Shorter, bushier plants.

Saleen guy

Member
New to this. Just completed my first grow and on to my second. First batch was under cheaper LED's. Learned a valuable lesson there. Plants were tall and thin. Any advice on training current grow to stay shorter and bush out? Current grow is under HPS lights. Thanks in advance!
 

Saleen guy

Member
I'm running metal halide right now with an open hood at about 36 inches. Just giving them about 6 ml per gallon of cyco grow a&b with about 2 ml per gallon of cal mag. They look really good headed into the end of week 2.
 

xtsho

Well-Known Member
I'm running metal halide right now with an open hood at about 36 inches. Just giving them about 6 ml per gallon of cyco grow a&b with about 2 ml per gallon of cal mag. They look really good headed into the end of week 2.
Get a sealed hood and you can run the light much closer. 36 inches is much too far.
 

Saleen guy

Member
Thanks all for the help. Taking measures to improve things in the room. Butes sound accurate to you guys? Grow a&b and cal mag?
 

Failmore

Well-Known Member
Put it under net. Spread it out. Keep the metal halide in there till after the stretch. Hps will cause it to stretch like mad.

I grew 2 autos...1 plant was further along and was ready for the hps...the other was not. I put the hps in there and the plant stretched 3 times higher. But should yield more...maybe...time will tell.

So if space is a problem keep that metal halide in there till after they are done stretching.

IMG_20210317_201140.jpg
 

Richard Drysift

Well-Known Member
New to this. Just completed my first grow and on to my second. First batch was under cheaper LED's. Learned a valuable lesson there. Plants were tall and thin. Any advice on training current grow to stay shorter and bush out? Current grow is under HPS lights. Thanks in advance!
Tight nodal stacking is what you want and it starts in early veg. You can use panel style LEDs up to a certain point but once they get a few nodes you need more intensity. Vegging mid size plants under a metal halide or high quality LEDs can help. If you are looking to eliminate stretch altogether consider gradually reducing the hours of darkness instead of flipping right to 12/12. Start at 18/6 and go to 15/9 for a week or so. Then go to 14/10 for a week, and so on. When they are at around 13 or 14 hrs of light they should have already begun to preflower and most strains show sex. From there you can re-veg at 18/6 to monster them or flip directly to 12/12 for the duration of bloom phase. Either way you’ll end up with a much bushier plant than if you just flipped right to 12/12 from jump street.

I have just done this very thing to my plants; follow along here..
 

ZeeeDoc

Well-Known Member
24-7 lighting in veg. Creates faster growth and tighter nodes. MH until first 3 weeks flower.
 

xtsho

Well-Known Member
I just use 6500k HO T5's for vegging keeping the fixture just a few inches above the plants. I get really closely spaced nodes. It starts in veg. If you have a spindly plant due to lack of light or overfeed and get too much growth there isn't much you can do once they go into flower. Keep in mind that some strains are more stretchy than others. There isn't much you can do with some sativas to keep them from stretching. They're going to grow no matter what you do.

 

A e o n

Well-Known Member
Tons of light, cold temps, topping keep em bushy; I grow 2lb plants that are 3-4ft tall. Heat and excessive lollipoping create lots of stretch
 

twentyeight.threefive

Well-Known Member
These two were vegged under a cheap blurple. The type of light doesn't matter as long as it is sufficient and the plants are properly cared for. (this "800w blurple wouldn't cover a 4x4).
20200705_193758.jpg
 
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