How can I maximize my yield at 600watts?

onkulas

Active Member
Best advice i can give guys to maximize yield under a six hundred is to fill the space in veg. More plants or longer veg. One of the two. Fill the light footprint to the point where your scared its too full, and then flower. You should get a lb off of a six hundred in dwc and just under that with soiless like coco or peat. And to the guy who made fluffy dwc, try a different strain. Some strains dont like dwc at all.
noob question, please:
what DWC stands for?
thx!
 

papa canna

Well-Known Member
These were your plants at the point of harvest? I see a couple decent colas, but overall kind of a stretchy mess. They also look like they have a ways to go.

Your light, in the pic seems plenty close, but light mgmt seems to be awry. Too stretchy. I get my lb+ with a cheap ass open wing type. I keep it between 18"-24".

Are all these plants the same strain? The topping I mentioned is not meticulous, but the simple lopping off the top node or two of the main. They are about 16" when I do it. You have other issues though. No reason you should not get over an oz per plant straight up.
Has your mentor seen your grow? What's he say?
This is my current crop right now. I just took these pictures. tomorrow they hit week 5 of flower. The only plants that are the same strain are the 3 in the middle. they are all Space ripper. There are two big strechy ones, (looking at the bottom picture) the one in the far back stretching into the light is dark shadow haze. i've supercropped it down a little, but im probably going to bend it again. I'll also go take a measurement to see how far my light is away. Can I ask what you mean by awry? My mentor was here a couple weeks ago and said my light was too close. a small bit of light stress on the plant directly in the middle. Other than that he says im doing very well with this crop. My last 2 left a bit to be desired.

edit: went to go check light distance. The light from my main cola directly under the light is 18 inches. Light from the further colas on the outside (including big stretchy) is about 24 inches all the way around.
 
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bravedave

Well-Known Member
This is my current crop right now. I just took these pictures. tomorrow they hit week 5 of flower. The only plants that are the same strain are the 3 in the middle. they are all Space ripper. There are two big strechy ones, (looking at the bottom picture) the one in the far back stretching into the light is dark shadow haze. i've supercropped it down a little, but im probably going to bend it again. I'll also go take a measurement to see how far my light is away. Can I ask what you mean by awry? My mentor was here a couple weeks ago and said my light was too close. a small bit of light stress on the plant directly in the middle. Other than that he says im doing very well with this crop. My last 2 left a bit to be desired.

edit: went to go check light distance. The light from my main cola directly under the light is 18 inches. Light from the further colas on the outside (including big stretchy) is about 24 inches all the way around.
Most all of your bending and training should really happen during veg. Your goal should be a nice even canopy at least at the start of flower...
Why do YOU feel your last grow came up short of an oz per plant?

Awry--amiss, unexpectedly wrong.
 

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papa canna

Well-Known Member
Most all of your bending and training should really happen during veg. Your goal should be a nice even canopy at least at the start of flower...
Why do YOU feel your last grow came up short of an oz per plant?

Awry--amiss, unexpectedly wrong.
I feel like I had issues with some sort of nutrient deficiency. when I started, I was using charged soils. My first grow was with fox farm ocean forest (why anyone uses that stuff I'll never know) 2nd was with roots organics (better quality but I dont really care for charged soil) and I had the same problem with both of them. early in flower, i'd have yellowing. It's hard to track what deficencies could be going on because its hard to tell whats already been introduced from the soil. I'm using a peat moss medium now and it seems to be going really well. Aside from the yellowing, my buds were very light and airy.
 

Krippled

Well-Known Member
Well I guess, had 4 different female seed plants and at the time no room for them so I had never cloned before so I just cut them into clones January. I had made a separate veg box for them, and was going to keep a couple as moms but ran out of room so I have been kicking them out of the box at different times... I now have 12 more clones in the veg box 2+feet tall to put outdoor soon really soon as my veg box is only 4 ft tall..
 

bravedave

Well-Known Member
I feel like I had issues with some sort of nutrient deficiency. when I started, I was using charged soils. My first grow was with fox farm ocean forest (why anyone uses that stuff I'll never know) 2nd was with roots organics (better quality but I dont really care for charged soil) and I had the same problem with both of them. early in flower, i'd have yellowing. It's hard to track what deficencies could be going on because its hard to tell whats already been introduced from the soil. I'm using a peat moss medium now and it seems to be going really well. Aside from the yellowing, my buds were very light and airy.
What nutes? What peat mix?
 

Richard Drysift

Well-Known Member
I think all you need to do is tighten up your training game and I do agree a good reflective hood can make a difference in how the light is distributed throughout your grow area. I top/FIM as much as possible to achieve a nice Octo-bush way before flowering. I usually have to tie them to something due to the heavy bud that forms by week 7/8. A long veg, with LST and just keep topping the tallest branches will help a lot. If you see more than an inch or 2 in between the vertical nodes on a plant in veg just cut it off & let it fill in & recover. Then keep on training it to grow the way you want it to.
A hood upgrade can help the light disperse on your plants better than a wing style reflector but you can also consider adding supplemental side lighting which will make the sides & lower nugs just as dense & dank as the tops. I use a few small cheapo LEDs on the plants that are in mid to later stages of bloom; I hang them almost horizontally so as envelope the plants in light which really helps them fill in all the way to the bottom.
Bravedave is right keeping your canopy even forces the plants to keep the buds almost a uniform size as opposed to a wildly fluctuating set of plant heights which always favor the tallest colas. Plants will always try to grow the taller colas larger to catch pollen in the wind but if you do not allow this trigger to occur by keeping the colas all the same height your canopy will yield buds all basically the same size. That's why alotta growers scrog. Not saying ya gotta scrog but you get the idea...
 

jarvild

Well-Known Member
What type of lighting are you using for veg ? If you're veg'ing under the HPS that could be part of the problem. That node spacing, even for haze crosses is large. As a suggestion next run try up potting in a few stages instead of going from a solo cup to you're 7 gallon containers. Maybe some side curtains of poly or mylar to help reflect back some of you're lighting. Even with my weakest haze crosses I still pull .7 grams a watt.
 

bravedave

Well-Known Member
Do know that even Sunshine#4 has some small degree of organics added to help things get started so feeding doesn't need to start right away...even when I do start feeding I go small. 1/2 tsp per gallon of Jack's Citrus 20/10/20 keeps me green into flower and beyond. I habitually now start adding epsom salt at about at the flip when it seems my Promix has gone through its Mg. (and I like adding the S). In any case a minimalist approach has served me pretty well.
 

papa canna

Well-Known Member
I think all you need to do is tighten up your training game and I do agree a good reflective hood can make a difference in how the light is distributed throughout your grow area. I top/FIM as much as possible to achieve a nice Octo-bush way before flowering. I usually have to tie them to something due to the heavy bud that forms by week 7/8. A long veg, with LST and just keep topping the tallest branches will help a lot. If you see more than an inch or 2 in between the vertical nodes on a plant in veg just cut it off & let it fill in & recover. Then keep on training it to grow the way you want it to.
A hood upgrade can help the light disperse on your plants better than a wing style reflector but you can also consider adding supplemental side lighting which will make the sides & lower nugs just as dense & dank as the tops. I use a few small cheapo LEDs on the plants that are in mid to later stages of bloom; I hang them almost horizontally so as envelope the plants in light which really helps them fill in all the way to the bottom.
Bravedave is right keeping your canopy even forces the plants to keep the buds almost a uniform size as opposed to a wildly fluctuating set of plant heights which always favor the tallest colas. Plants will always try to grow the taller colas larger to catch pollen in the wind but if you do not allow this trigger to occur by keeping the colas all the same height your canopy will yield buds all basically the same size. That's why alotta growers scrog. Not saying ya gotta scrog but you get the idea...
So when you say to keep training them does that mean to just keep fimming the ones that grow taller in veg only? Is there a type of hood you might recommend for my situation? I was thinking maybe a blockbuster without the glass and just hooking up a 1 way exhaust from a single flange. But I was worried that the blockbuster wouldnt get as good of a spread as the wings. Tough call. Also, do you know where i might be able to get a couple of these cheap LEDs so that I can supplement the sides? That does sound ideal because I was looking into florescent supplementation but by the time i'd have enough bulbs to supplement well, i'd be creating too much heat to make them worth their salt.
 

papa canna

Well-Known Member
What type of lighting are you using for veg ? If you're veg'ing under the HPS that could be part of the problem. That node spacing, even for haze crosses is large. As a suggestion next run try up potting in a few stages instead of going from a solo cup to you're 7 gallon containers. Maybe some side curtains of poly or mylar to help reflect back some of you're lighting. Even with my weakest haze crosses I still pull .7 grams a watt.
I use a hortilux 600w mh for veg. they grow really quickly in veg. If you see the pictures there is white on the walls which is actually ORCA grow film which is the highest reflective film material that I could find. I thought about hanging it closer, but it would impede airflow and I really need the flow.

Do know that even Sunshine#4 has some small degree of organics added to help things get started so feeding doesn't need to start right away...even when I do start feeding I go small. 1/2 tsp per gallon of Jack's Citrus 20/10/20 keeps me green into flower and beyond. I habitually now start adding epsom salt at about at the flip when it seems my Promix has gone through its Mg. (and I like adding the S). In any case a minimalist approach has served me pretty well.
I did know that. I dont usually feed until about 2-3 weeks after transplant depending on how they are looking, they usually tell me when their ready.
 

ryan1918

Well-Known Member
I think if you used cooltube's you would get more light coverage, I noticed using hoods were not very effective in my basement since it wasn't very tall and the lights needed to be a few week above the plants in order to do that, I noticed when I switched to them cheap ipower cooltube's I got a easy 40% more coverage at least 20% on each side
 

papa canna

Well-Known Member
I think if you used cooltube's you would get more light coverage, I noticed using hoods were not very effective in my basement since it wasn't very tall and the lights needed to be a few week above the plants in order to do that, I noticed when I switched to them cheap ipower cooltube's I got a easy 40% more coverage at least 20% on each side
How do you figure? Cooltubes create hotspots while disrupting your light patters. as far as i understand their only purpose is to cool down the light. but as it stands right now, I dont have heat issues until a scorching summer comes around.
 

jarvild

Well-Known Member
How is the root ball after harvest ? Has it totally filled the fabric pots including the middle ? I gave up on fabric pots for indoor growing as I found they dry out way to fast under my light and my 1 air exchange every 2 minutes.
 

papa canna

Well-Known Member
How is the root ball after harvest ? Has it totally filled the fabric pots including the middle ? I gave up on fabric pots for indoor growing as I found they dry out way to fast under my light and my 1 air exchange every 2 minutes.
roots left a lot to be desired. not at all what you would hope for.

edit: partly because I was letting them get too thirsty in my last 2 grows. I was only watering them about a quarter gallon per pot. I am now watering a half gallon per pot. I am also now using a root enhancer.
 
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