Planning ahead for the flip and have some questions

My plants are getting bushier by the day, now a month old.

They are:

1x Super Lemon Haze fem - biggest of the lot about 8" tall and bushy as heck, as wide as the 15 litre pot its in, with four tops
1x another Super Lemon Haze fem - responded very badly to topping over a week ago. Probably going to be culled.
1x Blueberry fem - about 3/4 the size of the SLH
1x Bubba Kush fem (there is a possibility this might be blueberry too due to a label mixup when seedlings :S) - same size as the blueberry

Alongside them are two autos, but this post does not concern them.

I am growing in a 2m high x 1.2m square tent. Vegging under 400W mh, but I have a 600W HPS for flowering.

The plants are around 7" tall currently. Would it make sense to allow them to grow to 14" before flipping, aiming for a 30-40" plant at harvest?

Is there a risk of the super lemon haze growing too big if I allow it to get to 14"?

Should I bring the 600W HPS in *before* the flip, say a week or so beforehand? Would this help induce flowering, and would it also help boost the girls to grow that bit quicker?

I am taking a stab in the dark that for them to double in size from their current 7" would probably take about a week or two more.

Finally, I have accidentally cut one of my main stems while being cack-handed with the scalpel when taking clones. I have tried to "bandage" it a little with some string. Anything else I can do to help it heal?

start the big light now, More light = More bud !!! grow to 18" with veg nutes then 12/12 for the flowering with flowering nutes, 99% of strains double in size once flowering starts

oilmaker68 said:

start the big light now, More light = More bud !!! grow to 18" with veg nutes then 12/12 for the flowering with flowering nutes, 99% of strains double in size once flowering starts

Click to expand...

Is 600W of HPS definitely better than 400W of MH for vegging plants? I thought the MH had the correct spectrum for aggressive veg growth and HPS the correct spectrum for flowering.

Any advice about the string-bandaged shoot? It's one of the main stems so I'd like to save it!

tape the shoot it should be fine. SSH is sativa dom i believe right? Be prepared for it to possibly triple in height. You can always try lst or supercropping it before you flip the lights. To further reduce stretching, you could continue to use the mh with the hps for the first week or two.

Oh and it could take a few weeks for them to get to 14" but they will probably have nice tight nodes

Hey flash..i would leave under the metal halide till the stretch is over in 12/12 it will stop your plants from streching giving you tighter node spacing ..they are still vegging till they start to set flowers .then change to hps...veg to 18 inches.........scarecrow77

Cheers. Can't run both MH and HPS at same time due to only having one ballast. I will stick with MH til stretch over, that makes sense, as it won't want the red spectrum til buds are there.

I think 18" may be a tad too tall for the SLH which may well triple in size, 55" would be pushing the limits of what I can fit in my tent!

If I leave the tied-up branch a few days should it heal, or should I tape it up as a more permanent fix?

More permanant fix defo..if you flower at a foot you should be around the 40inches at finish..you have a good yeilding strain for sure .potent stuff..scarecrow77

What size pots you using..

I was just looking over your tread..hps does not trigger flowering.any source of light will trigger them its the light hours they get.hps has better spectrum for flowering and nearly double the lumens of metal halide that's why growers use them ...but metal halide is the nearest thing to natural day light that's why growers try to put a mix of both hps-m/h..hope this helps..scarecrow77

Thanks scarecrow77.

I can go a little higher than 40", just not much They are in 15 litre pots.

I read somewhere before your responses yesterday that leaves photosynthesise best under blue light and buds best under red, because of this there is little point introducing the HPS until there are flowers there to soak it up.

As such, I am taking the advice given above and switching a couple of weeks or so into flower when the first buds are showing.

I will repair the broken branch with some electrical tape later. If that fails the duct tape is coming out, and if that fails I will damn well pull the branch off!

FlashBabylon said:

Thanks scarecrow77.

I can go a little higher than 40", just not much They are in 15 litre pots.

I read somewhere before your responses yesterday that leaves photosynthesise best under blue light and buds best under red, because of this there is little point introducing the HPS until there are flowers there to soak it up.

As such, I am taking the advice given above and switching a couple of weeks or so into flower when the first buds are showing.

I will repair the broken branch with some electrical tape later. If that fails the duct tape is coming out, and if that fails I will damn well pull the branch off!

Click to expand...

hey flash..using 15 liter pots you should be good to veg to 16 inches..did you think of topping it for 2 main colas instead of 1.....or tie down the main stem to the height of the lower branches ..when they start to grow up past the main bent stem release it and flower you will have a big yield for sure..any questions hit me up no probs..scarecrow77

Yeah I topped it twice got four main colas