Plant is stretching way too much

N

niv141

Member
I buy this Critical strain (weed, not seeds) quite often from my dealer. This one time I bought a bag and found a couple bagseeds inside the buds. They also looked a bit "dirtier" and somewhat not as pretty is it usually, but I guessed that was because it might have hermied on the dealer or accidentally pollinated by a male plant in his grow room.

Well I popped one seed, it is 40 days old (still vegging) and it grew amazing, nearly double the amount of nodes at the same period of time compared to my previous plant (different strain).
I also went on to check diaries of people growing this strain to see if they experience the same thing to conclude if I actually have a Critical strain, and yes, all diaries had amazing growth rates very similar to mine.

In my previous plant, the fan leaves spacing was literally 0. In each node, the left fan leaf grew at the exact same point the right fan leaf was growing from on the stem.
On my Critical bagseed, the height difference between left/right fan leaves on each node is very concerning.

I'm a noob grower and this is my second grow. I have no idea why this is happening, Critical is an indica hybrid and also known to be short and compact. I'm using the same lights I used from my previous grow (CREE cxb3950)
Canopy was getting 30k lux, which I think is a lot for vegging. Well it kept on stretching, I tried fighting it with switching from 20/4 to 24/0, but it didn't help much.

About a week and a half later, the canopy raised so much that it is now getting 45k-50k lux (!!!!) and I still can't notice any difference in stretch.
Usually I would raise the light cause I think this is way too much lux for vegging, but for now I think I will let it be because I'm afraid this will cause further stretching.

What could be causing this? My day/night temps are nearly the same, around 75F.

The only guess got left would be that my dealer lied to me and this is not actually a Critical strain.

here is the grow diary if u wanna see what I mean by fast growth, maybe I'm wrong and my first plant was actually growing extremely slow.
https://growdiaries.com/diaries/30600-critical-quot-sapir-quot-bagseed
 
There's plenty of ways to train in veg to control this. But if they're getting out of control on you in veg, you're likely in for a ride when you flip to flower. Read up on topping and supercroping, and lst. And keeping your night temps similar to day temps will reduce stretch in flower. Get them trained now. And count on a 2-3x stretch in flower. Another way to control unruly plants is to cut it in half height wise, topping it across the entire canopy.
 
macsnax said:
There's plenty of ways to train in veg to control this. But if they're getting out of control on you in veg, you're likely in for a ride when you flip to flower. Read up on topping and supercroping, and lst. And keeping your night temps similar to day temps will reduce stretch in flower. Get them trained now. And count on a 2-3x stretch in flower. Another way to control unruly plants is to cut it in half height wise, topping it across the entire canopy.
Click to expand...
Sorry I forgot to mention. Plabt was topped at 6th node, LST'd about 4 times (Bent, cola went up, bent, cola went up and so on) and also today I supercropped for to make the canopy completely even.
I have 10 main colas all at the same height.
 
niv141 said:
Sorry I forgot to mention. Plabt was topped at 6th node, LST'd about 4 times (Bent, cola went up, bent, cola went up and so on) and also today I supercropped for to make the canopy completely even.
I have 10 main colas all at the same height.
Click to expand...
So do you have the head space for it to stretch during flower?
 
macsnax said:
So do you have the head space for it to stretch during flower?
Click to expand...
Yeah I do. I was gonna flip her when she was 30 days old, but then I had a problem with flower room, so I had to keep her in veg for another 2 weeks.

I never wouldve thought she would grow THIS match taller in these 2 weeks.
This is the first tie in dealing with a stretchy plant.

My previous plabt was vegged for 8-9 weeks and been flowering for another 9 weeks (one week to go) and its pretty much the same height as my 40 days old critical plant lol
 
niv141 said:
Yeah I do. I was gonna flip her when she was 30 days old, but then I had a problem with flower room, so I had to keep her in veg for another 2 weeks.

I never wouldve thought she would grow THIS match taller in these 2 weeks.
This is the first tie in dealing with a stretchy plant.

My previous plabt was vegged for 8-9 weeks and been flowering for another 9 weeks (one week to go) and its pretty much the same height as my 40 days old critical plant lol
Click to expand...
Ok, so if you have the head space, what exactly are you worried about? I'm just trying help ya, but I was thinking you're worried about it getting too tall.
 
macsnax said:
Ok, so if you have the head space, what exactly are you worried about? I'm just trying help ya, but I was thinking you're worried about it getting too tall.
Click to expand...
From what I read when the plant is compact you get large dense buds, when its stretched the buds are spread along the stem so only the top 3rd is probably gonna get the best light, as opposed to when its not stretched, than its like one big bud along atleast half the stem.

Atleast that was my experience with my first grow
 
niv141 said:
From what I read when the plant is compact you get large dense buds, when its stretched the buds are spread along the stem so only the top 3rd is probably gonna get the best light, as opposed to when its not stretched, than its like one big bud along atleast half the stem.

Atleast that was my experience with my first grow
Click to expand...
You do need to keep in mind that when growing from seed there's going to be variation. You can expect to see plants leaning towards the mother, the father, and a mix of both parents. So if we take your critical, a quick google tells me it's 40% sativa and 60% Indica. This is a hybrid that will most definitly show some sativa leaning plants in an F1 generation. Here I would think you have an s1. There shouldn't be much variation from the mother, but there will be some. And you don't know for sure if maybe another strain pollinated it, to make seeds. Which would lead to more variation from what you expect to see.
 
Last edited:
niv141 said:
I buy this Critical strain (weed, not seeds) quite often from my dealer. This one time I bought a bag and found a couple bagseeds inside the buds. They also looked a bit "dirtier" and somewhat not as pretty is it usually, but I guessed that was because it might have hermied on the dealer or accidentally pollinated by a male plant in his grow room.

Well I popped one seed, it is 40 days old (still vegging) and it grew amazing, nearly double the amount of nodes at the same period of time compared to my previous plant (different strain).
I also went on to check diaries of people growing this strain to see if they experience the same thing to conclude if I actually have a Critical strain, and yes, all diaries had amazing growth rates very similar to mine.

In my previous plant, the fan leaves spacing was literally 0. In each node, the left fan leaf grew at the exact same point the right fan leaf was growing from on the stem.
On my Critical bagseed, the height difference between left/right fan leaves on each node is very concerning.

I'm a noob grower and this is my second grow. I have no idea why this is happening, Critical is an indica hybrid and also known to be short and compact. I'm using the same lights I used from my previous grow (CREE cxb3950)
Canopy was getting 30k lux, which I think is a lot for vegging. Well it kept on stretching, I tried fighting it with switching from 20/4 to 24/0, but it didn't help much.

About a week and a half later, the canopy raised so much that it is now getting 45k-50k lux (!!!!) and I still can't notice any difference in stretch.
Usually I would raise the light cause I think this is way too much lux for vegging, but for now I think I will let it be because I'm afraid this will cause further stretching.

What could be causing this? My day/night temps are nearly the same, around 75F.

The only guess got left would be that my dealer lied to me and this is not actually a Critical strain.

here is the grow diary if u wanna see what I mean by fast growth, maybe I'm wrong and my first plant was actually growing extremely slow.
https://growdiaries.com/diaries/30600-critical-quot-sapir-quot-bagseed
Click to expand...
Bag seeds are nout but trouble mate bin them and buy good seeds
 
You said it was a hybred. More than likely that means it is an F1 cross, which was never stabilized. This is what "breeders" do. Cross two strains once and sell it as a new strain. The trouble is that such will be unstable, meaning the traits in its genes can pop up in an seed, which are called different pheno types.

IE: one seed from your plant might grow out to be indica dominant... short and a good yielder... while another seed from that same plant might grow out to be sativa dominant... all stretchy and fussy and shit.

So maybe you got a seed that was just an odd pheno type of the same strain.

In the end, when you buy seeds these days you dont know what the youre going to get... because of asshole "pollen chuckers" crossing the fuck out of everything they got and not doing the usual 8 generations of stabilizing the new cross so you get something consistent out of it.

DNA, Humbolt, Bodhi and all the big names are doing this and they are fuckin amateurs.
 
Gquebed said:
You said it was a hybred. More than likely that means it is an F1 cross, which was never stabilized. This is what "breeders" do. Cross two strains once and sell it as a new strain. The trouble is that such will be unstable, meaning the traits in its genes can pop up in an seed, which are called different pheno types.

IE: one seed from your plant might grow out to be indica dominant... short and a good yielder... while another seed from that same plant might grow out to be sativa dominant... all stretchy and fussy and shit.

So maybe you got a seed that was just an odd pheno type of the same strain.

In the end, when you buy seeds these days you dont know what the youre going to get... because of asshole "pollen chuckers" crossing the fuck out of everything they got and not doing the usual 8 generations of stabilizing the new cross so you get something consistent out of it.

DNA, Humbolt, Bodhi and all the big names are doing this and they are fuckin amateurs.
Click to expand...
Stick with genuine breeders. I can’t recommend Mr. Nice enough. Buy their strains and grow successfully.
 
hotrodharley said:
Stick with genuine breeders. I can’t recommend Mr. Nice enough. Buy their strains and grow successfully.
Click to expand...
Mr Nice?
Checked it out. Appear to be all f1 crosses. But i admit i didnt read all their strains.

Worse still is that they claim to have bred Northern Lights #5, which is not true. I know the guy that did. He is still alive and well in southern BC. He gifted some seeds to a coffee shop in the 80s. Now everybody there lays claim to having bred it.
 
Gquebed said:
Mr Nice?
Checked it out. Appear to be all f1 crosses. But i admit i didnt read all their strains.

Worse still is that they claim to have bred Northern Lights #5, which is not true. I know the guy that did. He is still alive and well in southern BC. He gifted some seeds to a coffee shop in the 80s. Now everybody there lays claim to having bred it.
Click to expand...
Do some reading about Mister Nice and save the opinion until then. Do you have much experience growing?
 
Northern Lights was not bred in BC. You’re definitely wrong there. Too many Cannabis Cup awards with a Dutchman breeding it. Like most strains! At least most parent strains. Much less restrictive in Europe including Spain.
 
hotrodharley said:
Northern Lights was not bred in BC. You’re definitely wrong there. Too many Cannabis Cup awards with a Dutchman breeding it. Like most strains! At least most parent strains. Much less restrictive in Europe including Spain.
Click to expand...

Sorry man, but youre wrong on the NL. I know the guy and he has documented the development of all his strains, including NL #1 to #9. Seen the pics and the hand written notes myself. NL #1 goes back to the early 70s.
In fact, almost every indoor strain in north America has NL in its genes. It was the very first strain grown indoors and has been used in breeding to make other strains grow indoors.
Indoor growing started in southern BC in the late 60s when draft dodgers went to hide there. Due to the short growing season... this NL guy and his pals experimented for years trying to make indoor growing work.
He is in his 70s now and still going hard.
 
hotrodharley said:
Northern Lights was not bred in BC. You’re definitely wrong there. Too many Cannabis Cup awards with a Dutchman breeding it. Like most strains! At least most parent strains. Much less restrictive in Europe including Spain.
Click to expand...

Here is an article about NL. It isnt entirely accurate but close enough. The "islands near seattle" that the article quotes are a series of islands between washington and BC. But the island that NL was bred on was a one of the canadian islands. The Indian was a draft dodger who has lived illegally in souther BC ever since.

https://www.zamnesia.com/blog-the-o...s-and-the-top-3-northern-lights-strains-n1555
 
Gquebed said:
Here is an article about NL. It isnt entirely accurate but close enough. The "islands near seattle" that the article quotes are a series of islands between washington and BC. But the island that NL was bred on was a one of the canadian islands. The Indian was a draft dodger who has lived illegally in souther BC ever since.

https://www.zamnesia.com/blog-the-o...s-and-the-top-3-northern-lights-strains-n1555
Click to expand...
That’s folklore. “The Indian”? What else did The Indian breed? Still calling BS. The blog itself points out Neville and Holland.
 
hotrodharley said:
That’s folklore. “The Indian”? What else did The Indian breed? Still calling BS. The blog itself points out Neville and Holland.
Click to expand...
The article does point out Neville and Holland. It points out very clearly that they were gifted NL seeds. But not directly from the Indian.

Believe what you want. Facts are facts and there is no shortage of people around southern BC to verify them, never mind the pictures and journals that document it all. Just because the writer of that article didnt take the time to travel and do in person interviews doesnt make it "folklore." It just makes the writer lazy. Nevertheless, he got it mostly right.

He also developed the original Skunk and Romulan.
 
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