When to switch to veg to flower if there is plant stretch?

I currently have some babies, all ranging from 1 to 5 inches. All started from different bag seeds. There is some obvious stretching, the tallest at 5 inches, still only has two true leaves. The issue is deffinately the lights, I can't afford an HID light yet, so i had bought some crappy incandescants. Since then I switches to two CFLs, although not in the best light spectrum(2700k) soft white, I was looking for 6500k. The store in my area is limited. But one of them is huge, with a 4,200 lumen output. I was wondering around what height I should think about switching to flower. I really don't expect too much from this harvest, I'm just worried about the stem not being able to support itself if it gets too tall. They are current supported by wood scewers.

Thank you

how old are they?

You can also bury them deeper. Dirt will support the extra stemage nicely. Which depending on the pot they are in, may require a transplant..

well they range in age, been picking them out of my smoke stash. I haven't been keeping records but about 1 to 3 weeks i think. Here's all of them. And thanks for the imput on filling in the area with dirt. I'm going to be doing a transfer in a couple days, to better soil, ill fill in the area around the stem while I'm at it.

You have a fan blowing on them? Make sure there's a nice cooling breeze and move the lights closer. Use your hand to feel how warm it is at plant level. A breeze also encourages stem thickening. Feed them some half strength organics after moving the lights closer if you haven't yet. Fluorescents often can only support healthy growth a few inches away from the bulb. Getting even one good bulb will help considerably when you blend the two different spectrums. Blending the spectrums of different bulbs usually works better than two of the same.

Oh, and BTW those are no where near ready for flowering. You at least need some five-bladed leaves growing.

yeah i deff knew they weren't ready to start flowering. Just researching I read many start flowering at a foot tall to keep them small, but I'm sure those are very bushy. My plant already being 5 inches I was nervous. I would love to grow it to two feet before flowering if it makes it.

Overall height makes an important difference when you have limited vertical room. If you have plenty of room in the flowering area, don't worry much about overall height and focus on the growth nodes. You'll need more nodes before flowering and you'll want to keep the light closer so there isn't alot of space between nodes. Stem growth before the first node shouldn't matter as long as you fix the problem- it will just make the plant a few inches higher.

I would takethe sticks that are supporting the plants out. Let them stand up on their own and they will get stronger . Let them droop on the side of the cup.

k thanks for the advice guys, lights are closer and support stakes are out. We'll see how it goes.

how did this turn out? I'm dealing with stretching rite now and looking to try and help my girl out as much as possible. I'm about to transplant it to a bigger pot (paint can) and hopefully will be getting a better light real soon (currently a lamp from the nightstand) any advice would be great