cut branches every day, to get a more stick appeal
-re-pot half of them, and flip letting them bush out


I love single sticks, so I am biased in saying star over and finish out what you started.


up to you man, take some time and go with what will make you happy at the end of the day




have fun

 

[High Country]

4 single colas per sq/ft.

 

[Dislexus]

High Country: Yeah, the hurricane that hit here was category 5 too... it COMPLETELY changed the weed market in this megasprawl. This was a primary port of smuggling but the cartels couldn't bring it in that year because of the hurricane disruptions, so they found another path for the decent swag, and it hasn't come back. So now the swag is all shit, quality bud demand is exponential.. so people's style of smoking shifted from joints to glass, so there has been a boom of head shops.. and a lot of gas stations sell cheap chinese glass pipes now.. crazy demand.

 

[Bennyweed1]

alight dude this is what I would do.

First though, I dont know if the plants in the larger pots are apart of your problem because those clearly are in a 3 gallon air pot or something similar.

But with the one gallon plants I would put them in 2 gallon air pots. Use the fabric pots because they are pretty cheap and deliver excellent results.

Then I would hang a screen over them and train for about 4-5 more days of veg. Bending all the main shoots under the screen so you force the plant to branch out their horizontal shoots vertically towards the light. You could get 2lb easy with a 1000w hps and you have 1500w hps.