Am I Going to Have Enough Room?

Grow area = 4'x4'x6.5'
Heigth of 2 Plants upon starting flowering = 20" and 24"
The plants are in 3.5 gallon buckets.
The plants look to be mostly Indica.
The light is 600watt HPS

Are the plants going to hit the light? Flowering was started 3 days ago.

If I am not going to have the height space, what should I do now? Should I wait and see, and then bend the main stem to 90 if it gets too high?

It's very possible it will hit the lights, I assume that's 20 and 24 inches not including the pot it's in eh? One thing you could do is top the plant, that would stunt the growth and should cause it to stay short enough. Will also branch them out a bit more, could end up with more yield with only 2 plants.

That's right pazzo, the 20 and 24 inch heights of the plants I mentioned does not include the pot, which is about 10 inches high. I just measured again....the plants are now 22 and 29 inches.

Well one thing I did not want to do is top the plants. I wanted that massive main cola. The only other time I grew many years ago I topped the plants. I can see though, that when taking into consideration the 10 inch height of the buckets, the vertical height of the hood, and the distance it hangs even when mounted all the way to the top and the fact that I want to still maintain about 12 inch distance from the plant top, I'm not left with much vertical room. The plants themselves can only be allowed to reach a maximum height of 42 inches. Now if I started flowering at 20 inches on the smaller one, do you think that one will be ok? I don;t mind topping one and not the other. The taller one is probably going to be a male anyway.

Well I went ahead and topped them both , 4 days into 12/12. I hope this won't screw them up. Next time I'll start flowering sooner, or top them sooner. Do you think topping them 4 days into 12/12 is going to mess them up? Should I revert back to veg for a week or two?

My first grow with NL I had 2 great phenos, one I topped and one I didn't. The one I didn't top I liked more cause it tasted better but it wasn't nearly as heavy as the other one. Here's some pics before I cut 'em.. I think the topped one got like 1/2oz. more or something.

Thanks. So with a 6.5' high grow room would starting flowering when the plants are 16 inches be ok you think? That gives them a couple more feet to grow during flowering.

DrCannnabis I would say NO, do not put them back in veg. @ this point i can't see that helping them. That would only cause them alot of stress & if you didn't screw them up w/ that then you would only make them bigger. topping after turning lights to veg stage, while not recommended.... well @ 4 days it's not a huge deal either. 4 days is just enough time for them to realize they are going into veg mode. & I actually think that once you cut back to 12/12 there may be one last spurt of growth (vegging) that the plants make after a couple days of shortened light cycle because they are realizing this is their last chance to grow in size. (that's just a theory, it just seems to me i've seen a spurt after a couple days of 12/12). Anyway, point is when you have planned ahead it's better to top plants 1 week b4 12/12 or sooner, but if needed (as in your case) it's not a big deal to do it a 'lil ways into veg. I repeat, not a bid deal. certainly not as big a deal as reverting back to veg woudl be. so go w/ it, IMO.

16 inches would give you an estimated 4 foot plant, plus 1 foot for your pot that would leave you with 1.5 feet. Saying they don't really get taller then 4 feet you'll be fine.

Thanks...no I'm not putting them back into veg state...no worries there. Just gonna run with it now and see how it goes. the plants are very healthy. one thing I am worried about is temps in an unheated attic with colder weather on the way. Should I put a small space heater in my grow tent and timer it to go on when the lights go out? I also have a small humidifier in case the humidity gets too low.

Yes a space heater may be necessary, make sure it's a safe one with a decent thermostat and safety cut offs. (anything relatively new should be ok)

You shouldn't need a timer on the heater if it has a thermostat, just set the thermostat to around 70 or whatever and it won't run while the lights keep the room above that temp.

Oh yeah, the one I have does have a thermostat on it....nice! No timer needed....Thanks for all the help guys.