New(ish) Grower here looking for some tips 8)

[celticlyle]

Hey guys and girls just wanted to share my little grow and hopefully get some tips so i grow some nice dank bud! I have grown a few times over the years the last time being around 10 years ago so I am pretty new to growing you could say. I like to do my research and try and not just jump into things so hopefully i have not done anything too wrong .

My set up is as followed:

-Big Buda grow tent 100x100x200
-Wilma 18l 4 pot dripper system (when they are big enough)
-Vipaspectre 600 Reflector series LED grow light. ( Plurple chinese my kinda price range HAHA) Good bang for buck I have heard though?
-Carbon filter and cyclone 4" 2 speed extraction fan. Carbon filter has AUS mined carbon so i think its good enough?
-ORA 8" 2 speed hydroponic fan
-5L Ram Air ultrasonic humidifier ( not a humid enviroment yet)
- 3 temp and humidity dials. one at plant level digital one, 1 and top of tent and 1 midway both old school gauged ones
-Very very high grade washed coc coir with perlite medium for hydroponics
- X1 PH pen and Advanced Nutrients Sensi Coco grow Part A + B

I started with 6 seeds ALL photoperiod OG candy dawg kush seeds from seedstockers. I Was an IDIOT and over wet them and basically dampened them down and ruined them. The starter cubes i had were way to wet but one of these plants did take off and grew fine to an extent.
The following week i received another 5 seeds, all photoperiod 1 banana glue, 1 LA confidential and another 3 OG candy dawg kush's . After learning from my 1st mistake I have now germinated all these seeds to the following plants below photoed, The large one being the only 1 to survive from the drowning I gave those poor little girls. ( IM GOING TO HELL NOW )
The roots were popping out the new starter cubes very quickly so i decided to put them into like 0.7l pots as seen to stop them from getting burned by the light (which is still on the veg only mode single switch on) The all seem to be very slowly putting down roots? The small plants were only planted (paper towel method) a week today so they are 7 days old from planting. The larger one is 2 weeks old but from the hard wet start i gave her she could have an extra set of leaves but They all seem to be growing now, they seem to look positive?

Currently 18 hours of light ,6 dark, feeding once a day to a small run off with a very small ammount of nuts as per label. sitting at 65% humidity and 24c /74f ish? feeding at the natural ph of the weakly mixed nutes Roughly 6.7 ph... getting a run off of around 6.7 ishaswell can remember exactly but its very similar...

**ANY SUGGESTIONS OR TIPS WELCOME! OH AND BTW I WILL ONLY BE KEEPING 4 LADIES OF THESE 6 PLANTS I AM JUST WAITING TO SEE WHO IS THE CREAM OF THE CROP GIVING THEM ALL A CHANCE! ;D

 

[celticlyle]

I also heard that the Vipaspectre 600 Reflector series are better when ran with both switches on bloom and flower for the full spectrum of light. if anyone has any insight to this I would he happy, Currently my lights are at around 90cms from the tops ( as per manual)

 

[coreywebster]

Welcome to RIU.

Right now you should be ok with the veg switch on, a couple more leaf sets and I would turn both switches on.

You should be PHing your nutrients to 5.8-6.2 in coco.

You are going to need more light to flower.
You can afford to let the temp rise to 80f , plants benefit from slightly more warmth under LED.

 

[coreywebster]

If they stretch lower the light.

 

[celticlyle]

Welcome to RIU.

Right now you should be ok with the veg switch on, a couple more leaf sets and I would turn both switches on.

You should be PHing your nutrients to 5.8-6.2 in coco.

You are going to need more light to flower.
You can afford to let the temp rise to 80f , plants benefit from slightly more warmth under LED.

Ahh ok man I thought that the PH perfect aspect of the advanced nutrients would have made the PH perfect, does'nt seem to be the case does it? I shall add a drop of down and feed within 5.8 to 6.2 levels. As for the temperature I shall up it to 80f when I get my small tube heater this week. I have also bought a thermostats that you plug the heater into so i can keep a cap on the night AND daytime temps! I presumed it should have been slightly colder to emulate spring but as you can see I don't know much! As for the light I was made aware that by in a 1m x1m tent with 4 plants with high grade reflective walling I could possibly push 4 medium sized plants out this light? I have seen a fair few grows (on youtube may i add) where the new version Vipaspectre 600 Reflector series can handle well in a small tent during flower producing some nice tight buds and reasonable yield 500g off 4 plants SCROGG ING of course. ( not a gram per watt ). Would You have 2 of these lights in a 1m squared tent? Thanks very much for the input and help I shall take note all everything you said and put it into practice! Today I lowered my lights to around 24" and they seem to be doing fine. Iv heard that the recommended heights for these lights are a bit safe and to lower them according to how the ladies react..

 

[coreywebster]

Ahh ok man I thought that the PH perfect aspect of the advanced nutrients would have made the PH perfect, does'nt seem to be the case does it? I shall add a drop of down and feed within 5.8 to 6.2 levels. As for the temperature I shall up it to 80f when I get my small tube heater this week. I have also bought a thermostats that you plug the heater into so i can keep a cap on the night AND daytime temps! I presumed it should have been slightly colder to emulate spring but as you can see I don't know much! As for the light I was made aware that by in a 1m x1m tent with 4 plants with high grade reflective walling I could possibly push 4 medium sized plants out this light? I have seen a fair few grows (on youtube may i add) where the new version Vipaspectre 600 Reflector series can handle well in a small tent during flower producing some nice tight buds and reasonable yield 500g off 4 plants SCROGG ING of course. ( not a gram per watt ). Would You have 2 of these lights in a 1m squared tent? Thanks very much for the input and help I shall take note all everything you said and put it into practice! Today I lowered my lights to around 24" and they seem to be doing fine. Iv heard that the recommended heights for these lights are a bit safe and to lower them according to how the ladies react..

Ph perfect is funny stuff, some claims say the ph doesn't matter and others say it adjusts itself to the correct ph, I have some myself and it doesn't adjust at all, though I have seen vids of it doing just that.

I would play safe and still ph it down to the proper range.

I believe the true wattage of the vipar spectra 600 is 254w which is enough for a bit over 2x2ft, they claim it flowers 75cm x 75cm. I think that's a bit generous.
I would take youtube vids with a pinch of salt, a lot of people make a living from getting free products to review.

The general rule of thumb with blurple lights of that standard is to use 50w per square foot of space, the actual power draw, not the title wattage which is a made up figure and doesn't mean anything. So yeah 2 of them should flower a 1m2 space well.

The reflector series is slightly more powerful, but only slightly.

 

[celticlyle]

Ph perfect is funny stuff, some claims say the ph doesn't matter and others say it adjusts itself to the correct ph, I have some myself and it doesn't adjust at all, though I have seen vids of it doing just that.

I would play safe and still ph it down to the proper range.

I believe the true wattage of the vipar spectra 600 is 254w which is enough for a bit over 2x2ft, they claim it flowers 75cm x 75cm. I think that's a bit generous.
I would take youtube vids with a pinch of salt, a lot of people make a living from getting free products to review.

The general rule of thumb with blurple lights of that standard is to use 50w per square foot of space, the actual power draw, not the title wattage which is a made up figure and doesn't mean anything. So yeah 2 of them should flower a 1m2 space well.

The reflector series is slightly more powerful, but only slightly.

WOW thanks for that reply man, that pretty much sums it all up! Ill get another vipaspectre 600 R same as the one I have for flowering or would you get another light with a different light spectrum to help with better flowering etc? I wil also start PH downing the neuts to between 5.8 and 6.2. my main goal is to get very nice flowers with quantity nicely followed behind.

 

[coreywebster]

WOW thanks for that reply man, that pretty much sums it all up! Ill get another vipaspectre 600 R same as the one I have for flowering or would you get another light with a different light spectrum to help with better flowering etc? I wil also start PH downing the neuts to between 5.8 and 6.2. my main goal is to get very nice flowers with quantity nicely followed behind.

Personally I use white LEDs using Samsung 301b diodes, plus I have some other nice LEDs but they are mostly white based.
That's what most LED growers are using these days. Purely because they are far more efficient and reliable .

Just have a look around the LED section and see what is what.