A big issue some growers have with marijuana plants is how tall they get. Meanwhile if the leaves show brown spots it means the plant is sunburnt and the adjustment is too quick for the plant to adapt, thus slowing down the process should solve the issue. In the very first weeks of flowering, your cannabis plants will be in the transition stage. Stretching in cannabis plants usually is a sign of too little light because the plants is stretching closer to the light source to get more lumens and be able to perform photosynthesis and grow. If your pot is big enough, you could lay down up to 2’ of plant which means your plant will be 2’ shorter in height. This takes some drastic measures, but in time will leave you with multiple new succulents. Most 100% pure Indica strains are shorter broader plants than Sativa strains. I do not recommend this and here is why. Once you know what weed plants you are growing, you can research how tall they typically get. Now I am going to answer some questions I found online to make sure we cover this topic as fully as possible. I dont know what it has to do with stretching, only that sexually mature plants stretch less in flower than ones that are not. Seeds that are started late winter or early spring, when the sun is still low in the sky, are prone to this type of growth pattern. 2. Cannabis plant stretch is a problem primarily in indoor pot grows because it may reduce yields in some pot strains. If I feel like tying plants down with internodes between 5"-7", I grow a sativa. I grow a indica. The first couple of weeks into flowering you won’t notice much happening then suddenly, the buds shoot up and the plants grow considerably. Stretching is what we canna-cultivators call the natural vertical growth spurt put on by cannabis plants during the early stages of flowering, and more notable in Sativa varieties and Sativa/Indica hybrids.  This will stop them from stretching and getting too tall. If you are with me, then let’s look at those ways right now. I like to let my plants grow a good solid base first so they can support the entire weight of the buds that will hopefully be growing shortly afterwards. Unfortunately, this technique creates marijuana plant stretch when used during the first 3-4 weeks of bloom phase. So I got my girl scout cookie clones two weeks into flower and they just wont stop stretching! In general to control growth use one or more of LST, scrog, topping, and/or fimming. If your plant is able to grow anyway it wants, you are probably hurting the yield when the plant is done. Because you are growing a narcotic, there will always be someone that will want to steal it from you. I am compensated for referring traffic and business to Amazon and other companies linked to on this site. https://manicbotanix.com/pgr-free-stretch-reduction/, http://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/releases/2014/Q2/corn-dwarfed-by-temperature-dip-suitable-for-growing-in-caves,-mines.html. Sometimes, growing outdoors can elicit some unwanted attention when growing weed. The short answer is somewhere in the fourth to fifth week of flowering your buds should stop growing in height (stretching) and start thickening. You can propagate from especially good plants at this time of year too. When Do Plants Stop Stretching in Flower? This way, there is a location for new growth to start at that point where it will now branch off into at least a couple of stalks instead of just the once that was there previously. Also keep the spaces between the plants free of weeds. 600w HPS - Medium:atami wilma 8 pot drippers, canna coco + clay pebbles, PH 5.8 - nutrients canna coco A+B (EC 1.6), This will depend on what strain you are growing and where you are growing. One important thing to know about marijuana plants is they will double (or more) in size between the veg stage and the flowering stage. To stop stretching deliver more light. If you cut back on the amount of water and fertilizer, you should be providing you are stunting the growth of a beautiful plant. Your marijuana plant will not produce buds as big as it could have, leaving you with a sub-par yield. If you are using HPS or other lighting, try setting the lights at approximately 24” from the top of the plants. Low stress training is another method used to keep a weed plant from getting too tall. How to produce new strawberry plants. In low light situations, the plants are stretching for sunlight to produce important plant sugars. every morning I have to raise my lights 1 or 2 inches … For Sativa plants, switch the lighting over to flower when they are 18” to 24”. It’s the same if you brew beer or make wine. The leaves of the plant will tell you if they like it or not. If you are using a grow tent, you will have limited height that the plants can reach, before they grow up and beyond the height of your hanging lights. Here’s how to do it. If you are in the first couple of weeks you could top or fim the plants. Sometimes you need to take what you have experienced with growing weed as a lesson and make sure you plan ahead for the next grow. Check out https://www.ilovegrowingmarijuana.com/marijuana-seedling-problems/ for more information on marijuana seedling problems. Other reasons for leggy plant growth include improper lighting. If your plants aren’t listening to your pleas to stop stretching, or you're gearing up for a massive flowering stretch, some more hands-on attention may be necessary. Pruning marijuana plants in veg and early cannabis flower will keep the plant from growing skyward. There is a method of one hour of cold before the lights come on keeps them stocky. Here are the following top causes to deal with cannabis stretching and what you need to watch out for when planting new seedlings: Lack of sunlight either due to inadequate exposure of neighbouring plants stealing it Lack of nutrients in the soil Cut that center growth shoot off leaving a few centimeters or a quarter inch of stalk above the highest branch line. Divide that by 2 and that is the tallest you want them to be when switching the lights over for flowering. If the leaves look healthy and are growing at a fast rate, you could try lowering them to as close as 6” from the top of the plant. If for example if your lights-on temperatures are 75°F, you’d want your lights-off temperatures to be 71°F. Point period blank if you keep the plant hungry for nitrogen the first 2 weeks of flower it won't stretch as hard.  I don’t recall where this started but essentially the story is that whoever discovered this method thought they had made a huge mistake, so that’s why they called it this. Use blue lights to stop your plants from stretching during the vegetative state. The weight of pot buds during pot flower will require staking or roping to avoid damage, falling over or even snapping off. These could result to weakening of the plant’s branches and stems and can even lead to burnt leaves and stems if it gets too close to the light. Ensuring the plant itself excluding the buds is as short as possible will allow you to have those big buds. Light Distance – Keeping your lights the right distance away will ensure that your plants don’t have to stretch to get more light. This treatment will delay flowering or re-flowering by two or more weeks. Autos will stretch vertically to reach a light source. About stretching harder if it's not sexually mature. Fix Stretching Marijuana Plants is a video about stretching, why it occurs, and how to stop it using a strategy I have never seen anyone else use. Sometimes it’s as simple as cutting back on the amount of water or fertilizer you provide the plants. Now, onto the main subject of this article. See side bar for full affiliate disclosure. This results in overly tall, spindly plants. Try placing the LED lights approximately 12” above the plants to start and watch how the leaves react. The Stretch – Final Growth and Flowering sites What people call “the stretch” is the ~2 weeks after switching light periods, generally 18/6 to 12/12. You don’t leave those things out in the open where anyone could just take them, because (undoubtedly) someone would! Indica’s are much better suited for growing indoors than a Sativa. Depending on what variety you grow, you can expect the Indica plant to be anywhere between 3’ and 6’ high. Indica’s are ideal for growing in grow tents. Privacy is important, even when it is legal to grow marijuana where you live. Florists use the technique. By doing this, you will now promote even more kolas or bud sites starting up compared to if you had left it to grow vertically right from the start. The first step to avoiding stretching is to buy a strain that is … If you don’t know now, you will. To minimise stretching, keep your lights between 10 (for CFL) and 30 centimetres (for HID) from your canopy. Most other lights will generate heat and will more easily cause light burn. Also, plants that receive high nitrogen fertilizers early in spring will get a jump on growth. Remember this is called low stress training because you are applying minimal pressure as to not snap the stalk or stems. One way to keep that unwanted attention away is to do what you can to keep your weed plants a bit shorter. You can’t just cut the plant down or you might not get any buds. At a high level, LST is basically bending your plant over once it gets to about 6” tall and tying it over so it stays. Let’s look at how close the lights should be. Learn more about light schedules and the flowering stretch (how much a plant grows after entering the flowering stage). That’s what this article is about, helping you figure out what method you can use to shorten the height of your plants, regardless of whether they’re grown indoors or out. Let’s begin! I've heard and tried keeping even day/night temps for the first 2 weeks but I felt like that didn't really help with the stretch. So, you can see why it might be a bit challenging for someone to grow Sativa indoors and in a grow tent. Temperature differentials!! Or, leave them around 2’ away if using HPS or other lights that generate heat. Thinking that winter is not far away and that she will soon have to carry a big load of bud, your plant will likely grow rapidly. Not all get to 10’ or higher naturally, but I feel that 6’ is probably an average height for these plants. Just an idea. The flowering stretch usually lasts for the first two weeks of the phase. If they start to curl and droop, then raise the light a few inches. She is now a week into flower and 20 inches tall by 24 inches wide. The short answer is somewhere in the fourth to fifth week of flowering your buds should stop growing in height (stretching) and start thickening. I control stretch using the old school system. The stretched part of the plant won’t un-stretch, but new growth will be stacked more closely together. Once your plant is a good 12” to 18” tall and/or has at least 3 branch levels (nodes), locate the very top center growth shoot of the plant/growth. Let’s get to it!Â. The important thing with this method is to cut all the growth shoot off, just leaving a bit of that stalk. Encouraging pot plant stretch can be a good technique to prevent budrot in susceptible cannnabis strains while producing massive pot colas. I have provided you with some very good methods of keeping your weed plants from growing too tall. one of the bigger factors is the K rating of both of your lights. Also, stick to indica strains if you’ve got a smaller grow space. If the plant seems to stop stretching but still have a few leaves pointing down, continue to add more light until the plant stops showing signs of stress. After a couple weeks of this, they usually come to almost a complete stop in height. Low stress training is performed on the plant when it first starts to grow. 1. It is a common occurrence with new growers as they do not realize how close the lights really need to be. You will need a way to tie it down gently without digging into the plant. If I want a short plant with tight internodes. then switch to HPS. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. During this season, the sunlight is barely strong enough to allow plants … It will definitely decrease stretch from day 7-14. During these 2 weeks your plant will have a very strong growth, up to 200% for the most extreme strains. Some growers will make subsequent pinches at three- to six-week intervals, depending on the plant species and growing conditions. Stretch is generally considered an unavoidable evil, but some pot growers prefer a bit of stretch to allow for premium pot buds. The end-result of a successful marijuana grow is to have big, thick buds to cure. I would even start before the plants hit that halfway mark. Adequate spacing should also be provided because weed plants that grow in a crowded garden have the tendency to stretch on top of each other struggling for light. I know this because I was in the same situation when I first started growing. You might have to order them online, but I would be very surprised if you couldn’t find an Indica hybrid that didn’t suit your needs. Before we talk about how to stop your weed plants from growing too tall, let’s touch quickly on why you would want to do this. During flower, typically plants will continue to grow (stretch) a to be 3 times taller than during the grow or veg stage, so a 30cm high plant will grow to approximately 90cm in total. if you veg under a 5600K light, then flower under a hps, which are usually around 2700k, you're going to get a lot of stretch, if you veg under a 3200k and flower under a 2700k, you'll still get some, but a lot less. use a MH for veg and for the first 2 weeks of 12/12 will help reduce stretch. You can leave the vegetative (6500K) colored bulbs in for the first 2-3 weeks of flowering before switching to your flowering bulbs. You want to grow big buds, not big plants. Yes, it’s true if the plants are not getting enough light, they will stretch to reach whatever light there is. I really don't think it's the genetics because I run multiple strains and get the same results. Read this document, it explain quite accurately the matter of stretch and how to control it. I should now have nearly 15 top cola's. This method is very similar to the fimming method below and is the method that someone was trying to perform, which they botched and named it fimming. There are proven techniques to stop plants from growing too tall, such as ‘fimming’, topping and keeping the lights at the right height. Is this normal behaviour? Try shooting less than 5°+- from light and dark hours. Most varieties that display this characteristic will finish stretching by the third or fourth week of 12/12 photoperiod and start to fill out the bud sites, while some strains can continue … The weed plant is stretching up to get more light. So, that is something to consider, especially if you are growing indoors and in a tent. - 7 plants (one was male), seeds are dinafem white widow and cheese feminized - light: AF. Here are a few things I recommend you try. I've grown blue cookies the same strain for 3-4 runs indoor and just finishing my first run outdoor. This is an excellent question, especially if you are new to the hobby. It’s that simple. JavaScript is disabled. Is pot plant stretch a problem? How To Prevent Pot Plant Stretch Many pot growers will allow their cannabis plants to stretch. Not all growers are opposed to stretching, as it can be seen as a useful factor in ensuring the even distribution of flowers over a plant. Some strains can almost double in height during this time. This site is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. You reduce marijuana plant stretch by reducing the difference in grow room temperature between night and day to 3-4 degrees during the first 3-4 weeks of bloom phase. Your plants stretched more because you put it in a bigger pot. What fimming will do is force more growth in the lower nodes. Using PGRs means it is an easy way to stop the vertical stretch, but this comes at a high cost with lower resin and essential production. The best way to avoid this from happening is to have the lights within 2’ of your seedlings and as they grow, lower them, if you have LED. Same thing with my outdoor blue cookies. “As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases”, Growing Marijuana World may earn an affiliate commission when you buy through links posted on this site. 3. These plants will do all they can to get food and sunlight and if there are limited resources it will compensate by stretching. Pin the first plantlet on a good, healthy runner into a pot of compost. Best Water PH for Pot? There are so many different hybrids now that if you really wanted the effects of a Sativa plant for a high, you could most likely find seeds that have some Indica and some Sativa that would suit your needs. Stretch produces tall lanky pot plants with possibly weak and spindly stems. So, before you make the “cut”, try to find an area for your succulents where they will get more indirect sunlight than they did before. Depending on how far into the vegetative stage you are, it might be too late to do anything. Well, it means I have some trusted and true methods to help reduce the height of weed plants. ____________________________________________________________________________, How to Stop Plants from Growing Tall (Indoors and Outdoors). Some marijuana plants (like Sativa) do extremely well when they are pruned in their third to fifth week of vegetative marijuana growth. For Indica plants, switch the light over to flower when they are approximately 12” to 18” tall. Why not keep watering and fertilizing and look for other ways to fix this problem? If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. The stems grow thin because the plant is desperately reaching its leaves towards the light. Transition into flower with blue spectrum, only feed what she needs. To fix it, you should give the plant a new start by cutting it down and propagating its parts. Ahh nice I didn't know that! When this happens, it is called stretching. the closer they are, the less stretch. As it grows, keep bending it over and directing it around the base of the pot. I really hope that made sense. How to stop marijuana plants from growing too tall? For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. This so called stretching is really a growth spurt, that plants usually go through during the vegetative phase and also early on in the flowering phase. LED grow lights can be kept very close to weed plants, as they do not throw off much if any heat and will not typically cause light burn. Training and pruning allow you to control the shape of your plant by limiting vertical growth … Yes there are other things that can encourage/reduce stretch however, pot size will definitely do it. Sativa’s can grow 10’ and higher. Plants can double in size (or more!) Plants can be pruned and shaped at any time to reduce stretch and to improve aesthetics. The first couple of weeks into flowering you won’t notice much happening then suddenly, the buds shoot up and the plants grow considerably. Some plants will still creep up in height a bit, which is fine if it is bud growth. How tall should the plants be before flowering? (For Maximum Growth). However, it may become a bushy plant. so I'm curious to hear about different people's methods on controlling the 12/12 stretch. If you have ever seen a picture of someone standing beside a monster-sized marijuana plant, you can pretty much bet that it is a Sativa plant. and also turn off your co2 during the first 2 weeks of 12/12 too. Pinching is labor intensive. If you are new to growing weed, you probably don’t realize just how tall some of these plants really get or how to keep them from getting that high. You must log in or register to reply here. When the plants start receiving 12 hours of darkness each day, they “think” that winter is close, and prepare to produce offspring.The first of the cannabis flowering stages, therefore, includes a major spurt of vegetative growth aimed at giving the plant ample size and strength to support those coming buds. Wait until the plant has at least 4 node sites before switching over the lighting. Always watch the reaction of the leaves to see if they like the light or not. If you have stretched out plants, you can follow the procedure above to promote new growth, but unless you give the plants more light, the cutting and new offshoots will eventually get stretched out as well. To minimize stretching, keep the light source at an optimal distance because the improper positioning of light is one of the major causes of stretch on marijuana plants. This method causes less stress on your plants and they will recover quicker than topping. My question is at what point should i stop bending her down. But stretching refers specifically to a plant's reaction to not enough light. Anyways, here is how you can top your plant to help keep the height lower. Following the methods for topping, instead of cutting the new growth shoot off, just go about halfway down the shoot and cut it there. Node sites are the locations on the plant where branches grow. Once into flowering I suggest only LST. Thread starter joedaddy805; Start date Jan 5, 2014; Jan 5, 2014. Some growers will recommend this. Week 1-3: The Flowering Stretch. after the switch to 12/12 so you want to start flowering as soon as possible if you're already worried about height in the vegetative stage! I'm concerned about the stretching also since a few days the flowers seem to have stopped evolving. The SCROG has worked great and every stem and bud site reached the screen due to the training which is great. You can also use the lights in the first two weeks of the flowering stage to prevent your plants from growing too tall. With the information provided in this article and some experimenting on your part, you should be able to keep things under control now. so i received my new bennies and nutes before my last water and used them and after being gone for almost a week i came back and the plants grew way more than i expected....soooo here we are now wondering what are your best methods in your personal experience for keeping stretch … They are naturally huge plants. Selecting Indica versus Sativa strains for naturally shorter plants is a good option as well. Â. Fimming, topping, low stress training what does it all mean? Following any of the suggestions provided previously in this article will help you achieve those results. Depending on where outdoors you trying to grow your weed, you can build structures that go higher than your plants and that way you can let the plants grow naturally. So, what do you do? Once it is rooted, detach the runner from the parent plant. How Much Area Does a 1000 Watt Light Cover? How to stop plants from stretching. From you growing weed to get more light complete stop in height during this time of year.. Size ( or more of LST, scrog, topping, and/or fimming as cutting back on the plant and... Cookie clones two weeks of bloom phase enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding it 's not sexually.!, not big plants the locations on the plant won ’ t,... 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