Trouble reading today's article? Click here: Issue #177 - Sunday, September 6, 2015 Dear Fellow
Grower, In today's issue... - Don't be caught off guard when your plants are suddenly tall enough to play
professional basketball...it's the Flowering Stretch!
- Observe the stretch. Know the stretch. Master the stretch! Combine that with getting seeds that do what you want and the jobs done!
- One awesome
reader has sent us so much great stuff, I had to make a short compilation!
Nebula Haze & Sirius Fourside (founders of GrowWeedEasy.com) "Be free all worthy spirits, and stretch yourselves, for greatness and for height."
~George Chapman
PSA: The Flowering Stretch Sirius Fourside |
Right around the time when kids start hitting middle schools, short awkward teenagers go through puberty and turn into taller awkward teenagers...or was that just me? I’m sure you knew of at least one kid who grew so much, they looked almost as if someone grabbed them by their head and feet and just stretched them out.
When cannabis plants start to mature, they also go through a brief transitional period; a sort of cannabis-puberty if you will. And just as humans undergo a burst of rapid growth, cannabis plants will also create a large portion of their final height in a very short period of time. This explosion of vertical grow this commonly called the cannabis ‘Flowering Stretch’.
What is the Flowering Stretch?
The best way to give you an idea is with pictures. Here’s a cool animated .gif Nebula made showing the flowering stretch in action.
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This makes for a great example of how small or large a stretch can be. Notice that the plant on the left (818 Headband) gains only a few inches while the plant on the right almost doubles in size! And even this picture is misleading once
you realize that by the end of the .gif, the plant on the left is actually raised an extra foot higher off the ground! Note: This was done to keep the plants somewhat equidistant from the lights.
In short, the flowering stretch is potential burst of rapid growth that happens shortly after switching to the flowering phase. It can be massive, or it can be next to nothing. The important thing is to expect that it might happen and have a
plan ready in case it does. Luckily, most strains you buy from a seedbank are stabilized, so it’s known if the plant will stretch a lot or a little. This allows us to not only plan for a stretch, but take advantage of it when it happens!
What to Expect
Depending on the strain you’re growing, you can expect a pretty wide range of stretching. Some strains can double their height or more, while some do almost nothing. However, if you know the name of the strain you’re growing,
you can look up the breeder recommendations to get a good idea of what might happen. Additionally, there are other factors that can give you insight:
- Sativas - Sativas tend to grow taller, lanky stems even when trained; inch-for-inch they tend to stretch much more than indicas.
- Strain
height - Many breeders and seedbanks have the average height of their strains listed. Sometimes it’s as vague as “short - medium - tall”, but even that is enough to give you an idea of its growth characteristics. Expect "tall" strains to stretch!
- Light type - Certain light types are more conducive to stretching than others. You can use the right light color spectrum to help control
growth characteristics. More on that later...
- Light distance - Plants also stretch when they're trying to get more light (like this plant to the right). As a result of this type of stretching, plants grow taller, but with fewer bud sites. Note that this is not the same thing as the flowering stretch, rather it's a symptom of too-little light. Most growers want to avoid stretching caused by not
enough light as fewer bud sites means less bud.
One of the main reasons it’s so important to know about stretching is that it can rapidly reduce the amount of space you have in your grow tent/area. If you’re growing in a space with limited height, a good stretch can make it so you no longer have room to raise your lights. This leads to light/heat stress and lost buds.
I personally had a stretch where there was no longer any room to raise the lights. I used a CFL/LED combination at the time, and the LEDs absolutely cooked the buds underneath it until I got desperate and cut the stuff that was too close. I would handle that situation differently now, but it shows that no one is immune if they’re unaware.
Planning For the Stretch
Planning for a stretch is easy to do when you know it’s a possibility. There are two things growers can do that will give a lot of control over planning for a potential stretching situation:
Research your strainIf you know what strain you’re going to grow, you can usually find its growth characteristics online. Seedfinder.eu is a pretty good resource for reviews on strains submitted by other growers. While it isn’t necessarily 100% accurate (what is?), it should give you a good range of what to expect. Knowing the strain you’re growing gives you the power to decide how much stretch you’ll deal with. Since stretching is often accompanied by a ‘tall’ final height, you can reduce stretch by getting plants that are
characterized as being ‘medium’ or ‘short’.
Plan for a tall plant
In my opinion, the best way to be prepared for any stretch is to simply plan out the space as if you know that your plant will double in height by the end of flowering. Don't worry, it's much easier than it sounds! Here's how you do it:
- Take
the total amount of vertical (height) growing space you have in inches/cm.
- Take the total from #1, and subtract the height of your lights when it's at its highest point.
- Next, subtract the height of the pot/container your plant will be in.
- Finally, subtract the amount of space you'll need between your light and your plants.
- This varies depending on the lights; CFLs only need about 4", HIDs need 12+", LEDs may need even more.
- When your plants height reaches half of the number you're left with, initiate flowering!
Not too bad right? It'll seem even easier with an example! Here's how it would work for my tent (math is below the
picture): - I have a 7 foot tall tent which comes out to 84
inches. Total: 84 inches
- My lights and the stuff to hold them take up 21 inches. Total: 63 inches
- My container is 13 inches tall. Total: 50 inches
- I'm planning to keep 16 inches between my plants and the light. Total: 34 inches
- I flower my plants when
they are about 17 inches tall.
You don't always need the space when you plan like this, but it allows you to easily deal with the times when your sweet little babies turn into monsters like this: Pre-Stretch Reducing the Stretch
Since we know the factors that can lead to more stretching, reducing how much a plant stretches is just a matter of acting on those factors.
Genes - Indica plants tend to be shorter, so if you prefer Indicas and would like a short plant, you’re in luck. If you like Sativas and have limited height, there are many strains available that have a shorter
finishing height. Again, you can usually find the heights of strains at the websites of breeders and seedbanks.
Light type - Did you know that HPS (High Pressure Sodium) lights encourage stretching? If you use HID lighting, you can combat this extra stretching by leaving your MH (Metal Halide) bulb in for the first 2-3 weeks of flowering before switching to a HPS
bulb.
- This also goes for CFL growers who are utilizing vegetative (6500K) and flowering (2700K) colored bulbs. You can leave the vegetative (6500K) colored bulbs in for the first 2-3 weeks of flowering before switching to your flowering bulbs.
Light Distance - Keeping your lights the right distance away will ensure that your plants don’t have to stretch to get more light. Use the
‘hand test’ to make sure your lights are as close as they can be without harming your cannabis.
Hand test: Place one of your hands right over your plant with your palms facing downward. If the heat from your CFL or HPS lights is uncomfortably hot or painful to your hand, move the lights away an inch and try again. This test does NOT work for LED
lights.
Some General Rules About Light Distance:
- CFL and fluorescent grow lights should be kept a few inches from your plants.
- For MH/HPS lights it depends on the size of your light.
- For LEDs it's different for each model so you should always check with the manufacturer, but it's generally recommended to keep most LEDs 12-18" away, though some of the most powerful
LED grow lights need to be kept even further away.
Plant Training - Although training itself does nothing to slow down stretching, it does give growers a good way to manage it. For example, if branches are set to grow vertically by low-stress training, a stretch can actually be beneficial since so much of
the plant will be receiving light. Plant training can come in the forms of low-stress training, manifolding, topping, fimming, and more. These techniques are used in the vegetative stage to get your plant to grow the way you want in the flowering stage.
Making the Stretch Your
Friend
The flowering stretch is not necessarily a bad thing! As long as you know what to expect, you can use it to your advantage.
For those with taller grow spaces, such as tents or custom made grow spaces with 6+ feet of vertical grow room, big stretching strains can actually be a part of your growing plan. A taller grow space lets you choose from
taller strains, so you have more strain choice. Plus if you're growing a short strain in a tall space, it could take a long time to fill up the whole tent. Since you increase yields by filling up the space under the light with many long bud sites, a taller strain can help you do that more quickly and efficiently in a big space.
On the flip side if you have a short space, you can choose a
strain that doesn't stretch much, if at all. This might let you maximize your grow space by spreading your plant out wide under the light during the vegetative stage, without having to worry about a plant that keeps getting uncontrollably taller and taller when you switch to the flowering stage.
The ‘Flowering Stretch’ is another piece of knowledge that makes growing cannabis much more easy once you
know about it. I’ll leave you with a picture of when I got blindsided by a stretch and had no idea what to do (yet again). Don’t let this happen to you, too!
Know What Strain to Grow! |
One of the biggest steps to controlling the 'Flowering Stretch' is to get good seeds!
Seeds with good genes are stabilized, so we know exactly how they tend to grow!
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Don't want stretch? Get seeds for plants that stay short!
A great example of a short plant is Aurora Indica. It has high yields, high potency, low height and is easy to grow; a stealth growers dream!
Get yours today! Purposefully stretching to fill in that grow space? Get seeds for a tall, high yielding strain!
Wonder Woman is one of the highest yielding strains I've grown, and it will grow as tall as you want so be careful! In addition to it's eerily high yields, it has a pungent odor and remarkable potency.
Get yours today!
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So, I just wanted to say thank you and KUDOS for such an informative and thorough article. There is so much information out there, having a reliable and trusted resource is a benefit that can not be over stated. PLEASE keep up the good work. There's still a lot we don't know!!"
Peace,
Jack |
Trophy Pictures of the Week |
"Tika is one of those readers that sends nothing but great stuff. She's definitely emblematic of the type of cool, amicable growers Nebula and I encounter a lot thanks to this site!"
-Sirius |
We encourage you to forward this email to a friend in need!
Who Runs This
Newsletter? |
Nebula Haze:
Medical cannabis is important to me personally, and I'm dedicated to showing others how easy it is to grow their own supply of
cannabis at home.
It is my mission to educate and build growing resources to help both new and advanced growers get bigger, better yields with less time and money. |
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Learn which seed sources are personally recommended by Nebula Haze |
Sirius Fourside:
Sirius Fourside is a hobbyist grower who has gained the bulk of his experience growing in water as a medium(deep water culture,
bubbleponics).
"Growing cannabis is a relaxing hobby in and of itself, but it also saves you money and keeps you from having to deal with shady characters. Cannabis is much
easier to grow than people give it credit for, and growing in water doesn't increase the difficulty much, if any. But whether you want to grow in water, coco, or a different medium, we'll show you how easy it can be!"
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View complete list of trusted seed sources:
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