New Grower Help! Need to slow down growth!

[Bilbo]

Thanks CGS, I've got to admit I've been reluctant to take leaves off but on the flipside I've always known the tent size is going to dictate how I grow. I'm trying to find the middle ground between 90% defoliation and never taking a leaf off.

The 3 autos I've grown have reacted well to taking up to 50% of their leaves off. The first two were in the tent together in a scrog, this one's on it's own but with the LEDs/tent combi I'm using the plants are so squat that if I have left them alone I find a soggy mess of tangled, soggy vegetation below the main canopy, some of it almost on the point of rotting. As soon as I've found anything close to that I take it off as well as whatever fan leaves I feel need removed to let the ventilation through.

I'm not going against 40 years of experience here so I'll make sure to get a good pic next grow of the crap I mean and I'll post it BEFORE I touch it so I can get some advice on how else to deal with it.

Interestingly enough I've noticed on a few other peoples grows that if the LED's are kept at the top of the tent from the start the plants grow much taller as they do with HPS/HID lamps. I'm only new so I'll probably experiment a bit more with light heights but I'm probably going to veg with a sunlight cob reflector this winter to make them stretch more.

 

[GCase]

Good deal Bilbo. My last bunch of plants have been taller than usual. Generally, my plants are leaf heavy and bushy.

My present plants are just 2 to 1 week old. In coco they just bolt. LED this time is down as low as possible. It is a large one that spread the light out over at least 3 x 2 or more. Will see if they stay stouter.

The plants will stretch if the light is kept high.

Yes experiment and have fun. That is the best way to learn and then decide how you want to approach a grow.

Cheers