Three plants/Reveg or not?

[Alistair]

Hey everyone, I've got a question for you. It's possible that five out of my eight plants are male. That leaves me with three females. Suppose that those three plants yielded a total of four ounces after another seven weeks of flowering; they've been flowering for almost a week now. Now, if I were to reveg those for another six weeks instead, two weeks to make the transition from flowering to veg again, and then another four weeks to actually grow, and then put them back into flowering for another eight weeks, it's possible I could get eight ounces out of those three plants instead of only four. All in all if I were to reveg those it would take a total 21 weeks in order to harvest eight ounces.

Now, I could simply let those three plants finish off as planned in about another seven weeks, and then start another grow immediately afterward with six female plants and grow for a total of four months, or 16 weeks, and get let's say, eight ounces. Add to the eight ounces the four ounces from the first three plants of the first harvest to get a total of twelve ounces in 30 weeks.

On the other hand, I could reveg those three plants and then go immediately into another grow with six female plants for 16 weeks, and get let's say, a total of 16 ounces between the tow grows in 37 weeks.

If I thought this out properly, 12 ounces in 30 weeks, or 16 ounces in 37 weeks works out to be about .4 ounces per week no matter what. So, either route I choose will give me about the same yield, right?

It seems to me that I've read somewhere that if you put a plant into flowering in order to determine sex, and the reveg before putting back into flowering, the buds will be smaller than if they hadn't been revegged in the first place. I don't think that's true, but I was just wondering.

Your advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Alistair]

I just thought about something. If what I say above is more or less correct, getting 16 ounces in 37 weeks instead of 12 ounces in 30 weeks might be a waste of time. Those 7 weeks would be better invested in a new grow with more plants.

I hope this all makes sense. I'm having a hard time communicating my ideas at the moment. Oh, I should hang it up and say, Merry Christmas!

 

[cjf2612]

IMO if you now reveg your three females the buds wont be any smaller at finish.If anything they will be bigger and have a better high because you would be flowering a bigger/more mature plant. The chemical balance of your plants(cant remember the actual names) have more time to reach opptimum levels thus better bud.

On the other hand, it has been known that reveging plants can cause hermies because of the stress involved,in the wild plants dont get reveged,its just on growth cycle. Dont get me wrong, reveging isnt bad, just worth considering one, two or three of them could turn hermi, doesnt mean they will though.

Just my oppinion my friend.Good luck and merry christmas

 

[4u2sm0ke]

its doable my friend..Just be sure to have everything running at the opptimum conditions..only a week into flower. IMO wont harm your plants at all..I do recomend 24/0 on reveg but that on a plant after Harvest..allso need to keep in mind the container size..you dont want them to get root bound 6 weeks into flower... I like to transplant into a larger container just before putting them in flower room..I average 2 ounces a plant now..and every now and again i hit that special 3..I feel next year after the upgrade..i will be hitting 3 ounces a plant..3 Females outta 8 just bit under 50/50..Good luck with the ones you have..I say put them back into Veg and in a week start cloneing the best one..Hope this Helps and Merry Christmas:bolt::bong:

 

[4u2sm0ke]

I just thought about something. If what I say above is more or less correct, getting 16 ounces in 37 weeks instead of 12 ounces in 30 weeks might be a waste of time. Those 7 weeks would be better invested in a new grow with more plants.

I hope this all makes sense. I'm having a hard time communicating my ideas at the moment. Oh, I should hang it up and say, Merry Christmas!

No..I understand you just fine...and IMO i would I think 7 weeks would be better spend on new plants just my thaughts..while 37 weeks sounds Great..I feel you would be better off in the long runn with consecative Harvests..Thee are many choices you have Alistair why not veg them for another Month.. find the best one of the 3 and clone the crap outta her..keep her as a Mother and grow all Females..

 

[blancolighter]

You would save so much time if once you revegged, you started cloning those gals instead of budding and revegging repeatedly. Keeping the three as mothers, take a couple cuttings from each every few weeks, which the plants usually can produce/handle, and thats gonna be lots more weed.

Opps, didn't see 4u2smokes post, so yea, what he said!

 

[4u2sm0ke]

hey blonco..think we was posting at the same time:rofl: Merry Christmas my friend:bong:

 

[Alistair]

Now that I've had time to sleep on it, I think I won't reveg. I understand what you're saying, but in the long run I'd get more yield if I were to simply finish these off in 7 weeks or so, and then start another crop with twice as many females.

I'm going to think about this some more before making the final decision.

Thanks for the input, people. Anymore suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[Alistair]

I just removed one of the males from its three gallon pot and it was root bound enough for transplanting. Only the very first few layers of soil were loose. So, using that as an indicator, I feel as though I can safely transplant the females into bigger pots, and hopefully get bigger plants. They still haven't been in flowering quite a week yet, so if I transplant them now, I think they could benefit.

 

[Alistair]

I've been reading about revegging for determining sex of a plant, and about the stressful effects of revegging, in general. I came upon this thread: "Forcing flower to determine gender". In this thread it says that a cutting from a plant in veg can be taken and then placed in water on 10/14 lighting for about a week, and it should flower or drop balls. Has anyone here ever tried this technique of determining gender? I like that idea a lot.

Plus, in this thread, Hick said that revegging confuses and stresses the plant and I see no need to take that chance. That one plant that I transplanted today so that it could optimize its growth (get as big as possible), was transplanted about two weeks too early, in my opinion (too much soil fell away), and I'm already a bit concerned what stress that might bring about. I don't want to add insult to injury by trying revegg it too.

I'll get the cloning technique down, and this crap won't happen again. Oh well, three plants, instead of eight. I'm tempted to throw some bag seed in and try to get single bud plants, but I'm not sure I want to do that with a Sativa dominant strain. Not only could the flowering period be close to three months, those single cola plants might grow all tall and lanky. I guess I could give it a go.

 

[4u2sm0ke]

I take a clipping ..place in water and put into 12/12...shows sex in 10 days..thats my method..TCVG has another by the stretching of nodes..hope this helps Have a good day

 

[Alistair]

Thanks 4u2sm0ke. That's what I was talking about; putting a cutting into water for 10 days or so until it shows sex. Is that all there is to it? It doesn't root, it just shows it sex? Do you place a plastic baggie over the top of the cutting?

 

[That crazy vancouver guy]

simply put the cutting in a flowering light cycle... don't cover it or anything... just let it do it's thing as though it was a separate plant...

a suggestion too... why not take 1 plant and reveg it, and leave the other two to flower?... you'd be on yer way to cloning possibilities sooner....

 

[Alistair]

Thanks TCVG, but I don't have separate veg and flower rooms. I can take cuttings from plants and put them into the bathroom on top of a heating pad on the floor, and under fluoros, but it would be an exercise in futility putting a plant in there and trying to grow it. I don't have enough light in the bathroom to properly grow a plant in veg.

I'm no longer brought down by the fact that I've only three females out of the original eight. I've accepted it, and am happy to grow three healthy females. I'll do a better job planning my next grow, and I'll learn how to clone.

For the longest time, for every grow, I have always had relatively unhealthy plants. I always manage to make at least one of them sick. This is the first grow that is dialed in nice and properly. Not a single one of the original eight were unhealthy, or lacking in any way. All eight plants were exceedingly healthy. I don't want to take chances on the three remaining, healthy plants. For that reason I won't reveg because of the possibility of stressing them out and making them unhealthy.

I did however, take a chance on shocking one of those females yesterday when I decided to transplant her a little early. I should have waited perhaps, another two weeks until she was fully root bound. Today she looks good; I see no signs of stress.

 

[The Hemp Goddess]

I'm not a soil grower, but I would think that waiting until they were fully root-bound to transplant would be more stressful than transplanting prior to being root-bound.

 

[That crazy vancouver guy]

u wait until a plant is "rootbound" before you transplant it?

... a plant can be transplanted at any time... I transplant day-old sprouts if I think it needs it, or I just "feel" like it.

IMO... people think a little too much about "shocking" a plant... I just can't wrap my head around the thinking of some people...

fer instance, on transplanting seedlings... when I start a seed, I do so in only about an inch of soil...as the sprout starts to grow, it always has a lot of stretch... when started in an inch of soil, I just keep adding soil to the pot (small 3"er) - all of 2 inches, and by the time I have filled the pot, the seedling is nice and low in the soil. It stays in this pot for a couple weeks until I transfer it into one of my small box pots (round 4"er) to help with keeping the plant small and enabling a lot to fit in there. when I transplant out of the minimal soil pots, usually all the dirt falls away and I'm left with a seedling laying in my hand... it won't kill it... I mean, come on... it's growing in dirt, fer heaven's sake...

after about a month, I'll transplant again to a 1/2 gal pot til sex can be determined (however long it takes) and then it will get transplanted again into whatever, and possibly, it will get transplanted numerous other times.

I'm a sloppy and, more or less, a careless/carefree gardner, so I'm not very gentle ... half the soil falls out of the rootball, I drop plants, they get knocked over, etc... and I've never had any problems OR hermies...

so... either the weed Gods favour me ... or it's not that big an issue that most people think....

 

[WeedHopper]

u wait until a plant is "rootbound" before you transplant it?

... a plant can be transplanted at any time... I transplant day-old sprouts if I think it needs it, or I just "feel" like it.

IMO... people think a little too much about "shocking" a plant... I just can't wrap my head around the thinking of some people...

fer instance, on transplanting seedlings... when I start a seed, I do so in only about an inch of soil...as the sprout starts to grow, it always has a lot of stretch... when started in an inch of soil, I just keep adding soil to the pot (small 3"er) - all of 2 inches, and by the time I have filled the pot, the seedling is nice and low in the soil. It stays in this pot for a couple weeks until I transfer it into one of my small box pots (round 4"er) to help with keeping the plant small and enabling a lot to fit in there. when I transplant out of the minimal soil pots, usually all the dirt falls away and I'm left with a seedling laying in my hand... it won't kill it... I mean, come on... it's growing in dirt, fer heaven's sake...

after about a month, I'll transplant again to a 1/2 gal pot til sex can be determined (however long it takes) and then it will get transplanted again into whatever, and possibly, it will get transplanted numerous other times.

I'm a sloppy and, more or less, a careless/carefree gardner, so I'm not very gentle ... half the soil falls out of the rootball, I drop plants, they get knocked over, etc... and I've never had any problems OR hermies...

so... either the weed Gods favour me ... or it's not that big an issue that most people think....

:yeahthat: Read my thread http://www.marijuanapassion.com/forum/showthread.php?t=35708 if ya want to see just how much they can take.

 

[Alistair]

Thanks again, TCVG. Yes, I've done stuff like that to my plants before and they didn't seem to mind. Some of growing is skill, but there is an element of luck too. So, with five out of eight plants being male, it seems as though I've had some bad luck. Until this current grow at least 70% of my plants had always been female, not this time though.

I'd say that the same is true about sloppy transplanting; whether the plant takes it well or not is somewhat dependent on luck. I've done sloppy transplant jobs in the past, with no stress at all. And even yesterday's somewhat sloppy transplant seems to have gone well. However, eventually, one might encounter stress from careless handling while transplanting, etc.

Just the same, thanks for the advice. I think it's good advice because people do tend to worry too much about their plants.

Thanks Cowboy, I'll click on that link you posted and I'll take a look.

 

[That crazy vancouver guy]

:rofl: .... hmmmm... I think my bad luck for getting males passed year has shifted over to you now...

 

[Alistair]

Thanks for the humor TCVG. Well, I guess it happens sometimes.

THG, I forgot about what you said concerning root bound plants. All the reading I've done says that transplanting should be done when the plants become root bound. There are different degrees to which a plant can be root bound. Most of my pots are 3 gallon pots and after having placed 3 week old seedlings into them, about 3 weeks later those plants have almost filled the pot with roots. I imagine that they'll be root bound in about another two to three weeks. However, they shouldn't need transplanting, because by that time the plants should be finished with their flowering stretch, and root growth should slow down.

So, I believe that the safest way to transplant is when the plant is root bound enough in order to hold the root ball intact, in the shape of the pot in which the plant is growing.

One thing I noticed when tossing the males out, was the roots were nice, white and healthy. That to me, means that the soil is well aerated and my females are going to continue to grow well with nice buds.