Are my plants TOO compact???

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Dada

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First, just a bit of background: I have grown before, but usually guerilla grows -- just starting some seedlings and then distributing them outside in pretty rugged areas. I'd go back in the fall and pick whatever females the deer didn't eat. I also did a couple of soil grows in a shed with a translucent sheeting roof, sorta like a greenhouse. In neither case did I really worry about things like LST, topping, and so on.

Well, after reading this forum for a few months, I decided to build a cab and try a DWC grow. So far, things are going OK, except my plants are all VERY compact. I am growing a Northern Lights X Big Bud and a couple of White Widows -- all Nirvana seeds from the Doc. These plants are 28 days from germination and are in rockwool under the hydroton. I am using GH three-part nutes and had a minor problem with nute burn that I took care of pretty quickly; you'll probably see a few burnt tips in the pictures. However, like I said, that's resolved, so I'm no longer concerned about that.

What I am concerned about is that my plants are incredibly compact. I mean, they have branches going off everywhere, but the nodes are very close together. I know that that's desirable, but I also wanted to experiment with LST and topping -- things I never had an opportunity to do with my previous grows. However, these plants are so squat that there really is no way to pull them over.

I grew these for the first three weeks under a ton of CFLs. I had like 8 27 watt bright daylight CFLs and 4 42 watt softer CFLs. For the past week I have also turned on my 400 watt HPS along with the CFLs. Now, in just the past couple of days I have taken all but three of the blue spectrum CFLs out of the cab.

My question is this: does it look like I overdid things and made my plants too compact? The NLxBB is about 6 1/2" from the top of the hydroton to the top of the plant. The biggest WW is a little over 5" and the smaller one is just about 1/2" shorter.

I'm not in any hurry to flower these and I know I have a good couple of weeks left to veg. However, I'm curious about the picture of the NLxBB with one of the secondary stems (the very last pic). Is that an alternating node? This isn't on the main stem, so I'm not sure that counts. None of the plants has yet shown any preflowers so I don't know if they are males or females. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, though.

What do you think? Here are some pics:
 
in the last pic', nodes are alternate.
Nice, compact plants. Like OC said, once you induce flowering, they will stretch and spread considerably. Best o' luck.
 
Thanks, Guys. I knew they would get taller when they go into flower. I just keep waiting for them to get taller in veg. I mean, when I wrote last night, the tallest one was only like 6 1/2". But the two biggest ones got 1/2" taller in a bit less than 24 hours, so I am stoked! I was envisioning a NLxBB only 18" tall at the end! Of course, I figure these still have at least two more weeks to go, so maybe they will grow another 2 or 3 inches. Who knows -- maybe I'll even let them veg for a while after all of them have alternating nodes or preflowers. I've got a 7' tall cab -- might as well take advantage of it.

Now I'm just hoping two of them turn out to be female.
 

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