How To Make A Sativa Short

Thedillestpickle

Thedillestpickle

Well-Known Member
Does anyone know what conditions are good for a plant to reduce stretching? Im trying to figure out how I can make a sativa as short as possible without physically touching the plant, no lst/fim/topping/supercropping

Just the perfect conditions for a plant to make it not want to stretch, Im thinking Lots of light, lower temperatures, a fan that pushes it lots. basically opposite of things that cause stretching, but are there any less obvious tricks?

any ideas are welcome
 
devk

devk

Active Member
Hello
SNAKE OILS <<<<<< I can Add that
Some off them work but letting it grow natural will be the best thing you can do....
 
Gastanker

Gastanker

Well-Known Member
Very very large amounts of wind would help a ton but you're sacrificing energy towards support versus other areas. Why not a very very simple LST? I LST just the very top cola and I always end up with 3' bushy plants versus 6+' spindly ones.

Days 20-25 I staked down just the main stem - for just around 5 days. Turned what would be 6+' sativa doms into shorter bushes. I should mention that side lighting helps them grow out versus just up.

Progression - day from seed entering soil

Day 1,5,9


Day 13,18,20


Day 22, 29/5, 32/7


36/11 - 2 plants removed, 39/15, 41/17


48/22, 51/25, 58/32


62/36,
​


 
K

KushDog

Active Member
Metal hailid light close to plant. Hps will make a sativa wanna stretch. big fan blowing on her. You could probaly do something with the nuterents ex:more of 1 thing and less of enother to try to make it not wanna grow tall, but I dont know how you would do that
 
O

OutlawR6

Well-Known Member
Keep the lights close as you can without burning your girls. When mixing food go less N and more P-K. Use Bushmaster. Thats all I got, hope it helps.
 
Thedillestpickle

Thedillestpickle

Well-Known Member
good ideas guys, side lighting is an easy option, Ill probably use CFL's for that becuase id end up breaking the long tubes bumping around in my 4x6 room. I cant understand people growing purely from CFL but I see it as an excellent light supplement can hang a few in between the plantes even.

Gastanker: did you only bend them between day 20-25 and thats it? I didnt realize that could have a lasting effect throughout the rest of growth! I will try this. I will probably try a combination of a couple techniques to really push them into bushing out.

Basically I would like them to grow into the same profile as an Indica strain(short and bushy with thicker nuggs). The strain im working with is 90% sativa so its going to be tough.


I will keep the lights close, I am vegging right now with MH, was going to switch to HPS for flower but perhaps not? Ive heard that the UV light can hurt the plant? what If I ran 100% MH and had ALOT of light happening in there would I be hurting them with the UV? also heard you get more THC with MH. this is a foggy topic, with different ideas floating around. efficiency of the lights is not an issue for me so if I can burn alot of MH and get bushier plants Ill do that. Or do they still need some of that warmer HPS light in flower?


My nutrients are house and garden cocos A and B ratio is 6.5/3.4/9.1 ...seems a bit high in potassium? I wonder why, all I know is its formulated for a coco medium is that a low nitrogen ratio compared with other formulas? Ive heard people recommending ratios around 15-5-5 for vegg.

I will look into getting bushmaster for flowering. I will find out what snake oil is supposed to do, maybe try it on one of the plants and see how it goes so I know for next time.

Also I could just put them into flower earlier but Id rather max out the harvest from these plants and my space, while still having something that resembles a marijuana plant in the end.

thanks for the help!
 
Gastanker

Gastanker

Well-Known Member
One of my plants I staked down for ~10 days but the rest were just 5-7days. If you bend down the main top during their initial growth spurt going into flowering it triggers them to bush out - old horticulture technique. Once the side shoots overtake the main top by a little you can let it go and you have a fairly even canopy with a bunch of tops.
 
cannawizard

cannawizard

Well-Known Member
**have lots of air circulation, SC 24/7 till your fingers hurt :) high humidity 65/70% looks like it helps... LEDs also seem to have helped with the stretching on some of the SAT DOMs.. just all speculation.. but if your taking bets; feel free to bet against me ;) .. lolz

(o yea.. c02 lvls above 7k/8k looks like it could be also a factor to account for ;) )

merry Christmas~

--cheers
 
Gastanker

Gastanker

Well-Known Member
Oh yeah - I use MH and HPS and I've noticed better results including closer node intervals using the MH for the first two weeks of flower (or however long the initial stretch lasts). After that I switch to HPS and the stretch doesn't seem to continue.
 
Thedillestpickle

Thedillestpickle

Well-Known Member
Gastanker said:
Oh yeah - I use MH and HPS and I've noticed better results including closer node intervals using the MH for the first two weeks of flower (or however long the initial stretch lasts). After that I switch to HPS and the stretch doesn't seem to continue.
Click to expand...
thats smart, it makes sense and I think Ill do that, Im gunna have some damn short sativas if I combine all these tricks!

was that high co2 supposed to increase or reduce the stretch?? and 7k-8k sounds like super toxic levels from what ive been hearing, your not supposed to go above 2k? I was planning to use co2 though, can that increase stretch?
 
yesum

yesum

Well-Known Member
I wanted my Panama Red from ACE to stretch more. I used LED with a lot of blue in it and supercropped them at first, but stopped after I saw hardly any stretch. So I would say use a MH or other very blue light for veg and flower.
 
FreedomSunshine

FreedomSunshine

Member
I love t5's in veg to keep a plant short with close internodes but when I want to keep a plant from stretching too much in flower with out hormonally altering the plants via chemical or physical manipulation, I induce a period of 36 hours of complete darkness right before my 12/12 cycle.
 
Thedillestpickle

Thedillestpickle

Well-Known Member
I was planning to do a 36 hour of darkness already, just to kick em straight into flower when at the time I choose, I didnt know that had the benefit of reducing stretch. I Was just talking to a guy who has grown the same strain I have(I have Kali Mist its 90% sativa) and he said he LST'd his girls and they gave him nothing but popcorn buds. Something I probably have to watch out for when dealing with Kali mist regardless of if I top or LST or not... My intention is to make the plant concentrate all its bud into smaller area and make tighter fatter buds than having them stretched and all whispy bud. So I know I
dont exactly have the right strain for this, but im not expecting perfection. Just minimizing popcorn bud
So I guess I should have mentioned at the start that any techniques Id be using should not have the side effect of causing bushy growth. I still want a dominant main cola. I just want it to be shorter and produce more per vertical inch. Is this even possible?

is early flower my only real choice from these options or were any of them likely to give me the result I just described? Thanks alot you guys, I know this is a pretty tough question.
 
laserbrn

laserbrn

Well-Known Member
Sticking to MH will keep them shorter. It's funny that people ask if it's possible to flower with MH. That used to be the only option and people did it just fine. I'm sure that there are still hold outs that haven't switched to HPS.
 
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