brotherjericho
Well-Known Member
I've been doing research on this, and there really is no correlation in deep red and stretch. Far red, certainly. Plants do not absorb much far red, so an excessive amount signals the plant to stretch to compete with other plants for light. The idea is that much of the reds have been absorbed by taller plants, leaving the shaded plant with too much far red, so it puts growth into the stem.
Let me back up on this one, because there is some truth here, but not sure how it applies to the red to deep red ratio, specifically. Plants use blue for leaf development, and red for stem, at least in the vegetative stage. That is why most want more blues in veg, so plants don't go tall and spindly. So yes, making sure you have a good blue level during the first days-weeks of flower should help control stretch to some extent.