Tall plant and Fan Leaf cutting questions

Hey guys, I know I have a height restriction problem so I only vegged these clones for 1 week and then flipped to flower, it's been about 12 days since that flip and these things are going nuts!! I just raised the lamp again since they grew into it since last night when I raised it. The light can not go any higher now. I'm kinda worried.

All the research I did suggested not to cut but at this point.. they are just going to grow sideways/into the light... so what do you guys think I should do? Wait a few more weeks then cut the top? Just don't touch it and let it grow sideways and throw it away at harvest?


Also my second question is about the big leaves. I was reading that it's pretty safe to start trimming away a lot of them during 2-3 week of flowering so I'm getting ready. I marked a few spots on my picture of where I was going to cut, then I realized - why not just trim the whole 3rd bottom of the plant? Right underneath that long red line. Would that be safe? Should I cut off more so more light can shine in? It's a 400w HPS turned down to only 200W. Should I even bother cutting the fan leaves?

Thank you!

You could just roll the stem around hard between your thumb and fingers to soften it up so it can be bent over without breaking the stem open. OK if it splits vertically a bit as long as is doesn't crack across the grain and snap the stem.

It'll grow just like it's been topped and the main cola will still get big if not bigger than if it wasn't bent over. I've done this literally hundreds of times and it works great to control the canopy.

Work the stem up and down a couple of inches between nodes so it wants to easily flop over and just needs a gentle push down to get it lower than horizontal.

Good luck.

Thanks for the tip man.

Went ahead and tried to do the first one.. snapped
second plant I just went ahead and used some garden tie and bent it a little bit downward and just held it there.. gonna check on em later tonight.

You think the plant that I snapped off is going to get fucked? or hopefully just maybe slow down a bit compared to other one?

You got to roll the stem back and forth with lots of pressure so you get a couple inches of it soft before trying to bend it. Even if you have to do part above and below a node. Should be able to feel the stem crush a bit under the pressure. You can even grab the stem with both hands and twist back and forth to soften the stem. All my OG#18 plants have these big knuckles on the stems from doing that to all of them Almost all 5 the exact same height at 45 days since the flip.

If the snapped one still has lots of the fibers connected the top should still grow OK. Most of the training should be done long before you flower tho so keep that in mind for the next grow.

About the trimming of leaves and lower growth. Below that red line is good but if any branches below that line are tall enough to reach up to where they get good light just snip off any tine buds below that line. Don't rip them off the branch but snip them close to the stem so you don't tear the stem ripping them off. Makes a good spot for an infection to start. I like to leave some small growth in case I want to reveg the plant or have a couple small branches to pollinate and make some seeds. I tend to leave more than I should and end up with lots of popcorn buds.

I never defoliate. Only remove leaves when they are totally yellow. The fan leaves if healthy are solar panels for your plant and the sugars made in them circulate from the tops to the roots and feed the whole plant. Buds under those leaves grow just fine but may be a little pale compared to ones in full light. Forget to water your plant to the point of it drying up bad and lots of leaves will fall off so if you've already removed a bunch then ones you want will be lost. The weakest leaves are the ones that get lost when it dries and the good ones stay.

Don't worry about snapping one off. The others will grow a little bigger using the energy not being used by the snapped off one. Same with removing lower growth so the colas get all the juice.

Thanks for the tips. I fucked up and didn't check on them for two days and now they're insanely tall... I tried to bend a few but they grew back up and a few snapped off.. I literally don't know what to do at this point.
I'm thinking it would be best to just let it grow for another week and then chop off all the heads by like 4-6 inches or some shit.. this is just looking like another pointless electricity wasting grow anyway.. if it kills them.. it kills them
but what it looks like right now.. if I don't cut.. it's just gonna be a whole bunch of buds growing sideways/burnt and wasted just like other grows.. ugh height is such a huge problem for me. i only vegged these for 1 week and look how fucking huge they are. lst didnt work and scrog made things even worse..
maybe i should just give up.. ugh now theres some white powder looking stuff on some of the older, lower leaves too..

Short of bending them like I mentioned chopping them off is about your only option. Whatever bud sites are next under the cuts will become the top colas and get pretty big so not all is lost.

I've never seen stretch like that in anything I've grown and I've grown dozens of strains. I generally get about one half extra height in the stretch but I tend to veg for weeks too so maybe that makes a difference.. What kind of light are you using? Sticking to MH until the stretch is over seems to keep stretch down a bit.

yeah ill prob chop in a few days then.. might as well make sure they dont grow any taller damn.. but yeah it's Candy Land strain and I used 400w MH with only 50% power so 200w basically.. and literally 1 week of veg, then hps.

I run my 400s at full power so maybe that's the problem. I know the spectrum goes off if throttled back and sounds like they are reaching for more light. I'm flowering now with a 1000W riding a light rail and the center of the bulb is only about 16" from the tops. Was going to be running out of room myself it they stretched a lot. Got a Purple Kush looks like it's done already at 50 days. Still a lot of clear trichs tho so going to give it a few more.

in the future, i'd look into running indica strains, you don't appear to have the head room for the sativa stretch

true.. maybe ill do 400w MH since that shouldnt be too hot anyways.. the HPS is what gets really hot.
and would it be a good idea to keep the MH in there for like 1-2 weeks after flower switch? i usually just flip to HPS 12/12, change nutes to Transition to Bloom for 1 week, then normal flower nutes all the way till the last 2 weeks of water only.

and yea... I asked for the best plant suitable for a small grow area, they recommended the candy land. but the thing is the clones were kinda large to begin with... I knew I should have asked for some smaller ones, but the roots looked so good!
I believe it should be ok, it's GDP and another cookie strain, so it should be indica.. but I think the real issue is using 400w mh at only 50% which probably just made them stretch for light, as oldmeduser stated. i really tried to keep the hood as close to the plants when vegging too.
nearly every day or other day i was raising the hood by maybe 1/2 or 1in just to allow a bit more room for growth, but man they caught up so quick!