tackytony

First grow. Growing in 3.5 Gallon buckets with soil-less Sunshine Mix. I have 3 400W HPS lights in a 4x10' area. Girls are in 2nd week of flowering after about 2 months of veg. Started from seeds.

Things seem to be going fairly well. too well, actually. Some of my girls are getting very tall -- too tall for the room. I only have about 1 foot of growing space before they hit the lights with the lights all the way on the ceiling. These plants are already over my head.

What is the best method to deal with this?? Do I "top" the top 12-18 inches and let the remaining branches continue to grow and mature? can I "bend" them down at this late stage? Flowers are already showing and I want to do what will save the most flowers but give me enough room to finish the grow successfully.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks!

cancer_patient1

I def wouldnt top them if they are flowering. Search the forum for the terms "LST" and "Supercropping". Those are the only 2 methods I would reccommend at this point.

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kingseven

I think you should just tie them down. Bend them as much as possible without breaking them. I'm not sure but, it maybe to late to top. Some of the other guys may know for sure. Did you LST?

burndt

Hello tackytony Welcome

Best thing would be to tie them over but two weeks into flowering, your stretch is almost over. 1 foot (12 inches) is alot of head room IMO. The only thing that would be a prob now is temps in your grow room. Are your hoods AC'd? Shouldn't matter too much under a 400 anyway. What strain is it BTW?

While waiting for your harvest of dank nugs read up on training methods, ie LST, SCROG, SOG. The reason I say this is cause you said your plants are over your head. 400w really don't penetrate the canopy more than 14-18"(if that). You'll have alot of popcorn nugs. Deff not a bad thing, but I 'm sure you want your plants to focus on those fat colas

Good Luck

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tackytony

Thanks for your responses. In response to burndt:

The two strains I have that are getting too tall are Trainwreck and Blue Apollo. I also have some Northern Lights, but as they are pure Indica, they are much shorter.
My lights are not AC'd but the room is well ventilated and AC'd, so temps are not a problem. I keep it at a steady 78 and around 50% RH.

I had heard that growth could double or triple during flowering from a variety of sources, so this is why I was worrying. I have started tying them over and think that will work. Had to go get some stakes to keep the main stalk upright while just pulling the top 12-14 inches down a bit. Will do a bit at a time every other day or so and that should keep things in line, hopefully.

Thanks for your advice everyone! I'm getting very excited now that I am seeing so many little flowers all over the place!!

Later!

ILLEGAL-SEED

i think this gets left out to much, so i thought id say it.

plants can easily double or triple in size. but this goes for vertical AND horizontal growth...for the new people, dont thin your plant only gets taller, because it will get both taller and wider. so space between plants should be of concern just as much as height is.