Mephisto Genetics Whats the trick/technique to getting tall, stacked colas of bud?

[lunarman]

The best pictures I've seen are of plants that have tall colas with nice buds. The plants look pruned and manicured or wild and leafy. But a common thing is the tall sticks of thick bud. Either many or a few.

What is key to getting plants like this? Besides good genetics and a good environment. Is it pruning and plant training and light management for the most part?

 

[bakEQuatorial]

The best pictures I've seen are of plants that have tall colas with nice buds. The plants look pruned and manicured or wild and leafy. But a common thing is the tall sticks of thick bud. Either many or a few.

What is key to getting plants like this? Besides good genetics and a good environment. Is it pruning and plant training and light management for the most part?

I would say that you already got it down!

I recommend reading @Savage Garden @autobeast @Yozhik @Rollin_along

There are obviously many more experts around here but these are from the top of my head and that i can spell right. Hope it helps some


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[lunarman]

I would say that you already got it down!

I recommend reading @Savage Garden @autobeast @Yozhik @Rollin_along

There are obviously many more experts around here but these are from the top of my head and that i can spell right. Hope it helps some


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks for the recommended reading list and linking them in. I've read so much, so many posts, but the how they do it part might take years to read thru. I'm hoping for a couple of key one liner tips of the trade. Got a new grow about to start and want to make some improvements.

 

[Need4Weed]

I'm still trying to get through grows without fukin stuff uo, so maybe I can learn something too!

 

[Slater]

Besides good genetics and a good environment

you hit the nail on the head there, genetics and environment, no real big secret tricks or techneque's... you could run your room cooler during stretch to try and reduce height and maybe get those nodes tighter... you could also start growing under a T5 / burple LED, they can keep the node spacing tighter at the start of life. And maybe don't top the plant if you want that super large cola... but it will mainly come comedown to the individual plant and its genetics and a perfect environment for it to thrive.

 

[MickJ]

Here's my Dinafem Fruit I did almost nothing except light pruning of fan leaves covering bud sites. Genetically small but my best looking natural girl but not a massive yielder she is 18" tall lol. It has taken me 7 months to learn to grow a predictable healthy plant (most times [emoji23]) now I am working on bud size next, which will involve improved lighting.

Sent from my comfy chair.
[emoji16][emoji41] [emoji43][emoji848]

 

[Olde School Player]

Hey lunarman, there's not a lot of training you can do to get those long colas, what you've seen is a large part genetics. But even with good genetics, no plant can reach its full potential unless it is maintained in a favorable grow environment. There's no secret ingredient, it's not always easy, but it is fairly simple. You just pay attention to maintaining a balanced nutrient regimen (not to weak / not too strong - if you must err, go weak) within the desired pH range, do whatever it takes to maintain a healthy root zone, keep the room as close as possible to human comfort temps, and provide quality lighting to the plant canopy.

You mentioned some of the pic's you've seen have appeared to be well manicured while others were wild and leafy. That's mostly genetics, as some strains produce tons of leaf-to-bud ratio, while others seem to grow cola masses with very little leaf.
Photoperiods respond much better to pruning & autoflowers, for me anyway, respond better to low stress training. But this is more yield-influencing than appearance. And yes, light management is critical. Too little light and the plants will grow spindly plants with wispy buds. To an extent you can help this by moving the light closer. More intense light helps the buds to be much more dense, but too much light can vary from very dense and compact growth, to outright damage or bleaching of the colas nearest the light. You can help this by moving the light further away.

Tell us what you're doing today & maybe myself or others can make some suggestions for you.
What's your grow room environment? Closet, tent, micro, etc. Dirt? Hydro? Coco? Hempy? Temps maintained during lights on and off?
What's your nutrient regimen and feed methods? Additives? Are you monitoring ppm & pH religiously? There are differences depending upon grow medium.
What style, brand and power light are you using? There's tons of ongoing discussions on the best way to qualify lighting. The simplest (and possibly most subjective) is watts at the wall. There are tons of better technical descriptors than that, but none have industry standard qualifiers defined yet. So report what wattage your light consumes whether it's HID or LED.

The best advice I can give otherwise is don't be afraid to screw up. Mistakes teach better than successes.​

 

[bakEQuatorial]

Hey lunarman, there's not a lot of training you can do to get those long colas, what you've seen is a large part genetics. But even with good genetics, no plant can reach its full potential unless it is maintained in a favorable grow environment. There's no secret ingredient, it's not always easy, but it is fairly simple. You just pay attention to maintaining a balanced nutrient regimen (not to weak / not too strong - if you must err, go weak) within the desired pH range, do whatever it takes to maintain a healthy root zone, keep the room as close as possible to human comfort temps, and provide quality lighting to the plant canopy.

You mentioned some of the pic's you've seen have appeared to be well manicured while others were wild and leafy. That's mostly genetics, as some strains produce tons of leaf-to-bud ratio, while others seem to grow cola masses with very little leaf.
Photoperiods respond much better to pruning & autoflowers, for me anyway, respond better to low stress training. But this is more yield-influencing than appearance. And yes, light management is critical. Too little light and the plants will grow spindly plants with wispy buds. To an extent you can help this by moving the light closer. More intense light helps the buds to be much more dense, but too much light can vary from very dense and compact growth, to outright damage or bleaching of the colas nearest the light. You can help this by moving the light further away.

Tell us what you're doing today & maybe myself or others can make some suggestions for you.
What's your grow room environment? Closet, tent, micro, etc. Dirt? Hydro? Coco? Hempy? Temps maintained during lights on and off?
What's your nutrient regimen and feed methods? Additives? Are you monitoring ppm & pH religiously? There are differences depending upon grow medium.
What style, brand and power light are you using? There's tons of ongoing discussions on the best way to qualify lighting. The simplest (and possibly most subjective) is watts at the wall. There are tons of better technical descriptors than that, but none have industry standard qualifiers defined yet. So report what wattage your light consumes whether it's HID or LED.

The best advice I can give otherwise is don't be afraid to screw up. Mistakes teach better than successes.​

Not my thread but i can't help responding. An excellent read! Thank you so much!


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[AutoWonders]

I'm still trying to get through grows without fukin stuff

I still screw up from time to time. I wasn't paying attention last week and fed the wrong nutes to one of my plants. No problem developed, but it surely is frustrating.

 

[lunarman]

Hey lunarman, there's not a lot of training you can do to get those long colas, what you've seen is a large part genetics. But even with good genetics, no plant can reach its full potential unless it is maintained in a favorable grow environment. There's no secret ingredient, it's not always easy, but it is fairly simple. You just pay attention to maintaining a balanced nutrient regimen (not to weak / not too strong - if you must err, go weak) within the desired pH range, do whatever it takes to maintain a healthy root zone, keep the room as close as possible to human comfort temps, and provide quality lighting to the plant canopy.

You mentioned some of the pic's you've seen have appeared to be well manicured while others were wild and leafy. That's mostly genetics, as some strains produce tons of leaf-to-bud ratio, while others seem to grow cola masses with very little leaf.
Photoperiods respond much better to pruning & autoflowers, for me anyway, respond better to low stress training. But this is more yield-influencing than appearance. And yes, light management is critical. Too little light and the plants will grow spindly plants with wispy buds. To an extent you can help this by moving the light closer. More intense light helps the buds to be much more dense, but too much light can vary from very dense and compact growth, to outright damage or bleaching of the colas nearest the light. You can help this by moving the light further away.

Tell us what you're doing today & maybe myself or others can make some suggestions for you.
What's your grow room environment? Closet, tent, micro, etc. Dirt? Hydro? Coco? Hempy? Temps maintained during lights on and off?
What's your nutrient regimen and feed methods? Additives? Are you monitoring ppm & pH religiously? There are differences depending upon grow medium.
What style, brand and power light are you using? There's tons of ongoing discussions on the best way to qualify lighting. The simplest (and possibly most subjective) is watts at the wall. There are tons of better technical descriptors than that, but none have industry standard qualifiers defined yet. So report what wattage your light consumes whether it's HID or LED.

The best advice I can give otherwise is don't be afraid to screw up. Mistakes teach better than successes.​

Thanks for taking time to get in this discussion. I appreciate that. Here are answers to the questions.

What's your grow room environment? Closet, tent, micro, etc.
8x8 tent in an insulated garage in a northern climate. I have inline fan for fresh air. And I exhaust with inline fan with ducting that goes to vents up in the roof of the garage and not back in to the garage that I get my fresh air from.

Dirt? Hydro? Coco? Hempy?
Tried dirt but got bugs. Tried all coco/perlite and struggled with it and PH and calmag. Now I use 50% coco that has EWC, Biochar amended in. And 50% HP Promix. And to all that I add in 30% perlite. I grow in small 8 liter pots in an autopot system.

Temps maintained during lights on and off?
Lights on 24 hrs. temp average is 25C. RH average of 35%.

What's your nutrient regimen and feed methods? Additives?
Was using tangs Easy schedule of Advanced Nutes. Sensi Bloom A and B and carboload and overdrive. I just switched to Green Leaf MegaCrop, their calmag, Sweet Candy and Bud Explosion. Following the schedule everyone is using for Megacrop.

Are you monitoring ppm & pH religiously? There are differences depending upon grow medium.
I was not monitoring when using AN Sensi since its PH Perfect. Didn't need to. But with Green Leaf I am back to monitoring for now. I aim for 6.0 since I'm using coco and peat.

What style, brand and power light are you using?
I run 2 600 watt HPS lights in the winter in the tent when I need heat. The garage is not heated. Turn them off once we warm up. I have 6 autocobs from bigsm0 as well as my primary lighting and 2 more are in the mail. So in the winder I'm running a lot of light. Also running some UVB rays in the tent.