Experience with plants close to LED

[MaineGreenery]

I hope this is in the right place but if it isn't my apologies.

I have three girls going at about 4 weeks into flower. Due to poor planning on my part I misjudged the stretch I would get and the tallest buds are now probably 6 inches from the light. The plants were all topped so each has about 4 to 6 mini colas at that level. I have two of these lights, VIPARSPECTRA PAR600 600W 12-band LED Grow Light, and have grown with them before but never with such a tight clearance on the height.

My question is if anyone has had any success with plants growing this close to the lights. I understand the manufacturer advises 18" and most people echo that however I am guessing I am not the first to be in this position and am looking for other's experience with this. I have considered super cropping the tall colas and also upgrading the tent but have never super cropped and so am hesitant to damage the plants and my wife will probably not be psyched with a larger tent.

Can anyone share?

Thanks!!!

 

[Chris Scorpio]

I hope this is in the right place but if it isn't my apologies.

I have three girls going at about 4 weeks into flower. Due to poor planning on my part I misjudged the stretch I would get and the tallest buds are now probably 6 inches from the light. The plants were all topped so each has about 4 to 6 mini colas at that level. I have two of these lights, VIPARSPECTRA PAR600 600W 12-band LED Grow Light, and have grown with them before but never with such a tight clearance on the height.

My question is if anyone has had any success with plants growing this close to the lights. I understand the manufacturer advises 18" and most people echo that however I am guessing I am not the first to be in this position and am looking for other's experience with this. I have considered super cropping the tall colas and also upgrading the tent but have never super cropped and so am hesitant to damage the plants and my wife will probably not be psyched with a larger tent.

Can anyone share?

Thanks!!!

It's easy to super crop them

To close is a bad thing, burn, stress

I have s similar issue with my HPS lights, I just super crop two tall branches today, I did 2 others a week ago and they are doing fantastic, I actually bent one down more today ..lol

Google if yer not sure what it is , but they will bounce back in a day

 

[MaineGreenery]

Yeah I think I will super crop and I know there is a ton of info out there and I will consult it but I am curious about your method. When you do it to do also secure the bent shoots down to prevent them from straightening back up or just leave them?

 

[Dwight Monk]

I would think 4 weeks into flower it is too late to do any "training", as they are probably halfway thru Flowering stage depending on if Indica or Sativa dominate. But I could be wrong and it is possible to do, just from what I have read it is best done in Veg stage.

 

[bebecillo]

LED wont burn or stress plans unless they're touching the diode. Don't crop or do anything else since it's too late, just make sure they wont touch the LED

 

[BudBoy2]

LED wont burn or stress plans unless they're touching the diode. Don't crop or do anything else since it's too late, just make sure they wont touch the LED

I'm also running Cob lights and was wondering the same thing. I'm outa room also with the lights at 18 in from canopy and all the way up as far as height they will go.
I dialed the brightness down a tad but my question is, can I dial them back up. I did have a few leaves look dark at their tips. I know the ph can cause this too. But ph is ok. Just wondering?

 

[bebecillo]

Shouldnt have a problem. I had a plant outgrow the space and touch the ufo led glass. The leaf burned a bit but only a small circle where the led touched it, so it's pretty safe imho

 

[MaineGreenery]

So although my instinct was to leave them alone and see what happens, I decided to take action because I was feeling really anxious about how close they were to the light. I had also neglected to add in my first post that I had added the second light to the tent this week, so I effectively doubled the light on them also.

I tried super cropping on one plant and wish I hadn't. I think the stems are to thick and I'm concerned the bend is going to cause damage. Also once bent the limb went right to 90 degrees which makes sense, but then my issue was it sticking too far out on the side. I taped up the two limbs I tried the super cropping one and attempted to use some plant wire to support them some. I had much better success with the other plant using lst. We will see how it works out but the lst bought me another 5 or six inches in height and I think that will be all I need.

I didn't take great photos before I tackled shortening them but here is one of one of the taller ladies. I know it sounds stupid but the picture doesn't do justice to how close they were to the light

Here are a couple of the plants after being messed with

I'm very comfortable with the height now just keeping my fingers crossed I don't lose either of the two limbs I did try super cropping. I know it's a hardy plant, I'm going to find out. Hopefully this experience will inform others based on what the outcome is.

 

[Chris Scorpio]

The branches will be fine , they will Start reaching up in a day
Ya, direction to bend it helps....lol..I did the same and bent one into the wall, dumbass...lol. so rotated my pot a bit, I wasn't thinking when I bent it, and she should be great today...

 

[MaineGreenery]

So I just wanted to close this out and let everyone know that it seems nothing bad has happened after bending the larger colas on the plants. These are some seriously hardy plants! They are all now probably 8 - 12 inches from the light and seem really happy. Probably have another 3 - 4 weeks till harvest so not completely out of the danger zone yet but I am optimistic it will all work out. To anyone worried about super cropping or training flowering plants all I can say is that this experience leads me to believe you would have to really try to damage a plant. I have one cola that is totally horizontal and another that is bent at a 45 and the leaves, stalk and flowers on these seem fine. In fact it almost seems as if it has benefited the plant and encouraged more blooming although that is highly anecdotal. If I think of it I will take some pics when it is about harvest time to show the final outcome. Thanks All!

 

[AnimaSola]

Supercropping after the stretch is done can cause a herm, when they are well into flower its best to tie them down or lean them over.