what i usually do with my plants when theyre bigger is i tap on the stems every now and then for a bit. it seems to work. i tested it with my tomatoe plants, my tapped tomatoe is standing nice and tall and 4 others are laying down. on my first grow i had no problem with weak stems because i was always tapping at them. one of my plants actually developed quite a fat stem lol. but also im not sure if too much tapping in early stages might cause a plant to go male? could it? idk i doubt it, but maybe ask around before hand ( i dont want to all of a sudden turn your plants male lol) im a newb though too, just finishing my first grow here, and have 7 sprouts just starting out for my second try. only got half an ounce of each plant my first time. kinda sucked lol. but hey the smoke is great and im happy as can be.