Flowering Plants Too Tall

I have 2 girls that are 3 weeks into flowering and 29" tall. Problem is that I have run out of vertical room--can't raise my 250w HPS any higher. Tried to pull one to the side (sorta LST style) and the top snapped right off. Any recommendations?

maybe top the plants?

v2Lethal said:

maybe top the plants?

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Try "super-cropping". It's an alternative to topping. You find an area between 2 nodes and pinch just hard enough to feel it "crunch" a bit. Do that all around the stem so that the top will not support itself and lays down, but the stem IS STILL INTACT. The top will then grow up towards the light as the stem mends itself. Supposedly, there is a hormone called auxin that tells the plant there is one main top, and this method fools the plant into thinking it has multiple main colas.
Hope this helps.

v2Lethal,
Would you cut the top off a plant that is 3 weeks into flower if there was ANY other way to reduce the height? I'd be looking for ANY option that didn't include cutting off the main cola. That would be a last resort to save what I could.

I made the same miscalculation, and I believe I'll be in dudes position here shortly. I let my girls veg for a bit too long and now I'm gonna have to deal with tops poking up into my reflectors. As I see them, I "pinch, twist, and bend" so that I get a more even canopy.

just an option thats all. better then it all burning

show some pics

thelastpirate said:

Would you cut the top of a plant thats 3 weeks into flower if there was another way to reduce the height? I'd be looking for ANY option that didn't include cutting off the main cola. That would be a last resort to save what I could.

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Tie down the tops so your stem is in a horizontal arc. All the buds and top will reorient themselves towards the light in a matter of hours.
DO NOT TOP !

Carefully over several days you should LST the tops over. cutting now is going to hurt your yield. the plants only have another week or so of vertical growth yet.

Thanks for all the advice. I thought topping would be a bad idea at this stage in the game. I'm leaning toward NoDrama's advice of doing a slow & easy LST. I'll just be more careful with the tension on the plants. On the next batch I'll start the LST early in the veg stage.

GreenGrin said:

Thanks for all the advice. I thought topping would be a bad idea at this stage in the game. I'm leaning toward NoDrama's advice of doing a slow & easy LST. I'll just be more careful with the tension on the plants. On the next batch I'll start the LST early in the veg stage.

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Good idea for next time. No topping now. *Gently* LST now and it will work out.