Help! Plants too close together. Roots connected.

[Dada]

Hi Folks. These three plants are exactly five weeks old yesterday. They are still in veg, though they all have alternating nodes and they all have female preflowers with the little hairs coming out. They are in a 10 gallon Rubbermaid but now they seem too close together. I know it only looks like one plant in the back row, but there are actually two there -- the one on the left is a NLxBB and the one on the right is a White Widow. The one in the front is also a WW, though I am not worried about her.

The two in the back have their roots grown together so thick that I don't see any way to untangle them. They are like two mop heads all twisted together. Before they showed female, I thought that one of them might end up being a male and then I would have just cut the roots close to that plant and then teased them away from the other plant's roots. Then I would have moved the second plant over to the netpot on the end. But now that they are both females, what should I do? Is it better to just let them go the way they are or should I try to separate the roots, even though I know a lot of them will break? I will say that they both look very healthy and there doesn't seem to be any problem with parts of either plant not getting enough light. But I'm worried what will happen when they get taller and bushier.

I was thinking of putting these into flower soon, but someone -- I think it was Stoney Bud says he lets his veg until they are 18". Right now the tallest is only 14". The next tallest is 12" and the shortest -- the one in front -- is only 10". They can get as much as 4.5' tall before I would have to bend them over, so I think I could veg them for another week or maybe two. What do you think? And what should I do about the two in back that are so close together?

 

[Stoney Bud]

You can just leave them as they are. It won't hurt a thing. I sometimes grow as many as 4 plants in one hydro grow chamber. There is no good way to separate them.

I have an 8 foot ceiling. That's why I let my plants get 18" before flowering. They're usually about 5 feet tall when I harvest.

Remember, you have other distances to consider.

1. The distance your light is from the ceiling for fire safety.

2. The distance between the tops of your plant canopy and the light.

Your plants will at least double in height, maybe triple while flowering.

Good luck man!

 

[Dada]

Thanks, Stoney Bud. I'll leave them be -- but I will start flowering today. All of my plants grew almost another inch since I posted this. And, since my grow room is only 7 1/2 feet, I need to keep them a bit shorter than yours get. Thanks again for your help -- you don't know how much I have already learned from you and from Kade, DLToker and several others here. This is where I have gotten almost all of my info and I try to read everything I can.

 

[bmxboi123]

You can just leave them as they are. It won't hurt a thing. I sometimes grow as many as 4 plants in one hydro grow chamber. There is no good way to separate them.

I have an 8 foot ceiling. That's why I let my plants get 18" before flowering. They're usually about 5 feet tall when I harvest.

Remember, you have other distances to consider.

1. The distance your light is from the ceiling for fire safety.

2. The distance between the tops of your plant canopy and the light.

Your plants will at least double in height, maybe triple while flowering.

Good luck man!

actually if the plants are to close together theres an increased chance that you will get substantially less then if they are given adquate room. one thing you can try (my dealer told me about this) is to tie the tops or upper region to something low so that they are bent over. its supposed to grow buds towards the light and increases your overall outcome.
personaly i would try it with one incase something goes wrong. im going to try it when my plants are mature enough

 

[KADE]

actually if the plants are to close together theres an increased chance that you will get substantially less then if they are given adquate room. one thing you can try (my dealer told me about this) is to tie the tops or upper region to something low so that they are bent over. its supposed to grow buds towards the light and increases your overall outcome.
personaly i would try it with one incase something goes wrong. im going to try it when my plants are mature enough

It is called LST (low stress training) it allows for light to get at the lower areas a little more easier and to get ya more tops.

 

[Magoo]

I put many plants into 1 rez DWC... and they get nice and tangled,, no problem, A-OK !! eace:

 

[bmxboi123]

It is called LST (low stress training) it allows for light to get at the lower areas a little more easier and to get ya more tops.

so this works? is it a noticable larger amount?

 

[Ravishing_68]

My NLxBB grow had 4 plants in 10gal res DWC with drip irrigation and 12" airstone... they did fine, but this grow I have two NLxBB clones that I've LST'd and I am going to see if I get the same yield. Hope this pics help.

1st pic is roots of my 4 plants at Day 24.
2nd pic is same plants at day 35 (about what yours are)
3rd pic is 3 of the plants before harvest. (I had harvest one the day before) Yield 4.25 oz.

4th pic is 3rd grow 2 NLxBB clones using LST (note string) These are 4 wks old.
5th pic is same 2 plants just different angle. (yes I know I nute burned one)
6th pic is the two plants at 5 weeks old. Yield yet to be harvested.

 

[KADE]

so this works? is it a noticable larger amount?

It is basically to save space or get more tops to break down the HUGE colas into lots of easier to manage ones.

 

[Dada]

Thanks folks. Yes, I decided that I wanted to LST these plants before I even sprouted the seeds. However, they grew nodes so close together (about 3/16" apart) under about a dozen CFLs that there is no way to bend them over. I know this sounds weird and I will send a picture later tonight -- they are sleeping right now. They have become not quite like MJ plants, but instead it's almost as if the three plants have formed one big MJ *bed*, if you follow me. I have a grow area that's a bit larger than 7.6', and they have just about filled up the entire area -- nowhere for them to bend over. Like I said, pic later tonight after they wake up.

Ravishing -- what did you think of your NLxBB from your original grow? I've seen a couple of brief smoke reports and have heard good things about this strain. I am growing the WW for night time, but I'm hoping the NLxBB will be OK for during the day or when I have to interact with people.

 

[Ravishing_68]

Ravishing -- what did you think of your NLxBB from your original grow? I've seen a couple of brief smoke reports and have heard good things about this strain. I am growing the WW for night time, but I'm hoping the NLxBB will be OK for during the day or when I have to interact with people.

I have only grown NLxBB to maturity. I harvested one plant early (couldn't stand it no more) and it gave a very giddy up kind of high. The older the cure, the more mellowed out high it gave. Sometimes I get very inside myself with it. I am growing Durban Poison x Skunk #1 next only got one seedling going. I believe NLxBB was made for Yield, which I thought was great but now I am looking more for quality than yield since I don't sell. It's a easy grow and it's a nice stable high for me. Since I am a new smoker I can't give more than that, sorry. As for growing and the smell...people would walk into my house and say they can smell the plants from the moment they walked in. That is with them in a caddy, in a spare bedroom with Una and an ionizer, another ionizer and Una's in the living room. Good Luck and have fun! eace:

 

[Dada]

Here are the pics that I promised. The first one looks kinda yellow on top because I still had my light on. I turned it off for the second picture. See what I mean about these three plants being too thick at the bottom to LST, even though I'd like to do that? About the only way I could do some LST is if I break off some of the bottom branches, but I think that would be too dangerous. So, I guess I'll just keep going and hope for the best. BTW, these are four days into 12/12.

Thanks for the smoke report, Ravishing. That really helps -- I may harvest this at the early end of the scale since I'd like to have a bit of that "up" kind of high. I also have a couple of those WW for the stronger stone for the evenings. I know what you mean about the smell -- it is pretty strong (even though I love it). Thankfully, I can exhaust my grow room directly outside and that really helps. However, I had to raise the height of the exhaust pipe outside because you could smell it in the backyard. (I just added a 4' extension and put the cap on top of that.) Now it is high enough that the smell pretty much gets blown away. Even so, I have my lights/exhaust fan on only at night so there is nothing coming out during the day. I have a fenced back yard, but you can't be too careful. My cab is in a room that can be closed off and it also has carbon filters even on the intakes. From what you say, though, it makes me happy that I only have one of these NLxBB right now. When my wife walks into the room that the cab is in, she just rolls her eyes

. Don't know what she is gonna think when these get bigger.

 

[KADE]

they look purrrdy... i'm hopin to get off my butt n get some batteries for my camera to throw up a new flowering journal.