Should i top or rather bend my plants down?

Hey guys

I fucked up and i would like to get some opinions on how to save my grow...
I got 4 plants which i have been vegging way to long under a low wattage (45) led glow panel.
The plants obviously stretched a lot due to the bad lighting and they are now around 25 inches tall,
they also only got very small side branches as you can see on the pictures i uploaded.


I intend to use the LED panel only for the first 2 weeks and then i was going to switch over to 250w hps,
however i couldn't get my hands on the better light in time and now im actually getting 2 x 250w cfl's instead of one 250w hps.

I know that Scrogging is the best growing method when working with cfl's to get the most out the light but since i wasn't planning on getting cfl's i didn't train my plants at all and now they are way to tall to be doing a real scrog.

So now i'm really not sure what i should do with my plants, i think my options are to either top them which i think is probably not the best idea, or i could get some sort of screen/net, and then bend/tie the plants down, let them grow horizontally under the net and train the side branches to grow trough the net so that i will end up with a bunch of small buds.

I'm going to pick up my cfl's later today and im hoping that the side branches will start to grow bigger once the plants are getting better light.

If i should end up tying my plants down i should probably veg them for a couple of weeks longer before i switch to 12/12 since the side branches are so tiny right?

I would really appreciate if someone could help me a little with my questions.

Thank you in advance.

First off, the tallest one needs a transplant BAD. Don't top them. Just poke some holes along the edge of your new pot and use some garden tape ( green, stretchy) and LST the crap out of it.

hmm.. A few options. They look healthy at least.

You could:

• start over with new seeds.
  
• Cut them back to the third node and begin topping
• Put 4 of them under a net and bend one in each direction N S E W
• Tie them down and hope for the best.

Maybe the solution is to pot up to 3 gallon pots. Then cut off the top few nodes, if need be, and LST the main to the side of the pot. When the side shoots rise up then you can top those once and you'll have a fair amount of tops and a nice even canopy. I think this is a good tactic.

It seems like if you planted the seedling close to one side of the new pot then LST to the other side then you would end up with a nice canopy centered in the pot.. The reason I say this is because I just LST'd a tall plant and now it hangs over one side of my pot.

Hey, thanks for the reply`s.

Yes, they are doing ok health wise.
The pots i got them in now are to small yes, i was planing on transplanting them in to 2 gallon pot's in a few days.

I vegged them now for close to 2 month so i guess i rather continue with the plants i already got instead of starting from new seeds.
On my next grow i will have everything set up like it should be from the start.

"""Maybe the solution is to pot up to 3 gallon pots. Then cut off the top few nodes, if need be, and LST the main to the side of the pot. When the side shoots rise up then you can top those once and you'll have a fair amount of tops and a nice even canopy. I think this is a good tactic."""

^Alright, that sound's like a good plan, that's also kind of what i thought would be the best solution,
i just wanted to get a couple of opinions on if for some reason topping could be the better way to go.

What got me wondering if i should top or put them under a net is that they are so stretchy.
Let's say i would top the plants now on the third node, then they would be around 15 inches tall and
i feel like that might be a little to much.

Dreamhack said:

Hey, thanks for the reply`s.

Yes, they are doing ok health wise.
The pots i got them in now are to small yes, i was planing on transplanting them in to 2 gallon pot's in a few days.

I vegged them now for close to 2 month so i guess i rather continue with the plants i already got instead of starting from new seeds.
On my next grow i will have everything set up like it should be from the start.

"""Maybe the solution is to pot up to 3 gallon pots. Then cut off the top few nodes, if need be, and LST the main to the side of the pot. When the side shoots rise up then you can top those once and you'll have a fair amount of tops and a nice even canopy. I think this is a good tactic."""

^Alright, that sound's like a good plan, that's also kind of what i thought would be the best solution,
i just wanted to get a couple of opinions on if for some reason topping could be the better way to go.

What got me wondering if i should top or put them under a net is that they are so stretchy.
Let's say i would top the plants now on the third node, then they would be around 15 inches tall and
i feel like that might be a little to much.

Click to expand...

Yea, you can turn a scraggly plant into a bush. I did it once with an abused clone. It took some time, but it worked out fine.

shit does happen.. tie them bitches down ..

Repot and bend em over.

This might be a retarded idea but I'm probably going to do it with one of my plants that I let grow tall so I thought i might mention it just incase. But I'm pretty much just going to flip my light so its vertical rather than horizontal then put the plant behind a screen and try to train the branches round so that they all face the light, kinda like a sideways scrog I guess. Anyway good luck man!

rnint said:

I'm pretty much just going to flip my light so its vertical rather than horizontal then put the plant behind a screen and try to train the branches round so that they all face the light, kinda like a sideways scrog I guess.

Click to expand...

you know that's a thing already right?
https://www.rollitup.org/f/vertical-growing.126/
@OP best of luck with the grow, with a bit of work they'll recover and you'll doing great.

Topping is for making two shoots where you cut one off. But if you arent going to veg long enough for the regrowth your just removing budsites.
I would poke a few holes around the top of the container and tie her up.
I personally use pipe cleaners cus they are soft and reusable and im a cheap bastard.

Repot and bury to the first set of leaves. Top a couple of nodes off to slow upward growth and bend them over.


This may sound crazy but I would do all I just listed and I would go one step further and break the stem a little ways above the soil. I know that pinching stems is usually reserved for single branches but super cropping the main stalk will dramatically reduce upward growth and allow the shoots to catch up.

Craig1969SS said:

Repot and bend em over.

Click to expand...

Yes, that's what i did kind of.
Just a little different than you (if that's actually your plant on the picture). i ended up bending them down
and putting them under a metal frame.
I just wish my plants had as nice side branches as the one your picture got.
The reason i got such bad and tiny side branches is probably that i vegged under this really bad led thing for so long but i'm not 100% sure if that's the only reason..

Would be nice if anyone could give me some feedback on what i did with my plants.
Should i do anything different or just leave it like it is right now?

How much longer should i veg before i can switch over to 12/12?
Something like 2 weeks maybe?
I mean the side branches are still so fn* weak and tiny as you can see on the picture...
This is the first time i got such bad plants and usually all i do is simple SOG growing.

Thank you all for the replies i got so far!

Both. Top main and bend whole plant a little past horizontal and tie down. Not because of height but based on a suggestion here...I Have done it the last couple of grows and have liked the results.