Too Much Growth For My Space?

[rupert]

how does one judge if one has too much plant growing in one's space? how crowded is too crowded? my plants are growing into each other quite a lot and it's only getting "worse". I guess as long as there's decent air flow it's ok? I have an oscillating fan and five separate air intakes. I bent one plant down with a tie but 6 hrs later it turned the corner and headed back up.

The pic shows 4-gallon trash cans inside of 5-gallon buckets. The cabinet is 4' wide, 2.5' deep, 5.5' tall. I still have a good amount of vertical space to work with but laterally the plants are crowded. Maybe I should have grown in 3-gallon containers. I just started 12/12 light yesterday, 38 days from seed.

The overall mass of the plants has doubled in the last five days.

 

[rupert]

Maybe the foliage production will slow down now that I'm flowering, and they'll stretch a little so that growth becomes a little less dense. That's what I'm reading.

 

[rupert]

After much reading... I'm coming to believe... that I should defoliate a bit.

 

[rillos]

After much reading... I'm coming to believe... that I should defoliate a bit.

From what I see they haven't even started to stretch, I suggest you learn some serious LST and fast.

 

[rupert]

From what I see they haven't even started to stretch, I suggest you learn some serious LST and fast.

Thanks. It seems like a bit of stretching could help lessen the density in the space. Hard to tell from my photo, but these plants range from 10-16 inches tall. The sativa in the foreground just shot up and is now the tallest. The one in the upper left had been the tallest, but I slowed down the height gain a little by bending (hard to see in the photo).

As for more LST, I'm not sure I see a positive way to do it. I had the thought I could tie the foreground plants toward the back of the cabinet, and the ones in back toward the front, in an interlocking pattern. There might be space to do that. Initially the leaves would be flopping all over each other, but they would probably correct in a few hours.

On the other hand, I could just leave everything alone and see what happens. Let the plants figure it out. But this is hydro growing. It's not natural.

 

[Weaselcracker]

Your best bet when it comes to the idea of weaving the branches back and forth, would be to put a screen over it and turn it into a scrog. You can keep weaving the branches back and forth indefinitely, sort of... However, you're limited by the light and the grow space - you might only get the same amount of bud as you would if you just removed half the plants.

 

[rillos]

Your best bet when it comes to the idea of weaving the branches back and forth, would be to put a screen over it and turn it into a scrog. You can keep weaving the branches back and forth indefinitely, sort of... However, you're limited by the light and the grow space - you might only get the same amount of bud as you would if you just removed half the plants.

Weaselcracker is correct. You have way to many plants for your space.

 

[Weaselcracker]

As it says in Rillos' signature, you may have to think outside the box, so to so speak. Got anywhere outside the box to grow three plants? Maybe another box?

 

[go4snypr]

yeah, your running out of space in veg, flower is gonna be worse. 3 plants in there would be plenty.

 

[JBUptown]

I have an almost identical space for Veg, and yes, 2 plants are as much as I can fit in the space when ready to put into Flower Cabinet. Another space to keep half alive while you flower half of your plants? You could keep topping and LSTing the ones kept in Veg to keep them smaller until you can free up your flower space maybe?

 

[rupert]

Thanks everyone. Very helpful. I had a look just now in my cab and there is not enough space for LST. I don't want to build another cab. I just want to get the best quality buds for the current space, and best quantity, in that order. Quality then quantity.

Best solution is probably to contact a local grow club and see if there is anyone with unused cabinet space who wants a free plant or two or three. My guess, though, is that everyone who has a cabinet or tent is probably using it. I have one friend with outdoor space but already gave him three seedlings. And moving plants outside after switching to 12/12 might not be good.

I wish I could just make the plants stop growing stems and leaves and concentrate on their buds. Maybe if I had flowered a week or two ago I would now in effect have a SOG albeit with plants slightly larger than a typical SOG.

 

[rupert]

I had way too many plants. I'm going down to two or even one plant and scrog.