New Grower With a Question About Stretch

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ScorpionACP

Active Member
Hi all, just joined the forum and I'm a little less than a week into my first grow. I have 4 seedlings, and when I started them I think I had the lights (two 21" 15 watt fluorescent grow lights) too high. All four of my plants are working on their third set of leaves now (the next after the embryonics and first "spearhead" leaves), but three of them are about 4 inches tall (stretched). I looked around at pics of other seedlings, and I'm pretty concerned about stretching being a problem. The stems are about 4" tall, and only have leaves at the top. Now, I have the lights set about an inch and a half from the plants. Will this stretching cause a problem for my plants? I've included a couple pics (sorry about the crappy quality...camera phone) Also, just as a side note, I've removed the aluminum foil to replace with mylar after reading about spot burns. Anyway, any help or input would be more than appreciated.
 

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MasterNuggets

Well-Known Member
holy fuck those are streched :shock::shock::shock:

i would move the lights closer to the plant or the plant closer to the lights immidiantly, thats first step.

second step is that i would put a fan on them enough so theys shaking but not enough so that they start to bend over.

another thing you can do to support the lenky stems well the fan blows on them is take some wire for example and give it a nice support, this will allow you to turn the fan on higher without the risk of them bending/snapping.

you can move some dirt up on the step if it's becoming a real issue, my plants streched the first week and between A. better lights (and closer too), moving dirt up on the step so there was less room for the plants to wobble, and supporting them with sodering wire (Dosn't get hot from the lights) they are now healthy.

You'll notice after you fix your problem that your plants will have a nice healthy growth spurt to since it wont be putting so much energy into stem production. GL brotha :weed:
 
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Alpine farmer

New Member
ScorpionACP said:
Hi all, just joined the forum and I'm a little less than a week into my first grow. I have 4 seedlings, and when I started them I think I had the lights (two 21" 15 watt fluorescent grow lights) too high. All four of my plants are working on their third set of leaves now (the next after the embryonics and first "spearhead" leaves), but three of them are about 4 inches tall (stretched). I looked around at pics of other seedlings, and I'm pretty concerned about stretching being a problem. The stems are about 4" tall, and only have leaves at the top. Now, I have the lights set about an inch and a half from the plants. Will this stretching cause a problem for my plants? I've included a couple pics (sorry about the crappy quality...camera phone) Also, just as a side note, I've removed the aluminum foil to replace with mylar after reading about spot burns. Anyway, any help or input would be more than appreciated.
Click to expand...
you can also transplant them into a bigger pot and just bury the stem in the ground so the plant is shorter
 
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ScorpionACP

Active Member
Thanks alot, guys, that was fast. I'll move them closer to the light, got a fan to move some air around, too...strangely enough, I have one plant out of my four that didn't stretch at all and looks normal. I just hope the one good looking one's a female...
 
Dester206

Dester206

Active Member
JUst because they are stretched a little does not mean the plant is not going to be okay or turn out fine. It may be a tall and skinny rather than short and fat which most people want but it will be fine.
As people are sayign though keep the lights close and maybe add a side light.
I have a plant that started like that it is now 16 inches high and has 10 sets of nodes. I dont think that is too bad. Is it?
 
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neo777

Active Member
yep, I have my seedlings almost touching the light because I start them off with cool whites and there not hot at all, most of the time they will grow right into the lights, and with a little fan no burn ever occurs. good luck
 
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