Plant Height Questions

[RedGoblin]

As long as my plants are, say, at least a foot tall, I can put them into the flowering cycle and bud them out, can't I? I should have more room than that under the lights of my stealth box actually, but not a whole lot more. I understand the yields may not be that great at all, but what I DO get will be quality bud, won't it? Also, how much more do you all personally think a plant continues to grow in height immediately after you've switched the lights to flowering? Thanks

 

[bunique209]

it can double in size once you start flowering.

 

[Roseman]

I've seen Flowering started at 2 weeks on 6 inch tall plants. But like fdd2blk says, it is not natural for children to have babies. The most determining factor is SPACE, how much do you have? If you have a full height 8 ft tall closet, then let them VEG and grow. If space is limited, you better go ahead and start FLOWERING soon.

 

[babygro]

As long as my plants are, say, at least a foot tall, I can put them into the flowering cycle and bud them out, can't I?

Flowering your plants at 12 inches tall is a very general 'rule of thumb'. You can pretty much flower your plants at any time you like, but there are optimum times to do it. Yield is a balance between vegetative time and plant size. The best time to switch your plants to flowering is when they're genetically ready to start flowering and that's usually after about 6-8 weeks of vegetative growth.

I should have more room than that under the lights of my stealth box actually, but not a whole lot more. I understand the yields may not be that great at all, but what I DO get will be quality bud, won't it?

That depends entirely on how good you are as a grower.

Also, how much more do you all personally think a plant continues to grow in height immediately after you've switched the lights to flowering? Thanks

Plants can increase their height at anything between 1.5 times to 4 times their pre-flowering height - it's very strain dependant and also depends on a variety of other factors as well - such as humidity, temperature differences between high and low, the amount of Nitrogen in the plant, lights etc. Indica's and Indica dominant plants tend to stay smaller than Sativa and Sativa dominant plants.

It's a lottery basically - you never really know how tall they're going to get.

 

[Roseman]

BabyGrow,
just a simple question,
does this information you just gave apply to Hydro and Soil both?
My experience has beent here is a difference in the spped of growth, which would be different. I just want to learn, and I love to read and i'm confused too.

 

[laserbrn]

I have found that if using clones I can successfully flower plants that are very small. As soon as roots pop out of the bottom of my rockwool cubes I start flowering. This is a clone of a mature plant so the "babies having babies" theory doesn't really apply. You basically have a very small adult plant.

If you have limited space this may be the best way for you to get reasonable yields from smaller plants. I vegged my last batch (check the thread in my sig) for 10 days. That was 10 days from the day they were transplanted into the 6" rockwool cubes.

By utilizing more plants and a lot less veg growth I should have increased my yield slightly over my last grow and decreased the time start to finish. Overall, I have A) Saved Space ang B) Increased Yield and C) increased energy and time efficiency by cutting total growing time down to 65 days start to finish.

 

[RedGoblin]

Thanks guys, appreciate it. One more thing; is LST a reliable and easy way, for an amateur, of utilizing precious space and increasing yield? That was in my plans all along, and I forgot to mention that, but my friend seems to think that LST is for experienced growers and I would very easily damage my plants.

 

[Sabud]

since im reading this, waht is LST someone explain it to me please

 

[laserbrn]

They have good explanation of LST in the GrowFAQ. It's basically bending the plants the make them grow bushier and keep them low.

Yes LST is very easy and very advisable in small spaces, especially for beginners. Without it you may grow into your lights since you don't know what to expect from your strain yet.

 

[Roseman]

I had one get so tall, it just LST'd itself ! LOL

 

[RedGoblin]

Does LST lessen yield or bud quality? Also, do you just drill holes into the rim of the pot to tie the string to or what?

 

[laserbrn]

LST increases yield and doesn't affect quality. It does generally mean that you don't get GIANT cola's on your plants, but each plant certainly yeilds more as more budsites are exposed to the light.

Some poeple tie to bricks and put the bricks next to the pots, but I just drill my pots/trays and tie using the edges.