Do I need to top my plants? How tall will a 20" plant get after flowered?

[SC300drifter]

How tall will a 20" plant get after flowered?

I have 3 plants in veg that are 20" tall, they all look very healthy and are being grown in DWC 3 gallon buckets under an 8 site 4' T5 light.

My concern is my flowering room only has 44" of vertical growing space from the top of my bucket to the lens of my 600w HPS hood.

This is my first grow and from what I have read plants usually grow 2-3 times the size when in flower... should I cut a few inches off the top of my 3 veg plants before I put them into flower?


This pic is the 20 inch tall veg plants that I think i will need to top to keep them from growing taller than 40 inches in flower
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This is my flowering tent and light, I have a 450cfm fan and ducting to keep temps at 75F but when the light is all the way up I only have 44 inches from the top of the bucket to the glass lens of the hood, I think a 20" tall plant might outgrow this by the time I harvest, what do you think?
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These are some I threw in there at 5"-12", none of them are over 35" tall and that is just fine because it leaves a little space between the tops of the plants and the light so the leaf temps never get above 75F.
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If you think I should top it, how many inches should I top it? Is there a good method you could suggest?

Thanks!

 

[odlaw]

you could top them but i would suggest letting them veg a lil longer if you do
you could also just tie them down very lil stress and easy
i tie mine to the edge of my pots and this time round i have one baby (ww) i am trying out super cropping on

 

[SC300drifter]

Judging from your reply you must think my vegging plants will outgrow my space in my flowering area? How tall do you think my 20" plants will get?

I have 12" between each plant, each bucket is 12" in diameter, overall each plant has 2' diameter of space max before they grow into each other so bending, tying, scrogging, isn't an option because of the lack of room.

How much should I top them to keep them under 40"? Will a 12" plant be 36", will a 20" plant be 60"? or will a 20" be 40-50"?

I am growing Critical Mass, Train wreck, Pandora, Grape God, Permafrost, Blue dream, Blueberry, and one unknown Bagseed.

The pictures of the plants in flower were 5"-12" when introduced to flowering except 2 train wrecks, they were 22" tall when put into flower... they are all still under 35".
The tallest is a Train wreck that was a 2wk old clone, it was only 5" tall and stretched out to 35".

 

[DrFever]

i would put them in flower chances of doubleing in size is above normal i went into flower at 21 to 23 " and in flower they went to 48" tall so strain dependant rather be safe then sorry

 

[Pureblood89]

I think it's a little too late for you to top at this point, if you top now, you will have two main top heavy colas. Most people top when they are very young, usually under 2 weeks old, between the 4th and 5th node, or between the 2nd and 3rd. At this point the stem is a little too thick to LST. If you want to keep them bushy instead of stretching too much at this point, I would suggest super cropping, less stress than topping and a lot less attention to detail than LSTing. It also improves yield vs. letting the grow naturally and having only one main cola.

[video=youtube;H1YEc7ENd5E]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1YEc7ENd5E[/video]

 

[SC300drifter]

Well it sounds like I might need to top them because I don't have 48" to grow...

If I get them topped to 16" I should be safe right? Would 4" be too much to cut off the top?

 

[DrFever]

I think it's a little too late for you to top at this point, if you top now, you will have two main top heavy colas. Most people top when they are very young, usually under 2 weeks old, between the 4th and 5th node, or between the 2nd and 3rd. At this point the stem is a little too thick to LST. If you want to keep them bushy instead of stretching too much at this point, I would suggest super cropping, less stress than topping and a lot less attention to detail than LSTing. It also improves yield vs. letting the grow naturally and having only one main cola.

[video=youtube;H1YEc7ENd5E]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1YEc7ENd5E[/video]

lol was just goin to re post super cropping would be a better idea i topped and got 6 colas on 1 plant
now i am super cropping my next plants and will see out come and what is better topping or super cropping

 

[DrFever]

just get them into flower today shut lights off for 24 hrs set ur timers to 12 /12 and drop temp to 60 degrees lights off and you will be fine 20 " plants you can guarntee the plants will 14 to 18 " taller dont start cutting plants your doin well they look awesome
if and when time comes and you need to tie tops down just get twine an tie back ur buds a lil all you got to do
hell i had 1000 watts only like 10" away from my tops an they didnt burn

 

[SC300drifter]

Well I tried the supercropping method with one plant in veg, I was reluctant at first... it seemed crazy to be honest. I couldn't believe the video, the guy just snapped his plant like it was no big deal... anyways I read more on the subject and decided to give it a shot and after pinching and bending the stock the plant curved and went for the light again so its still healthy.

From what I have read on it I can supercrop at almost any stage so I will wait another week and see how close I am to the light before taking action in my flowering tent. I will be buying another light this week because my tent is way too full for just one light...I would like to buy a thinner air cooled hood to gain some space, I am currently using a Radiant 6 hood that is 1.5 feet tall including hangers, I think I could find something at least 6" thinner.

I am on week 2-5 of flowering with the various plants in the tent... I am most worried about the 3 front right plants, they are growing rapidly and were too tall when introduced to 12/12, they are about 32" right now @ day 14 of flowering. My other girls stopped growing during the 3rd week of flowering, is that normal?

This is my flower tent....
View attachment 1429570

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These are my supercropped veg plant pictures, you can see it did start standing up straight, should I bend it again?
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This is the cola on a trainwreck clone that was just 5" tall when introduced to 12/12 lol, looks pretty good for just a little guy!
View attachment 1429580

 

[509$Finest]

expect double height for sure so 40" will happen the extra four is there space for the light after the 44? u can try and tie it down once they get to tall or create a fence like roof overt he plant and force it

 

[SC300drifter]

expect double height for sure so 40" will happen the extra four is there space for the light after the 44? u can try and tie it down once they get to tall or create a fence like roof overt he plant and force it

How many weeks into flower do plants usually continue to grow taller?

I might be able to fabricate a different hanger for the light so I can gain another few inches, I currently have the light suspended from "v" hangers to "yo-yo" style adjustable light hangers so I can remove the V's and yo-yo's if I can figure a way to securely hang the light.

 

[drgreentm]

it depends allot on strain sativa's tend to be allot taller and lankier as opposed to a indica dominant that will tend to get allot wider and stay a little on the shorter side. this is my very sativa dominant (purple kush) plant that i vegged to about 24" and topped early on. this is her 3 weeks in flower she is about 80" tall its ridiculous really i wont be doing this again lol.

 

[SC300drifter]

it depends allot on strain sativa's tend to be allot taller and lankier as opposed to a indica dominant that will tend to get allot wider and stay a little on the shorter side. this is my very sativa dominant (purple kush) plant that i vegged to about 24" and topped early on. this is her 3 weeks in flower she is about 80" tall its ridiculous really i wont be doing this again lol.

Dude, not cool... I thought i was going to be safe with my 44" limit until you chime in with your 24" grew up to 80" story... I'm doomed! lol
Nah I dont think I will reach 80", Im 2 weeks now and am only 32" so I am hoping to max out somewhere around 40" by week 3...
Was there something you did to induce the stretch that your plant seems to have? My plants seems alot bushier at the moment... will they stretch out like yours if they are sativa?