So I have 2 plants under some home depot bought 24" plant fluoro's (quick fix until I get my HPS system). Not high lumens at all. Right now, both plants are growing straight up without much leaves/foliage at all. I'm getting very worried that I'll have to start all over again if I don't figure something out. Is this a salvagable situation? Can I just add some compact fluorescents in blue spectrum and fix the problem? Or am I totally fucked?
Salvagable? Almost definitely. Get the lights you already have, right down close to the plants. 2-3" away (less if temps allow) should help to stop them stretching. More daylight CFL bulbs will help too, but keep 'em close.
even if they do stretch you can still flower them try topping them to promote more bushy plants but make sure you keep those flouros as close as poss until you get your hps
as the others have said, get more light (blue spectrum like you said) and get it closer to the plants. if you have limited height to grow in, research LST (low stress training). even if you don't have limited verticle space i'd still LST. flourescents don't penetrate well into the plant so having an even canopy allows more budsites to get better light.
mine seam to just fine and im useing fluro tubes and thare short and fat the key is to keep the tubes about a inch away and have a fan blowing. this is what you can get with tight fluro lighting
looks very good but it doesn't have much to do with what i said. the bigger the plant gets, the flouros will not penetrate as far down into the plant. the lower budsites are not going to be getting near as much light as they would with more intense lighting. if you LST correctly, all or most of the budsites will be level and receiving equal light which i can almost guarantee will give you a much better yield. i'm not dogging on flouros, i use CFLs myself for most of veg, but that doesn't mean you can't optimize the use of the light you have.
Well, one of the plants is definately growing higher than the other. the stem on the shot one is maybe 3 inches before the upper \leaves, while the tall one is more like 4 or five before the upper leaves. Should i dig the tall one out and bury its stem an inch deeper?
What is topping a plant? I would love to promote more bushy plants, but I don't really know how to do this.
Topping is when you clip the topmost growth tip. This will cause the plant to grow out the sides as new 'tops'. Looking at the picture djdew23 posted, you would clip off the two innermost, unformed leaves. The stem will scab over while the side branches continue the upward climb. It will grow somewhat slower then, as the plant divides its upward growth among more growth tips. This wont stop upward growth, so i also reccomd LSTing. Start that asap, cuz it will recover from the topping and grow upwards like crazy again. Also if you start LSTing too late the stem gets too thick to bend the stalk over. You gotta keep her under control. I would suggest once you get the LST done and the plant adjusts to its new shape, to throw it into flower. The plant will double or triple in height during flower. So if its a foot tall it will end up 2 to 3 feet tall. And like they said, fluoros dont really penetrate that far down. Hope this helps.
I would clone the tops. Then you can use that flourescent as the mommy bulb, when your HID comes in. I always clone or I do not cut my plants. Even outdoors - if I cut a branch off of my plants, I take every shoot and clone it. Not only do you get more smoke, but you dont waste anything.