The stretch is the burst of vertical growth that follows the switch to a flowering photoperiod. Stems elongate and internodes lengthen as the plant builds the framework for its flowers. Most cultivars roughly double in height; narrow-leaflet, long-flowering types can triple, and compact types may add only 50%.
In practice
Plan for it: flip a plant when it is about half to one-third of the height the space allows below the light. Keep tucking, LST-ing and supercropping through the stretch to hold the canopy level. Large day-night temperature differences increase internode length; a cooler day than night (negative DIF) is sometimes used to reduce it.
Seedling stretch is a different problem: long, weak stems from too little light, not this flowering response.
Don't confuse with
- Stretching (seedling): a symptom of low light in young plants; see stretching.
- Foxtailing: spire-like bud growth late in flower.
The daily length of light versus dark; photoperiod cannabis flowers when nights grow long enough, rather than at a fixed age.The length of stem between two adjacent nodes; short internodes mean compact plants and tight bud stacking, long ones mean stretch.Supercropping is gently crushing a stem's inner tissue between the fingers and bending it over, so the branch lowers, toughens at a knuckle and stays productive.The canopy is the top layer of foliage and buds across a grow, the surface that intercepts most of the light and where yield is mostly made.DIF is day temperature minus night temperature; a larger positive DIF lengthens stems, while zero or negative DIF tends to keep plants shorter.A seedling is a young cannabis plant from emergence of the cotyledons until it has several sets of true leaves, typically the first 2-3 weeks.Foxtailing is the growth of new, elongated calyx spires on top of existing buds; it can be genetic, or a stress response to excess heat or light.The flip is switching a photoperiod plant from long vegetative days to a flowering light schedule, usually around 12 hours of light, to start flowering.Veg time is how long a photoperiod plant is kept in vegetative growth under long days before being flipped to flower, which largely sets its final size.
