Week 3 of flower started yesterday for the Purple Ghost Candy. She was being quadlined, but I snapped off a primary branch leaving her with only three main branches. I almost gave up on her, but I decided to flower her in my short 4ā tall veg tent. Iām using a SCROG net with this one because the tent is short. I donāt think a normal āquadlineā needs trellis netting because theyāre shorter, but Iām not sure about that. Iāll be moving her to a new tent with more light on Monday as I think the edges of this tent are dim even with my sidelights.
I know a lot of people top their plants using a wide variety of methods, but Iām not sure Iām familiar with the best technique for maximizing yield. I canāt grow too tall. My strategy for my next grow, which changes by the hour, is to use Quadlining under a SCROG net in the 2x4 tent with two 6-gallon Octopots. That would only take 7-8 weeks of veg to fill a 2x4 trellis net. Iām guessing here, but it seems to have been effective in this case. Iām always open to new techniques. Since Iāll be using Octopots on the next grow, the plants will be locked in place from beginning to end (might as well SCROG then).
Hereās flower Week 0 vs. start of week 3 just for comparison.
Iāll also be converting my small 2x2x4 drying tent into a flowering tent. I won a few dollars off the purchase of a small ViparSpectra tent that I now use as a drying tent. I decided to follow it up with a purchase of their 150 watt XS1500. Itās not my dream light, but it should work extremely well in this space. Iām usually an AC Infinity fan and this wonāt be controllable with the AC Infinity controller on this tent. However, this LED had more flower power (150 watts vs 130 watts), a better par map and a much lower price (under 100). I hope I donāt regret it.
That frees up my AC Infinity 2x2x4 tent and the lower-power LED for vegging since power itās not as important. Everything else on this tent consists of parts that I had laying aroundā¦..a true Frankenstein build that fortunately cost very little to put together. I know itās still a small garden, but itās now 33% larger than it was yesterday! Exciting times here.
The par map, at 14 inches, delivers within the range of 500-1050 par (as Iāve read that to be the minimum/maximum goal using the Photone app) on my 2x2 footprint. To add even more light to the corners, I already owned these cheap Amazon 45 watt LED strips so I added them for side lighting. (11 watts per strip). I attached magnets with double sided tape to each endā¦..and I magnetically attached them to the poles and fabric. Itās an AC Infinity knock off for less than half the price. The new LED arrives on Mondayā¦.then Iāll attempt to move the Purple Ghost Candy SCROG to the new tent.
Wowā¦.this hobby just keeps getting more involved, but Iām loving every minute of it.
The veg tent will be busy soon enough preparing for tomato season and the next round of Octopots.
Here is the par map and LED side lighting install.