Quickly running out of height

Hello everyone, I am 2.5 weeks into flowering my first grow. I have 4 white widows under 600w HPS in a 4x4x6.5 grow tent. My plan was to put these into 12/12 when they hit about 12", but they hit a huge growth spurt in the last week of veg and before I knew it they were averaging about 18" when I put them into 12/12. They have been stretching like crazy since the switch and are now about 3-3.5' tall. It seems like the stretch might be slowing a little but it it to early to say.

So here is my problem, I only have enough headroom to raise my light 6-8 more inches. At the growth rate I am seeing now I will have used that up within a week. So, the way I see it I have two options, start tying down some of the tallest tops now, or wait it out and tie them down until I cant wait any longer (in other words when the light is at its max height and tops are getting to close to light). If I wait I'm thinking maybe there is a chance that stretch will stop and I might end up not need to tie down as many, if any tops. The downside to waiting is I might end up having to tie down somewhat developed tops and I am not sure if that will effect there development. Also, not sure whether the stalks might get to woody by that point to bend easily.

As this is my first grow any thoughts/ideas/comments from experienced growers would be greatly apprciated!

EDIT: Just wanted to mention that I believe I have the tall lanky sativa dom pheno of the origonal WW that Greenhouse sells.

I supose you could tie the tallest plants down without to much relative harm, I had the same problem so i just switched to SCOG.

If you're going to bend them over, I'd say the sooner the better, before the stems start to get hard and breakable.

Is it a pretty safe bet that these will gain more than another 8-10" before they finish? I just measured and the tallest ones are about 38" 18 days into flowering. As I said, stretch does seem to be slowing down but they still seem to be growing fast. Obviously I don't want to do any tying down if I don't need to at this point, but should I just look at it as damage control and do it now before its to late?

I was just looking at my set up and it looks like I could probably get another foot of headroom with my light. The stems are honestly pretty stiff at this point I'd be scared to bend them much. I'm kind of having an oh sh*t moment here, I never expected these to grow vertically like they have.

Sounds like a tie down is necessary (LST). Put a stake in your pot, attach a tie to the steak and then gently bend down the main stem to the point at which you are happy with the height, then tigh off. This is actually a great thing as you will end up with loads of main tops as all your lower brnaches start to take dominance. Try and do the tie down to create an even canopy.

And don't worry if you hear a snap, just make sure that the branch is still attached (so don't be too rough). If it does snap. tie as per the height you wanted it, and make sure the snap is okay (tie some twine or string round the snap if you are really worried about it's stability). This is called supercropping and is an actual technique.

DST said:

Sounds like a tie down is necessary (LST). Put a stake in your pot, attach a tie to the steak and then gently bend down the main stem to the point at which you are happy with the height, then tigh off. This is actually a great thing as you will end up with loads of main tops as all your lower brnaches start to take dominance. Try and do the tie down to create an even canopy.

And don't worry if you hear a snap, just make sure that the branch is still attached (so don't be too rough). If it does snap. tie as per the height you wanted it, and make sure the snap is okay (tie some twine or string round the snap if you are really worried about it's stability). This is called supercropping and is an actual technique.

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Is this something I should do right now, or could I do this in a week or two (would be the 3rd or 4th week of 12/12) to see if the vertical growth is slowing down? I have about 6 nice tops that would need to get bent over, so its not just one or two extra tall ones unfortunately.

the longer u wait the harder the stem gets..i just broke my top off last night doing LST but all it did was create 4 mail colas so it wasnt a total loss..even tho the 1 i had was a beast!

i had the same problem with my first cab grow i would def try to tie them dowm but like dutchmaster said be careful cause i did the same thing and i end up having to move my plants to my brothers house cause by the time i did it it was to late it didnt help much

boom broken!!

How long had your plants been in flowering when that happened?

Or you could super crop them if the stem doesn't bend easily.