Grape Ape Autoflower - Ashtray #1

Anything that takes space down there will have an influence. If it's too much of an influence depends on the thickness of the stakes and how many you use. I don't use stakes no more. I rather use ties and have something to attach them to like a grid below the pot or something.

The short answer to this is "no." The long answer to this is "no." No worries... good luck!

With a mature plant it won't affect the plant much. If you damage the roots its like pruning them. When ever you stake your branches in the medium make sure the stakes are sterile so the roots don't get affected by bad bacteria. Cheers!

By the stretching and the large internodal distances, I would say your first thought is correct, the light is not strong enough. Simple.

I grew an autoflower (Tangerine Dream) that was supposed to only be about 30" tall... grew to over 50" and was a pain in the neck! Your plant is NOT stretching because the lights are so far away, truly... I have friends who normally keep their lights about 4' away from their grow and the plants get to be the height they get to be - often, with their autoflowers, not much more than 23-26" ... No, what you're dealing with is simple genetics and it's nothing to cry about! You'll have an amazing harvest. You CAN gently pull the top flowers away from the light if it looks like they're getting burned but I've got a grow now where the main cola is literally sitting 1.5" away from the light and is as happy as a clam... no burning at all... Still, you can do some light LST by pulling them away - it won't hurt and it would open up the lower bud sites to more light. With my Tangerine Dream, since it was threatening to rip the top of my tent off, I was doing LST right up until harvest and one of my LST attempts was actually HST in that I bent the poor stem into a 90-degree angle that I hadn't meant to do.... didn't bother the lady... actually helped with the lower buds! Good luck - it's all a grand adventure and your grow looks great!

Plants stretch for three reasons. Eighter the lightsource is far away, you have lots of heat or just genetics. When looking at your diary your lights are way to high probily because of your long stretched main cola. Just bend your main cola with dread carefully and lower your lamps, Goodluck Growing :)

One word.... blurple Not enough light, you're not growing that in the led lit footwell of your broken 3 cylinder vauxhall nova on your drive and sit in it banging tunes out your subwoofer charging up the battery by any chance? I say it all the time, should have just bought a bag of weed instead. Learn about plant requirements and how they work and give it a go. I'm sorry for you 😔

Poor genetics, common with auto flowers unfortunately. Yes, a bit early. I wait until there are about 95% brown pistils before starting a flush, then harvest a week or two later when there are about 98-99% brown pistils. This will put your plant in the "10-30% amber trichome" zone without having to look too closely. Hope this helps, Organoman.

Too much nitrogen in Feed I think was your biggest issue here. Very light nitrogen in flowering, especially bulking stage.