1st time grower here, I have one plant that is about 4.5 foot tall, and the top 6 inches has now grown over my light. i dont know if i should just let it go, or cut it off, or what. any ideas? My instincts are telling me to just leave it alone. it more than doubled in size in flower, and I didn't think it would get that big. it was grown from seed, so it was already 2 feet when i put it in flower.
imho that is bad news. if theres no way possible to add height to the light, your gonna loose out. The "cola" is going to be your most concentrated area of bud on the whole plant, unless you've "topped" you plant resulting in 2 or more smaller colas. Once the plant reachs over top of the light source, it will begin to shrivel up. Even if you have to get a bunch of CFL's or something, do whatever you can to get some light on the top. Otherwise just take lesson learned for next time, and find a more suitable place to grow, or a better strain. Like one that stays small. Its kinda hard to do so with all the hybrids going around. I know this from personal expierience, as I got ahold of an afganistan strain that grew almost 7 foot tall. Took almost 4 months to mature, and half way thru I had to remove shelving because the colas had grew past where I could hang the lights. Good luck mate!
Any way to gently tie it down, bending it but not breaking it, to get it below the light? It'll still grow towards the light, but your going to lose it anyways. Don't do anything that would break it though, as that could stress it. But if you can gently bend it under, I would think that would be an option. First time grower myself, my main cola on one plant was causing me to have to raise my lights to high so I gently tied it down a little bit. The hemp rope put enough weight on it so it wouldn't get burned. More bad news, 2 feet going into flower, it could get up to 6 feet.
thanks for the responses, it was bagseed, so I had no idea how tall it would get, but the good news is that this was really just a practice round. It is my main cola and I did top, and unfortunately the stem is so thick I can't bend it, and no way to move the light any higher. I still have lots of flowers below it, but not nearly as dense as the flowers at the top. oh well, lesson learned! i should still be able to get quite a bit from the bottom though, right?
angle the light towards the top? add extra cfls for the top? theres gotta be a way to get some light to the top and not waste everything..
i woulda lst'ed it if you were short on space makes your grows seem like they are huge even in small areas
Supercrop it, basically high stress training but if space has become a issue i don't really see any other option.
I'm with Kevin, I'd supercrop IF, you have WEEKS left in flowering for it to recover and grow. There are a couple decent tuts on supercropping in these forums, and it's pretty easy. Personally I'd do it to bring that main cola down with the next tallest group. With it recovering it will cease to be the tip top, causing the plant to put more energy into the other buds that are now taller.
I had the same problem, I just added 4 26 watt CFLS directly on the cola and it seems to be doing good.