I took my plants from veg at 18" with light 18-6 and put them under light (hps) at 12-12. in 4.5 weeks they have grown to 48+". Starting to bud but buds looking really little, maybe not buds yet just lots of hair. Is this normal or am I doing something wrong? I'm using a 150w hps for 1 plant. I would like to slow the groth. Will they eventually stop growing vertically?
Yo dude, this is total individual interpretation, though personally I always count first day of flowering as being at least 10 - 12 days from when I switch to 12/12 and only when at least 2 or 3 separate sets of the double white hairs are showing, so by my reckoning your plants are only 2 weeks into flower and loadsa little smalls buds only is what I'd be expecting to see on that timescale, so all sounds cool to me.
Like everyone else said, they can stretch loads first few weeks into flower, and much better supercropping advice already been given then I can add to! My only thought was, if they abit bigger than you wanted now, it does mean next time you could just cut a week or 2 off veg time now you know what sorta size you're gonna be roughly working with - possible bonus to get to harvest quicker?!? (You could also keep same veg time, do a load of LSTing & cropping, keep height perfect and end up with bumper crop, though will be bit more time-consuming, so whatever works best for you obviously)
