Best strategy to combat stretch problem in a 4x4 tent

I have started a grow from seeds with a new strain (Jack Herer). The purpose was to find a new motherplant so I vegged them long enough to take a couple of clones from each one. Six of them turned out to be females. The grow space is a 4x4 tent. Lightsystem is cooltubes, 2x600 watt HPS. Today is day 17 days with 12-12.

The plants look great and grows incredible strong. Problem is that the plants are getting bigger than I am used to see on day 17 in flowering. Previous grows in this tent have been no more than 4 plants. Perhaps the plants need to work a little bit more for the light, some of the extra height looks like “stretch”.

My greed says that the plants will stretch no more, that the 10 inches between the cooltubes and the buds will be enough if I tie just tie them down. If I put my greed aside I realize that I have alternatives. I could cut 2 of the plants down, giving extra light to the 4 strongest plants. Or I could cut all of them down, veg 4 or six clones again, just veg for 1-2 weeks and then switch to 12-12.

I am going to make BHO of the complete harvest so it's doesn't matter how the buds looks.

What would you do? Please advise!

super crop or scrog or go with the tie down idea. Greed is good.

once your controls are corrected-air flow/exchange/c02/ temps/rh/lights
then its up to your ability to train plants, and initiate flower earlier, some trees grow bigger than others.
2 600's in a 4 foot tent produces heat. much heat to be managed, a first note with excessive stretching.
I dont have the correct control numbers in front of me but every grow bible lists them.
The "looks" of your bud will affect the quality of your bho.

The biggest factor in stretch is genetics. With a mostly sativa strain like Jack Herer, you're most likely going to get a fair amount of stretch no matter what you do. Environment does play a role, but you will never keep a strain like JH as squat as Romulan or BlueWidow.

When I grew out BlueWidow I had the opposite problem. Expected more stretch and got hardly any. Vegging longer would have increased my yield. You can do research for how much stretch to expect, but it's mostly something you have to develop a feel for by growing the strain out once or twice. Some phenos still may stretch more than others, especially if the seeds are F2's. No-stretch strains are ideal for beginners and micro-growers because no training skill is required. Stretchy sativas I think are better for 1k's or outdoor where you have a lot of useable vertical canopy space.

Don't fall into the belief that bag appeal doesn't matter for BHO. The best looking, densest, healthiest buds make the best BHO.

You're best bet now may be to supercrop your tallest colas. Also consider cutting your lights on time down to 8-9 hours if using 12/12.

I had problems with the temperature during 6-7 days and that’s when the stretching occurred so I think you are right. It was hotter than normal outside, increasing the intake temperature significantly. I finally managed to cool the grow down when the temperature outside dropped again. Now the temperature in the tent is 23 degrees Celsius/73 degrees Fahrenheit and the stretching seems to have stopped.

I have grown several strains before but this is my first Sativa dominant strain. I knew that I could expect some stretch but the magnitude of the stretch took me by surprise. I will take your advice on this one: Supercropping/tie down the plants. Next time, with the clones I will veg for shortest possible time before 12-12. I am planning to buy leds before the summer season begins, perhaps I should buy them as soon as possible for better temperature control.

I didn’t know that there is a correlation between how the buds looks and the quality of BHO. I thought it was mainly about light spectrum, intensity and nutrients. But what you all says makes sense, with optimal grow conditions you never need to harvest crappy buds to begin with.

Thank you everyone for your fast reply. Your experience and advise on this one is much appreciated and it made it easy to decide how to handle this problem.