When is it too late to top?

[Bluey]

And you've got one of the tallest tents around too. Two of them.

It's hard to stretch them out in a 2x4 though hey, and 4 in a 4x4 is tight for photos if given a decent veg time. I like to give mine about 9 weeks veg which means one will pretty much fill a 4x4.

When I swapped out a quantum board and put in a bar light that gave me another 18" of headroom and a much bigger sweet spot too. Not so critical on heights re PPFD as the quantum board either.

 

[golfnrl]

I must not be doing something right. The veg time for these plants was 26 days. 3 of them were topped at the 5th node and one was fimmed. I really did ufcking miss . I can't imagine 9 weeks of veg time for these girls in my tent.

HLG recommends a 15" space between the light and the top of the tent. I suppose it's for potential heat and/or fire issues. The driver doesn't put off that much heat. 4" works just fine. That's about as close as I can get the lamp to the tent ceiling and still be able to attach it.

I have a commercial grade bar light for the 4x4 tent. I can't use it because the light is exactly 48" x 48". It bumps the tent sides which makes it almost impossible to raise and lower. It was made for a rack I think. It was an expensive lesson.

 

[Smallgrow]

I’ve got my light pressed against the metal frame of my tent now, about 2” from the tent, but I know it’s okay that close , no where near hot enough to damage the tent.

My light is “3x3” and too big to fit in a 36x36 inch space, ugh why do light makers do that

 

[golfnrl]

These pics were taken at lights on yesterday. These girls are tall. They slowed down the stretch after about three weeks. But when pistils started showing up they also started growing taller again. I switched out the rope ratchets (PIA) and have the light hanging from hooks attached to the tent frame. That puts the lamp about 14"-18" above the canopy depending on where the measurement is taken. 18" is the goal for flower. I can maybe get a couple more inches but not sure. The canopy isn't as even as I was trying for. I increased the light intensity but will prolly lower it because the PPFD is higher than I prefer or the tallest buds. The PPFD range across the canopy runs from about 580 - 1105. Imma watch and see how the girls like it first though.

 

[Bluey]

Those HLG R's have a lot of red which promotes stretch and growth upwards.

The reason those HLG' s top the efficiency scale is because of the reds, they produce more PAR per watt than the rest of the soectrum

 

[golfnrl]

Yes sir, that's exactly why I bought it. I've not bothered with the light distribution across the board, but considering the orientation of the lamp as it hangs in the tent looking from the front, the plants in the front left and back right grow slower in veg but wind up taller in flower. My guess is that's intended by the spectrum distribution across the board but I haven't looked at that. I've thought about rotating the lamp 1/4 turn to test my theory but haven't done it yet. Or I could probably just read the specs. But I haven't done it yet. Hmmm, I see a pattern here...

I've been reading the mainlining grow guides by Nebula and Nugbucket. I've also watched some vids at YTU. I think imma try it my next photo grow. I've read that tall sativas don't do well with mainlining but I've read it the other way as well. The veg time to get the manifold established makes me wonder though. You're a sativa guy, if you have any mainlining experience, what say you if I might ask?

 

[Bluey]

No issues mainlining manifolding LST tall sativas. None.

They break and split like all others.

They can still triple in height during the stretch, you just need to be careful you don't split or break them otherwise you can't train them any more and they will get away from you height wise.

 

[Smallgrow]

My plants are defiantly through the stretch but they are out of control despite my super cropping. Probably about 12” from the light and not that even a canopy. Unfortunately I didn’t have time to secure them down thoroughly after I snapped them over. The next day they had turned back up to the light like it never happened, really amazing actually how much abuse they can take.
I did this about 3-4 weeks into flower. Some of the pics show just how brutal the super crop spots were, so for those of you worried about recovery it wasn’t a problem what so ever, my plants were otherwise healthy mind you.

 

[golfnrl]

Those are good looking girls. The leaves and flowers look really good. The canopy looks good as well. Those pics of the tent look familiar. Between my four plants I have about a dozen 'trained' stems that look just like yours. I can see some /training/bending way down low on those branches. Looks like you were working on these girls early on.

 

[Smallgrow]

Thanks!
Ya I was really trying to keep them short right from the start, I did some LST in veg as (I normally do), and thought I flipped them early, however it seemed to backfire this time as they are the tallest plant I’ve ever had.
I’ve been battling what I thought was light stress for a while and I think lowering my light levels and raising my light must have made the plants stretch more. Now they are closer to the light then ever and the symptoms I thought were light stress aren’t much worse so I’m starting to think I was chasing the wrong problem. Perhaps these tall plants may lead me to a break through on that….

 

[Bluey]

Smallgrow too hot soil?

 

[Smallgrow]

It really seems like the tip burn is always together with some tacoing and mis shaped leaves like you see with light stress, but maybe you’re right.
I’m in bagged living soil but I am reamending myself, not adding Much of anything else, but it’s not impossible