What makes plants "short and bushy"

[Red-Cricket]

Hey all, My plants are about 4 wks old on their 3rd or 4th set of leaves and starting to branch out. They are only about 3" tall... leaf on leaf... leaves are big and good in color. They are very compact. Im using (10) 4' T-5's 6400 range. Lights are about 4" from plants, on 24 hrs. good PH...good soil...Fox farms nutes..well water......just curious....when will the height come? THANKS all

 

[Dr FrankenKush]

If you're trying to strech your plants raise the light up to about 8" to 10" that will make em reach up. some put on about 50% to 70% when you change them over to bloom...

 

[NormanTBates]

The real height increase comes during the first half of flowering known as the "stretch"

 

[Pot-Head]

Hey there Red
I could be wrong but I think you need to have atleast a couple hours of a dark in a 24 hour period to strengthen the stalk and stems of the plant and also to promote more growth. Maybe someone who knows more than me could shed some light on that. But I think it's because the plants system starts to work backward, taking in oxygen and putting out carbon dioxide, steering the bulk of nutrients away from the extremities of the plant twards the core. Healthy stems meens healthy bud.
Hope I've helped

 

[Toronto420]

I'm sure this is blatantly obvious, and I'm a noob myself, but LST and Scrog techniques seem like key ways to get short and shrubby plants, it'll definitely be part of my first grow, especially with limited space to work with. When is the usual time to start tying plants down and using a screen for instance?

this is probably a good time to ask - what are, if any, the drawbacks to LST and Scrog techniques? Are they used in the vast majority of grows today or just ones with limited space/resources? T.i.a.