How I grow The "Tall" Sativa, short, and bushy

[Blaze4daze]

Many of us growers, have space limitations. I have a small grow room, and had to figure~out how to grow my favorite strains, of Sativa's. The tall sativa plant, can be grown shorter, and bushy. I will show you how I did this. I am featuring two strains. Lemon skunk, and Tangerine Dream, both of which grow tall. At the beginning, its basic plant maintenance. Until your plants have grown their first 4-5 nods high. After this I started Defoliation. This requires you to start topping your plant. What I did was Topped once, and began by removing the leaves, after the end of the branches, passed them. This method I only used in the veg. stage. and my plants were fine with this much trimming. I would trim the leaves from the plant, as often as once a week, and keep trimming the shaders, or water leafs, until they only had the end leaves, at the end of the branches, left on them. Sounds scary, I know, but it works. At least it did for me. Once they start growing out, I would top them again.

This method I would continue thru 3/4 of the veg. stage, stopping the topping, half way thru. After they recovered from the topping, I would continue heavy defoliation. This made my plants stop growing up, and started them growing DSCN1662.jpgDSCN1693.jpgDSCN1706.jpgDSCN1708.jpgout. The plant would grow more side branches, instead of growing upward.

[Blaze4daze]

Here are photo's of before, and after heavy defoliationDSCN1706 W.jpgDSCN1708 W.jpg.

[Blaze4daze]

And another trimming session, before, and after.DSCN1703 WB.jpgDSCN1712 WA.jpg

More to follow.

[Blaze4daze]

All my plants, in this crop, (9) were grown in 5 gallon buckets. With 8 pinki finger size holes, around the bottom, of the containers, not underneath, to drain. They were started, by me, from clones, in November, of 2012, under a 400wt. HID lamp, thru the veg. cycle, And 1000wt. for flowering. I am almost 5000 ft. up in the mountains of So. California, back in the woods. where it is nice, and peaceful. I am lucky, not to have neighbors real close. These plants received the Fox Farms trio nutrient combo. then I changed to Super bloom, and Cha~ching, alternating thru the flower stage, along with some other stuff, which I will get to later on. These plants were grown thru the winter months. I used the light schedule, to heat them at night, and ran a small space heater, to fill in between the timed lighting, to keep them between 70-85 degrees, at all times. It snowed here several times, thru this grow, and it got as cold as 11 degress, during January. I upgraded my grow area last summer, by adding another grow space, for flowering, 5x8x6, at the end of my workshop. I framed, and insulated this area, and rolled out Mylar, around the walls. I also coated the floor with a thick waterproofing primer/sealer, 3 times. this I did to protect the floor. I use a 3x3ft. drain tube, to catch the drain off, and actually use a large turkey baster to empty the drain tub, after I feed. I need to find a small pump to do this job 4 me. I Had one, but it clogged, continuously. So there are still kinks to deal with.

More to follow.

[Blaze4daze]

Heavy Defoliation is not for everyone. I only did this as an experiment, that gave me shorter Sativa's. I was concerned with my height limitations. and was growing thru the winter months, and had to go indoors to do so. As far as yield is concerned, I did fine, which I will show later in this thread. As for the bud quality, from these plants, Was excellent. The heavy trimming, did not effect ether.

I will continue to use this growing method, from time to time in the future, because it works. My plants did fine, with the trimming. And I was able to control the height in my grow area, which is what I needed to grow these tall plants.

I have quite a bit of bud, enough to last me over a year, from this crop. I am still processing them. I have heard from both sides, on this growing method, and now I know for sure, that you can still get good results from This method of growing.

[Blaze4daze]

Blazd4Daz, literally means I'm stoned, if I choose, 4 days to come. I have so much Medical Marijuana. I remember before I started growing, I was having a hard time finding smoke. I live in a small town, and all my resources were gone. My main source was arrested, and I had no way to get medicine.

I am by no means well off. I live on a small pension. I have pieced together my entire grow, piece, by piece. Going with~out main necessities, to buy grow equipment. I had enough of going with~out. and was hell~bent on growing my own. Times are tough for us senior's that didn't plan well, in our younger day's

I am 56 years old, grew up, and started smoking marijuana in the mid 70's. I started riding, and then building Harley Davidson's when I was 19, so that's the main reason I didn't do to well, at planning my future. I rode for over 33 years, and lived out of my saddlebags for over 15 years, at 1 point. I traveled this whole country on the bikes I built. My hips, and lower back are shot~out, from those years on the road, and I use medical marijuana, now to help with the damage.

I just was determined to grow my own. I didn't know anything. Back a few years, before California changed it's laws, it was tough growing. Always worried about the sheriff showing up at the house. And the web, back then had very few web sites to go to for info. so sure I made mistakes. Everyone that grows, makes mistakes.

Trial, and error. That's how it goes. We are alot luckier now~days, to have this web site, to ask the questions that need to be asked, in order to grow the right way.


DSCN1918 W.jpg This is not including my last crop. I am still processing it.

More to Follow

[Schmokin]

Great posts. I enjoyed reading your story. I would love to be up there in the Cali hills. I live in a damp and bleak housing scheme surrounded by neighbours. The grass is always greener eh.
Have you considered Scrogging for your tall sativas? Check out this page and see what you think.
https://howtogrowmarijuana.com/screen-of-green

[Blaze4daze]

Thank You Schmokin. I love it here, in the mountains, after 20 years of city life. I will never, live down there again, ever. Best Decision, I ever made, moving to the high country.

I read the article, and have a good friend in the U.K. that is using this method now, 4 his latest crop. He's growing in a tent, indoors, and has a nice set~up going, with lots of room to grow. I just got photo's from him showing how the tops are coming thru the screen now. remarkable. he has 15 plants under the screen, and its amazing stuff, to see this method in action.

I have to move my plants regularly, because I want to keep my drain tub, as clean as possible, to avoid algae build~up in the tube. I also rotate the plants, daily, to get an even amount of light to all sides. I have in the past used side lighting, to completely cover them with light. But with 1000wts of light, I don't use the side CFL's too much, anymore.

When I last cloned, I took too many clones, which I wanted to get extra's, just in case. I ended up growing them all, cause I just couldn't terminate the extra's, and ended up growing, all of them. They were my babies, I felt like Dr. Frankenroot, and they were my creation.

That screen would work, if I made a few adjustment, in my flowering area. I would still need to LST them, to keep them lower, and spread them out, to fill in the spaces in the screen. This method would work well, if I was growing alot of plants, at the same time. But after this last crop, of 9 plants, I'm done growing that many plants, at one time again. It's grooling. I just stake them from leaning. They get so top heavy, in the final weeks of flower. The screen would definitely help in that aspect.

[Blaze4daze]

Here is my soil recipe. I have had, very good results, using these ingredient's. There is probable a few other ingredients, that some growers use, but I got this soil recipe, from an Old~timer, grower, that told me to just stick to these ingredients, for best results.
and not try to get all fancy, with new~fangled growing technology, ingredients.

Happy Frog Natural Organic potting soil /with Humic acid
Large course Perlite
Natural & Organic Earthworm castings Blend
Indonesian Bat Guano
Bone Meal (for root development)
Blood Meal (for extra Nitrogen) Nitrogen is critical, in early plant development.
Mycorrhizal Inoculums simply called Mykos. (VERY important for root development) I use a small handful spread around, just under the transplant, and a full handful (spread around the container), (a couple inches up), from the bottom of the container (pot), Not mixed into the soil mix. ( personal preference, I guess. ) Because, Bone Meal is already in the mix.

You can get these Ingredients, at your local hydro supply stores, and local gardening supply locations. They really have stepped~up their Marijuana growing supply inventory's, over the last year, or so, due to the higher demand, from the rapid growth, of the marijuana growing industry. In this state, anyways.

I can give you the amounts, of each of these ingredients, if you ask. Just let me know, how many containers, and what size they are.

I have always grown in 5 Gallon buckets. They seem to fit the best, in the space I have to work with. My next grow, I'm switching my containers to 10 gallon HydroOrganic Aerobag's w/carrying straps. Their reusable, and bigger. Hopefully my next plants will be too.

More to Follow

[Blaze4daze]

Week 5 .DSCN1703 Forum.jpgDSCN1705 W.jpg



More to Follow

[Blaze4daze]

DSCN1715 W.jpgDSCN1716 W.jpg

Week 7, in Veg. cycle
These photo's were taken, after another heavy defolition session.

I am using the Fox Farms nutrient trio combo. Here is their feeding schedule. I don't use these nutrients at full strength, Because about half strength is sufficient. I do this because I can see the rapid growth, with half of what they recommend, and I don't want to take a chance Burning them up, with too much.
http://www.foxfarmfertilizer.com/images/pdf/SoilENG.pdf#page=1&zoom=auto,0,539

More to Follow

[Blaze4daze]

All growers do things a~little differently.

This thread describes, how I do things, in my garden.

I will show the final results, toward the end of this thread.

Here is a sneak peek, at some of the harvested bud, curing. They still need a final trim.

DSCN1911 W.jpg


More to Follow

[Blaze4daze]

Week 1 Bloom.

DSCN1749 W.jpgDSCN1750 W.jpg


I Have stopped all Defoliation, and used a few stacks to keep them from leaning over. I'm feeding With Fox Farms, Tiger bloom 2-8-4, and alternating F.F. Big Bloom, 0.01-0.3-0.7, ever other feeding.

I keep a daily log, for the Garden. This way I can keep track, of what, and when I feed, and how much. this will come in handy later, to refer back to when need be. Especially, when I get to the middle of Bloom. I will be alternating different nutrients, and can refer back to the log, to see what I've fed.


More to Follow

[Blaze4daze]

A couple of photo's of the bottom of the plants. I have trimmed all the small growth from lower branches, so that the plant can send the growth upward now, and not waste it on the lower parts of the plant.
DSCN1754 signature.jpgDSCN1756 W.jpg






More to Follow

[Blaze4daze]

Week 3 Bloom

DSCN1767 W.jpgDSCN1768 W.jpgDSCN1770 W.jpgDSCN1772 W.jpgDSCN1774 W.jpg

Now I'm getting some nice bud~sites. Lots more than, if I wouldn't have trimmed so much, during Veg. The plants spread out, and grew more branches, and now there are lots of bud~sites. I am using Green Light (Super Bloom 12-55-6), now to feed, and 2 Tbsp. of Epsom salts, every 3rd feeding. No more trimming, at all. This is where, keeping a daily log, helps out BIG. I can refer back 2 my notes, and see what I fed them, and see when, and how much of what was used.

I will be alternating different Nutrients, during the remaining weeks, until harvest.


More to Follow