Help - Short and extremely dense plants

[SpeedBump]

I think DLI is daily light intake….basically measures the totality of the light intake factoring in the amount of photons the plant is getting from your particular light.
Honestly 48” above the canopy is higher than I’ve ever seen for established plants.
Your plants aren’t leggy, just the opposite so it may not be a limiting factor.
What’s the wattage of your light? And you’re just growing the one plant?
i wouldn’t worry about it being short and stocky. The stems are thick and healthy, so once you flip that thing could jump to over twice it’s current height.
I’d top it for sure, at least once and fill your space.

It's a Mars Hydro TSW2000 (https://www.mars-hydro.com/tsw-2000-led-grow-light). It was recommended for 4x4/3x3 tent and mine is 32" x 32" (just shy of 3x3). After wasting some money and trying some cheap lights on Amazon, I splurged and I figured better to have too much light instead of not enough. I just started two because if it was a disaster I didn't want to lose all my seeds. In hind sight I should have done 4 because chances are only 50% will be female. I'm even debating letting them go to seed if I have one M and one F just so I have more seeds. Lol

 

[Pushrod Monkey]

PAR, PPF, PPFD, and DLI uncovered

Terms every LED grower should know. When LEDs arrived on the market, their tremendous efficiency and money saving potential changed the playing field. Lumens, lux, and footcandles finally became obsolete metrics for determining light requirements for plants. Recently, people began referring to...

www.ledgrowlightsdepot.com

Not a substitute for Bruce Bugbee vids but good reference material.

 

[SpeedBump]

PAR, PPF, PPFD, and DLI uncovered

Terms every LED grower should know. When LEDs arrived on the market, their tremendous efficiency and money saving potential changed the playing field. Lumens, lux, and footcandles finally became obsolete metrics for determining light requirements for plants. Recently, people began referring to...

www.ledgrowlightsdepot.com

Not a substitute for Bruce Bugbee vids but good reference material.

I'm guessing Bruce Bugbee are must watch videos? I'll watch a few while I'm supposed to be working tomorrow. :)

Well, I just did the deed. Topped her (hopefully not him) to the best of my ability given the space I had to work with. Also cut 4 leafs off each from the bottom (plus one of the original starter leafs which I thought were supposed to fall off). It was surprisingly big.

 

[Pushrod Monkey]

I'm guessing Bruce Bugbee are must watch videos? I'll watch a few while I'm supposed to be working tomorrow. :)

Well, I just did the deed. Topped her (hopefully not him) to the best of my ability given the space I had to work with. Also cut 4 leafs off each from the bottom (plus one of the original starter leafs which I thought were supposed to fall off). It was surprisingly big.

Bugbee is a must. I never watch anything cannabis related on YouTube. But I made an exception after bleaching some seedlings as white as ivory. I had no clue they could even do that. Seedlings stretched so I lowered the light and increased the power.

They had to recover outdoors and it took a while. I germinated more, watched Bugbee by recommendation and then sent for a meter. Checked when I got it and set everything like before. 900 PPFD. No wonder. Use the meter and just dial in the power. It’s that easy.

 

[grnmtn]

Looks like a male.

 

[Mugwort]

I thought I read defoliation should happen just before switching and then again after about three weeks?

I top my plants weeks before flipping. Try not to do any cutting after flipping and stop defoliating after stretch until plucking larger fan leaves during last two weeks.

 

[SpeedBump]

Looks like a male.

How can you tell? I don't see any pre-buds yet...

 

[PerfecTrader]

I'm curious about having the lights so high. 4 feet seems like a lot. Have you looked at the recommended heights for your light? Download that Photone app and see if you are in the 400-500 PPFD range. If not I'd think maybe you could drop the light quite a bit. I could be way off but I thought even 36" is a bit high for this stage

 

[SpeedBump]

I'm curious about having the lights so high. 4 feet seems like a lot. Have you looked at the recommended heights for your light? Download that Photone app and see if you are in the 400-500 PPFD range. If not I'd think maybe you could drop the light quite a bit. I could be way off but I thought even 36" is a bit high for this stage

So I checked it out and it's actually 36" from the canopy and measured ~781.18 PPFD for a DLI of ~50.62

Just for fun, I checked at various other distances:
Height/PPFD/DLI(18hrs)/DLI(12hrs)
24"/1016.03/65.84/43.89
18"/1171.98/75.94/50.63
12"/1824.89/118.25/78.84

Some from what I've read I'm in the right area but when I flip to 12 hours I should make sure I'm more in the 12"-18" range.

Comments welcome.

 

[2Bad]

So I checked it out and it's actually 36" from the canopy and measured ~781.18 PPFD for a DLI of ~50.62

Just for fun, I checked at various other distances:
Height/PPFD/DLI(18hrs)/DLI(12hrs)
24"/1016.03/65.84/43.89
18"/1171.98/75.94/50.63
12"/1824.89/118.25/78.84

Some from what I've read I'm in the right area but when I flip to 12 hours I should make sure I'm more in the 12"-18" range.

Comments welcome.

I was taught by @Aqua Man to slowly raise the intensity day by day not all at once. I think a couple other people told me the same thing as well. maybe it was @tobh too I cant remember tbh

 

[SpeedBump]

I assumed that as they grew and got closer to the light the intensity would naturally increase.

 

[2Bad]

I assumed that as they grew and got closer to the light the intensity would naturally increase.

As long as your not dropping your light that's what I had assumed

Edit : short & stocky usually doesn't stretch that much

 

[PerfecTrader]

I'm on my 1st grow so take this with more than a grain of salt but everything I read says that would be too intense of light for this stage. The Photone app may be quite off though. I'd also think just after topping that less is more as they cope with it but may be wrong again. As for the app, mine as well download PPFD too and go with the middle of what they both say combined. I am only about 10 days or less behind you and I am shooting to be in the 400-600. The PPFD meter gives me roughly 325-350 at the top of each plant. The Photone app gives me 525-550ish so I use the middle and hope I'm 400ish. Obviously not a preferred method but again, it is free and available now

 

[SpeedBump]

I'm on my 1st grow so take this with more than a grain of salt but everything I read says that would be too intense of light for this stage. The Photone app may be quite off though. I'd also think just after topping that less is more as they cope with it but may be wrong again. As for the app, mine as well download PPFD too and go with the middle of what they both say combined. I am only about 10 days or less behind you and I am shooting to be in the 400-600. The PPFD meter gives me roughly 325-350 at the top of each plant. The Photone app gives me 525-550ish so I use the middle and hope I'm 400ish. Obviously not a preferred method but again, it is free and available now

I downloaded PPFD and it gives me very similar number to the LUX converted to PPFD.

 

[SpeedBump]

So relatively certain I have 1 Female and one Male...I think I should wait a few more days to know for sure...thoughts?

Female:

Male:

 

[SpeedBump]

So it never got above two feet...on a plus note, lots of buds found their way to the top of the canopy. I'm on day 4 of drying, not sure how this turned out yet...

 

[Mugwort]

So it never got above two feet...on a plus note, lots of buds found their way to the top of the canopy. I'm on day 4 of drying, not sure how this turned out yet...

What a nice bouquet!

 

[SpeedBump]

What a nice bouquet!

Thank you! I figured it wasn't a bad haul so long as it's descent. :)