What is the deal with my plants stretching? One has internodes like 2-4 inches. Is it temperature or intensity of light or both? I am keeping this light about 10"-12" away from the plants, but one of them has really!!!! stretched. Let me know your thoughts, GC! Lights: 150W HPS Media: Soil w/ Organic Amendments Grow Area: Indoor/Tent (20"x36"x64") Photoperiod: 12/12 Ventilation: 4" fan supply, 6" inline duct fan for exhaust, 7" interior fan Water: pH'ed with TM 7, Dyna Gro ProTekt, Seaweed Extract Strain: C 99 JaK
C99 is a sativa dominant strain. Sativas can stretch a lot. C99 is supposed to be short for a sativa, but unless you have some old seeds, they are F2s or later. I heard Joey Weeds C99 seeds are F2s. You get more variation in F2s, a greater chance of getting a real stretchy sativa. If you can get your light closer without hitting the plant with too much heat, do that, but she is still going to stretch. You could try to shut it down with Bushmaster. I haven't used it but it's supposed to stop the stretch of early flower. Some people say it works. It certainly is expensive. You can also train the plant. Super crop her. Prune her. Good luck.
your light is a little to far my 400 watt i keep it about 10-14 inch from the top what kind of hood do you have if you have a cool able hood you can keep it closer
Alatar, I thought this was an indoor strain. I know little But, I may have misread. I will have to rethink the C 99's for the fture if the stretch is in the genetics. LST, Fimming, Bushmaster. At least I got the options. Thanks for the info. Inkman, yes, I was thinking about getting a cooling reflector. Mine current one is not. Just a plain old reflector. Bottom of the line, came with the fit from HTG. I knew I should have upgraded that. Hey, though, if getting it closer, even though cooled, won't some radiant heat put a hurting on the plant?? I guess that's where you get the difference between close enough and too close. I do the old hand trick all the time, but I always err on the side of way too safe, I think. Thanks for the ideas guys. JaK
Even with air cooled reflectors you will not be able to get the tops too close because of the radiant heat as you stated.but you can step up your airflow thru them to get a couple inches lower, it could just be your strain tho too. I have been growin a few sativa dominant strains lateley and the amount of stretch as compared to more indica dom. even between the nodes kinda took me by suprise. now I try to plan out my strains an pair them with a training schedual.