One week into stretch

[SirFur]

And I’m looking at some tall ladies. How concerned should I be about my tops at this point?

[Tripl3fastaction]

Yeah, those tall ones have about a 90% probability of growing up through your light bars.
I’d supercrop those suckers, have no fear

[Jango]

You should be concerned, bend the tops over gently to get them level with the canopy, its called “super cropping”

[misterbee]

!!! SS/BW…mister

[JustANobody]

Super crop them ASAP.

[HighTilliDie]

Agree with the others your gonna have issues if those aren’t supercropped ASAP

[ABushOfKush]

Super crop and ditch the ratcheting hangers. Hard mount the light to the top and gain 3 inches.

[RookieBuds]

Those tallest tops will grow past the light by the end of stretch, supercrop ASAP

[splinter7]

flatten out the entire thing. i think it will reward you. you still have a week or 2 or stretch left.

[Star_Dog]

It’s been said above, super crop it.
You’ve got ample time to work at it, on occasions I don’t do much until 2/3rd wk 12-12.

There’s 2 ways I’d go about it.

1. just fold the stems over, that’s the simplest and would be my 1st choice.
2. you can twist the stems back and fourth between your hands at the area you want to bend, lightly to start with and gradually adding more pressure, that softens the stem enough to bend without putting a (harmless) kink in the stem, that also requires tying or it’ll stand back up.

[SirFur]

Ok. Super crop it is. I assume I should add another trellis to help or can I bend it like Beckham and not worry?

[RookieBuds]

Bend the tops & carefully give the stalks a 1/4 to 1/2 twist as you lay them over, also tie them down because they’ll spring back up on ya. I’ve even lasso’d a leaned-over top to a lower part of its own branch.

Bend everything to below the blue line, and tie down the tallest tops, just let mostly everything kinda flop over & heal itself

[Cormoran]

You can be pretty ruthless about training plants if they’re getting too tall. This one we literally tied the tops into a knot, didn’t even skip a beat. As long as they’re healthy and you don’t rip any branches off, everything should recover in under a week. Only reason for another trellis would be to support heavy buds, IMO.

[Star_Dog]

I would put on a 2nd net but for supporting buds later in the grow.

I like @RookieBuds idea of the twisting the stem to ensure it doesn’t stand back up.

[Dirt_Wizard]

@SirFur

I assume I should add another trellis to help

You don’t need one, but if you have one to hand you could certainly bend down the stalks like @RookieBuds diagrammed and then put your last trellis at that blue line or even lower, that will keep those stalks from straightening back up, they’ll just curl their budsites up towards the light under the screen. But I also agree with @Star_Dog when he says just snap them over, I usually just do that now and it works pretty good

[Chasev89]

Hahah grab your boots pall! Looks like my Malawi Gold That Blew the lid off of my tent! I lost like 4 main colas

I had to take the light off the hangars and hang it 1” from the top of the tent with garden wire through the four bracket holes.

[SirFur]

Thanks for the heads up and the additional help. I super cropped and it was a success. Now I have a huge canopy and its thanks to you guys. Now for some controversy. Should I defoliate and when/how much?

[Star_Dog]

A picture would help to see what it’s like?

It really depends on the individual, to me leafs are generating growth so I tend to leaf them lol.

[SirFur]

Post bend pictures v really don’t do it justice but first time super cropping and what a difference. Thanks. I was being a little tongue in cheek on the defoliating. I know it’s a contentious point for some.