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Hello, have 2 beautiful plants growing, atomic northern lights. These 2 plants are growing in hydro, for about 6 weeks now, been in flowering mode for 2 weeks. The problem i have is they continue to grow taller, even though i topped them using the FIM method.
Should i continue to keep moving the lights up? I am hesitant as the foliage down below (see pictures) will continue to get less and less light. Some of the leaves next to the lights are burning (turning brown).
you should mayb move one of the lights so its near the bottom/middle of the plants, and also put on some reflective material on your walls(mylar,white paint or foil)- this will let the light bounce around a lot more and spread it out.
your plants are badly stretched, not nearly enough light ... you can bend them down (there are sections here, dealing with 'LST' techniques, do a Search) ... BUT, you will still only have a spindly plant ... start over, with better lighting, and re-read the basics of growing ... not to be too critical, but there are places you can't take short-cuts, and lighting is the main one ... remember: you're trying to imitate the Sun, for your plants ... the aforementioned 'white walls' would be a huge improvement, you're losing what few lumens you have ... :smokin:
Your babies are light hungry! But instead of moving one of your lights down, how about adding another light, if possible.
Here's what you do about the "too tall" plants. Loosely tie a bit of natural fiber string (synthetics can cut plants!) around the stem of your plant about an inch or two down from the main bud. Just bend it enough to get it out of the lights. You don't want to break the stem! Attach the other end of the string to something- I have a few rough, rectangular rocks that are about 3 inches long that are perfect - I just wrap the string around one and set it in the pot. Plants are like people- the older they are the less flexible they are. Be gentle!
You want to gently bend your girls over in stages. Wait a day and bend it more. I just flip the rock and put another half wind on it. Repeat until they are how you want them.
With patience, you can get them bent low enough that you will be lowering your lights. This will also get light to the light starved lower branches.
Now, go do some reading. The search engine awaits you!- Granny:hippy:
I'd take clones, get some more lights an do a little sog or scrog grow, the yield won't be impressive off those an If you don't get more lights you will have very loose spindly buds.
not enough light get a couple lights set up for under the plants and i would'nt start over just yet if anything let them keep going until they show sex and take clones then chop them down if u don't have the room for them as there just starting to grow good and they will get alot bigger than that. im guessing ur still under the 18/6 ??
From the looks of things they are already showing sex. I just think it would be more productive and you'd get a better yield if you took a whole load of clones and once they were rooted after a week or two switch to 12/12, you should get some more lights. Cfl's would be more suited to a grow like that rather than a big plant unless you got Loads of them and surrounded all parts of the plant
CFL lights loose intensity a lot quicker the further away you get than HID's, so at the moment you will get next to no buds at the bottom. If you want to keep those plants, tie them down and get a HPS fast...sorry for going on a bit
go get some Y adapters fo those clamp lights and buy 3 more cfls. also get a cheap $2 emergency blanket from walmart and cut it up and line everything with it
thats what i did for my seedling area if u don't have the money for the mylar the emergency blankets are like 2$ each
Okay, given the feedback, I purchased a 400 watt hortilux HPS and also a hydro hut 4X4 for growing (has white reflective coating inside). Also installed a reflector with a fan to remove the heat. The plants look pretty bad, i don't have a picture, but they have turned yellow, all the new growth, the old growth - large fan leaves look fine. Yellow new growth on the bottom and top of the plant, all the white hairs are fine, but all the leaves around the buds are also yellow. The PH is fine, 5.8, the nutes are general hydro, ppm is fine (1100-1400), i change them every 2 weeks, all i can think of is in the beginning the temps went up to over 95 degrees until i got the fans installed (for 2-4 days), and the new HPS lights - maybe this shocked the plants? This new light vs the CFL lights? Will try to get some pictures.
People need to always remember there is no comparison between CFL's and HID. They are used for different purposes.
Fluoros are for seedlings and rooting clones.
Metal halides are for vegging a plant.
HPS (with added blue spectrum) is the way you flower plants, while still keeping tight node spacing through the added blue.
I would say clone and put those CFLs to the proper use (seedlings / clones ONLY). If you cannot afford a MH light also, (even a small one would outperform CFLs), the CFLs can veg a plant. Then with no MH light, once even close to 12/12 I would just get them under that HPS so they can feel some real lighting power, maybe a few weeks from changing the photoperiod.
I would guess your problem is more than just light. I would bet your grow area temps are going above 80 F degrees. This will usually add to any stretching problems. Be sure to stay near 75-78 degree range.
A northern lights or white rhino plant vegged under a 400 watt MH hood for instance, with mylar walls, will create node spacing that is so tight it is crazy. And in terms of the ability of a light to penetrate the canopy, HPS cannot be touched by anything that grows plants, so once you enter flowering, CFLs fall light years behind when it comes to making the plant bud at the lower nodes.