Tall, skinny plants VS short, thick dense plants

I'm running a perpetual grow. I usually move plants from veg to flowering when they reach about 7"-12" and don't pay attention to their actual age really. In the past I had scarcity in clones so I would just put out what I had. Now I want to know how to get the most mature thus densest plants.

Some of my plants are nice and thick at about 1 to 2 ft and have decent yield. Then the rest are slightly taller and stretched and have small buds yielding probably a half to third of the thick ones.

I want to never have the tall skinny ones and want a room full of the thick dense type. What does this have to do with? They are all from the same strain (KC 39) which is 60 40 sativa indica cross. Same strain but from different moms, some clones are taken from the tops of young vegging plants and some are taken from month old mothers. Does it have to do with from where the clones were taken or the amount of time they are vegged for etc? Its so hard to figure out which mom or type of donator is producing the better plants. Is it because young clones mature way more rapidly than that off an older mother? Or is it because a got lucky with a phenotype mother? Any help is appreciated..

Then I read up here people grow 12/12 from seed and have fat huge bugs. Hmmm must be the genetics I def gotta figure out which mother is making the big boys

I would keep track from now on what clones came from what mother and maybe even take note of where the clone was cut off the mother plant(lower or tops) and the date is was taken. i would give each mother a different name or number so you can differentiate and keep track of the clones. Then when the clones mature you will know which mothers have the good pheno's and can weed out the rest. I'm not good at explaining thing's so if you have any questions let me know so I can clarify for you.

dorfton11 said:

I would keep track from now on what clones came from what mother and maybe even take note of where the clone was cut off the mother plant(lower or tops) and the date is was taken. i would give each mother a different name or number so you can differentiate and keep track of the clones. Then when the clones mature you will know which mothers have the good pheno's and can weed out the rest. I'm not good at explaining thing's so if you have any questions let me know so I can clarify for you.

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I just want to know if its the genes for sure. I frequently change mothers/strains and always have the same problem. I think it may be that my vegging plants aren't getting enough light and get put out prematurely although tall in appearance. Is this more likely? They have a weird appearance very tall and stretched, the bud sites are far apart and are about a gram each dry with about 10 from top to bottom I would say. The thick ones have more of a thick main cola and are more lollipop. Do the tall ones have symptoms of light deprivation during veg?

right now i grow all bigbud.... i have 3-4 mothers and 1 looks 100% different from the others... has prolly 10-12 nodes but only stands a foot tall obv can't see thru it since its so dense... flippin weird.. my other ones are all 3 feet tall and you can see threw the branches to the other side. for some reason i don't think they are even bigbud.. ha gl man, if you have enough clones just take a few big clones from your stud mom and make more stud moms. = stud girlies

Are your mothers from clones or are they from seperate seeds? If they are from different seeds each mother can have different characteristics or phenos, even if they are from the same bag of seeds. I would run some kind of side by side comparison with your lighting as well.
Whatapothead, I would keep that pheno that is short an has all the nodes. From what i have read it is not always the taller plants that are better. Short compact plants can pump out the bud as long as there are plenty of nodes, that and they save on space.

Whatapothead, I would keep that pheno that is short an has all the nodes. From what i have read it is not always the taller plants that are better. Short compact plants can pump out the bud as long as there are plenty of nodes, that and they save on space.

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thats the plan... just using these other mothers since they grow so fast and i need bud... ha

it does but these are all under couple T8 setups and 8 26w CFLs and i've gotten two different style plants so i know its not the lighting... but yea if you use HPS or MH on plants they do tend to stretch a lil more just because you can't get the light close enough.. unless you run a cooltube.

what a thread jacker

I have 2 1000 hps its not my lights because some are very dense. I think its the mother I've been using

what you can also do to keep the plants short and bushy is topping them or using LST.

I would clone your plants and when they get 5 solid nodes top or FIM the plants. This will let the lower growth grow making ur plant more bushy than tall.

I've never done LST but that involves bending the plant.

I'm a big fan of LST. I don't grow trees I grow bushes.I find I get better bud off my bushes then if I let them get taller.After all the light only reaches so far.

Mama Kindbud said:

I'm a big fan of LST. I don't grow trees I grow bushes.I find I get better bud off my bushes then if I let them get taller.After all the light only reaches so far.

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Hey I think that may be right. The majority of the thick ones I have are multi headed because I also started taking clones off heads to experiment growth time. But I also do think its the mother too because I've had multi skinny headed plants. What about vegative age does that have to do with the overall thickness of buds?