What to do when young plants have serious stretch between nodes?

fumaganja · Jan 5, 2020

Hi guys,

I've had a tonne of plants crammed in to a small tent as didnt have space for them but needed to start them for next cycle.

However by doing this there has been a lot of stretch between the nodes as they grow for light.

What would you suggest I can do with this plants? Would supercropping work? I need to promote lower growth I guess, make them more bushy.

Thanks

Wastei · Jan 5, 2020

Twist them and/or supercrop them gently. You could just twist them on the tallest/longest middle part of the stem and have this as a practice you do every other day. This will promote lateral growth.

You can only do this this to a certain degree. I've seen people overdo it. I like to alternate between internodes and I only twist green semi new nodes that are still soft and easily twistable.

Sometimes you can use Supercropping techniques on older growth if you want to structure a plant to lower stature. This take some practice to do.

New Age United · Jan 5, 2020

Wastei said:
Twist them and/or supercrop them gently. You could just twist them on the tallest/longest middle part of the stem and have this as a practice you do every other day. This will promote lateral growth.

You can only do this this to a certain degree. I've seen people overdo it. I like to alternate between internodes and I only twist green semi new nodes that are still soft and easily twistable.

Sometimes you can use Supercropping techniques on older growth if you want to structure a plant to lower stature. This take some practice to do.

Interesting technique I will keep that in mind for future reference

fumaganja · Jan 5, 2020

Wastei said:
Twist them and/or supercrop them gently. You could just twist them on the tallest/longest middle part of the stem and have this as a practice you do every other day. This will promote lateral growth.

You can only do this this to a certain degree. I've seen people overdo it. I like to alternate between internodes and I only twist green semi new nodes that are still soft and easily twistable.

Sometimes you can use Supercropping techniques on older growth if you want to structure a plant to lower stature. This take some practice to do.

Thanks mate. When you say twist them, how much? So that the stem / skin breaks? In terms of supercropping, just snap them at the top and bend it then wait for it to grow back straight again?

Kassiopeija · Jan 5, 2020

You could LST them, esp. if you wanna repot in a short time, combined works good if you'll have to do an LS on the mainstem. Because you can put that plant diagonal into the pot then bend towards the opposite site to get a plant that fills somewhat left & right of the pot.

this is an outdoor plant

bc the plant was somewhat larger I had to do this in two steps, this the first. after 2-3 days it can be done more tight.

but supercropping is good too, it'll somewhat shock the plant but the damaged part will grow back much stronger and it is said supercropped plants grow more vigorously, perhaps as a reaction to counter that stress in future (biological adaptation)

have fun

Wastei · Jan 5, 2020

fumaganja said:
Thanks mate. When you say twist them, how much? So that the stem / skin breaks? In terms of supercropping, just snap them at the top and bend it then wait for it to grow back straight again?

Twist them til you feel the stem snap. If you go further you can supercrop. It's pretty easy to be eager and stressful and snap the stem off completely while supercroping if you don't twist them properly before bending.

.Smoke · Jan 5, 2020

Thumb between index and middle finger. Squeeze slowly. Over a minute or two the stem will soften up and fold over. Might have to tie her down for 1 night. After that you're good. Not really sure you want to "snap" it. Pressure from the squeeze is enough.

And as stated before, it is VERY easy to snap the whole plant when super cropping. So take it slow.

spek9 · Jan 5, 2020

.Smoke said:
Thumb between index and middle finger. Squeeze slowly. Over a minute or two the stem will soften up and fold over. Might have to tie her down for 1 night. After that you're good. Not really sure you want to "snap" it. Pressure from the squeeze is enough.

And as stated before, it is VERY easy to snap the whole plant when super cropping. So take it slow.

That's pretty well how I've always done it, but I don't take a minute or two. I just give one quick squish with my thumb and finger, and bend the plant over at the same time.

A few I've inevitably broken, but I've never lost one of them... I just tape the joint up with some electrical tape for a week, and they heal themselves.

With only one or two plants, I'd definitely take much more care, but with a whole bunch, even if one is lost, it's not really a big deal.

Bernie420 · Jan 5, 2020

fumaganja said:
Hi guys,

I've had a tonne of plants crammed in to a small tent as didnt have space for them but needed to start them for next cycle.

However by doing this there has been a lot of stretch between the nodes as they grow for light.

What would you suggest I can do with this plants? Would supercropping work? I need to promote lower growth I guess, make them more bushy.

Thanks

top it

Powertech · Jan 5, 2020

Were they crammed in like this? How long were they vegging in a crammed space?

coreywebster · Jan 5, 2020

Looking at them I would just take the stretched out tops off down to the second lowest node. At this point they will quickly recover and you wont have the plants competing for light.

Thundercat · Jan 5, 2020

Yep I'd just top them right above the second node. That will allow those 2 biggest branch points to grow out and become 2 new main tops.

fumaganja · Jan 6, 2020

Powertech said:
Were they crammed in like this? How long were they vegging in a crammed space?

They were crammed in a lot more, like this, for 2 weeks.

They were like this because I had a big tent a couple of weeks from harvest so I wanted to get these started to replace immediately, but also in the same tent I had 15 plants 3 weeks in to veg. The problem was my big tent took longer than expected and I had no where to put these stretchy plants.

What to do when young plants have serious stretch between nodes?

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