Should I give my plants a haircut ?

Hai all,

A quick request for advice/opinion.

Growing in a 1.2x1.2 Meter tent. Plenty of light as u can see (600W HPS and 250 CFL) with the CFL down under the canopy. Plants are Super lemon haze and 8 ball Kush. I vegged them for a fair old while so I could harvest a good number of clones so they are quite big as you can see. I have had them in 12/12 for 11 days now, and these girls are looking a little hairy. Should I trim them underneath ? Or continue as I am with the CFL down low and try to get a max yield? Appreciate you help as this is only my first proper grow, and would hate to screw up.

I see some really small shoots I would cut them and put them in the cloner. Maybe tie down the top shoots to give a more even canopy.

Looks like a good grow you got going on!

Cheers Ralph. Yeah I had a look at the sticky thread regarding training/pruning, so I will wait till day 21 of blooming to take the lower branches for clones. I had a pretty low success rate with my last clones (50% using root riot), that I put down to inexperience. So if I can get another 8 (have 8 already) then I wont have to waste time/money on new beans. I have also used some ties and super cropping to even out the canopy, but I think I may have left it a little too late, which is why I took the CFL out of my other vegging tent and put it where I did. Also rotating the plants a 1/4 turn ever few hours if and when I can/remember.

Also I am a bit worried that vegging so long I may have got the rootball too big (rootbound) and that I might have issues down the road, although I have also read else where that 2-3 weeks into bloom rootsball stops growing. Guess I will find out, (using the advanced nutrients 3 part system)

Man if you really want to increase your yield use 3 or 5 (12-20 ltrs) gallon containers - root mass = bud size no doubt, might be a bit late but you WILL yeild better. You have healthy plants and plenty of light. Next time put as much grow medium as you can in there and you should reach the tents potential.

Also try not to wait to take clones, usually after about 2 weeks flower they take awhile to kick out of veg. You can make a bubbler for pretty cheap and as long as the water is clean, they have plenty of oxygen and you don't give them too much light you will get roots in 10-14 days, with or without rooting gel. Water temp 75 air temp a little cooler 70.

For a first grow you are doing a great job.

You may want to consider reading this thread and than coming to your own conclusions:

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=210987

(edited)
Yeah(i would) remove lower 2-3 sets of lateral branches(ones that wont see much light=popcorn/energy waste) the lower leaves too.(improves airflow too)
(cut close to the main stem, leave 1-2mm, not long nubs that will die & cause molds/infection n shit)

Its a good idea to read the stickys:https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=115377
I see youve already topped a couple?, the ones you havent will grow out differently.

G'Luck!

Correct me if I'm wrong, but shouldn't cloning take place in veg for optimal results?

As far as I am aware cloning during bloom is fine, in fact the clones once established with new root systems produce much more dense nodes ( so I am informed). It has been pointed out that the bloom clones may well take longer to root, of this i am unsure. So I am going to find out (yay for science experiment) by "doing" rather than "pondering" random claims in the internets.

I already have 8 clones from the vegging plants, I will compare the results with the bloom clones in a month and see if thier is any appreciable difference.

To respond to earlier suggestion to veg more and train my larger, donor plants and bloom later .. It is too late the plants are 12 days into bloom now , I am unwilling to revegg .. the plants already had 5-6 weeks in veg, stressing them is pointless. Also the returns from the extra electricity etc are too little. Better to crack on and harvest these, and then train and scrog the new clones.

Yes I topped a couple (one of each strain) to see how the plants would react, I am really just learning this crop (*hubris* will probably be learning "every single crop"), so I am experimenting using the knowledge on this forum as a starting point.

the only thing i would do is pinch the tops of off every branch
than it will explode & yield bigtime!
grtz
D

cloning during bloom is not fine. You should take your clones from vegetative female plants. If you'll take clones in blooming period, the clones roots will grow much slower and in the long run your plant will suffer in yield. Try to avoid changing the photoperiod back and forth, plants don't like that.