Canopy Strategy Blog One
Ideal spacing for unobstructed early growth with punctual and precise topping technique is the backbone of consistent yield in your growing strategy.
8 top grown in 70/30 coco-perlite. 25" ready to flower.
You might be wondering why my first blog is about canopy.
I’m sure many people would start with climate, cloning, genetics or nutrients. I have seen more cultivators fail from inconsistency in canopy than almost any other reason. Uneven canopy takes every other issue a grower is facing and multiplies it, leaving the grower susceptible to a few major things including pests, mold, wasted energy (gaps in canopy) and small bud size.
I am starting with canopy strategy because the success of a canopy starts during the building and designing phase. There is simple math that can help you scale your veg rooms to your flower rooms. These take into consideration a few main factors I will touch on.
Without adequate space for plants during Vegetative growth, plants grow unevenly. From transplant, a two to three week Veg from transplanted clones under a decent powered veg light or led will give even growth. The idea is four or eight tops depending on how dense and large the buds get. Example being, Four for candy gas and eight for large bud varieties that are prone to bud rot. The tops MUST be identical on all plants and the plant hight should be all the same. If you are having issues with vigorous growth you most likely have one or all of three major issues: Correct and consistent VPD in your room, adequate watering dry-backs and the right ratio of food to PPFD.
The size of the Veg room can dictate the plant count in the room. Crowding the plants in veg should be avoided at all costs. It affects yield and makes it nearly impossible to keep up with IPM which should be administered MWF from rooted clone untill week three as a preventative measure even if no bugs are present.
10” by 10” on Center is the ideal minimum spacing for a plant that has been topped once or twice and to be able to avoid moving the plants once transplanted. This should help establish the Veg room to flower room capicity.
A good way to estimate plants per light that is ideal for your facility is take the square footage of your veg and multiply it by 144 and then divide it by 100. that gives you the amount of plants that will fit in your veg room comfortably. Take that number and divide it by how many lights you have. It’s better to have fewer good plants than more uneven sickly ones. Depending on the number of flower rooms you are able to determine how many weeks you will be able to spend in the veg. For example you have one veg room that can fill three flower rooms worth of plants. The facility has 8 flower rooms, and you do math on a 65 day cycle, you will have approximately three weeks of veg time available per section. The facility will harvesting a room a week and your staff can have a consistent schedule of tasks. Ex Monday harvest, Tuesday Clean, Wednesday move in new plants, Thursday Lollypop/Deleaf, Friday Take Clones.
If you can afford the veg space it will make life easier. It all depends on how many rooms you have to schedule for and if you can dial in your climate in your veg room and your transplant techniques to have a two or three week veg. I like to flip a plant around 18-25” and with a good Veg room a same day flip is a possibility. The height of the ceiling and lights dictate this. It's a good idea to figure out how much the strains that you are growing multiply from the day that plants are flipped into flower till they stop growing. This is especially important with LED lights because hitting a 1000-1100 Par reading is extremely important and most facilities don’t raise and lower lights.
A topping strategy I have practiced with success is: day 4-7 after TP (Transplant) the majority of all plants branches should start pulling away from the stock. I may cut off the bottom branch if it’s wispy and count up 4 strong nodes and top. If the plant produces overly large buds that are prone to bud rot , I will top one week later to have 8 tops. Plants reach 16-25 inches around 2.5-3 weeks.
Pruning options are:
-Day 4-7 after transplanting a rooted clone into larger medium in a room with consistent conditions around 80F and 74% humidity perform first top of four strong nodes.
-Day 10-14 Option of second top of all the tops equaling 8 tops.
-Day before, during or after transfer to flower room clean up the bottom 1/3 of the plant.
-Day 14-16 of flower clean up bottom 1/3, alt option
-Day 21 of flower only but make sure the plants are very clean a day or two before changing the light cycle
-Week 4-5 remove fan leafs.
Avoid overcrouding at all cost.
Plant height and structure should be uniform. IPM should be administered 3-4 times a week. Overly bushy plants are very hard spray and have full coverage.
Blog Post Title Three
It all begins with an idea.
It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.
Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.
Blog Post Title Four
It all begins with an idea.
It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.
Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.