[TGT]

Some of you members have probably seen me around here before and seen some of my grows. I have not been around in a while, but recently decided to come back to see how everyone is and also learn a few new tricks. I have been growing continuously for four years now even though I took a break from ICMag about six months ago. It is nice to still see so many familiar members around and about even after my small break from the forums. Actually I have really gotten into photography lately and have been learning on those forums as much as I can absorb, but thats another topic altogether that I won't waste your time with.

Usually I grow vertical style with plants that are very large. I guess you could call it a 'vertical tree style grow' method. I have my gardens set up perpetual and even though I choose tree style with this particular strain I can still produce a crop every 2 months and usually yield seven pounds out of 4 - 1000 watt HPS with a total of about 18 to 20 plants.

What I want to do as an experiment is still maintain my vertical grow system, but grow with aprox. 30 plants under the same amount of light. My reason for this is that it is beginning to be a pain to tie up almost every bud so that they don't get burned up by the lights in the later stages of bud development. It is so much extra work and I am wondering if I do more numerous plants but have them half the size when triggered that they can support the bud weight themselves there-by reducing the amount of work it takes to tie up all those octopus arms and also maintaining the same yield amounts. I don't expect the production time to change as I use a simple two stage perpetual system and don't plan on changing it anytime soon.

The reason I have been so stuck in my ways is because this method I have been using for so long has produced so well and I figured why mess with something that is not broken? Now that I can afford to experiment I want to see if I can accomplish the same yields with much less work.

So this thread will be a log of my next grow so that I can compare the differences from tree style to smaller plants with this perticular strain of AK47 I have been using. The benefit of using the same strain will give me a better idea which system is more efficient and also I know this plant like the back of my hand. It is the best producing plant I have grown that maintains A grade quality and taste along with excellent bag appeal. I have yet to find a better specimen and I have been though literally hundreds of strains with absolutely nothing that even comes close in quality along with yield. I have found some killer strains but they always seem to yield very small.

Sorry for the long post, I just wanted to explain my purpose for this thread and I hope some of you will find it interesting. If it helps out some of you all the better! I'll post some pic's of the clones that have been planted in Promix a week ago tomorrow night. See ya all then!

TGT

[tngreen]

im in. good to have ya back TGT, cant wait to watch and learn

[maryj315]

Originally Posted by tngreen

im in. good to have ya back TGT, cant wait to watch and learn

You mean watch learn and be reminded of how much my grow skills are pretty lame compared to his yes i cant wait

I have 2000 watts i would like to achieve 3 lbs a grow without having a shit load of plants so i will be watching for sure

I am tuned in for this thread. I cant wait for the show...

[FirstTracks]

grabbin a seat and a spliff

[Quazi]

This should get interesting...



-Q

[johnipedestran]

TGT
I too grow tree style under/around 1400 watts. and it is a pain in the arse to tie em up.

i usually use four stakes in the pot, and tie from there. but I also turn my plants almost everyday.

one suggestion I have thought of but never tried would be a tomatoe cage like structure around the plant.

peace
jip

[billy_big_bud!]

lookin forward to an interesting tutorial

[mosfetti]

looking forward too.

[TGT]

Sorry for the delay, It has been a pretty hectic week to say the least. I took some pictures last night of a garden that I started last night to chop down. Only removed an eigth of what was there, but it's a good start. These were tree style and a real pain in the butt to tie up the last four weeks. I'll post them, but first I wanted to respond to John.

Originally Posted by johnipedestran

TGT
I too grow tree style under/around 1400 watts. and it is a pain in the arse to tie em up.

i usually use four stakes in the pot, and tie from there. but I also turn my plants almost everyday.

one suggestion I have thought of but never tried would be a tomatoe cage like structure around the plant.

peace
jip

I feel your pain in trying to keep the octopus arms away from the light. I too thought of using a tomatoe cage if not to do anything but prevent a fire. I am always so worried the plants will tip into the light when I am not there. Even though I worry and am very thorough when I tie them up sometimes I still get the odd occasion where I come in and the tip of a bud is resting on the light brown and dead. Not yet has it caused a fire (thanks god) and it makes me wonder if the bulbs are even hot enough. I think the tomatoe cage is a great idea, but hopefully if I change my grow type I won't have to worry about this anymore.

You say you rotate your plants. I use to do this, but I find it is a hastle and sometimes impossible with large plants because you have to tie them up to their surroundings to make them utilize the light most efficiently. I have actually found in the past not rotating them produces bigger buds and slighly larger yield. When you rotate them it usually distributes the light more evenly, but causes more small pop corn buds to form as apose to long well developed cola's. When in one position for a long time it seems the concentrated light on each bud produces less buds in total, but with them being much larger over all. This I have found cuts down on work trimming while increasing yield slightly. It is possible the outcome would be different with other strains. This is what I have experienced with mine and a few other large producing strains.

Below I have posted some pictures of the crop I just started to harvest. This is the previous grow and hopefully the last 'tree grow' at this location. I will be using this room for the new 'smaller plant grow' so this room will have to be cleaned out before I can move the new clones into the room. The babies for this next grow are at another location and I took pictures of them also - I'll post them after these next shots. Also, the following pictures are not the entire amount. I trimmed for about six hours before taking these pictures, so there is a considerable amount taken from the garden. I should have taken pictures before to show it unspoiled, but I didn't think about it before it was too late. I seem to do that quite often lol.













This next picture is from what I trimmed last night before taking the pictures above. Took me 6 hours to do all that - not too bad I must say without any help lol.



TGT