Plants have less stretch last two batches?

[yamaha_1fan]

Everything has stayed the same. Same strain, all from the same moma, same nutes, same formula, same environment.

Most of my plants were 4-5" when put into 12/12 and they were hitting 36"

This was the same table in question, last batch.



The really tall ones on the right are NL but you can see the restof them are well above the support net.

My current batch is day 40, end of stretch and I didnt even put up the net because the plants are barely at the net level.

I searched and found a thread where the poster had a possible nitrogen def and it was blamed on that. But everything has been the same for several grows and I am baffled. I recently added CO2 but these were done stretching before I added the CO2.

The only possibility I can think of is the bulbs. They are old, have put out many harvests, and need to be replaced. But would they have such a drastic effect on stretch? Next trip to the store, I am going to get some bulbs


I use GH nutes and use a bloom formula from the start of 12/12. Heavy on the bloom, light on the grow so maybe not enough nitrogen.


This next batch, I am going to use the Lucas formula, everyone seems to be so happy with it.

 

[johnipedestran]

you have your answer.

you said it yourself. same nutes, same temps.

inputs are food, air, water and light. Your food, air and water were the same.

gotta be the bulbs.

peace
jip

 

[Sojourner]

Yep, it's gotta be the bulbs.

I can attest to that, after 4 or 5 grows on the same bulb I notice the growth definitely slows down, that's usually how I go about when it's time to replace.

 

[Haps]

yep, bulbs it is, seen it before. Now I go two blooms, then new bulbs, pays big time.
H

 

[yamaha_1fan]

you think this will have a serious effect on buds? They dont look like they are filling out as fast either?

I found out I can get wholesale deals on stuff but it will take a little lead time. I am debating with the holidays, on just buying bulbs for this table locally. I'll get ass raped, no doubt, but if I loose 20% on the crop, that will be a much bigger raping.

 

[dontstepongrass]

switch bulbs and make sure to wear gloves! (keep those body oils off!)

 

[Blunted22]

yam i see your going sog so i dont know if its the same but size of plant and container size(room for stretch with roots) now if your got rw im not sure but if your going pots and switch them earlier when the roots had more room to grow during the stretch the stretch will be significantly more and in your case would be the opposite... if you had good roto structure and flipped them late the roots wont be able to grow as much during stretch and will not stretch as much....


but as they said if you got new bulbs they might just be recieving enough light and not stretch... ? lol


and for the N def part... def true but you would see yellowing and a significant yield decrease as i got a plant right now that didnt get enough N during the stretch and is half the size of her sister because of it -=[ sad but i dont see and yellowing so i would blame it on that in your case....

 

[whodi]

interesting.. never knew older bulbs could prevent stretch... doesn't make sense to me but whatever. You'd think since the plants arent getting enough light from the old bulbs.. it'd try to stretch more since it's trying to seek more light. I could understand if the buds weren't as fat though.

You don't seem to have a nitrogen deficiency, but i'm wondering if you're going too much on the bloom at first.. aka phospholoading your plants.. that can cause plant's to not strecth as much. That's perfectly fine in the mid -later stages of flowering, but not at first if you want a good stretch.


Personally, i'd switch to the lucas formula next batch and drop that bloom formula that you're using at first... maybe add a lil bit of kool bloom starting around the 4th or 5th week of flower if anything.

Those NL's on the right look good though. Are they all NL?

 

[Blunted22]

i switch bulbs every three grows... buyt according to haps its 2 i might try and see if there a change...

 

[inefectualize]

are you sure the temps are the same? especially at night? i would be surprised if your night temps have not decreased in the winter. Night time temp drops have a significant effect on shortening internode length

 

[inefectualize]

my plants are always shorter in the winter

 

[yamaha_1fan]

I thought it might be temps as well. lights off temps would probably be the same as I use an A/C and always tried to maintain cool night time temps. However lights on temps were probably cooler (due to winter time temps and room just being colder) up until I added the CO2 recently (this last btach was 3-4 weeks in when CO2 was added).

I did get some nnew bulbs for one table, and will switch out the rest of the room in a week or so when I can get better pricing on bulbs. For now, I just picked up some for this one table. I know they wont stretch anymore but with 3 weeks left till harvest, they should have time to pack on weight.

I dont know if PH would play a big role in this either but PH may be out of whack due to whacky meter. I ordered a new meter so hopefully that will work. I am on my 3rd PH meter and not very confident in its readings. I feel like I have to calibrate every 4 days.

I also read a little about the phospoloading on another thread. Thats one of the reasons I am going to use a veg formula to start with for the first two weeks. then go flower and maybe use some Koolbloom. I got plenty of powder and liquid KB, I just stopped using it to get some baseline results and dial things in before using it.

Pots and roots. I do use 5.5 pots but have been using them for some time. The plants in that pic are in pots and were basically transplanted to 12/12 at the same time this new batch was.


The lack of stretch doesnt seem to have affected things too much. I did lollipop expecting more stretch but I should still have some decent colas.


Thanks for all the advise. I am ready to put some new plants in and I think I am going to wait on the new bulbs before I transplant, or at least until I know they are on there way

I'll try to snap a pic later of the new mini-me batch when I change bulbs right before lights on

 

[yamaha_1fan]

heres the same table as pictured above, with the new crop. If you look at the wood posts I use for the net, that should give you a reference for size.

I dont think its the lights. I replaced the bulbs, and it turns out they were all newer bulbs. All 3 were hortilux bulbs, and they were engraved whn purchased, June or July of 08. And that doesnt mean thats when I put them in.


I have the CHHC set to keep the room at 82 during lights on. In summer I know the oom got warmer even w/o the CO2. I wonder if I should allow it to get warmer like 86-88?

I also raised lights off temps from 70-75 but I am not thrilled with that. I need to lower temps so the reses can cool back down. I may have to go back to 70.

I am going to try something different with the nutes on this next batch

 

[K.J]

The only possibility I can think of is the bulbs. They are old, have put out many harvests, and need to be replaced. But would they have such a drastic effect on stretch? Next trip to the store, I am going to get some bulbs

This was my first thought.

 

[_Dude]

Hey Y1F, how the hell are ya? Just so you know 2 parts Maxigro and 1 part Maxibloom is a way to get Lucas Formula from dry nutes from what I read (Cannastats mix calculator). I'm a noob though so you may want to double-check first. I've been feeding it to my girls for at least a month now and they love it, drastic reduction in yellowing leaves and big improvement in greenness compared to just using per directions (no mixing the two) like I was.

 

[CannaDestroyer]

yamaha i have observed this with just about every seed plant that was continuously cloned. something to do with the plant maturing they just don't stretch nearly as much after a few runs. good luck with grow man ill be watching.