PC Case Too Small, CFL Lights Burning Plants

Alright, so I've been having some issues with my plants. The case I'm using is 26.5" tall with two intake, 1 outtake CPU fans, 4x 23w CFL bulbs arranged across the top.

I thought my girls were only supposed to get to 18 in., max, but they've gotten a fair bit taller than that. I've got the main colas pulled away from the lights, along with some of the taller branches, but it isn't a permanent solution, and the side branches filling in the middle are getting close to the lights now, too.

I'm not sure what to do... ? Put up a glass barrier, maybe? That would probably get hot and scorch them too, though. I know CFLs don't emit much heat, but direct contact with the bulbs is definitely hot enough to burn them. I was thinking about maybe getting another box/case, but I've already spent a fair amount of money into this at this point.

Maybe some small fan to blow directly on the bulbs?

Any ideas? This is my first grow, so I still have a lot to learn.

The first pic is of my girl I named Faye, around 4 sets of her fan leaves have been burnt at some point from growing into the lights, I have to keep her tucked down and into the corner, otherwise she'd be taller than the other plant, Samus, at this point.

im finishing up a pc grow with an ak48 fem seed in it. my box is a lot smaller than yours. i believe i only had 16 inches of grow space. heres what you gotta do. start 12/12 from seed. and LST or SCROG the crap out of it. your plants dont look too far into flowering so grab the branches and bend them as much as you can without breaking them and tie them down. it will stress the plant but not that much. it might stun growth for a day or too. but its worth it. you might have to repeat this process a couple times since im guessing your plants are in the flowering stretch period.

try upgrading you cabinet if possible

they will get bigger & you can try to train them to stay low

good luck

You should try LST'ing what is left cause obviously it is to late due to some stems have thickened. Another thing is I bought this PC case can you tell me how good it is?

How much did you buy the PC case for? bro I needa send you a pic of my ladies, one has practically a fuckin tree trunk.

FriendlyGuy said:

How much did you buy the PC case for? bro I needa send you a pic of my ladies, one has practically a fuckin tree trunk.

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Too much money for what I got out of it, pains me to even discuss it.

I'd love to see that! You definitely gotta send me some pics, I love appreciating nice, robust plants. I wish I had the space to let my girls fill out like that, and I don't think I can bend the stem much more, there's no give to it, seems like it'd only snap.

(I'm a lady, by the way, everyone here thinks I'm a guy for some reason XD)

whulkamania said:

You should try LST'ing what is left cause obviously it is to late due to some stems have thickened. Another thing is I bought this PC case can you tell me how good it is?

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You have any pics round here of it? I forgot about that message you sent, crap! My bad : /

asienk said:

im finishing up a pc grow with an ak48 fem seed in it. my box is a lot smaller than yours. i believe i only had 16 inches of grow space. heres what you gotta do. start 12/12 from seed. and LST or SCROG the crap out of it. your plants dont look too far into flowering so grab the branches and bend them as much as you can without breaking them and tie them down. it will stress the plant but not that much. it might stun growth for a day or too. but its worth it. you might have to repeat this process a couple times since im guessing your plants are in the flowering stretch period.

Click to expand...

I do have a screen, but I think the gaps might be a bit too small for my girls, how big should the holes be, 2x2in.? Smaller? Probably too far in to use?

I don't think I could bend the main cola if I wanted to, but I could try the side branches... although there isn't much space for them to go horizontally. I don't want to chop any of them off (there are around 28 nice-sized side branches in there between the two plants, and more branches I hope won't grow much bigger - wish I didn't have to say that, agh, it's painful), but am wondering if there'd even be space in there for them to fill out?

Edit:no, not that far, in those pics they were 33 days from sprout, 14 days flowering

and wow, can't believe you were able to control an ak48 to grow in such a small space, nice

you should check out godbodystyle on youtube. he shows u lst n scrog mi help

feelingreen said:

Too much money for what I got out of it, pains me to even discuss it.

I'd love to see that! You definitely gotta send me some pics, I love appreciating nice, robust plants. I wish I had the space to let my girls fill out like that, and I don't think I can bend the stem much more, there's no give to it, seems like it'd only snap.

(I'm a lady, by the way, everyone here thinks I'm a guy for some reason XD)

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Lol I topped both differently you'll be amazed at the difference, ones got nothing but straight colas and the other just looks like it fuckin exploded with branches and colas, also their were lighting differences as well from the start, so the results actually surprised me.

Sounds like everybody is giving you the same advice I have given you on the other thread. Would you be willing to upgrade to a large cardboard box. Like a Wardrobe cardboard box. Check-out like a moving company ie. U-haul, they may have the size you need.

PakaloloHui said:

Sounds like everybody is giving you the same advice I have given you on the other thread. Would you be willing to upgrade to a large cardboard box. Like a Wardrobe cardboard box. Check-out like a moving company ie. U-haul, they may have the size you need.

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I know, I was hoping there would be some other solution, because their stems don't seem to be in the mood to bend. :.( Crap.

I think I might be willing to do that, even with my tiny apartment (that's been one of the main issues all along, this place is like a cubicle).