Bend your young plant's stem back and forth to force it to be very thick and strong.
Photo contributor Memy Selfandi
Spindly stems can not support heavy flowering growth. An internal oscillating fan will reduce your humidity on the leave's stomata and improve the stem strength as well.
The importance of your internal air circulation can not be stressed enough. It will exercise your plants and make them grow stronger, while reducing many hazards that could ruin your crop.
I ALWAYS had that issue as a young teen, I had limited space to work with. Canāt really build a grow in your parents place without someone finding out. All is needed is a small fan. I like PC fans. You can grab em on line or at any radio shack for around $10. They run off of DC12 volt power supply and usually under one amp. So look around the house for those old phone chargers you probably saved over the years. Now on the plug it will tell you the volts and the amps. Keep the volts under the amount posted on the fan. You can get away going over a little but can reduce the fans life. I donāt recommend it. Doubt your going to have an old cell charger with an higher out put of DC12 volts.
Now the amps, (this is where I got confused and did allot of research) on you fan is more than likely going to be under 1 amp. Something like 0.083 (label will say 0.083A). So make sure youāre power supply has higher amp then the fan. At first I thought it was the other way around like the volts. ITāS NOT! The Amps on the plug must be higher than the Amps on the fan. If not the plug will run hot, and could be dangerous.
Now most PC fans have just one Red, one Black. Splice the wires of both fan, and plug. Make sure to give yourself the most wire you can to work with. (I leave some on the adapters just in case I may needed them later) Plug the adapter in, (DONāT SHOCK YOURSELF. It wonāt kill ya, but it wonāt feel good.) Touch the exposed wire to the fan till you see your fan spin. Tap em together. If nothing happens, flip em. It will. Secure with electric tape, solder first if you can.
Now some PC fans have a White wire along with the Red, and Black. The White wire is for the thermal heat sensor thatās used to detect when your PC tower is over heating, triggering the fan to speed up. With those you will see two hard exposed wires at the middle of the fan meeting green sensor. Thatās the heat sensor. In order for the fan to run at full speed you have to bypass the sensor. You can cut the sensor off and bend the two wires till they touch. Or just strip some wire and wrap it around the exposed wire connected to the sensor. Do Not splice you plug to the White sensor wire. I did and I fried my fan. Hopefully this will help. Sorry so long. Donāt want you to make the same mistakes I did.
Dollar stores have little cheap fans you can use. Most take batteries.
Fans are great and will help with indoor seedlings.
But the simplest way to strengthen spindly stems is to transplant the seedlings into a slightly larger container in order to bury the stem all the way up to the cotyledons. The stem will be thick and strong as the plant continues to maturity!
Of course this has worked for me with soil and soil-less grows.
Woah you bury them that far?
Yes indeed.
I do the same thing with tomatoe plants.
The buried part of the stem produces roots.
The stem remains stout and strong for the remainder of the plants life.
This pertains to tomatoes, but works as well for cannabis:
I always have but used fans most. Getting them moving also I believe helps with internal circulation. Iām not sure that true. Just a theory.
Agree with above fans are important, the circulation helps in heat regulations as well but most definitely straightens the stems
Note for safety clean and lubricate them regularly Iāve seen them just stop and heat up in front of my eyes at least once every 3 months
Funny u say that I just had 2 fans crap out this week after about 6 months of useā¦none stop with no servicing should have oiled when I started hearing noise lol, but I guess it depends on the brand cuz Iāve got 5 other fans been going for almost 2. Yrs straight and they were outside last summer for a month straight in the weather!! Fans are a must have for many reasons not only do they strengthen stocks n branches but like someone said they keep your leaves cool n dry to max uptake out they keep air moving to avoid molds n mildew and help force air into your pots to feed the roots more
Be careful with oiling fans. Some are not meant to be oiled and can result in fires. Not saying all will but liquid + electricity = short circuiting and sparks/fire. Hopefully it would trip arc fault breaker or gfci outlet upon first detection.
Even if theyāre seedlings, start with small doses of silicaā¦
Never used this before but heard good things
Yes fans will strengthen stems.
I too use a bio silicon or a kelp based product this will also visibly strengthen the branch nodes where they meet the stems
Definitely depends on the fan a good cleaning from time to time canāt hurt some fans the clip on plastic fans get dirty , and fill with a dust or something can clog things up
Iāve run the online game for 2 or 3 years no issues but I keep a spare
Just to chime in with what has been working for me, I use a fan from day one I also begin feedings from the day they open using some form of synthetic silicate along with quarter strength nutes. Then as my seedlings begin to think theyāre getting all tall and lanky I transplant into 16 oz cups, burying the stem almost to the neck of the cotyledons, creating more of a root zone. By the time they stretch out of this phase they get topped, thus slowing upward growth and concentrating on lower shoot development. Now I have a short four top seedling with a FAT stem a week or two away from phlipš!
I dunno if this has been mentioned or not, but what I do is put the light closer to the cotyledons and if they continue to stretch, when I plant them I usually just bury a majority of the stem. Itāll produce roots anyways so it helps me adjust to the size of the plant I want.
I was just revisiting this old thread, and because I am somewhat obsessive,
I wanted to mention that even if the long, floppy, spindly stems are neglected,
they will eventually straighten themselves out and become strong enough to support
a plant laden with ponderous, sticky, stinky buds.
So what I mean to say is that even if you do nothing, and allow your plants to flop over as they may, provided they receive sufficient light, they will all eventually straighten out and fly right.
No worries.
It is only because I am an obsessive control freak that I am compelled to attempt to optimize the stems
potential.
Topping after the 1st or second node will force stem thickening early.
IIRCC in the thread ā homemade potions and elixirs ā thereās a tip I put in from a well know gardening book I believe it was to increase calcium levels in your soil ā¦ it almost like something out of a Jadam book .
Nice to see you at overgrow tony! Ive been following your work since i got away from the hyped up ābreedersā and started focusing on true breeders who put love and passion into there breeding programs. Plan on grabbing some of your gear on my next glg purchase along with some of your callabo with antenna. Sorry, dont mean to sound like a fan boy!
