Why are my plants so tall???

[klondike_bar]

yes, i know tall=awsome....

however, many plants that i see (online and of friend's) have almost as many branches as mine does at 2-3X the height.

ie: one of my plants is 28 inches (topped 3 weeks ago at 20 inches) and has about 8-10 nodes only (not counting the 3-5 that are within about 2 inches of the tip)

for the amount of foliage on it, it is almost comparable with plants that are around a foot on this site.

My lighting consists of 3X 23w spiral CFLs, 2X 70w outdoor floodlights, and one 60watt incandescent household bulb.

it seems an indica dominant plant (acording to the seller white rhino-not sure if i believe him tho)

[keeko]

sounds like your plant is stretching. get your cfls closer and get rid of the outdoor flood lights and incandescent. those arent doing anything but adding heat to your grow.

[romdog11]

check out mandala seeds. they have short growing genetics. my sadhu has barely even stretched.

[Gundari]

like keeko said, move'em closer to the light. They are stretching to get the lighty goodness they need to grow. Also at that height you may want to consider doing some LST'ing, would help mitigate the high and end up getting your more bud sites in the end.

[gainesvillegreen]

I'll third the recommendation: more light.

[klondike_bar]

so incandescents are crap? the cfls are cool white, so i threw the floods in for more red scpectrum.

(the 60w is to replace a dudded cfl-theres always a bad one in every batch that dies w/i a month)

[spongebobsmokepants]

Flood lights and incadescents are virtually worthless in a grow room. Technically the cfl's are the only light in the room. Cfl's shoul be 1-2 inches from the tops. If the plant does not have flowers, you could top it to bring it down to size, or train it as others suggested, depends on how tall and lanky it has gotten. stretched plants are normally weak and will not support the weight of the bud. broken limbs late in a grow SUCK!

[Opie Yutts]

You can train your plant to do whatever you want with a screen and some twisty ties.

Or you could get the correct light in there. I assume your K (color temperature) of your bulbs is 2700. This is for budding not vegging. Reddish light such as this makes your plants (in general) grow taller with less branches. Bluish light, like you should be using for vegging (about 5700K) tends to make shorter plants with more branching and undergrowth.

[klondike_bar]

they are cool white bulbs, and i will have to consider swapping the floods for a cuple warm whites.

iv looked at some hps bulbs, but they dont seem like my situation. i mist my plants often, usually getting the bulbs wet too (VERY bad for hps) also, my 6-socket setup is down facing, so an hps wouldnt work unless i wired up another horizontal socket.

[klondike_bar]

some pictures of the grow. as you can tell, its a cheap one. ill probly do some upgrades for the next run.

the pictures are of my lighting, my short but but sexy budder, my tall skinny, and a full view of all 4 females.

there are 2 males in another room growing out thier balls to fertilize the short sexy beast ive got there.....:pimp:

[klondike_bar]

ps: the two shorter ones at the back were succesfully topped right before flowering. the two at the front were also, but apparently with no success. (the second tallest has the cut chunck at a branch node, not under it :p

[Gundari]

getting a hot bulb wet period is bad...if they are CFLS your asking to get an explosion of poisonous mercury in your face >.>

[50ul }{4ck3r]

well are those regular bulbs and flood lights...if there are...and they look like it.

thats why they are stretched so bad..IMO

But your lights are to blame!!!!

[klondike_bar]

mmm yummy.... well its hard to avoid when misting plants that jave bulbs several inches above them... cfls are cool tho, its just thier base/ballast that heats up

but any comments on the actual plants though?

[klondike_bar]

im definitely gonna swap out the floods for some more cfls tonight. i got a few 13w ones lying around that are probably warm white.

btw, my males should be ready to pollinate by the end of the week. any idea how long it will take from pollination to harvest? (still gotta wait for normal date, or does the fact it has seeds end flowering early?)

[50ul }{4ck3r]

incandescent and flood light...BAd

[klondike_bar]

bum. figured since i didnt have and cfls lying close by, theyde provide red spectrum.

[50ul }{4ck3r]

ya its a red spectrum but a bad one at that...never use incandescent's it just makes the plants stretch really bad

[klondike_bar]

bummers. i boosted the plants up on all sorts of differnt platforms (old pc case, foam, original ps2 box, orange crates) so that they are all at the same hieght and roughly 4 inches blow the bulbs. (before my short sexy was almost a foot below)

will help me see which ones are more vigorous too for pollination. when i pollinate, do i choose the most branchy, the biggest buds, what traits should be chosen?
(ie:my short sexy has huge buds that look awsome, but almost no actual branches...)


and as for the stretching: i found perfect evidence of a branch thats about 8 inches long and only has one node 3" up it.

[Opie Yutts]

iv looked at some hps bulbs, but they dont seem like my situation. i mist my plants often, usually getting the bulbs wet too (VERY bad for hps) also, my 6-socket setup is down facing, so an hps wouldnt work unless i wired up another horizontal socket.

2 things:

- Misting is irrelevant. You should have a glass cover over any HID bulb, then it won't explode when misting, or if it accidentally gets wet some other way.
- Down facing socket is irrelevant. They make vertical sockets as well as horizontal.

[Opie Yutts]

You also need a way to lower and raise your lights as the plants grow. Those CFL are doing the most good, but they are doing practically nothing. CFL's need to be right next to the plants.

[klondike_bar]

i adjusted the hieghts and what not, dropped the lights about 4 inches off the plants and got all plants to same hieght. im gonna swap in the new cfls soon as possible.

[Opie Yutts]

I think that you'll notice a huge difference.

[klondike_bar]

just swapped some 23watters out from various sockets in the house for the 13watt ones.

gonna add the 3 of em to the lighting as a replacement for the floods. (they are warm whites, bonus!)

thatll give me 6 X 23 watts , 3 cool and 3 warm

[klondike_bar]

also, since these bulbs have been in different lamps for a while, its pretty much a guarentee they wont dud out within the week.

one of the NEW 13w i used to replace was already a dud....someones gotta fix the manufacturing process

[Opie Yutts]

Tell me about it. I just put 4 CFL 23W in my temporary grow. 2 of them worked fine. One has a complete loop that doesn't light, another has a complete loop that kinda fluoresces in a pulse, and looks kinda like fish swimming up stream. 50% fully working is not good quality control. What's wrong with these CFL manufacturers?

[klondike_bar]

exactly....i havent had it that bad, but ive had about 1 in 5 bulbs be either DOA or die within a month of screwing in (not counting when the box of em is full of shattered chuncks)

[spongebobsmokepants]

I had 2 - 105 CFL's delivered. 1 was DOA, I called the seller and they shipped me another out. 5 days later one of those new lights QUIT! @ $35 ea. I think they could do a little better! Probably china CRAP!
:mad:

[klondike_bar]

wow that really sucks. im a cheap grower, so im just using whats in my wallet at the home depot...

im gonna build a deflector shiled and another 2-4 sockets for the next grow. i bet im losing quite some light out the sides, despite the cardboard sheets :p

[klondike_bar]

i want a uvb bulb, but they be pricy... :(

ill post pics mon or tues of my plant

when will it grow its cola? all ive got is what looks like a stretched plant in veg with small buds all over

theres no big bud colas or trichrome oozing leaves....help!

[klondike_bar]

i want attention *sob*

i got another bulb today- a phillips 75w agro-lite. it looks like a blue spotlight

is it good?

[Opie Yutts]

That's another incandescent with a blue coating on the bulb. Remember that incandescents suck? Also if it were for plants, it would be for vegging, not budding. Budding red, Vegging blue.

In regards to your question:

when will it grow its cola? all ive got is what looks like a stretched plant in veg with small buds all over

theres no big bud colas or trichrome oozing leaves....help!

You answered it yourself:

im a cheap grower, so im just using whats in my wallet at the home depot...

[klondike_bar]

aww...but is there actually a point where the top of the mainstem will suddenly start growing another couple inches of cola?

stupid agro-lite...but not a loss at 5$ anyways.

i was deciding between it and a 48" grow tube since ive got the big fixture for em already, but it was like 10$ and id have to find new way to set up the fixture beside my current one...

[klondike_bar]

they had 150w agro-lites for 8$ too, but it says they dont like water, so i avoided that cuz of my frequent love of misting

[Opie Yutts]

quote=klondike_bar

...but is there actually a point where the top of the mainstem will suddenly start growing another couple inches of cola?
Yes, but it's about 3 weeks after you go to flower mode. Then all hell should break loose as they really start stretching and pouring on the buds and nice long colas. That is assuming you have proper light.

stupid agro-lite...i was deciding between it and a 48" grow tube...
I've never had much luck with the grow tube fluoros. I would stick with CFL, I've had much better luck with those. Even though they are more expensive, you should get vegging bulbs for veg (5000-6000K), and the cheaper budding bulbs for budding (2700K). And reflectors, homemade or otherwise. I understand the newer and smaller G-5 tubes are really good, but I'm leaving those out due to your budget.

[klondike_bar]

boo for budgets :(

ok, so thers still much cola and other groth to come, thats what i like to hear.

i checked today, and my one super tall and branchy (and stratched) plant is starting to really frost up the leaves near the buds.

ill post piccies on wedsday of course. and i put the stupid agrolite over the males in the other room to help them pop thier pollen.

any tips on pollen collection/administration? i plan to use the damp paper bag method.

PPS: can tricromes kill ladybugs? im sure they can paralyze small insects, and i keep finding dead ladybugs and cant decide to blame trapped in spiral bulb or thc OD...

[Opie Yutts]

PPS: can tricromes kill ladybugs? im sure they can paralyze small insects, and i keep finding dead ladybugs and cant decide to blame trapped in spiral bulb or thc OD...

As far as I know trichomes do not kill lady bugs or any other bug, unless they happen to get trapped in the stickiness and die of dehydration. Lady bugs have a short life and they are dying all over the place right now. They could die anyway in a spiral bulb since temps there can be above 140 degrees.

[klondike_bar]

aah. theyre like lemmings they are.

they love to walk on my lamp contacts and get fried that way. i gotta pick about 5 out of the different holes where the socket contacts are every week

[Opie Yutts]

Insects are attracted to electromagnetics. Look for them inside your phone and answering machine. I guess they like to get buzzed as much as we do.

[klondike_bar]

lol. i avoid touching terminals tho. i HAVE licked a phone jack before and hurts like a mofo (its 15v). havent tried again to say the obvious.

[klondike_bar]

speaking of bugs, i had some type of spider on a leaf today. i went to poke it thinking its a bit of dirt and it scurried quickly away. by the time i came back with a tweezer it wasnt in sight.

it was a small millimetre sized thing that was slightly brown and specled looking. (and ran like fuck)

also, with the 3 new cfls, im noticing a huge difference in the growth of plants closer to them. they grow slightly faster and have really bumped up the bud-making love.

and i successfully polinated about 6 buds along a branch with pollen collected on my finger tip, and no the affected pistils are curling and darkening. i assume that means succesful pollination