Stretching During Flowering

[Slevinkal]

...prayer

PMS

:S1:

[canniwhatsis]

Damn you Rusty, I thought I had hooked another one, was about to reel him into an experiment and now you spooked him!
Love the "PMS" btw, you need to get that copyrighted!

Hey Bobhead,

Yes it does work, but it is a very difficult to explain why. I'm almost sorry I mentioned it, since it is kinda cutting edge stuff. In thinking about it there may be other ways to achieve tighter nodes, that can be explained easier.

The main reason plants seem to stretch more under HPS, is the lack of blue light in there output spectrum. Simply adding some CFLs or floro tubes to your HPS can cut that stretch down.

Recently, during a UVb experiment I oversaw (there's a thread in Advance Techniques) the main light source was 150w HPS in the grow chambers. Since the UVb we were using was in the form of a 20w CFL, the total watage used was 170w. To keep the non-UVb chambers on equal footing we used a 23w 6500k CFL with the 150 HPS. These chambers went from beginning of veg thru flower. Even tho we grew these plants larger then I normally grow, I was impressed how compact the plants staid. The strech during flower was at or slighly less then 2x plant's vegged hgt, for 5 various strains.

I grow single cola, SOG size (finished hgt less then 18") in all kind's of grows; aero/fog, rockwool and even dirt (well Pro-mix). Here's a pic of a plant in pro-mix in a oversized 6" dia pot, abt 4 weeks into a 8 week flower that was abt 10" tall at pic time that finished around 12". It's a NL cross that oudoors goes abt 6-8' tall, does about 4' normally indoors, but was grown small using floro supplemental lighting.

Good info there, Thanks OM! :thumbsup: Now I've got some playing to do,.... not that I have any real Runaway strains that I've flowered yet,.... but I suspect I will in the near future, and anything that can help pack in the density on my blueberry would be good IMO.

[oldmac]

Ah, I see. Not really. But very interesting.
So basically add 6500K spectrum and far red.

Just start by adding the 6500k floro and see what happens. Then you can advance to trying the far red.

What if you started flowering under veg lights and then switched to the HPS later on.

If it is possible, keep running your veg lights (MH or floro) and add your HPS. A good way to get tighter growth is to use both MH/HPS together.

Hey canniwhatsis,

Always worth trying new things, you'll find it is not always about the amount of light but the quaility of the light. And big quanitities of quaility light can't be beat.
OM

[bobhead]

I'll definitely leave some daylight bulbs in on this next grow.
My autos that were supposedly only to grow about 24" are about 3 feet tall.
They go ape shit in hydroponics.

I even pinched the main branch.

I won't grow autos anymore. I think regular plants will give me more control over its growth.

Are their any nutrients that can help with stretching.

[oldmac]

Not nutrients, but they do make a chem additive, called vertical growth inhibitor.

It's available retail as Humbolt's product Bushmaster.

OM

[bobhead]

Thanks I'll do a search on it.

[TANKJR]

I give my girls Motrin, kindness, and chocolate for PMS....oh wait....ya'll were talking about plants, huh? Nevermind...

[WashougalWonder]

Nah, he's just an experienced grower trying to get you to experiment for him. :wtf:

LMAO, good one, you been quiet lately.

I'll definitely leave some daylight bulbs in on this next grow.

That could actually increase the stretch. I have removed all blue from my light spectrum in flower. I tried the Uvb experiment and it did increase trichomes, but it also made the buds become less compact....was only using the last 2 weeks.

OM - That schedule sounds complicated and expensive...is it?

[oldmac]

[QUOTE=WashougalWonder;2164433

That could actually increase the stretch. I have removed all blue from my light spectrum in flower. I tried the Uvb experiment and it did increase trichomes, but it also made the buds become less compact....was only using the last 2 weeks.

OM - That schedule sounds complicated and expensive...is it?[/QUOTE]

If the daylight bulbs he's referring to are CFLs or Floro tubes, then there is a bunch of blue in those, and it will help to hold down strech. (during the first half of flower) Note: the blue source lights will need to be closer to the plants then the other light (HPS) or other flower light.

Not expensive or complicated to do, just put the far red bulbs on a simple push pin timer. Set two- times on/off, per light cycle. Most important from what I've read is that 1/2hr of far red after the other lights turn on. The other part of turning them 1/2 hr before is just something someone told me, who grows all types of plants in a glass house operation.

Leaving these far red bulbs may contribute to plant stretch, but if done in proper ratios of red (660nm) and far red (730nm) it will not. But this I leave to you, if you want to experiment.

I thought I posted this before, but this is a good spot.
It's a tech paper, that deals with the issue. It's for chyrsanthemums or such but is applicable.
OM

[WashougalWonder]

Thanks OM. I have so many experiments going now I need to chill and let some finish, but maybe in the future.