Flowering stretch and no space for hood to go up

I have 7 autoflower plants, they are 8 or 9 weeks. First week of flowering and they grow very fast. Their hight is 4.1 to 5.7 feet (125 to 175 cm). There is step down at the second raw so they are taller than they look. Front raw is for the shorter girls. The plants at the second raw is 5.2 to 5.7 feet. This is my new grow space, I made it 2 weeks ago. Before that I grew short strains in a smaller box. This new DIY grow tent (it is actually a wardrobe) is 15 square feet (1.4 m2). 2 weeks ago when I build these I thought my 400 watt 27000 lumen MH will not be sufficient for these tent, so I put 400 watt HPS 52000 lumen. Last week they started to flower and stretch. As you can see my hood is run out of space and one of the girls already touching the hood. I know HPS causes more streching so I changed it to MH again.

I grew this mixed breed last winter and it was very short, this is why I was not prepared this flowering stretch. I thought it is a short strain and didn't make any topping or fimming. But it turns out that they were short in previous grow probably because of cold and the strain is not short at all.

I live in a hot city, nowadays it is 86 F (30 C) and the hot triggers flowering stretch more. I managed to keep grow room almost at the same temperature, to do this I take air from 3 different entrance. 1 of them is from outside, the other 2 are from room A and room B. Room A is the coolest in the morning, so I take air from only room A. Room B is the coolest in the moon and outside is the coolest in the night. I basicly choose the coolest one. In a nut shell I make a daily struggle against hot weather and it makes the choice of adding more light less probable option.

So tying the plants down in the C or S shape sounds logical to me. They all easily bend. Another option is super cropping, I'm not sure it is too late or not but they are at the very beginning of flowering. The tallest one (at the right) is a thin and leggy plant that bends very easily, so super cropping will not hurt her. But I'm not sure about the others.

I can gain another 12 cm (4.7 inches) by cutting the top of wardrobe but that's all.

So what do you think, which is the best option for me?

BTW I noticed that some of the lights wastes through the pipe, so I put a transparent plastic bottle between the hood and the pipe and gained back some of the light

Those are super stretched.... I dont even know what I would do.... I think supercroping and maybe even chopping a good amount off the tops is your only choice if you cant raise the light. Chop them all down to 2.5-3 feet maybe? Idk ive never had a height issue this bad.

JoeBlow5823 said:

Those are super stretched.... I dont even know what I would do.... I think supercroping and maybe even chopping a good amount off the tops is your only choice if you cant raise the light. Chop them all down to 2.5-3 feet maybe? Idk ive never had a height issue this bad.

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Thank you, I think I will give supercropping a chance. Stems feel very soft, it seems they can handle supercrop.

yeah, I would super crop them as well

You had the light too high to begin with which is why they stretched so much. I'd supercrop them.

Thank you @racerboy71 and @xtsho. My main concern is supercropping main stem would make them lean towards one side, I think I will have to tie them to ceiling to prevent them fall over.
400 watt MH feels very week, they crave for light, I can feel it. But 400 watt HPS made them very happy, do you think 400 HPS would be enough for these plants or should I add another lights? I know more light means more buds but that would be great if 400 is enough.

Cut em back like everyone said, they will come right back should be half that height or lower to finish where they are at now

Crazy cat daddy said:

Thank you @racerboy71 and @xtsho. My main concern is supercropping main stem would make them lean towards one side, I think I will have to tie them to ceiling to prevent them fall over.
400 watt MH feels very week, they crave for light, I can feel it. But 400 watt HPS made them very happy, do you think 400 HPS would be enough for these plants or should I add another lights? I know more light means more buds but that would be great if 400 is enough.

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Try a 600w instead

8 days ago I supercropped them, they recovered easily and kept on stretching. Now they are very close to ceiling and hood, again. They don't have time for a second supercropping so I decided to turn my growspace into vertical grow. Vertical grow always has been my dream. I will share the photos when I finish.