Thanks for the help all, I really appreciate all the advice. I winged it and got all the tops close to level. I pinched a few and used some ties for a few others. I'm learning, what a great hobby ! I plan to defoliate heavily at the end of the week and that will be it. Hard work done, time to coast to harvest after that. Week 4 Flower Durban Poison
Far as distance from lights, I very highly recommend measuring instead of guessing or listening to someone's advice about how many inches from the light. Get a cheap lux meter on Amazon and start measuring and observing. Then you will know how much light you are dealing with, and watching the plants you will start to get a feel for how much is too much. Its very strain dependent too. Some strains practically cry at 50k lux, others are still yawning 'that all you got bro?' at 100k. Grandi Guava for example can practically eat the lights and it doesn't care. I have a Mike Tai x Orange Cookies cross that has the tops of tops sitting at 140k right now and doesn't care at all. White Runtz on the other hand will freak out and go micro bud mode around 50k.
Thanks, as a relatively new grower I'm short a few tools. I still need some type of EC/PPM meter and a light meter. I've done two grows with this light, first grow I had the lights at the Spiderfarmer recommended height of 12-18 inches and my buds suffered. The second grow I went 10-12 inches and my harvest was amazing. This grow I thought I'd experiment going lower than 10 inches, but the plant seems to be telling me its unhappy any lower than 10 inches. (I'm seeing a calcium deficiency). Thanks for the tip, I'll read up on lights now and see if I can find an affordable light meter or app.