Why are my tops growing so tall?

[Snoopmarleynelson]

I topped the main stem two weeks ago and two new growths appeared then rocketed up and so did the rest all Down the whole stem, she is a northern lights autoflower from crop king and she’s now 7 weeks old, is this normal growth? Any suggestions? And for those who are wondering the cage is for my cat and the tin foil to reflect light to the lower growth because my lights are only 60w but I have three sets of the same lights so totaling 10 lamp bars and now making the wattage totaling at 200w which I was slowing implementing more lights overtime to her need and now this is basically the end result.

 

[DaFreak]

lights are really important.

 

[Snoopmarleynelson]

lights are really important.

2 days ago I added the next set of lights adding 4 more bars with the total of 10 the setup is ungodly bright and the light is 100% penetrating all the leaves I also switched her to bloom nutrients will that have an influence on this?

 

[fragileassassin]

Youre just getting into flower. I would not have topped it that late. With what it shows now it was likely already showing sex when you topped it.
This is called "The stretch". It wants that light all up in its face.
Those bars may have decent output up close but likely lack the power to get much intensity to the lower half of the plant. I would spread them out a bit more along the height of the plant if you want the whole thing to flower the same.
If you are going to continue using those lights put them all on the plant as soon as it shows its sex.

 

[PadawanWarrior]

You need better lighting if you want decent buds.

 

[Snoopmarleynelson]

Youre just getting into flower. I would not have topped it that late. With what it shows now it was likely already showing sex when you topped it.
This is called "The stretch". It wants that light all up in its face.
Those bars may have decent output up close but likely lack the power to get much intensity to the lower half of the plant. I would spread them out a bit more along the height of the plant if you want the whole thing to flower the same.
If you are going to continue using those lights put them all on the plant as soon as it shows its sex.

when should I expect the stretch to stop? She’s about a week and a half into flowering. And I’ll definitely take into consideration with the lights so far they’ve been doing an amazing job but as she grew I definitely had to implement more which I did and she’s still loving it I had absolutely no problems but keeping the plant under control cause she literally just blew up out of nowhere haha

 

[fragileassassin]

A plant can double and sometimes even triple in size during transition and early flower. Having a enough light helps counter it some, but theyll explode for a good 3-4 weeks.

This is what my current crop did in 3 weeks with 1 good trim in the middle. I flipped to 12/12 on january 28th, it takes them a little over a week to start. The other pic was from yesterday, they are still growing and likely will be for another week at least.

 

[curious2garden]

I topped the main stem two weeks ago and two new growths appeared then rocketed up and so did the rest all Down the whole stem, she is a northern lights autoflower from crop king and she’s now 7 weeks old, is this normal growth? Any suggestions? And for those who are wondering the cage is for my cat and the tin foil to reflect light to the lower growth because my lights are only 60w but I have three sets of the same lights so totaling 10 lamp bars and now making the wattage totaling at 200w which I was slowing implementing more lights overtime to her need and now this is basically the end result.

Yeah they start to slow a bit in week 3-5. When you switch to flower things move quickly and a nice comfy grow suddenly changes. Enjoy the roller coaster. It's a weed there's not much you can do wrong. There are better practices but you figure it out by trial and error.

As long as they are kind of alive when you kill them you've won.

 

[Snoopmarleynelson]

Since she’s an autoflower and she started showing her pistols like this how much longer does she have till she’s in full bloom and packing on weight? It feels like it’s taking forever for those tiny buds to start expanding it just seems like the pistols are getting longer and more and more buds are popping up but on some of the pistols the very tips are starting to turn a very slight red and curling but just starting to, I’m assuming it’s just the preflowers that we’re showing in young age maturing faster because they’re older but I’m not exactly sure.

 

[fragileassassin]

You should see noticable differences in the flower within about 2 weeks, itll take a while to start bulking up though. Whatever your breeder estimates are, you can start that period about now.

 

[Snoopmarleynelson]

So basically I’ll just see more tiny buds over the next couple weeks and then out of nowhere they’ll start bulking up? Like when I say they’re small they’re probably the size of a seed if it was cut in half lol they’ve been the same size for almost 2 weeks and just the pistols and more of the exact same size or smaller buds keep popping up as she’s creating more nodes and vegetation On the base of said nodes, she’s on 12/12 for 2 weeks and it’s like she’s in between veg and flower, any thoughts?

 

[Snoopmarleynelson]

And I also started using a bloom booster when she started making cotton balls on the tops

 

[PadawanWarrior]

So basically I’ll just see more tiny buds over the next couple weeks and then out of nowhere they’ll start bulking up? Like when I say they’re small they’re probably the size of a seed if it was cut in half lol they’ve been the same size for almost 2 weeks and just the pistols and more of the exact same size or smaller buds keep popping up as she’s creating more nodes and vegetation On the base of said nodes, she’s on 12/12 for 2 weeks and it’s like she’s in between veg and flower, any thoughts?

You're not gonna get nice fat nugs with those lights. You need better light if you want to run with the big dogs, lol.

 

[fragileassassin]

So basically I’ll just see more tiny buds over the next couple weeks and then out of nowhere they’ll start bulking up? Like when I say they’re small they’re probably the size of a seed if it was cut in half lol they’ve been the same size for almost 2 weeks and just the pistols and more of the exact same size or smaller buds keep popping up as she’s creating more nodes and vegetation On the base of said nodes, she’s on 12/12 for 2 weeks and it’s like she’s in between veg and flower, any thoughts?

It's a transition that takes weeks. That's what early flower is. The point between veg and buds.
That's 3 weeks from flip with proper light.

 

[Snoopmarleynelson]

Everyone’s saying I have crappy lighting but the tops are starting to look like that and she’s not even week two

 

[Snoopmarleynelson]

And this is her before the stretch, on camera it still slightly dims it to focus but trust me these lights are wonderful

 

[PissingNutes]

A plant can double and sometimes even triple in size during transition and early flower. Having a enough light helps counter it some, but theyll explode for a good 3-4 weeks.

This is what my current crop did in 3 weeks with 1 good trim in the middle. I flipped to 12/12 on january 28th, it takes them a little over a week to start. The other pic was from yesterday, they are still growing and likely will be for another week at least.
View attachment 4483025View attachment 4483026

New grower here want to better understand this. So after vertical growth slows in veg there's a week or two where we switch to flower and using a stronger light will control or limit some veg growth that can last three weeks before flowering is more intense depending on strain?

 

[PadawanWarrior]

Everyone’s saying I have crappy lighting but the tops are starting to look like that and she’s not even week two

Just don't expect much compared to better lighting. Even an HLG 100 in 3000k would be way better.

HLG 100 V2

HLG 100 V2 is ideal for a vegging or flowering in compact spaces. Equivalent to 220W T5 or 300W CFL output or 250W metal halide.

horticulturelightinggroup.com

 

[fragileassassin]

New grower here want to better understand this. So after vertical growth slows in veg there's a week or two where we switch to flower and using a stronger light will control or limit some veg growth that can last three weeks before flowering is more intense depending on strain?

It might in autos idk, but I haven't really seen them slow down. Its growing fast then starts growing faster before it stops to push buds.
In a photoperiod plant, when you change your lights, it makes the plants think it's getting late in the year. This triggers the transition to flower. The plant makes a final concentrated effort to grow as big as possible to push out as many possible bud sites as it can before it starts to flower. This is called "the stretch" and you dont really stop it you just try to not make it worse. It takes about a week from schedule change to get going and will go for 3-5 weeks depending. Having enough light will make the bud sites stack closer together, but you should still plan for a plant you've never flowered before to double to be safe imo. If you have more room when it's done, let it go longer next time. Things can get very difficult when your plants stretch more than you planned for and you start running out of room.

If your lighting is insufficient, they will go to it and get as much as they can. Even when they're touching the light burning themselves they wont stop. This tends to make people raise their light and the plants will keep chasing it making the stretch more drastic.

 

[fragileassassin]

Everyone’s saying I have crappy lighting but the tops are starting to look like that and she’s not even week two

It might grow a few decent buds up in the concentrated light but what we are saying is it isnt going to do much for the rest of the plant. My flowers look like that for like a foot and a half down the colas.