Why is stretching bad? What does tighter nodes achieve?

Just wanted hear peoples opinions on stretching, and why/if its bad. Surely if the plant stretches this gives potential for the main cola to be bigger?? I have 10 plants (autoflowers) from seed going atm.. always used cuttings before so they've been uniform.. but the short squat plants look like they won't yield as much as the ones that stretched will.. they are a few weeks into flower.

So why do we try to get the tightest nodes possible??

In Veg, you want the shortest plant with the most nodes as possible.... Each node = bud site.... the more nodes the more buds....
Your plant is going to stretch if your roots are good...
So.... Do you want a 5 node four footer, or an 20 node four footer?
Nodes = Bud Sites.... You want to grow bud right?

Ok, but wouldn't 5 nodes with 2 inches between them have the potential to grow a bigger cola than 5 nodes with an inch between them??

This is my first grow in about 6 years.. I can remember tight nodes is good but watching these plants grow I really can't see why.. as the buds start to form and get thicker I'll be able to tell better for definite.

When your plant starts to stretch, with 1/2 " between nodes, your bud sites grow together, for a long cola....
When you have 2" between nodes, and your plant stretches in Bud, it will have 4" between buds and the gap doesn't always close...
More nodes = more bud..... one more time, say this:

MORE NODES = MORE BUD....

Ok ok I understand the more bud sites there are the more bud that will grow.. like I said this is the first time I've not used cuttings.. but these plants have pretty much the same number of nodes but some have stretched and are nearly twice the height of the smallest. I'm sure these will produce more bud..

Maybe stretching isn't the right word.. as they are taller with the same number of nodes just more space between them.. just seems to me that this 'stretching' is a good thing..

I see what you're sayin king, but in most cases ppl want 1 big bud on their colas...with stretch there's a gap creating pop corn buds...I don't see what the dif is myself, I guess it's all on what "you" think is best...It is true that you would seem to get more light to those that are stretched, therfore getting bigger buds all the way around, but for me I try to keep them short and bushy....although I have a strain of Blue Rhino that wants to stretch no matter what I do...all I know is the smoke is just as good stretched as it is tight...lol...I'm a noob and have never contimplated this question...let me get high and think on it for awhile...I may just come up with some believable excuse for it...lmao...

A stretched plant due to poor lighting is a weaker plant as it's main stalk will not be as thick as one that was grown under the proper lighting. If all the plants were grown under the same conditions, the smaller plants are probably just runts, and they will not produce as much bud of course. It sounds to me that you simply have some good plants and some not so good ones. There is difference between a plant stretching due to inadequate light vs one that has accelerated growth due to it's entering its bloom phase. Tighter node spacing equals a healthier plant, which will give you better bud of course.

good discussion guys. I wonder sometimes if there is such a thing as too tight of an intermodal spacing- at least for outdoors. Inside it makes sense to keep things super compact, and with a small plant it's not to difficult to thin out the schwap in the middle/bottom of the plant. But when that plant is outside, and you get a crazy amount of branching, it's trickier to keep up with the limbing and it also seems (to me) that I end up having to take off more fan leaves than I would like because plants like this tend to get in their own way.

Plant devotes more energy to finding light via stem production instead of new nodes or sets of leaves to grow bud...end up with less bud that's airy..airy bud isn't liked by most people..

Quite honestly, IMO, what matters most is your trichome production. Tall plants, short plants, tight buds, airy buds, Republicans, Democrats, it's all the same. What matters is your trichome production because that is where the THC lies. Ask anyone who makes hash whether they care about the actual plant material or whether they care more about the trichomes. They will tell you it doesn't matter either way, you either have loaded trichs or you don't. A rockhard, gorgeous bud without proper trich production is just another pretty girl with no substance.