stretched out buds

[EuroToker]

I just finished a run where i had the vast majority of my lamps covering 16 clones each in 7.5 litre grow bags probably filled with closer to 6-7 litres.
and 2 lamps had 9 x 10 litre pots.

The 10 litre pots ended up pretty decent. colas fatter than redbull cans at 6 weeks (but not fatter than my penis) but had all the plants been in 10 litres, I would have yielded decently I think.

the 7.5 litre plants gave me a lot of stretched out nodes, like really lanky stems with just tiny buds at each node and LOTS of leaf.


My question obviously is how I avoid this for my next run.
Possible issues that occured during this run were

- cold weather, near 0 degree air being blown into the rooms
- because of the smaller pots doing shitty, Im wondering if this is a symptom of rootbound, the plants finished around 3 feet high.
- The bulbs have been used before for about 2-5 months on 12 hour cycles.



Any ideas on which was the most likely culprit? rootbound seems like the most likely candidate, but I have no idea what the symptoms of that are and the roots didn't seem super dense compared to the larger pots.

 

[Mr. Stinky]

what are the lamps?

possible thoughts:
wrong kind of lights
not enuf light
not close enuf
using lots and lots of nitrogen fert the whole grow
having light leaks in flower

 

[EuroToker]

600w lamps, about 30-50cm from the plants. the bulbs were pretty new, like I said though, few runs, but I've defiantly seen guys using older bulbs. Bulb age is in the back of my mind though.
But again the 18 that were in 10 L pots ended up at the ideal mass so it would be a coincidence if they somehow ended up under 2 really good bulbs

no light leaks.

 

[MynameStitch]

Mr stinky put it very well in terms of what could be causing the problem. Also if you use a pot/grow bag that is taller than it is wider; this will cause your plants to grow taller rather than normal size height and width wise.
Your bulb's age has some to do with it too, the older they are the less lumens they produce and the area of where the light casts down will shrink.

 

[EuroToker]

yeah, i know age effects lumens.

I had 14x600w running and only got 2500g

normally I toss bulbs every 6 months, so I don't think my bulbs are old enough to be the issue.

could cold air and rootbound cause the problem?, it wasn't stretching in a weak lanky sort of way, stems were thick, just buds ended up tiny and shitloads of thick leaves

 

[MynameStitch]

Yes, rootbound will cause stretchness, the pot size has something to do with it, like if it's too small or if the pot is taller than it is wider, this will cause the plants to grow taller.......

Cold air and rootbound slows growth down a lot, but it all depends on how cool you are talking about.... anything under 70 is going to be slowing the plant down a bit, the colder it is the slower the plants metabolism will be.

Sounds like your leaves were blocking bud sites then, you can either move those leaves out of the way or get some side lighting... or you could clip them.