Is something wrong with our flowering plants (day count T90 / F15)

Hi All

We are concerned that the plants may not be healthy as there has been little to no stretching. This makes us concerned we've stunted them by over training or something like that.

We are 15 days into the flowering cycle. There has been almost no vertical growth in the past week. The tall lengthy plants are sativa (all in 1 gal) and the wider bushier plants are indica (all in 5 gal). All in smart pots.

We had a slow start so even though the total day count today is 90. These plants really didn't start taking off until day ~30 when we learned coco grows require nutrients all the time. (head + desk & repeat)...

Now we are monitoring the smart pot weights for when they need to be watered. We are feeding them with GH MaxBloom. And water and nutrient feedings are being pH'd to around 6.0 (best guess using the color method).

We have a Lux meter and try to keep the majority of the plants in the 25k-60k Lux range. The light is about 20-25 inches above the plants. We had a little spike in the temps here over the last few days. But now they are back in the high 70's low 80's at warmest peak.

We are not rapidly trimming out the under canopy. As leaves yellow they are trimmed, but we are letting all healthy fan leaves stay.

The lengthy sativa's have has some lower branches removed, and we may need to go back to remove more as they are not going to get much light in the lower half of the plant.

Any advice would be great. Also happy Friday everyone!
~MMs

if you're supplying every needed resource to the substrate and space what could be wrong?
If you're not though, something is wrong

Shouldn't there be stretching? Like isn't that the plants healthy response to the flowering cycle. So therefore a lack of vertical growth means problems?

Mass Medicinals said:

Shouldn't there be stretching? Like isn't that the plants healthy response to the flowering cycle. So therefore a lack of vertical growth means problems?

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Do you mean no stretch at all or just less than you expected?

Stretch is strongly affected by lighting. Bluer lights will reduce stretch, red will increase it. Also too low a light level will cause stretch. Beyond that, genetics has a lot to do with it. Sativa's will stretch by the foot, indicas will stay short and squat. Most of what we grow are hybrids though, so it depends which is dominant in a particular pheno. You may be growing something that says sativa, but it's pheno may be indica dominant.

The indica grew about 3 inches as a whole over the last 2 weeks. The indica maybe 6 inches. But that's about it. We haven't had to raise the light or move the fans in a long time. Maybe we just don't realize it's okay. But we have some much extra tent space. We thought it's a problem the plants ended up so short.

Mass Medicinals said:

The indica grew about 3 inches as a whole over the last 2 weeks. The indica maybe 6 inches. But that's about it. We haven't had to raise the light or move the fans in a long time. Maybe we just don't realize it's okay. But we have some much extra tent space. We thought it's a problem the plants ended up so short.

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If it isn't a problem that made them stay short than it's actually a good thing. It looks they're pretty well into the flower stacking phase so you're definitely passed the initial stretch. They look healthy so I wouldn't worry too much about it. As far as having a lot of room left in the tent it looks like it's just about all vertical. It seems to be a pretty full canopy.

All in all I'd say you seem to have a pretty ideal turn out. One of my biggest peaves is when people spend so much time in veg to get huge plants but they're so tall they end up cutting out half of the vegetative growth and throwing it, and all of the time and resources spent vegging, in the trash. It looks like you trained them out well.

As far as pruning out the undercarriage I always do. Before you flower you can look at the undergrowth and see what is already lagging behind. Right around 2-3 weeks into flower, once the initial stretch is over, you can go back again and see more growth that the plant is allowing to lag behind. Basically you want to prune out anything that's obviously less developed as soon as it becomes so obvious.

well, if those same plants have been grown by you with differing results than you have now i'd say something changed.
but if this is your first you need to know that different genetics grow in differing patterns. and also all kinds of things affect vertical growth.
what is your ambient c02 ppm at plant canopy?
day/nite temps, rh? nutrient system, etc.?
there are specific nutrients that will purposely keep plants short too.

SchmoeJoe said:

If it isn't a problem that made them stay short than it's actually a good thing. It looks they're pretty well into the flower stacking phase so you're definitely passed the initial stretch. They look healthy so I wouldn't worry too much about it. As far as having a lot of room left in the tent it looks like it's just about all vertical. It seems to be a pretty full canopy.

All in all I'd say you seem to have a pretty ideal turn out. One of my biggest peaves is when people spend so much time in veg to get huge plants but they're so tall they end up cutting out half of the vegetative growth and throwing it, and all of the time and resources spent vegging, in the trash. It looks like you trained them out well.

As far as pruning out the undercarriage I always do. Before you flower you can look at the undergrowth and see what is already lagging behind. Right around 2-3 weeks into flower, once the initial stretch is over, you can go back again and see more growth that the plant is allowing to lag behind. Basically you want to prune out anything that's obviously less developed as soon as it becomes so obvious.

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We will continue to monitor this. The indica need to be fed tomorrow so we'll take them out and reduce the under canopy then.

chemphlegm said:

well, if those same plants have been grown by you with differing results than you have now i'd say something changed.
but if this is your first you need to know that different genetics grow in differing patterns. and also all kinds of things affect vertical growth.
what is your ambient c02 ppm at plant canopy?
day/nite temps, rh? nutrient system, etc.?
there are specific nutrients that will purposely keep plants short too.

Click to expand...

We are definitely feeling the thrills of first grow anxiety.

Ambient c02: unknown
Day: high 70s - low 90's / Night: high 60s - low 70s
RH: unknown
Nutrients: MaxBloom, CalMag

chemphlegm said:

well, if those same plants have been grown by you with differing results than you have now i'd say something changed.
but if this is your first you need to know that different genetics grow in differing patterns. and also all kinds of things affect vertical growth.
what is your ambient c02 ppm at plant canopy?
day/nite temps, rh? nutrient system, etc.?
there are specific nutrients that will purposely keep plants short too.

Click to expand...

That's a good point about day/night temperature. The op did mention there peak temp so I doubt it comes into play here but there a couple quick and easy reads that explain temperature differential and plants. They're usually at the top of the search results. It recommend reading the Maximum Yields article.

Keeping a lower N ratio during veg and transition can reduce internode length and stretch. Most "nutrient" products that reduce stretch are based on PGR's (plant growth regulators. These are hormones that are tightly regulated and avoided by most. It is possible that maybe the op has a product with these?

Mass Medicinals said:

We are definitely feeling the thrills of first grow anxiety.

Ambient c02: unknown
Day: high 70s - low 90's / Night: high 60s - low 70s
RH: unknown
Nutrients: MaxBloom, CalMag

Click to expand...

So you have a good dif for healthy growth.

Mass Medicinals said:

We are definitely feeling the thrills of first grow anxiety.

Ambient c02: unknown
Day: high 70s - low 90's / Night: high 60s - low 70s
RH: unknown
Nutrients: MaxBloom, CalMag

Click to expand...

you'll get there. best thing you can do is tighten your controls
keep temps under 80 all the time. monitor and control humidity
and supply fresh air and/or c02 with monitoring.
the basics go a long way to avoid the guesswork.