How much growth during flowering stage?

[Marcus47]

(First time grow...)​

I have a 3' X 3' X 5 ' tent.​

My pots are 1' tall, and my light will need almost 1' clearance at its highest position...​

Therefore: the biggest plant I can grow is approx 3'​

Question: How tall should I let my plants grow before switching to 12/12 lighting? (I'm guessing at about 2.5', which will allow another 6 inches for flowering. Am I correct?)​

 

[KennyPowers]

stretch depends on genetics and initial plant size. i have some things that stretch 2x and some that maybe grow <4" after going to flower. also if you put a bush in there that was topped n trained a bit, it will stretch considerably less than a plant that was allowed to grow normally.

what strain(s) are you running? i would be inclined to grow them to about a 12" plant, top them back 4-5", then grow them back to 14-16" or so. that way they wont stretch a ton when you do put them in flower, and you will maximize the # of colas you have at the top of the plant.

also you say 12" clearance for the light...does that include the hood and room between it and the plants?

 

[Marcus47]

Kenny... Thanks so much for your reply!

In answer to your questions:

The seeds are B.C. Big Bud (65% Sat / 35% Ind). I will only have two plants in the tent. And yes, the 1 foot (max) I am allowing for the lights includes the chain, the fixture, the reflector, AND 3 or 4 inches of clearance between it and the plant.

My light is a 250W MH which I will replace with a 250W HPS for flowering.

With this in mind, do your suggestions still hold true? Or would you do something different? ( I know bigger lights would help, but I'm stuck with these for the time being).

Thanks again!

 

[KennyPowers]

no problem bro, happy to help. as for the 250 dont stress it, everyone starts somewhere. but it wont penetrate much so the plants dont need to be very tall. you will need to top the plants and/or in the future run a screen to max your yields.

your strain will probably want to stretch a bit. since your 250 is only gonna penetrate a few inches into the canopy, you are going to want to maximize the # of tops you have. i would top the plants once, probably twice. when topping you want to start as early as possibly (after 5 nodes) to get the nice growth from the bottom up. try to get some stakes and train the branches out to expose some the lowers a bit more.

or you could consider doing a screen...but you could easily hold off on that for round 2 and just feel it out for the first girls. a screen will help max your light bc like i said, it only penetrates so far down the plant.

i wouldnt put the plants into flower much past 12-14" or so, no reason to really grow them bigger than that.

 

[bobby]

Your plants will probably double in size during flower....and you don't want to let your canopy get too close to the light....do a sea of green with 12 inch plants, if you want to maximize yield.

If you flower a plant that is 5 feet tall, then yes it might only grow another few inches...but when you flower young, they seem to always double in size.

 

[Marcus47]

@Kenny & @Bobby

Lots of good advice here! Thanks, guys! I'm gonna top them today and switch to 12/12 real soon.

 

[outwest]

I have a bigger tent with more headroom and as a rule I let the tallest plant get to 24" before flipping. I like big bushes and do lots of FIMing. In your setup as a rule of thumb I would not let the tallest plant get more than 12" off the ground before flipping. As others said SOG or SCROG (something I'm clueless about) would be your best bet to maximize yield.

outwest