How do I Strengthen and Thicken My Stem?

I have 5 sour diesel clones that are about 2' feet tall and I am trying to thicken the stems. I have them indoors for now but they will be planted outside when it stops raining so much. I have them under a lamp about 4" away and they have a fan blowing on them. At first I started it on low until they were barely moving from that and then gradually made it up to high and the stems have thickened but not all that much. They are holding themselves up and growing good but they are a little spindly. I have seen other peoples pics of plants younger than mine with stems as big around as their finger if not bigger and I was wondering how to go about thickening them other than a fan. Any suggestions?

Hmm you can try doing some LST plus the fan it may take a lil while but it has worked for me in the past. I usually start LST when mine get about 6'' to 8'' tall

pinch the stem and twist till you hear a crack....dont rip the stem in two just so that it is damaged and will limp over it self then leave it and it will grow back stronger keep doing this...u can also lst and place a fan on them

you could just stake them after you put them outside, LST works too. If they are long and spindly, my guess is they stretched reaching for light, couldn't say for sure without pics.

super crop

*there should be plenty of guides on how to do it properly, i personally just grab me some stem and apply pressure (squeezing until i feel some cracking or tearing, then release.. takes practice at first, but youll be super cropping like a pro in no time goodluck

What kind of lights are you using cause the high powered/ high intensity lights will produce a thicker stem...once you move them outside they will thicken up for you. In the mean time I would gradually pinch your girls between every stretched node...not too much at once.

I am a total newbie. What is LST?

Less Stress Training. They are stretching because they are not getting enough light. Since you are going to be putting them outside pretty much any day now I wouldn't recommend buying a light, unless you will use it again. Super cropping as mentioned above is pretty awesome. I have also used the pinch/snap technique mentioned above and it too works great.

However, you have a week, maybe even two left inside I'm guessing so I wouldn't worry about it. You don't want to stunt them by snapping them right before moving them outside. (on a side note read up on "hardening off" your plants before you transplant) The plants will fill out when they get in there holes outside and besides you will be staking up the buds anyway. You still may want to consider LST and super cropping once they are outside depending on the amount of space you have and how high they will be able to grow.

I just don't know I'd want to take the chance and have the possibility of breaking them. I know almost nothing about growing marijuana. I don't even smoke it.

Dude the shit is tough as hell. as long as you don't cut off more than about 40% of the foliage they will be okay. i have one right now i straight snapped in half and staked it at a 90 degree angle. it took 2 weeks but it bounced back just fine. there is a big doughnut at the spot of the break now. you just don't won't to stress it out before transplant or you risk stunting the growth for the lifetime of the plant.

I'm doing a lot of research on everything. I just want to make sure I do it all right so I don't stunt the plant in my efforts to increase yield. Everyone talks about topping, super cropping, and less stress training? Should I do all these things and if so should I do them all at the same time or should I give the plant time to recover from one before trying another? Should I do whatever I'm going to do after my plants have been outside for a week so they are acclimated?

Can anyone help?

As mentioned....lights will toughen them, alot more than a fan will. Plants are tougher outside, because the sun is so bright, not because of the wind. What kind of light do you have? 4" is too far away, unless it an HPS/MH...

A way to not have to worry about breaking your shit is to just have a fan blowing in your grow area, not directly on your plant, but moving around your area. Recreate the wind, outdoors the wind blowing the plant around helps build a thicker stem since it needs to get stronger to deal with the wind.

If you can get a T-5 light, they work great for strong tough short stems.

Keep it between 5" - 7" from the tops.