General concern about my plants

Hello guys, first time grower, technically second, but first time a disaster prevented me from going into flowering. That thing was a monster and female too, showing many pistils to the naked eye even in veg growth :(

A fair warning, I am somewhat intoxicated (sadly from alcohol, was a hell of a day at work), so please excuse my spelling and grammar. But I need your help! Anyway, I am not confident I am doing it right, so please advice or sooth me if I am being paranoid :)

I grow in 3x3x5 feet growbox, 400W HPS. Pot is sufficient, I have grown the monster mentioned earlier in the same pot. pH is correct. I have added plenty of fine limestone to the soil before transplanting. Watering is sufficient. When I underwatered my first plant, it would look like disaster, I freaked out a few times after getting back after weekends spent not at home, but it got back to normal after watering, and grew even stronger :D The stem was like fucking tree-thick :D I added nutriens for veg stage periodically. No signs of overdosing it.

So anyway my concern is the height. I see all those pretty photos of slim plants with many inches between branches, but mine are VERY bushy and 21 and 14 inches tall after maybe 6-8 weeks from germination (WW from Amsterdam). Look healthy though. Apart from some twisted leaves at the top that is from too much heat I guess (lights are ~2 feet above them, lacking reflecter BTW). More on that now. I do not have air conditioning installed yet. Bought 2 fans that are sufficient, just installation is way more complicated that I had expected. I do not pre-plan things too much, including growbox. I planted the seeds well before growbox was as completed as it is now (only fans are yet to be installed). I don't see many signs of too much heat though. The two plants look good, just very bushy and quite low. Is this something bad? How do I fix it if it is? Can I get at least some yield from high temp environment (no burned leaves, in fact 95% of the leaves look perfectly normal, just I feel like the temp is quite high by opening 'the cage'). I read on the internet that bushy is "grower's dream", is that correct? I am confused. Can I get good yield from fucking plump plants?

Today I switched to flowering 12/12 cycle. And again being trial-and-error person I am (my growbox is like a Frankenstein, that worked for veg, now the gaps are covered with duck tape LOL, but I need to keep going nontheless), my growbox have some small gaps in it. Like very small, but some light could go through (there is a platform, roof so to speak, that hold the lightning installation, it is almost as big as 3x3 foot, that will reflect that small amount of light that might go through the gaps, but there are some gaps in it too). I am freaked out about that after reading that there "should be NO (NONE) light during 'night'". The rational part of me tells me what about the moonlight effect on natural growing marijuana? I don't think that tiny tiny light rays could force them into veg again, but I am not sure.

So anyway what do you make out of this? Any advice/encouragement? How much can I expect to get from 20 inches tall very bushy plant? I read that at least 2 ounces. I just need SOMETHING from this try, to keep me happy until I properly grow another generation :D

P.S. I will post some photos tomorrow during 'daytime' for my plants.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bushykaya

I don't think that tiny tiny light rays could force them into veg again, but I am not sure......

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You're right, tiny tiny light rays will not force them back to veg BUT it WILL prolong flowering time and add unnecessary stress....

If you don't want a bush, trim away.... It's a plant, it will live if you trim....banzai....

CGI::::::

They will also stretch during flower. Could triple in height. At least double.

When watering use the wet and dry cycle .
Add a little water to top of pot to wet then wait a minute or two before watering again till you see a little run off at bottom of pot .
Water usually every two to tree days , enviroment and potsize & plantsize will dictate this .
Wait till roughly the top inch of soil is dry before next watering , dry but not so dry soil is coming away from side of pot .
Another pot the same size filled with dry compost is also a weight guide . I lift my pots to judge sometimes .

Thanks for the feedback! Ignitor for my HPS went out a day ago, waiting until Monday to buy a replacement. So my plants are experiencing stress now :( How bad is it if the light cycle is messed up just into flowering for 2-3 days? Can I end up with just a delay in flowering period or is it over? Will they recover, or should I just end this now and give it another try from germination stage? Can I make clones from such plants (they were in 12/12 cycle for about 2 days, and will be 2 days in the messed light cycle for 2 days tomorrow) to save me a couple of weeks?

Here's a couple of pictures of my plant. One is from the side, another is from the top. The plant is ~24 inches tall now. The smaller one is hidden from view, and is about 14" tall (you can see it in the background in the top view photo)
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