ive got 2weeks and 4inches.not talkin springbreak.lol.

[Lefthand]

1 week in and I have 2 weeks of stretch left.. and only 4'' till they hit glass. Bad planning I know.. Everything is under a trellis and being pulled down or sideways everyday. I have 6 600s temps are 70 lights on at the glass, 68 lights off, with lots fans ie. air movement. Ive also included 1 mh 600 to help stop the stretch and am using no gibberellin ie. kelp.. and I refuse to use synthetic pgr's, this is medicine.

So my question is does anybody on here have experience adding a heater during lights off to have temps higher than when lights are on. I placed heater in there today after disconnecting the red light on indicator. If subject has been discussed sorry I must have missed it.
Thanks

 

[Dave Coulier]

Lefthand, heres some tips I use to help control plant height in my garden: Use more MH especially until stretch is over. Ushio 600w Opti BlueConversion Bulbs are excellent. I just got a new one in the mail today. Can't wait to plug it in.

You can also raise your night time temperature above your day time temps and that should reduce stem elongation in your crop. A negative DIF works well in controlling plant height. Also a cold dump(crank up that AC) starting about half an hour before lights on and running for 2 hours will help control stretch. But cooler temperatures will reduce growth, so I would just opt for the smaller/negative DIF, although a higher ADT(average daily temperature) will increase growth and could end up leading to the plants outgrowing your garden anyways.

Good luck pal.

 

[Dropped Cat]

Another best reply ever, I very much like seeing the educated, informative
transfer of information.

Awesome, no BS, straight to the crux.

My case, I cut holes in the bottom of my cabinet that the pots dropped into,
gained a much needed 5 inches.

Live to grow another day.

 

[Lefthand]

Thanks Dave Coulier, I never thought I would ever say or type that phrase....
I normally flower when the ladies are a foot tall and have them on tables
Plants got big while I was dealing with a nute difficiency caused by using tap water that oddly went from 60-80 to 120ppm, r.o. filter and everything is back on track.
Good to hear about the negative DIF, my temp only went up to 68 with heater on. Same low as normal, but its -10 outside right now, going to put heater on high tomorrow.

 

[Lefthand]

I also read this:
"High P means greater plant stretch (internodal length) and less root growth (root to shoot ratio), along with other potential problems. This is why boosting P during pre-flowering isn't wise."

Im hoping my (bloom booster)MKP that has given me great results in the past doesn't work against my ceiling limitations

 

[Tonygreen]

grab some pliers and crush the stem at the bottom not all the way through but just bust it up and loosen the fibers till you can bend the whole plant down more maybe...
Big boy lst... lol,
Got pics?

 

[Lefthand]

I will load some as soon I figure out the forum, so far so good though...
Too late to do any bending except for the tops above the trellis. Anytime I have a challenging grow my game just gets better..

 

[Tonygreen]

Never too late, thats what the pliers are for muahahahahahahaha, good luck bro!

 

[Dave Coulier]

Thanks Dave Coulier, I never thought I would ever say or type that phrase....
I normally flower when the ladies are a foot tall and have them on tables
Plants got big while I was dealing with a nute difficiency caused by using tap water that oddly went from 60-80 to 120ppm, r.o. filter and everything is back on track.
Good to hear about the negative DIF, my temp only went up to 68 with heater on. Same low as normal, but its -10 outside right now, going to put heater on high tomorrow.

Im glad to help out Lefthand. I forgot to mention one thing that most growers tend to over look when trying to limit plant stretch and that is Shade Avoidance Response. Most of us initially try to cram in as many plants into our grow space as possible thinking that will improve yield, but actually it can work against us.

If you place too many plants into an area, you'll create a canopy that will pretty much filter out all Red light, leaving mostly Far-red to pass through , which alters our R:FR ratio heavily in favor of stretch. This will cause SAR to trigger immediately and causes internodal elongation. I believe this is the root cause of why growers experience excessive stretch.

If you want to help reduce stretch via reducing SAR: 1.) give the plants more space around each other so that more R light can actually reach the lower canopy of each plant thus affecting the R:FR ratio in a positive manner 2.) Thin out your upper canopy via pruning, but I rarely prune to reduce stretch. I would opt for a method that doesn't require leaf removal, imo.

With that said, even using the previous methods of controlling stretch can easily be over came by SAR triggering. SAR is the dirty culprit of our stretch and I would do my best to avoid triggering it.