How to Stop Plants from Growing Tall (Indoors and Outdoors)
A big issue some growers have with marijuana plants is how tall they get. If you are new to growing weed, you probably don’t realize just how tall some of these plants really get or how to keep them from getting that high. I know this because I was in the same situation when I first started growing. You can’t just cut the plant down or you might not get any buds. So, what do you do?
How to stop marijuana plants from growing too tall? There are proven techniques to stop plants from growing too tall, such as ‘fimming’, topping and keeping the lights at the right height. Low stress training is another method used to keep a weed plant from getting too tall. Selecting Indica versus Sativa strains for naturally shorter plants is a good option as well.
Fimming, topping, low stress training what does it all mean? Well, it means I have some trusted and true methods to help reduce the height of weed plants. That’s what this article is about, helping you figure out what method you can use to shorten the height of your plants, regardless of whether they’re grown indoors or out. Let’s begin!
Why Stop a Weed Plant from Growing Tall?
Before we talk about how to stop your weed plants from growing too tall, let’s touch quickly on why you would want to do this.
- Privacy is important, even when it is legal to grow marijuana where you live. Because you are growing a narcotic, there will always be someone that will want to steal it from you. It’s the same if you brew beer or make wine. You don’t leave those things out in the open where anyone could just take them, because (undoubtedly) someone would!
- You want to grow big buds, not big plants. The end-result of a successful marijuana grow is to have big, thick buds to cure. If your plant is able to grow anyway it wants, you are probably hurting the yield when the plant is done. Ensuring the plant itself excluding the buds is as short as possible will allow you to have those big buds.
- If you are using a grow tent, you will have limited height that the plants can reach, before they grow up and beyond the height of your hanging lights.
Now, onto the main subject of this article.
How to Stop Weed Plants from Growing Tall
Sometimes it’s as simple as cutting back on the amount of water or fertilizer you provide the plants. Some growers will recommend this. I do not recommend this and here is why. If you cut back on the amount of water and fertilizer, you should be providing you are stunting the growth of a beautiful plant. Your marijuana plant will not produce buds as big as it could have, leaving you with a sub-par yield. Why not keep watering and fertilizing and look for other ways to fix this problem? If you are with me, then let’s look at those ways right now.
My Favorite Way to Stop a Plant from Growing too Tall is to Perform Low Stress Training
Low stress training is performed on the plant when it first starts to grow. At a high level, LST is basically bending your plant over once it gets to about 6” tall and tying it over so it stays. As it grows, keep bending it over and directing it around the base of the pot. You will need a way to tie it down gently without digging into the plant.
- Remember this is called low stress training because you are applying minimal pressure as to not snap the stalk or stems. If your pot is big enough, you could lay down up to 2’ of plant which means your plant will be 2’ shorter in height. By doing this, you will now promote even more kolas or bud sites starting up compared to if you had left it to grow vertically right from the start.
Topping is an Excellent Way to Stop Your Plants from Getting Too Tall.
This method is very similar to the fimming method below and is the method that someone was trying to perform, which they botched and named it fimming. Anyways, here is how you can top your plant to help keep the height lower.
- Once your plant is a good 12” to 18” tall and/or has at least 3 branch levels (nodes), locate the very top center growth shoot of the plant/growth. Cut that center growth shoot off leaving a few centimeters or a quarter inch of stalk above the highest branch line.
- This way, there is a location for new growth to start at that point where it will now branch off into at least a couple of stalks instead of just the once that was there previously. The important thing with this method is to cut all the growth shoot off, just leaving a bit of that stalk. I really hope that made sense.
Fimming is Another Way to Keep Plants Shorter (FIMM is short for “F**ck I missed”)
I don’t recall where this started but essentially the story is that whoever discovered this method thought they had made a huge mistake, so that’s why they called it this. Here’s how to do it.
- Following the methods for topping, instead of cutting the new growth shoot off, just go about halfway down the shoot and cut it there. This method causes less stress on your plants and they will recover quicker than topping. What fimming will do is force more growth in the lower nodes. It’s that simple.
Keeping the Lights Closer to the Plants
This will stop them from stretching and getting too tall. Yes, it’s true if the plants are not getting enough light, they will stretch to reach whatever light there is. Let’s look at how close the lights should be.
- LED grow lights can be kept very close to weed plants, as they do not throw off much if any heat and will not typically cause light burn. Try placing the LED lights approximately 12” above the plants to start and watch how the leaves react. If they start to curl and droop, then raise the light a few inches.
- If the leaves look healthy and are growing at a fast rate, you could try lowering them to as close as 6” from the top of the plant. The leaves of the plant will tell you if they like it or not.
- If you are using HPS or other lighting, try setting the lights at approximately 24” from the top of the plants. Most other lights will generate heat and will more easily cause light burn. Always watch the reaction of the leaves to see if they like the light or not.
Grow Indica Instead of Sativa
If you don’t know now, you will. Most 100% pure Indica strains are shorter broader plants than Sativa strains. There are so many different hybrids now that if you really wanted the effects of a Sativa plant for a high, you could most likely find seeds that have some Indica and some Sativa that would suit your needs. You might have to order them online, but I would be very surprised if you couldn’t find an Indica hybrid that didn’t suit your needs.
Now I am going to answer some questions I found online to make sure we cover this topic as fully as possible. Let’s get to it!
Why is My Plant Growing Tall and Skinny?
When this happens, it is called stretching. The weed plant is stretching up to get more light. It is a common occurrence with new growers as they do not realize how close the lights really need to be.
The best way to avoid this from happening is to have the lights within 2’ of your seedlings and as they grow, lower them, if you have LED. Or, leave them around 2’ away if using HPS or other lights that generate heat.
My Plants are Too Tall in Vegetative Growth Stage (What to Do?)
Depending on how far into the vegetative stage you are, it might be too late to do anything. If you are in the first couple of weeks you could top or fim the plants. Sometimes you need to take what you have experienced with growing weed as a lesson and make sure you plan ahead for the next grow.
When Do Plants Stop Stretching in Flower?
The short answer is somewhere in the fourth to fifth week of flowering your buds should stop growing in height (stretching) and start thickening.
The first couple of weeks into flowering you won’t notice much happening then suddenly, the buds shoot up and the plants grow considerably. After a couple weeks of this, they usually come to almost a complete stop in height. Some plants will still creep up in height a bit, which is fine if it is bud growth. How tall should the plants be before flowering?
This will depend on what strain you are growing and where you are growing. One important thing to know about marijuana plants is they will double (or more) in size between the veg stage and the flowering stage. So, that is something to consider, especially if you are growing indoors and in a tent.
I like to let my plants grow a good solid base first so they can support the entire weight of the buds that will hopefully be growing shortly afterwards.
Here are a few things I recommend you try.
- Once you know what weed plants you are growing, you can research how tall they typically get. Divide that by 2 and that is the tallest you want them to be when switching the lights over for flowering. I would even start before the plants hit that halfway mark.
- Wait until the plant has at least 4 node sites before switching over the lighting. Node sites are the locations on the plant where branches grow.
- For Indica plants, switch the light over to flower when they are approximately 12” to 18” tall.
- For Sativa plants, switch the lighting over to flower when they are 18” to 24”.
How to Stop Plants from Growing Tall Outdoors
Sometimes, growing outdoors can elicit some unwanted attention when growing weed. One way to keep that unwanted attention away is to do what you can to keep your weed plants a bit shorter.
Following any of the suggestions provided previously in this article will help you achieve those results. Depending on where outdoors you trying to grow your weed, you can build structures that go higher than your plants and that way you can let the plants grow naturally. Just an idea.
How Tall Does a Sativa Plant Grow?
This is an excellent question, especially if you are new to the hobby. If you have ever seen a picture of someone standing beside a monster-sized marijuana plant, you can pretty much bet that it is a Sativa plant.
Sativa’s can grow 10’ and higher. They are naturally huge plants. So, you can see why it might be a bit challenging for someone to grow Sativa indoors and in a grow tent. Not all get to 10’ or higher naturally, but I feel that 6’ is probably an average height for these plants.
How Tall Does an Indica Plant Grow?
Indica’s are much better suited for growing indoors than a Sativa. Depending on what variety you grow, you can expect the Indica plant to be anywhere between 3’ and 6’ high. Indica’s are ideal for growing in grow tents.
Conclusion
I have provided you with some very good methods of keeping your weed plants from growing too tall. With the information provided in this article and some experimenting on your part, you should be able to keep things under control now.
Good luck!
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