~2 months into grow, is stretching still possible?

Hey guys,

I'm a noob, just growing 1 plant now in what I can only describe as a torture chamber up until recently, finally got everything dialed in, temps maintained, correct nutrient and pH levels & the lighting is finally being used efficiently and correctly (to the best of my knowledge).

Anyway, I've been posting a few threads lately, this has been my first grow and I bought all the equipment needed for a 6 plant garden in a 4x4x6'10" tent, and I just recently realized I have a dimmable ballast - I've been running a 1000w MH bulb for flowering and had been using it on 100% - causing lots of heat problems (~20 degree flux from around 70 - 90+ degrees) among other things like light burn & ultra low humidity levels (16%!). Yesterday, I remembered the ballast is able to dim from 100% to 75, to 50, so I adjusted it down to 50% figuring one plant doesn't need any more that 500w, and probably could use a lot less. I now have the room maintaining a 70-80 degree temperature, relative to the 18-6 light cycles.

Now, I'd like to know if it's possible to still allow stretching to happen (even though the nodes are, as you can believe, super tight). Plant is about a foot & pretty bushy, topped it about a week ago and it's flourishing - minus the obvious heat stress that occurred due to what I'm assuming was way too much light on one plant. I just know I need some more height on this plant to really get any sort of good amount of buds to form as well as a few clones to be able to grow on the next more efficient and educated grow I do.

Thanks for all the wisdom, always appreciate the feedback the rollitup community has given me

The stretch doesnt start until you flip the plant to flower.

500w is still more than enough lights for a single plant. It depends on your strain a lot of the time. Like indica often have that characteristic. Indoor growers in general like plants that are short and bushy. Tight node spacing is what many growers are after. And with your light i wouldn't be worry about light penetrating into the inner nodes. Besides They will stretch once you flip to 12/12. sometimes stretching to 2 to 3 times it's vegetative state. But if you want your plant to stretch you can reduce the light hours and raise the lighting.

You can check out my grow currently. I am using much less lights than you and right now at exactly 6 week now it is 9 inches tall and super bushy. I was told it will stretch which i hope it won't stretch too much cause i have limited height. My plant has hella nodes all over. It's like a giant ball of cabbage.
https://www.rollitup.org/t/growth-rate-up-to-standard.930636/

The plant will stretch during the flower phase. So the answer to your question is yes.

It's definitely heavily indica dom, although I have no way to tell what it's genetics are since a friend gave me a handful of seeds to test out growing conditions with. I was speculative that by this amount of time it's been growing it would be at least 2 feet by now, but good to know, glad my woes have been elated.

Thanks guys.

Here's what it looks like now, I'll update next week right before I switch to HPS & start flowering to see if dimming down the ballast helped at all.

How old are they?

[QUOTE="Drew2k, post: 13282919, member: 957063"Here's what it looks like now, I'll update next week right before I switch to HPS & start flowering to see if dimming down the ballast helped at all.[/QUOTE]
Why are you dimming ballast? First off running It dimmed is not good for the bulbs. Secondly I would give it full light. Top it and do some training and you can fill that tent

lio lacidem said:

[QUOTE="Drew2k, post: 13282919, member: 957063"Here's what it looks like now, I'll update next week right before I switch to HPS & start flowering to see if dimming down the ballast helped at all.

Click to expand...

Why are you dimming ballast? First off running It dimmed is not good for the bulbs. Secondly I would give it full light. Top it and do some training and you can fill that tent[/QUOTE]

1000 watts for a single plant that size is a waste of energy and money. Not to mention the heat issue he was having.

lio lacidem said:

[QUOTE="Drew2k, post: 13282919, member: 957063"Here's what it looks like now, I'll update next week right before I switch to HPS & start flowering to see if dimming down the ballast helped at all.

Click to expand...

Why are you dimming ballast? First off running It dimmed is not good for the bulbs. Secondly I would give it full light. Top it and do some training and you can fill that tent[/QUOTE]

First off, want to sincerely thank you for your feedback and input, I value all information from people I can learn from.

I have run this plant through the gauntlet in terms of trying to dial in my environment. I'm having leaf yellowing even with my cool tube 3 feet+ above, whereas with it dimmed to 50% it's sitting comfortably a foot and a half above foilage and no signs of continuing stress have emerged. I can replace the bulb easily, and for all intent & purposes I'm not worried about the end result of this plant - only that there is an actual end result haha.

I've read so much information and misinformation on dimming that my heads going to explode, but I think for the time being, since it appears to be working, I'll keep it dimmed until it proves otherwise inneffective.

I'm terrified of fire so there's no way I'm hooking up a lower wattage bulb. If the settings said "750w" and "500w" I'd be less worried, but the "75%" and "50%" terrify me in that regards. In the same respect as the plant, I can replace a bulb, can't replace the house haha.

Also, in this instance, I will be moving on to a DWC in a 8x4 tent while using two 1000w ballasts - so I will end up replacing both my MH & the HPS bulbs before I start cycling plants through. My 4x4 tent will keep my mothers, clones, etc & will run off a lower wattage bulb like other members have suggested. I really tried to make it so upgrading was affordable as I continue on.

I would though, like to hear why you think I might be having heat problems with the cool tube so far away.

flashx said:

How old are they?

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I'd say about 2 months from germination. Give or take!

I'm using two 240cfm inline duct fans - one to vent in a push-through setup for the lamp, and one hooked up to a controller that extracts air out the top with passive intakes open on the lower sides of the tent. Does that sound like it should be fine?

So far the plant looks like it's enjoying not being burnt.

Nice, looks like you can put 4 plants under that with no problem. Man im so jealous of people who bigger tents and more space to work with. My tent is soo tiny... it's cause my closet is soo small and i need it to be stealth.

Heat Issue dont cause yellowing leaves nutrient issues do. Also @flashx what are you talking about? There are plenty of growers who only put 1-2 plants under a 1000w.

lio lacidem said:

Heat Issue dont cause yellowing leaves nutrient issues do. Also @flashx what are you talking about? There are plenty of growers who only put 1-2 plants under a 1000w.

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These don't look like any nutrient problems I've ever seen or heard about. On my other threads people have said it's light burn mixed with heat stress.

From the science end of things, that I've read on these forums and around the internet, 1000w produces too much light to be used on just one plant efficiently, it's an overkill and the plant will not be able to take in all the light. I use General Organics nutes, and that's about the easiest part of all of this, so nutrients were ruled out.

I've done everything in stages when things are going the opposite way I want, first I research, then I create a thread on the forum, then I adjust and see how it goes.