Inspired by the infinite families of finite and affine root systems, we define a "stretching" operation on general crystallographic root systems which, on the level of Coxeter diagrams, replaces a vertex with a path of unlabeled edges. We embed a root system into its stretched versions using a similar operation on individual roots. For a fixed root, we describe the long-term behavior of two associated structures as we lengthen the stretched path: the downset in the root poset and Reading's arrangement of shards. We show that both eventually admit a uniform description, and deduce enumerative consequences: the size of the downset is eventually a polynomial, and the number of shards grows exponentially.