Ace Sativas own Old Toker

That's correct....these sativas have made me their bi*ch.

For the first half (or so) of my grow another poster generously shared his thread with me. https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?p=7889939#post7889939
Unfortunately my newbiness and drama seem to have dominated the thread and eventually the OP quit posting in his own thread. That doesn't seem right. This is my attempt to finish what I started (document my first indoor grow) while giving RTP his thread back. Once again....sorry RTP.....hope you, your family and your Malawis are doing well!

I'll be editing this thread later tonight with pictures showing how these sativas have taken advantage of my generosity.
These were the pics from Sunday (Day 30 12/12) that were taken before the tragic demise of my phone. Sorry (again) about the quality....but if it's any consolation my phone did commit suicide almost immediately after taking these pics.

The first is a top from the short bushy Malawi.
2nd is a Golden Tiger trying to escape through the top of my 80" tent ceiling
3rd is from the tall Malawi
Four is a Panama Haze
Five is another GT
Six is the other PH

Subbed

OK....Day 33 of 12/12
Still lots of room.

1st pic is a Zamaldelica top
2. GT growing horizontally
3. PH

Hi Old Toker,

Great selection of ACE tropical sativas!

Let me know if you have any doubt during their development.
Kind regards!

dubi said:

Hi Old Toker,

Great selection of ACE tropical sativas!

Let me know if you have any doubt during their development.
Kind regards!

Click to expand...

Thank you Dubi!
When I get closer to harvest I would appreciate your help in determining when they are ready. Of course.....I first have to GET to harvest.

Old Toker said:

Thank you Dubi!
When I get closer to harvest I would appreciate your help in determining when they are ready. Of course.....I first have to GET to harvest.

Click to expand...

The plants will get there with or without you More seriously, subbed and happy to see them budding well. dwd

deepwaterdude said:

The plants will get there with or without you More seriously, subbed and happy to see them budding well. dwd

Click to expand...

Thank you DWD!
What do you think I should do about the ones on the ceiling? I could run lines across the ceiling to push them down an inch or two so they aren't actually on the ceiling. Maybe give them some "breathing" room? Or I could just do nothing now and eventually run lines under them if they ever get heavy enough to need support. Any opinions/ideas?

HA I had GT s hitting the ceiling too i super cropped them 2 FT Down into trelliss horizontally great plants thanks for sharing..B

I would tie them to the screen to keep them off the ceiling. Or super crop them. Or both.
If they touch the ceiling you may have trouble with mold.
Did not realize you had such variety going. The Malawi has some great company.

Can we get a pic of the whole set up?

Best of luck with your maiden indoor run. May all your buds be Huge.

Peace GG

Old Toker said:

Thank you DWD!
What do you think I should do about the ones on the ceiling? I could run lines across the ceiling to push them down an inch or two so they aren't actually on the ceiling. Maybe give them some "breathing" room? Or I could just do nothing now and eventually run lines under them if they ever get heavy enough to need support. Any opinions/ideas?

Click to expand...

Were I you I'd go for the latter so I could use the lines below to pull the tops down a tad, for a breath you said...
Nice selection by the way...don't they look nifty!

Orpheus

gorilla ganja said:

I would tie them to the screen to keep them off the ceiling. Or super crop them. Or both.
If they touch the ceiling you may have trouble with mold.
Did not realize you had such variety going. The Malawi has some great company.

Can we get a pic of the whole set up?

Best of luck with your maiden indoor run. May all your buds be Huge.

Peace GG

Click to expand...

Hey GG....appreciate the advice!
I don't know how I CAN tie them to the screen. By super cropping you mean "break" the top branches? I've done that during veg. And then what? Tie them to ceiling? The part of this plan that I'm having problems understanding is WHERE on the screen I would tie them......that is assuming I managed to break currently healthy flowering branches without accidentally "topping" them. A majorly optimistic assumption. If somehow....miraculously....I did manage to super crop a branch AND found space on the screen...I think it would be tied horizontally AND shaded by the branches in front. Is that less of a problem than having them on the ceiling?

Definitely do NOT want mold. However I do have a LOT of air flow in my 60"x60" tent....and AC....and de-humidification. Do you think if I could prevent them from actually touching the ceiling....that I might avoid mold? BEFORE.....you answer that last question.....since you brought up mold... you should know that regardless of HOW you answer the question...you are responsible if I get any mold during this grow. Good Luck!

Definitely not ripping on your advice GG. Just want to make sure I completely understand the plan before I start breaking my top branches.

Thanks again Brother!

EDIT: I'll try to get a couple pics of the entire inside tonight when the lights come on.

orfeas said:

Were I you I'd go for the latter so I could use the lines below to pull the tops down a tad, for a breath you said...
Nice selection by the way...don't they look nifty!

Orpheus

Click to expand...

Thanks Orfeas!
I may well end up doing exactly this. Has two advantages:
1. It's relatively simple for an Old Toker like me
2. It seems less traumatic to the plants during flowering.
I'm currently trimming/pruning the small inside branches and popcorn buds...but just doing a small amount every other day to minimize the stress. When you see pictures of the whole tent.....you'll see that I obviously haven't done ENOUGH pruning/trimming....but at least they seem healthy....so far.

OT since you are worried about mold I just thought I'd explain how humidity Works in an indoor grow room. When your lights go out because of the temperature change if the room's perfectly sealed the humidity is going to go up because it's the relative humidity to the temperature. but the plants must release humidity or something and the humidity tends to Skyrocket especially if you happen to live in a humid place already like Florida. Different times of the year the humidity will be worse inside. if it's colder outside than it is inside you'll have less of a humidity issue. If you don't have one already I recommend get in a thermometer that keeps track of the highs and lows for the humidity and temperature. Your humidity will definitely peak with the lights off. It's possible that your dehumidifier will fill up and turn off with the lights off and your AC won't be running that much.

I had a dehumidifier with a small reservoir on it and I drilled a hole into the Reservoir I put a grommet in it and ran a drip tube off of it and ran that to a 5 gallon bucket or to a drain pipe.

I'll wait to see the whole set up before I make to many comments. Maybe I'm missing something. Do you tie the branches off to the plastic netting already? I was just suggesting you tie the tops to the netting and keep forming them back down towards the ground.
Gently if you can. I think low stress is best, but if a couple branches are stubborn and they need a more firm hand so be it. Just keep bending and tieing branches to any bare spots in your netting.

There is also a lot of disagreement about taking fan leaves off. But you have a lot of big plants in a small area You have to maximize light to the parts that matter. Obviously starting early would have helped control stretch. But oh well now you know for next time.

The mold will of course be my fault.

Just try and keep plant matter from touching the sides and top of tent.
Lol, Ya right you say. Your trying to grow a jungle in 25sqft.

Looking forward to see who wins the battle. The big Sativas are getting the upper hand better go get a machete or weed whacker.


Peace GG

Lammy said:

OT since you are worried about mold...

Click to expand...

I'm not worried about mold.....that's Gorilla Ganja's problem.

Inside my tent I have five fans....all set on low. The largest (15" Honeywell HT-908) is on the floor in the center of the room pointed up at the bulb directly above it. This supposedly cools the bulb while blowing the hot air towards the ceiling...and the exhaust....in theory. Two 6" fans are mounted at the top of the tent blowing horizontally across the tops. Two additional small desk type fans are on the floor hopefully circulating air under the canopy.

In addition to these five I am using a 750CFM variable speed exhaust fan blowing through an 8" Phresh filter. Drawing air in through two passive vents....one 10" & one 8". Plenty of airflow and negative pressure.

My tent is set up in an attached one car garage. In the only window in the room I have a 12K btu window AC which can get the "lung" room temps pretty cold. Under 70F even on the warmest Florida days. Between the exhaust fan and AC.....I haven't had any difficulty keeping in tent temps below 80f during the lights on hours, or below 70f during the lights off period.

I also have a 70pint Danby dehumidifier that is mounted close to the ceiling and plumbed with a hose that goes to a drain (not pretty). This unit has worked VERY well at keeping RH below 70 during lights out. Usually the combination of AC/Fans/dehumidifier allows me to stay within VPD guidelines. At lights out, with temps of 68/69f I have had no difficulty keeping RH at 60%.

Inside the tent I have two devices measuring temps/RH. Both are calibrated and are about 3/4 up the tent and in the canopy. I realize temps can vary significantly within the tent....but hopefully these devices are at least in the ballpark of actual conditions. One of the temp/RH devices sends this information to an app on my cell phone which can also alert me if the temps or RH goes outside the parameters that I have set. Again....not perfect....but it does allow me to adjust the dehumidifier or AC to the aprox conditions within the tent. When/if I ever actually build a room....I will eventually automate the AC & dehumidifier. Hopefully...providing I have any money left.

Thanks for all the help and suggestions.....I hope to post some pics of my amateur operation this evening.

gorilla ganja said:

I'll wait to see the whole set up before I make to many comments.

Click to expand...

Hey GG....I have been using 12" pipe cleaners to tie the branches to the screens.They seem to work well. Just not a lot of room left on the screen.

OK....here is my setup. Let me know what else you need to see. Clearly I have let this thing get away from me.....a little.. You'll notice that I have tried to trim the bottoms where there isn't much light. I hope to continue cleaning out as much of the inside as I can so that the largest branches can develop.

Oh yah.....I don't want to hear from anybody that I need to clean my garage.....or about my ghetto dehumidifier setup....or that my fans need cleaned....again.

And thanks for rightfully assuming responsibility for any possible mold problems.

Last few.

Wow, It's cozy in there. Can you even get in there to work?

They look pretty healthy. Good job.
First things first, you need more fans.

Well if you don't think they will stretch much more, I think you can just tie them to the top and be fine, crowded but you'll get by.

If you expect a lot more upward growth you might consider a more drastic and labor intensive move. Untie the plants from the screen and reposition them at about a 45 degree angle. If you position the whole plant on more of an angle you can lower overall height quite a bit. Then retie and spread the plants for final flower period.

You may be well beyond that though if you already have them tied in a thousand different spots.

Peace GG

gorilla ganja said:

Wow, It's cozy in there. Can you even get in there to work?

Click to expand...

Barely. After I remove all the fans, I usually put an upside down bucket in the middle of the floor and kind of reach up to work on them.

gorilla ganja said:

They look pretty healthy. Good job.

Click to expand...

Thank you. It could definitely be worse.

gorilla ganja said:

First things first, you need more fans.

Click to expand...

I think you're right. There is a couple inches of floor space that could be used by another fan.

gorilla ganja said:

Well if you don't think they will stretch much more, I think you can just tie them to the top and be fine, crowded but you'll get by.

Click to expand...

Hell Brother....your guess is as good (probably better) as mine. Tomorrow makes 5 wks of 12/12. I would think the stretch should be finished.....hopefully.

gorilla ganja said:

You may be well beyond that though if you already have them tied in a thousand different spots.

Click to expand...

Yah....I have a ton of pipe cleaners tying branches back. I'm beginning to wonder how I'm going to get them out of there when/if I harvest. May have to remove one branch at a time.

Removing fan leaves. I seem to recall reading a post from one of the coco gurus that mentioned removing all the non-bud tip fans during flowering after the plant started to frost. Can't remember who/where...but it might have been DHF or one of those seriously experienced growers. Obviously I have tried not to disturb the natural growth of these plants too much....but I may actually consider stripping out the fans.....if that would help. Anyone have any experience doing this during flowering?

Thanks again GG!I'll keep you posted.

I can always use suggestions/ideas....so if anyone has any (other than clean my fans and garage) I'd sure appreciate it if you shared them.

OK......talked to my wife tonight and explained to her my options for dealing with the branches on the ceiling. She felt that I was being too tentative and was avoiding the tough decisions and doing what needed to be done.....super-cropping and tying those branches to the net. Sooooo.....she decided to give me my balls back so that I could deal with this issue. What an amazing difference when you have the gonads to confront your problems head on! I felt like a new man....or at least a man.

Anyway....went in at lights on and super-cropped the tops that were on the ceiling....needed to pinch quite a few stems to get them to lay over....but everything is off the ceiling....except a leaf or two which I will pluck off after (if) they recover. NOW who is the MAN?

Thanks for the advice everyone. Will post new pics on Sunday of my hopefully recovered and trained plants. Going to hold off any further pruning/defoliating until after they have recovered from this trauma.