Help me determine final plant height and how to remedy if necessary

[dank.bud76]

I put some seeds straight into flower, birthday of ± 1/1/09 one of the plants has skyrocketed and is now a hare over 18" tall. it has been very close to a 400w HPS its entire life, generally 2-3 inches away and now my other plants are 10" shorter and that much further away from the light (6 in total). The big one just showed sex this weekend and i have always heard a plant will grow 3-4 times its height once you put it into flower. my question is does this count from when it first sexes and starts to flower? if so, this puppy is going to be too big so ill need some advice on what to do to keep it down. i read a little bit on fim'ming but i'm already into flower so thats out. i can put in a screen and grow a scrog setup but i'm worried this one plant will dominate the others and block out the lights. i do have one half its size that sexed too and it has some fatty baseball glove lookin leaves so i dont see it getting even big enough to get to the screen (it showed flowers at 9", so guessing final height of less than 3 feet) i'm half tempted to sacrafice a good looking plant but just cant really bring myself to do it.

i have a crazy idea, could i nip the top 2-3 nodes off and make a clone and grow a single cola bud with the top part and let the rest branch out? if i left it in 12/12 would the clone even take root? i'm not afraid of high stress methods if someone has used them with success before.

 

[willowgrow]

plants will double or triple in height once you go 12/12 and induce flowering. what is your setup like? lights? soil or hyrdo? as for snipping off the upper nodes during flowering to create a clone sounds very risky. why would you do that instead of letting it grow out naturally, or trying a LST method?

 

[dank.bud76]

sorry didnt give more info. they are growing in 6" rockwool cubes in hydroton, ebb & flow but lately ive been hand watering since the size difference is creating some plants that use 1 cup and some that use 4, per day. the one cuppers dont get fed but every couple days or they get mad at me, but the biggest one needs constant water so i been doing the jerry rigged method of by hand. i understand the plant will tripple, but since i went 12/12 from seed i am not really sure how i can use that formula. they just started showing flowers so i am guessing this is the 'baseline' height that i need to tripple. that's a guess i never went 12/12 from seed and to be honest this one thats over 18" has me surprised. i cant say i get clones to grow that fast in 24/0.

i am concerned with LST that the plant will spread out and block the other plants available light. right now i have 6 happily under a 400w HPS but this thing is getting big and will fill a scrog screen and block light for the other, smaller plants. this one is a beast compared to the others. thats why i was thinking of maybe sacraficing it to keep the others from being light starved.

 

[Motor City Madman]

I would clone it out instead of scraping it. Throw em in the veg box for a few weeks then flower em

 

[fellafrompocatella]

I say chop away til your desired hieght and make clones from what you chop. Try throwing those to 12/12 once they've rooted. I could be wrong, but just throwing an idea out there. Pretty much what Madman said. I'd also be suprised if you could LST with that thing now that it is a foot and a half tall. You'd run the risk of snapping the main stalk.

 

[BBFan]

Firstly- are you sure of sex? If one plant is that much taller than the others then it could quite possibly be a male. Are they all the same strain?
Second- Not all plants will double or triple in height. Very strain dependent. I have never had a plant triple in size when I flipped to 12/12.
Third- You're best bet is to LST at this point. Do it slowly, over the course of a week- don't try to bend it over in one shot. Trying to reveg a cutting is tough enough and I seriously doubt the success of cutting off the top of the plant and having it continue to flower.
Fourth- Raise up the smaller plants instead of trying to shorten the larger plant- put them on a book or box or something.

Good luck to you.

 

[willowgrow]

:yeahthat:

 

[dank.bud76]

thanks brothers. 100% positive of sex on 3 females now (one just showed). actually, i can now disprove the myth of seed 'pit' shape. too bad i didn't take pictures so i could double check, but of the 6 ones i chose, i believe 2 to be male. i will let them go a few more days to make sure. i was pretty picky about the roundness as i had many seeds to chose from and used a magnifying glass to inspect them with. so there is only one unknown plant now, and it is medium height but not that bushy. i noticed the two smaller plants that flowered are small and bushy while the two that showed balls are more spindly.

that might be a good thing, i can eliminate 2 plants and 4 will have room to stretch their legs (hopefully 4th turns out to be a girl). actually, i LST'ed the biggen today (almost 20"). you wouldnt believe how easy it was. around 5pm i did my afternoon water, waited an hour then took the top and bent it 90 degrees. it bent easily, laid down to my screen and never fussed. i was shocked, thought i'd have to do it in steps but the plant just bent this nice, maybe 3 inch diameter curve, a full 90 degrees and didnt fuss at all. i bent it over about 2 seconds, so it wasnt a slow bend. i just bent and it went and held the bend. so far looks like it isnt worse for the wear but tomorrow will tell.

ive grown quite a bit of legal stuff, gardening to the max you could say. no expert or anything but i do spend a lot of time every day tending to things out there, just popped a bunch of seeds this weekend in grow cubes (food, spice and herb stuff, outdoors, non-smokable) so waiting to see how they sprout! anywho im by no means good at it, but i dont kill plants like i used to either!

 

[dank.bud76]

ohh and they are all random strains of no particular genetics. a grab bag of years of collected seeds, and they actually germinated