Urgent help needed - Tutankkhamun mega stretch

[Ricklar]

Greetings All,

My grow has turned into a nightmare. The four plants grew very bushy and compact during veg, but have stretched more than 3x (possibly nearer 4x) during flower, and they're too big and too close to the light, which is mega-hot.

It's so stressful, it's almost put me off growing altogether. I'm not looking forward to opening the tent anymore, I'm dreading it.

There was no warning of this. I'll never use Pyramid seeds again.

I'm running out of ideas. I keep snapping the branches but they just fix themselves.

Tempted to rip them down and start again with better seeds.

Any ideas would be appreciated. The light is 400W dual spectrum. The last trick up my sleeve is to turn the light down to 250W.

Many thanks.

[Ricklar]

[RagWeedDWC]

Shades of tumble weed grow. I think I would be super cropping at this point, a little late but I have been in the same boat and you can get a decent crop.
I basically followed the methods used in this article https://www.growweedeasy.com/how-to-...crop-marijuana
If you look at the tumble weeds in my signature, you will see a similar issue.

[Ricklar]

Thanks. Not sure what you mean by tumble weed?

I'll go in tonight and super crop them. They're 25 days into flowering. I switched to 11/13 a few days ago. The flowering time is allegedly 55-65 days. Hopefully they'll have enough time to strengthen and fatten up.

I was hoping that the weight of growing buds would weigh them down a bit, but they might not get that far.

[RagWeedDWC]

I started growing autos this year because I was under the impression they would be short and quick to grow. Wrong on both accounts, damn thing over grew my box, not once but two different grows. So I named them tumble weeds, rebuilding my grow space to account for the additional height and also changing to a more aggressive pruning style. Tumble weed is a good thing. Bend them over and tie them down, the bud sights along the stem you bent over will start growing up.

[Tersky]

If you dont want your plants to stretch so much lower the lights, use MH instead of HPS for the first 2-4 weeks of flower then switch to HPS, train heavily in veg period and shorten veg period. Training is super important indoors as you have limited real estate usable for the plants. I doubt it's the seeds and more likely a lack of experience. Plants dont usually stretch more than double unless there is something causing it. Some strains do grow tall, and those should be labled as so from a seed bank and doing a quick google search of your strain indicates it is a short strain meaning either they gave you the wrong seeds or you caused the stretch. Next time plan your grow better so you dont run into height issues.

[Ricklar]

If you dont want your plants to stretch so much lower the lights, use MH instead of HPS for the first 2-4 weeks of flower then switch to HPS, train heavily in veg period and shorten veg period. Training is super important indoors as you have limited real estate usable for the plants. I doubt it's the seeds and more likely a lack of experience. Plants dont usually stretch more than double unless there is something causing it. Some strains do grow tall, and those should be labled as so from a seed bank and doing a quick google search of your strain indicates it is a short strain meaning either they gave you the wrong seeds or you caused the stretch. Next time plan your grow better so you dont run into height issues.

I appreciate the reply, but it's not really helpful to say plan better. I did everything in your first sentence except use MH.

It may well be me causing it, but I have no idea why. I'm using coco and perlite, Canna A and B (never more than 80% strength), and I switched from nitric to phosphoric acid when I changed to 12/12. I flipped them exactly 4 weeks after planting.

I saw another grower saying some of their seeds did the same, suggesting the strain wasn't stable, causing mixed results.

[Tersky]

I will concede that it is possible that it was the seeds, however you would usually see one or two plants have the issue not all. My thinking is if the lights were lower they would not need to strech to them . And yes, indoor grow require lots of planning unless you want tall and lanky plants. If you are referring to the reply by RagweedDWC you may notice he said "changing to a more aggressive pruning style". One of the arts of the indoor grow is learning how to shape the plant how you want. Im sorry im not helpful but im honest.

[RagWeedDWC]

I zoomed in on your grow, I do not think you are doing anything wrong. From the internodal spacing and leave shape it looks like a Sativa strain or hybrid. It is going to get tall and will take a long time to flower (Amnesia Haze was my last, and that's what it did). You have nice bright leaves and looks healthy, follow that link I sent and do the crush and bend thing, tie it down so it does not grow back up (They will), and keep doing what your doing.

[Ricklar]

Thanks RagWeedDWC, that's reassured me. I've cropped and tied them. Looks a bit better. Hopefully that will keep them down. Not as far from the light as I'd like, but better than they were.

[RagWeedDWC]

you may have to keep tying them down as they stretch if they are not done, just route them around as best as you can.