Need Advice To Stretch.

[Monster762]

I have a few pretty healthy plants that are not growing upward much. They are dense bushes and I'm having trouble getting light to lower ends. I don't want to add my led panels until flower. Problem is they were almost dead so I never tied down. Now the main stalls have almost zero flex to them I pulled a couple leaves bigger than my hand off to get light to lower end but now thinking about it I probably shouldn't have done that. They are strong and will survive but there has to be some method to make them stretch. I am about 8-9 weeks in veg due to some issues but I don't want to flip switch until they are 2-1/2 -3 feet. Raising the lights doesn't make them stretch. They just keep getting bushier. Strains sour diesel. Blueberry n green crack. How can I make them reach out a little. There are so many future bud sites I need no more. But they are all over top each other. I'm going to post pic of one so you can see what I'm talking about. I am under t5s. Also even with a/c room is hitting over 80 on a regular basis. With intake fan exhaust fan and fan in the room too. Any ideas appreciated.

 

[Monster762]

 

[xenon730]

the way to make plants stretch is to increase the distance between plant top and light. i do this before topping my plants the first time to make it a nice clone with a bit of stem. a kelphumic with a balanced feed will increase total growth rate in veg significantly. cutting off healthy leaves will never make the plant grow faster, especially not vertically. im actually not following the logic of removing higher leaves, closer to the light and where you want the growth, to let light reach the bottom leaves which you think control height or something? I'm asking because theres a fundamental idea you're missing somewhere here.

the reason i kind of ignored you saying raising the lights doesn't cause stretch until now is because its just plain false. you may not be able to raise them any higher in your situation but raising their only light source, that is increasing the distance from the top to the light, absolutely will cause stretching. that's just plant science.

why are you waiting until they're 3 feet to flower? you want them to be 6'-9' tall? when you flip them they'll stretch somewhere in the first 3 weeks. how much is dependent on a few things. in fabric pots they'll easily double in height. sativa dominant strains can get ridiculous in stretch, think tripling or more. in a hard pot with no pruning holes or copper smeared will grow significantly smaller overall as the plant gets more and more rootbound.

which is my last point. is she rootbound? once they're basically totally rootbound they will put nodes directly on top of each other. could be happening here as it progresses over time. looking at pictures closer, doesnt look like it could be root bound. might just be genetics. looks like that's just where her nodes space to in veg.

 

[Monster762]

the way to make plants stretch is to increase the distance between plant top and light. i do this before topping my plants the first time to make it a nice clone with a bit of stem. a kelphumic with a balanced feed will increase total growth rate in veg significantly. cutting off healthy leaves will never make the plant grow faster, especially not vertically. im actually not following the logic of removing higher leaves, closer to the light and where you want the growth, to let light reach the bottom leaves which you think control height or something? I'm asking because theres a fundamental idea you're missing somewhere here.

the reason i kind of ignored you saying raising the lights doesn't cause stretch until now is because its just plain false. you may not be able to raise them any higher in your situation but raising their only light source, that is increasing the distance from the top to the light, absolutely will cause stretching. that's just plant science.

why are you waiting until they're 3 feet to flower? you want them to be 6'-9' tall? when you flip them they'll stretch somewhere in the first 3 weeks. how much is dependent on a few things. in fabric pots they'll easily double in height. sativa dominant strains can get ridiculous in stretch, think tripling or more. in a hard pot with no pruning holes or copper smeared will grow significantly smaller overall as the plant gets more and more rootbound.

which is my last point. is she rootbound? once they're basically totally rootbound they will put nodes directly on top of each other. could be happening here as it progresses over time.

Ok I'm learning this still first real indoor I always did outdoor where I just pretty much set up good dirt and threw seeds in it then fed it bat guano n worm casting tea. I have 9 ft ceiling but I think it's going to be too crowded even with just the 3 main plants. I have 3 small ones with it 2 of each strain total. They are in hard pots approx 2-3 gal and one is in 5 gal bucket. Do you think it's good idea to take out of pots carefully n put in bigger fabric pots ? My goal was really for around 4-5 ft when harvested. I just want a halfway decent yield. Not to sell but enough to fill a few mason jars. I can't even smoke until the beginning of next year. So I figured I wasn't in a big rush I might as well go for monsters. Then dry n cure for a couple months. I'm trying to learn. So I'll raise the t5s and maybe put in fabric pots. I can transfer pots without hurting anything pretty easily. I just put in those pots about 2-3 weeks ago when I rid the fungus gnats n didn't see a lot of roots at all just clump of dirt that I had to carefully maneuver so it didn't bust up. Thanks for reply. I was afraid that moving t5s to far away would make them suffer from lack of light. I'll move up tomorrow. What is this kelphumic? I'm using plant fertelixir with calimagic and worm castings. Elixir is a 3-1-1 organic. And I want to add my 600 led and swap 4 of the 8 t5 bulbs for red when I flower. Is that a bad idea?

 

[Monster762]

Oh space is only 4x4 wide that's why the bushing is worrying me.

 

[xenon730]

okay slow down a little for me and don't do anything just yet. we still planning. i don't think you should transplant necessarily. you can if you want but i would probably just flower them in their current pots. in fact let's clarify some things for me okay?

how tall do you want them to get at maximum height? factor ceiling, pot height and light height.

how much do you need to yield to keep yourself medicated at a bare minimum?

and just a few quick facts. number of plants. height of each. pot each is in.

try to keep the numbers together in the post not mixed with conversation. sorry to make you repeat some things but id like a proper reference for myself.

 

[DrMcSkunkins]

You can just flip to 12/12 when you're ready and defol everything on the bottom 1/3 of each stalk after 10 to 14 days. No need to keep all that bottom stuff, it won't amount to much and it's prone to have male flowers more than the top growth that gets good light.

 

[xenon730]

You can just flip to 12/12 when you're ready and defol everything on the bottom 1/3 of each stalk after 10 to 14 days. No need to keep all that bottom stuff, it won't amount to much and it's prone to have male flowers more than the top growth that gets good light.

any source on the last line or anecdotal? bottom buds being more hermie prone.

 

[Monster762]

ok there are 6 total plants.

3 are about 18 inches from top of pot.

Other 3 are half that size but started much later about 4-5 weeks later.

My maximum height would be 7 ft no taller but am happy with 4-5 ft.

I can put lights as high as 8ft 8 inches from ground. ( I have 8 bulb t5 currently blue bulbs. But have 4 red bulbs in the box waiting. I also have 600w led full spec panel (Approx 24x10 ) and 4 12x12 45w led panels full spec ) I don't want to use my halide or hps because of heat and power draw. Already hard to keep under 80 with the 95-100 outside.

As far as how much do I need to yield I want to max out whatever is possible from plants. But a few oz each I'm ok with.

I don't really need to yield much I'm learning. Plus like I said I can't even smoke until February. So I'll have another run in progress by then.



(One of the plants is in 5 gal bucket. Others are in approx 3 gal pots that is the main 3 ).

Other 3 which are about 10 inches tall are in pretzel jugs approx 1.5 gal.

(These I think I am going to keep in veg in different room to open up space for the larger 3)

What I am trying to do is get the top to move up and lower branches to reach out so they can all have colas not popcorn nugs.
I did this outdoor simply by tying down then all the lower branches grew straight up. All branches got almost equal light that way. And side colas were almost the same as main cola.

As far as the hermie thing I've only had 1 branch ever do that and I will wrap in a bag carefully and chop it off if it does. I wouldn't mind a few seeds at all but I've seen how they turn to all seed and I don't want that
I don't want to pull early either. I want it to be for calming I have severe anxiety disorder and ptsd Weed seems to relax that. And sometimes I fight to sleep.

 

[Monster762]

Oh space is only 4x4 wide that's why the bushing is worrying me.

Well I have officially bushed out a 4x4. Barely have room for the fan now. Dropped shelf about 20 inches n have oscillating fan under it. The way they look to me now they want to go so I think I'm going to give them what they ask for. Tallest is still only about 2ft from the top of 5 gal bucket. I transplanted two others into 5 gals today and they were all root. No dirt fell off at all transplanting. Turned upside down gave a tap n boom they came out cleanly. Not bound up but close. I'm going to spend the next week on prep n flip the switch. It's going down. I'm going to adjust my lights to 7 ft to make em reach, clean everything real good n start to bump the potassium. Then once light goes out I am going to bump phosphorus. Once I get it done I'll put a new post up. I think they are still going to be monsters. They are mature. Like 10 weeks veg so they're ready. I'm thinking of running led panels (I have but never used) on all 4 walls lower than canopy cocked just slightly downward. I'll see how this stretch goes. Either way it'll be nice. Gc has 10 wk flower time.

 

[Monster762]

 

[Monster762]

My one entire wall is fully adjustable so I might move it 2 ft to give them 6 ft that direction. I'll just have to redo a new light n smell seal.

 

[xenon730]

fantastic looking! absolutely its time to flip. they certainly will be some monsters. couple things to consider. what is bush now will be a bud coming off the main stalk that will have weight. there will be more room in between the parts but they will likely take up more total space and potentially need to be staked, making the perimeter of all the plants even larger. also, if you're comfortable with the height, let loose. you can always remove buds if everything gets too tight, you can't just make your roof go up a few feet.

try to get them all in same size pots if you can. it can be a real mess of mixing with different size pots on your first couple runs. you have what 2 not in 5 gallons?

they really look vigorous. what's your plans for feeding into flower? i can tell you that its very easy to burn again in the first few weeks of flower and is a common time for gardeners to love their girls to death.

as for everything you said about yields and what not you shouldn't have any problems with anything. careful waiting a full week to flip though cause once they get started, they can get tall on you fast.

 

[Monster762]

fantastic looking! absolutely its time to flip. they certainly will be some monsters. couple things to consider. what is bush now will be a bud coming off the main stalk that will have weight. there will be more room in between the parts but they will likely take up more total space and potentially need to be staked, making the perimeter of all the plants even larger. also, if you're comfortable with the height, let loose. you can always remove buds if everything gets too tight, you can't just make your roof go up a few feet.

try to get them all in same size pots if you can. it can be a real mess of mixing with different size pots on your first couple runs. you have what 2 not in 5 gallons?

they really look vigorous. what's your plans for feeding into flower? i can tell you that its very easy to burn again in the first few weeks of flower and is a common time for gardeners to love their girls to death.

as for everything you said about yields and what not you shouldn't have any problems with anything. careful waiting a full week to flip though cause once they get started, they can get tall on you fast.

I have 3 not in 5 gals 1 is missing because I took it out to flush it.i plant to put them in different spot n keep in veg. I'm learning still. I want to be sure everything is 100% clean in there before I flip that's why I said maybe a week.
As for ferts I just did a lot of reading and went with advanced nutrients rhino skin bud blood and bud candy. Any suggestions or better idea I'm definitely open to.
I am trying to decide whether to put4 45w leds on wall or flip the t5s vertical down the walls n put my 600led and 4 45w panels above canopy

 

[Monster762]

They been singing to me telling me to flip em I just want nice big plants so I was holding out. This is my first real indoor grow.

 

[Monster762]

Oh and I planned to run all nutes at half the directions strength

 

[Monster762]

And by let loose you mean? Put lights at ceiling now? I've never actually topped these either. They were about dead. This is the same 3 plants a month ago

 

[Monster762]

Damn fungus gnats. But if it wasn't for the gnats I'd have 11 in there n they def wouldn't fit. Gnats killed most of em before someone on here pointed them out.

 

[Monster762]

Rhino skin is on tap now. Running little less than half strength. Found out that a root drench with garden safe neem oil does NOT kill the plant. I tested a small plant that I don't have room for anyways and it smiling at me still. Imma give it a day or 2 n might drench em all before hitting switch to flower.
( If that's a bad idea speak up.)
Making sure nothing is at the roots or wants to be near plants at all. I've decided t5s are being flipped vertically on walls with red n blue bulbs putting 600w led at 7 ft and going to move closer to 9ft if needed. Still have plants 20 inches off ground which I'm going to drop if necessary and wall mount the oscillating fan. Intake pulling from bottom of room and exhaust at top is ducted n sealed to outdoors. Going to drop 2 packs of moth balls right at the exit to outdoors. It smelly n still on 24 hr schedule. Trying to decide the best hours around work to set timer to so I am off work when lights on. I think I'm going to make daytime outside ,nighttime in the room for temp stability. So lights go on while I'm there n go off before I leave in morning. That will balance the 100 degree days a little bit. I overanalyze everything. Part of my anxiety I think.

If anything here sounds wrong please speak up.

Like I said I'm learning. Lights out in about 48hrs.

 

[Monster762]

Help with electrical timer. I've searched everywhere and all seem to fail. Either by stopping working , not keeping proper timing or even catching fire. I've googled shopped amazon n all. The reviews mostly come back a negative. I need to find 120v surge protected timer with 2 grounded outlets. The heavier duty the better even though I'm low draw. I'd rather overkill on this then have it fail.