Flower (55-65 Days)

Flowering is kick started by switching the light cycle from 18/6 to 12/12. The start of flowering is a good time to do a full water change, drain any remaining water from the DWC tank. Mix up a batch of water using the “Transition to Bloom” ratio and bring the pH down to 5.5. Aim for a target VPD between 1.2 and 1.6 during flower.

Do not “over veg” your plants. As you can see above the plants will grow to 2-3 times their size during the flowering cycle. It is very easy to outgrow your box with how quickly plants grow in DWC!

During the flowering cycle your main job is to trim excessive growth. There are a few methods you should employ.

Lollipoping– is the process of removing all bottom growth from your plants. ‘lollipopping’ can be done early in flower before any pistils have begun.

Larf – is undeveloped leafy bud that has little value. Bottom growth is removed because these bud production areas will not contribute quality buds. They will be immature and consume resources that the plant could otherwise be devoting to producing quality buds at the top of the canopy.

As your plants grow in height long shoots should be bent and woven into the screen. You want as FLAT a canopy as possible to maximize light utilization. You can also have a slight bowl shape to the canopy where colas on the outside are allowed to grow taller while the middle is kept as flat as possible.

Twist ties – are a great tool for training your plants and attaching it to the scrog system.

Strip n Spread – is the process of removing the vast majority of fan leaves once pistil production has begun. Opinions vary on how many fan leaves should be removed but I have seen almost all fan leaves removed and the plants still do fine. The advantage of strip and spread is that you will get thick, dense rock hard nugs and will have much less trimming to do later. I typically only leave 2-3 nodes on the top of each branch and trim everything below that and usually defoliate/trim the plants on day 1 and day 21 of flower.

Fan Leaves – are attached to the plant via a stem. These are the main leaves you want to trim. The plant produces more than is necessary as in the wild bugs and pests will eat away at these. In a controlled indoor environment removing the majority of your fan leaves during flowering helps improve air circulation and plant health. This will seem counterintuitive to new growers but over time you will see how quickly these fan leaves will repopulate, and how well plants do when they are trimmed frequently.