Long Legged Ladies

[Yamumzbum]

For some reason by the end of flower I always end up with a good 500mm of shaved legs under the canopy and I often wonder if I'm just wasting valuable time and should possibly be flipping them earlier.
I'm a little concerned this may come at a cost to yield.
I don't run superdooper powerful lights (marsfc650s) so I rarely get flower sites popping up on the legs so I sometimes look at these long naked legs n think what a waste.
On the other hand I guess with height and size comes strength to support big phat buds, right?

Do you fellas end up with long shaved legs under your canopy?


(The top pic is of the typical long legged lady I end up with and the ones below are of my current much shorter ones with hairy hippy lady legs)

 

[Porky]

Looks like most of the strains you have grown have been stretchers!! If your getting nice thick buds light amount should be adequate. How many watt per square foot do you have?
I've grown a a few plants that look just like the one on the pic but only cause I've stripped em!
You don't have to lollipop em ya can just leave em!

 

[Yamumzbum]

Yeah maybe you're right about them just being stretchy.
I grow them nice n big thinking it'll improve my yield but then it quickly becomes apparent that my lights won't penetrate down that far anyway so I strip the legs while thinking about how much time I've wasted on these long legs that won't get any bud anyway.

Does that make sense?

It makes me wonder if I should be flipping while the plants are shorter.. because the branches will fill up the same as if they were half a metre taller right?
Seems kinda straight forward or am I missing something?

 

[Yamumzbum]

I'm not really sure about the watts per square foot. I always was shithouse at maths haha

I can tell you I have two fc650s( I think the true output is 730w) in a 5x9.

One day I'll upgrade to some real flash ones which penetrate like a porn star

 

[Porky]

Yeah maybe you're right about them just being stretchy.
I grow them nice n big thinking it'll improve my yield but then it quickly becomes apparent that my lights won't penetrate down that far anyway so I strip the legs while thinking about how much time I've wasted on these long legs that won't get any bud anyway.

Does that make sense?

It makes me wonder if I should be flipping while the plants are shorter.. because the branches will fill up the same as if they were half a metre taller right?
Seems kinda straight forward or am I missing something?

Personally and I know others won't agree but I think the root system has most to do with bud size. I've seen and grown bigger plants with smaller buds and also small plants with big thick buds!
Also I think with breeding moving more from Europe to North America plant and bud size and structure has changed from bigger and longer to smaller golf ball buds all over the place.
Only thing you can really do is flip when they shorter and compare yields and time!

 

[Porky]

I'm not really sure about the watts per square foot. I always was shithouse at maths haha

I can tell you I have two fc650s( I think the true output is 730w) in a 5x9.

One day I'll upgrade to some real flash ones which penetrate like a porn star

5x9=45sqf
730w ÷ 45sqf = 16.22 w psf
Most people aim for about 30w per square foot so you are down on the average.
Mine is 23.4w psf
People like @R3za92 are running well in excess of 30w psf think he might be almost double!
So that is something that you could look into mate!

 

[Yamumzbum]

Thanks mate I didn't realise this.
It's a bit rich of these manufacturers claiming these are commercial grade when quite obviously they are not.

I always knew they were on the more budget side but when you explained it like you did they sound kinda shithouse.

So the lights in the 2000 plus bracket is where it's at yeh?

 

[Porky]

Thanks mate I didn't realise this.
It's a bit rich of these manufacturers claiming these are commercial grade when quite obviously they are not.

I always knew they were on the more budget side but when you explained it like you did they sound kinda shithouse.

So the lights in the 2000 plus bracket is where it's at yeh?

Yeah mate pretty much!!

 

[HGO]

For some reason by the end of flower I always end up with a good 500mm of shaved legs under the canopy and I often wonder if I'm just wasting valuable time and should possibly be flipping them earlier.
I'm a little concerned this may come at a cost to yield.
I don't run superdooper powerful lights (marsfc650s) so I rarely get flower sites popping up on the legs so I sometimes look at these long naked legs n think what a waste.
On the other hand I guess with height and size comes strength to support big phat buds, right?

Do you fellas end up with long shaved legs under your canopy?


(The top pic is of the typical long legged lady I end up with and the ones below are of my current much shorter ones with hairy hippy lady legs)

View attachment 29055View attachment 29056View attachment 29057

you need to train them more so that the canopy of flowers is more uniform in shape like a Scrog .
that way all of the main colas should be recieving maximum light exposure and you should get better yields because of it.
everything growing below the canopy can be removed to allow for all energy to be put into the main buds

 

[Pikey]

Do you adjust the height of the light throughout the grow or just set and forget? The reason I ask is, I would have thought 2 of those lights would have provided ample penetration.

 

[thefullspectrum]

5x9=45sqf
730w ÷ 45sqf = 16.22 w psf
Most people aim for about 30w per square foot so you are down on the average.
Mine is 23.4w psf
People like @R3za92 are running well in excess of 30w psf think he might be almost double!
So that is something that you could look into mate!

I think he said he runs 2 lights so a bit over 32w psf

 

[Sticky67]

@Yamumzbum HGO is on the money, training your plants will give you an even canopy and you can use the stretch to your advantage..

 

[Yamumzbum]

Yeah I do adjust the light height.
Perhaps I'll try some more aggressive defoliation prior to flip to see if I can't get more bud sites happening.

I'm not necessarily disappointed with my yields or outcomes but I do most of the time whether it be through just cleaning up around the bottoms of the plants or getting rid of the branches I know won't get much production, after the stretch is done I will end up with a substantial amount of naked legs which seems like a terrible waste but perhaps there's no other way to reach the size I want without having having to sacrifice a bit of empty growth in the legs..

 

[Yamumzbum]

So say for example my plants are roughly 1.5 metres in height prior to flip, would you expect current LEDs to have the power to penetrate through the sufficiently cleared canopy right down to bottoms or close enough for there to be bud sites appearing?

I use an app on my phone to give a very approximate level of ppfd and it significantly drops off 3 or more feet below the fixture so does this suggest there just isn't enough grunt in my mars lights to penetrate that far down?

 

[Yamumzbum]

I guess an easier way to ask that is how much penetration can one expect from a current LED?

Will they fill a canopy with flower sites from top to bottom of a 500mm deep canopy or 1000mm? More?

I know there are heaps of varients but for argument sake let's say it's a perfectly manicured level canopy, how thick of a canopy can one expect to fill before there just isn't enough light to form flower sites?

 

[Porky]

I guess an easier way to ask that is how much penetration can one expect from a current LED?

Will they fill a canopy with flower sites from top to bottom of a 500mm deep canopy or 1000mm? More?

I know there are heaps of varients but for argument sake let's say it's a perfectly manicured level canopy, how thick of a canopy can one expect to fill before there just isn't enough light to form flower sites?

Well fuck all because the top will catch all the direct light. Just like standing under a tree on a sunny day!
It's all shade under any leaf!

 

[Yamumzbum]

Well fuck all because the top will catch all the direct light. Just like standing under a tree on a sunny day!
It's all shade under any leaf!

If there's fuck all then we'd all only get growth on the top and everything under would die

 

[Yamumzbum]

Light obviously filters through and depending on the power of the light source determines how much umm.. ppfd, I dunno, light reaches the areas below.

So I suppose a higher spec light with more oopmh will penetrate light further.. you get where I'm going with this lol that's my uneducated scientific explanation

 

[Sedge]

The LEDs have multiple light source and will shine down into the plants at multiple angles ,,where a single HPS can’t do that.

selective defol helps heaps.

As said ,training will help,,and less stretchy plants just need the pots sitting on something that is raised like bricks or empty pots so that the top canopy is pretty much level.

 

[Old fox]

Using LED in flowering, I strip everything underneath 45cms from cola tops. I just couldn't be bothered with the really small fluffy popcorn stuff at harvest/trimming time.