3 weeks into flower. Looking great! Vertical growth question.

Hey RIU!

My ladies are 3 weeks into flower and judging from other people's pictures at 3 weeks they seem to be kicking ass. I am one notch from my lights being all the way to the top.

I am going out of town for a week and am wondering about vertical growth issues while I'm away. I know there are MANY variables, but I'm hoping for a "general rule."

I have been tying down and tightening my blueberry and orange for a little over a week. They both have not grown vertically in the last 4 days. Could they be done? Should I continue tightening them down? (these two were topped).

My Pineapple Express and OG Kush are still growing vertically, but seem to be slowing. (neither were topped, I just let them do their thing). Would it hurt to tie down the nice big ass COLA that is forming on these ladies?

I also have a Mazar that is a few weeks younger and short enough I'm not too worried about her. The plants leaves are beautiful and healthy. She is BY FAR the most behind on flower development and her clone is very weak compared to the others. I may just let that strain go away.

making a plant do the horizontal thing is good " tie down , but not extreme ". Just a little pressure please . I used to bend my plants over outside and they will heal on their own . Inside I perfer sometimes to use a bamboo stick to train em` over using a twist tie on the branch to bamboo. Your Girls look Sweet !

Hobie said:

making a plant do the horizontal thing is good " tie down , but not extreme ". Just a little pressure please . I used to bend my plants over outside and they will heal on their own . Inside I perfer sometimes to use a bamboo stick to train em` over using a twist tie on the branch to bamboo. Your Girls look Sweet !

Click to expand...

Thanks Hobie. I do have some bamboo sticks I usually use for my peppers....

I used the twisty ties to tie them down and anchored them to the pots rim. Within hours they were bending back towards the light so I think I did them right.

My main concern is for when I'm out of town. Can you tie down a nice fat COLA on an un-topped plant and not hurt your yield?

Once a plant stops it's vertical growth, is it done? Or, do they take breaks and sometime continue growing up?

bend a cola down loosely . vertical growth in itself is not a sign of finish . they do continue to grow in bloom , but slower .

Obviously you dont want them growing into your lights or getting too close for that matter. Looks like your using an HPS and it gets hot. Tying down shouldn't hurt them but do it carefully (dont want to stress those fat ladies now, they are looking very nice). Remember that a flowering plant will end up 1.5 to 2 times taller than the veg height. Look into LST'ing from seedling stage. Very nice grow.

Thanks guys!

Since I'm leaving tonight I figured tying down the big fat Colas was better than burning them.

This is my first grow. I had read many times about how much larger a plant gets in flower. Between being a newb and trying to give my plant some rest after cloning, I definitely waited too long.

I basically wound up "LST'ing" while in flower. Next time we'll be starting way earlier!

Better safe than sorry, good choice. I've seen numerous grows on here where a plant will have a "second wind" and stretch another few inches, even after a couple weeks of no growth. Personally, all 3 of my strains finished stretching by end of week 3 and didn't seem to grow any more afterwards.

The plants are already showing signs of heat stress, notice the side tips curling up? I'm sorry but you wont even be able to finish flowering in that space unless you really cool it down. Also take better referential pictures of your issue instead of showing up your plants so we can help you better. I wonder why nobody has asked you your canopy temp....

about 81-87 at the canopy. I have a crappy 400w HPS that has the ballast and reflector as one. It REALLY kills the temps in my room. Plan is to crop out, pay off the start up costs, then buy a sister to the remote ballast setup that's right next to it.

That's way to high pal, you need 75-77 tops... Also the differential in temps between Night and day shocks your plants. Your plants can make it to harvest they don't seem like they're gonna stretch a lot more but if you don't find a way to cold it down you'll have a lot of red pistils and high will suffer a lot.

masp84 said:

That's way to high pal, you need 75-77 tops... Also the differential in temps between Night and day shocks your plants. Your plants can make it to harvest they don't seem like they're gonna stretch a lot more but if you don't find a way to cold it down you'll have a lot of red pistils and high will suffer a lot.

Click to expand...

You really don't think he will be able to finish those plants due to it being 81-87 in there? lol

TheGreenThumber said:

You really don't think he will be able to finish those plants due to it being 81-87 in there? lol

Click to expand...

What's he gonna do? chope them?... He'll take what he can get we've all been there

It's my first shot on this one, but I have grown many veggie gardens and flower beds. I am learning plenty, don't get me wrong, but they seem to be pretty happy. I am always open to the help I get.

I have a plan on cooling the room. I am aware of the heat issue. I have an electric heater that keeps the room about 65 degree when the lights are out.

Haven't seen any vertical growth! sweet.

don't listen to him on the temp thing my max was 100 this summer and only then did I have problems average high was about 93 and I grew about 20 plants and harvested my 10 females never got below 75 and I had temperature swings hell even my current grow peak temp is anywhere from 65-75 and low about 60-50

jordan293 said:

don't listen to him on the temp thing my max was 100 this summer and only then did I have problems average high was about 93 and I grew about 20 plants and harvested my 10 females never got below 75 and I had temperature swings hell even my current grow peak temp is anywhere from 65-75 and low about 60-50

Click to expand...

Jordan your case isn't usually the case for most people. Even adding Co2 It's too damn high for most strains. You can clearly see leaves curling up due to transpiration which means the plant is already wasting energy in cooling her self rather than making bud. If you want a premium crop first thing to master is environment, especially heat control. My 2 cents

leaf edges curling is caused by being to close to the light not ambient canopy temps

jordan293 said:

leaf edges curling is caused by being to close to the light not ambient canopy temps

Click to expand...

Did you think that through before you posted?

The plants are indeed to close, better put, they're are to close for a reflector which isn't air cooled.. So the HEAT coming from the bulb is playing a huge role in the GR temp, prove of that is that environment cools down to 65°F when lights go off and that temperature change is terrible for the plants. if it were the other way around and the plants were receiving too much light (not heat), bleaching is the common thing to happen. This is general knowledge pal and I'm done explaining my self. You don't have to trust me, grab a book and just don't go telling people that's ok to grow @ 100°F.

All I have to go off of is my general plant knowledge. They look very healthy and robust. I don't see any bad side affects with my environment in the flowers, but I will be logging yields, taste, etc, etc.

I do realize my room could be cooler. As previously stated, I have to deal with the 400w that has the ballast attached. When I was just running one 400w MH when my ladies were in veg, I max saw 75f.

I'm glad this started a debate! I really do appreciate the feedback!

masp84 said:

The plants are already showing signs of heat stress, notice the side tips curling up? I'm sorry but you wont even be able to finish flowering in that space unless you really cool it down. Also take better referential pictures of your issue instead of showing up your plants so we can help you better. I wonder why nobody has asked you your canopy temp....

Click to expand...

I wonder why you think weed stops growing at 90 degrees or so.Saying Op won't be able to finish in the room the way it is , that's bullshit.