What is the key to full, bushy plants?

[bcbud_chick]

I am a new grower and I was wondering how to get my plants more bushy, with bigger leaves. As an example bigbudsbruddah's young plants look very nice.

On the other hand, my plants are kinda pathetic.

Is it mostly about the lighting or fertilizer? Or is it just the strain?

 

[That crazy vancouver guy]

offhand... I'd say that his pics are of an indica strain, and yours is of a sativa domminant strain... there are a couple of other factors as well, but the biggest diff is strain related.

 

[Pot Belly]

Your plant is not pathetic. It is beautiful. You do not have a nute diff, as your non-flowering plant is nice and green. That looks like a clone as I see some low alternating nodes? She may need more time to veg.

Your problem is probably light, or the lack of it. Your plant looks like a tiny version of my mother plant. I keep her under about 2500 lumens per square ft. What are your lights? Grow area size?

Also strain is key too. Those plants of BBB are fat indicas. Yours has some sativa in it.

 

[bigbudsbruddah]

Strain has alot to do with it, mostly if it is a sativa or indica. A sativa will explode on ya during flower mine tripled thier size. As for my indica it at the most doubled its size during flower. You also need to try and keep your lights as close as you can without burning them. Doing that will help you the nodes tight on the plant which mean it will strech less.

What kind of lighting do you plan on using? I use 4 4' fluros to veg if you don't have much money to spend on veg lighting i would go with cfls they will do you better than my fluros will. I am not sure on the type you ned to get but someone can help you with that.

For ferts i use Fox Farms Grow Big during my veg cycle i will start adding it in 1/4 doses after the first week from sprout. Then slowly work your way up to full feedings.


Cya

 

[bcbud_chick]

Thanks for the responses. That is a clone. I was growing it and another one, as well as a mother, under 2 x 40 watt cool white u-bent fluoros to save space (I am not sure on the lumens) but since I figured the stunted growth was probably due to the lack of sufficient lighting I moved them, and three other newly planted clones, under two 4 foot double fluorescent lights (4 x 34 watt bulbs, 2650 lumens each) a couple days ago. I have bought cfl's as well (6 x 27 watt daylight bulbs, 1660 lumens each) but I haven't set them up yet. The combination of the 4' fluoros and the cfl's should more than cover the ammount of watts and lumens that I need for my grow space. I just bought myself a 400 watt HPS as well, and a lot of people have said that I could use that for veg but I am a little hesitant to try.

 

[Pot Belly]

OK - sounds like you have the idea. Lumens are getting there if this is for this plant only. Another factor is temperature. Your plant looks like vegging at mid to high 60 degrees F? Cooler temps have kept some of my vegging mothers leaves size at bay.

Also mothers that are bonsai'd also tend to grow smaller leaves - everything somehow goes to smaller scale.

Your plant is beautiful and has a great color, and is not really stretching. I would bet that it's growing in a cool place temperature wise. At about 75 to 80 deg F, growth really gets aggressive with good light and nutes on any plant.

EDIT*** OOps - didn't see that 400 watter HPS you wrote about. Now your talking, but it's a different beast with ventilation and heat issues. This is the place to get it figgered out. Keep on searchin and growin.