Before my seeds arrive in the mail (any day now), I just wanted to know what exactly Stretching is and how to avoid it (unless you don't want to avoid it)
Stretching is when the lights are two far from the plants, so they keep growing vertically trying to get closer to the light. Avoid it by placing your lights close enough to the plant to avoid stretching, but not close enough to burn the plants.
A good way to test this is by putting ur hand right above ur plants canopy level plam down if its too hot its too hot for the plants. also they will strech at the beginning of flowering but theres nothing u can do about that its pretty natural before they fill in with buds.
It's not just growing vertically...It is the distance between the nodes. The more distance between the nodes (where the fan leaves come out), the more stem you have and not bud. When growing indica dominant plants, most growers like the short, bushy plants where the buds grow into each other making a massive top cola. Why grow stem when you can grow buds?