How Tall Do You Let Your plants Get Before Switching To Flowering?

[Sledrock]

I intend to include in my Grow Logs in the future: How much the plants I'm growing "Stretch" after switching to 12x12. That way I can determine When to switch to Flowering so I don't run into Height/Light problems.

I'd be curious to know: What is the most effective distance for my Grow Light (Vipar Spectra 450W) is for Optimum Light Penetration? This would help me decide (in conjunction with stretch) how Tall to let my plants get before switching to flower.

I Top every Photo Grow and do heavy LST training to keep my bud sites relatively even so they get equal light.

I was just curious: How tall do you-all let your plants get before Switching them to 12x12?

And does anyone know how far the effective light penetration is for a Vipar Spectra 450 watt? Thanks in advance for any input!

[DingusKhan]

Your optimal veg height will depend on your space: most specifically, the height from the top of your grow medium to a certain distance BELOW your light's HIGHEST setting. I would veg to about 1/3 to 1/2 that height. That will allow for stretch, and still have room to not fry your tops with your grow light.

[LurkingInTheGrass]

Sirius has an article

includes the steps to figure out when to flip based on plant height (factors in tent, light: distance to plant and max height, pot size, etc)

https://www.growweedeasy.com/flowering-stretch

[Sledrock]

Hey Lurking, thanks for the link! Very Helpful! And mega-Kudos to you, Sirius!

[Jayv]

I use vipraspectra 450w LED. Keep both light strings on, the veg and bloom. Never use just one. My first mistake on that after reading more on the light. I have 4x7 tent. 4 plants. Last grow I had 5. All grown under these lights. They work. They do burn leafs if it's to close. Hers a few pics of my grow right now ultra just and Gorilla Glue. The first three are the end of last grow, bottom ones are right now in week 5. Sorry for the purple, forgot to turn the bloom light off.

[Sledrock]

Very nice plants, Jayvv! Very healthy looking!

[Jayv]

Thank you. Might switch at 7 weeks!
You wouldn't believe my nutrients. My indoor experiment and to my surprise.

[homegrown]

How much head room do you have in your tent Sledrock ? How high can your lights go? I have to train my plants pretty low cause my tent is really short. 5.5ft, so lights are maxed at 5'. My second grow i have LST'd them less(so more stretch) but maintained a pretty decent canopy. and i have been testing running my 2- 600 viparspectra's at around 14" from top of canopy. I think when i flipped the plants i gained around 6-8 inches in height. Im sure for my 3rd grow i'll be tinkering with light height and training again.

[SoOrbudgal]

OK homegrown i'm gonna go ahead and boost one of my photos which is in it's 4wk of flower up onto a 3" block to bring it within 18" of the light. I've been tossing idea around and what the heck, see how she goes. I don't move the lights up or down just containers on risers and blocks.