1st time growing!!! 250 watt MH. Help much appreciated!

Hello fellow RIU growers! This is my 1st thread so I'm excited to see what kinda feedback I get! I'm just starting my own grow room and I would REALLY appreciate any advice. I am working with a 250 watt MH light (bulb from Lowes) and the currents grow area I have set up is 24" x 20" x 70" (but I do have the capability to make it bigger and it is already set up with shelves in case I want to make a cabinet). I am using bag seeds from a good batch of mids that I had just to try out till I make up my mind on what seeds to buy online. I just transplanted four 3" seedlings in a DWC set-up, and the light is about 5" from the top of the leaves (I have pretty good ventilation so the temp stays around 79 degrees F without burning any of my leaves)! I bought the general hydroponic nutes from the hydro store but I'm not sure if the water has enough nutes! Its a pretty big tote and took 12 gal's of water to submerge the 6"x7" net pots about 1/2" into the water! Nute instructions say to put 1/2 tsp per gal of water so I put a lil extra and put 7 tsp in the 12 gals. That was 2 days ago and I haven't seen much growth! Should I add more nutes? One of my main question is since I have a 250 watt MH... can I expand my grow area? How many sqf could a 250 watt MH cover? I just lined my small grow space with that Mylar (the reflective bubblewrap from Lowes). I want to be able to use as much space as I can with my 250 watt MH and hopefully be able to have more grow space! Please give me any suggestions as to what I can do different! I do have enough room in my closet... I just wanna make sure I get all I can from my MH light! Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanx to all....

PS - I've been reading Pazzo's 250 watt SOG thread and all 14 pages were GREAT! You seem like someone who likes to help out! If u read this... Please comment! I would love to hear any advice from u since I have a cab set up and I would deffinately take any of your advice. Thanks. BTW... F'n awesome set-up u got! I hope to be in your shoes some day soon!

Questions Asked:
-Should I add more nutes?
-One of my main question is since I have a 250 watt MH... can I expand my grow area?
- How many sqf could a 250 watt MH cover?

HierbaBuena said:

Hello fellow RIU growers! This is my 1st thread so I'm excited to see what kinda feedback I get! I'm just starting my own grow room and I would REALLY appreciate any advice. I am working with a 250 watt MH light (bulb from Lowes) and the currents grow area I have set up is 24" x 20" x 70" (but I do have the capability to make it bigger and it is already set up with shelves in case I want to make a cabinet). I am using bag seeds from a good batch of mids that I had just to try out till I make up my mind on what seeds to buy online. I just transplanted four 3" seedlings in a DWC set-up, and the light is about 5" from the top of the leaves (I have pretty good ventilation so the temp stays around 79 degrees F without burning any of my leaves)! I bought the general hydroponic nutes from the hydro store but I'm not sure if the water has enough nutes! Its a pretty big tote and took 12 gal's of water to submerge the 6"x7" net pots about 1/2" into the water! Nute instructions say to put 1/2 tsp per gal of water so I put a lil extra and put 7 tsp in the 12 gals. That was 2 days ago and I haven't seen much growth! Should I add more nutes? One of my main question is since I have a 250 watt MH... can I expand my grow area? How many sqf could a 250 watt MH cover? I just lined my small grow space with that Mylar (the reflective bubblewrap from Lowes). I want to be able to use as much space as I can with my 250 watt MH and hopefully be able to have more grow space! Please give me any suggestions as to what I can do different! I do have enough room in my closet... I just wanna make sure I get all I can from my MH light! Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanx to all....

PS - I've been reading Pazzo's 250 watt SOG thread and all 14 pages were GREAT! You seem like someone who likes to help out! If u read this... Please comment! I would love to hear any advice from u since I have a cab set up and I would deffinately take any of your advice. Thanks. BTW... F'n awesome set-up u got! I hope to be in your shoes some day soon!

Questions Asked:
-Should I add more nutes?
-One of my main question is since I have a 250 watt MH... can I expand my grow area?
- How many sqf could a 250 watt MH cover?

Click to expand...

...I'd keep my nutes at about 1/2 strength solution in veg.
....250 w = 2'x2' - 3'x3' or....4 - 9 sqft
...can you take the MH back and get a HPS? ...HPS has more lumens for the same cost of electric (better to bloom with also)

Thanks Trichlone for your response! So you say I would only add half nute solution? So ignore whats reccomended on the label instructions? Unfortunately I bought this light off Craigslist so I can't return it! But I do plan on purchasing a HPS sometime in the near future. Do they sell 250 watt HPS lights? I don't wanna go over 250 watt so that my electric bill doesn't suffer too much. I'm happy with a small grow area just as long as I can take advantage of every inch! My seedlings don't look bad at all... Leaves are nice and green and they look healthy! I just haven't noticed much growth since I transplanted them into the DWC 3 days ago! Could there be a reason for that? Could it be that since I have the light approx 5" from the top leaf, they don't need to stretch to get light? This is my 1st grow EVER so I'm kinda learning as I go, and with the help of this forum I hope to learn much more! Now being that these are bag seeds, (from a good bag of mids) will I harvest the same mids or will it be more potent since I'm using DWC and nutes? Again... Thanks in advance for any comments and advice!

Questions asked:
-So you say I would only add half nute solution? So ignore whats reccomended on the label instructions?
-Do they sell 250 watt HPS lights?
-Could it be that since I have the light approx 5" from the top leaf, they don't need to stretch to get light?
-Now being that these are bag seeds, (from a good bag of mids) will I harvest the same mids or will it be more potent since I'm using DWC and nutes?

OK.... So I think I figured out why my babies weren't growing in the first 3 days of tranplanting into the DWC! Just out of curiosity I pulled out a couple of the net pots I have set up under the 250 watt MH and the roots are about 2"-3" past the bottom of the net pot and they were all submerged in the water with nutes! So my theory is that once I transplanted them in the DWC... all the plants energy was going towards growing longer roots to find the food source and that's the reason they weren't growing any taller! So now that the roots are showing at the bottom, I took some water out so that they aren't completely sumberged! So now the water level is about 1/2" from the bottom of the net pots! I must say that in the last day and a half I have noticed new, bigger, healthy leaves! They're still not stretching out that much but I believe that's because the light is so close to them that they don't need to stretch and look for light! So I believe that is good... since my babies won't get too tall and still be healthy. Hopefully I'm right! But any advice or instruction would be GREATLY appreciated! And I just made my 1st online seed purchase today from www.amsterdammarijuanaseeds.com and I got 10 WW seeds coming along with 20 free seeds! I can't wait!!! I wonder if the 20 extra are gonna be some garbage seeds or if they're gonna be anything good I can experiment with! Either way I'll probably test em out n try my luck! Has any1 had any experience buying seeds from this site? Are they trust worthy? And will the 20 extra just be some gabage or will they be anything worth putting effort into? Please any comments or advice from any1 reading this thread will be priceless for me since I'm just starting to learn! Thanks in advance for any valuable info! You'll have the self satisfaction of knowing you helped a newby out today! Lol! Thanks to all! Keep em growin.... H.B

Hey dude, how's it goin? I don't come on here too often anymore but saw you posted in my old grow thread. It sounds like everything is just fine. The slow growth cause the transplant makes sense, I don't use DWC.. only soil but for me it still takes a couple days for there to be new growth when I transplant as well. If you have some pics you should throw them up here.

For a 250w I wouldn't go above say 3'x3', but hell I just bought a grow tent that's 30" by 30" and I bought a 400w to go with that. I would say for your area a 250w is pretty perfect, but you can always expand it by about a foot in each direction if you want. I now have 3 grow cabinets, that one in the thread, one exactly half as tall as that one (for moms & clones), and my large grow tent. I hope to be harvesting every 2 months now, and actually I'll be harvesting some Northern Lights next week, i'm so excited.. haven't had NL in years. Right when those come out I got some WW and PP ready to go in there and take there spots.

Oh yea and as for your seeds I usually order from http://www.cannabis-seeds-bank.co.uk/ but I hope you have no problems with that place. I would definately try those free seeds out too, they can't be that bad.. maybe be a good tester before you do your WW. I'm actually trying out a free feminized Super Skunk right now, gonna make it a mom and see how good it is. When I first did my WW I made seeds with them and they lasted me for years. I actually just ran out and made some more WW seeds with those seeds lol, I don't wanna run out.

I wanted to just say watch out for that light too. Even though you have good temps and can keep it really close just make sure you don't light burn your plants. My last grow I had one plant extremely close cause it's winter and I have a good cold draft under my cabinet so I can get them extra close, but anyway she got light burned and kinda destroyed the tip of one of my plants. So just be careful, but if you can try to find that 250w HPS light, it'll do better in flowering and I think it's cooler then a MH bulb.

If you need any more help just let me know.

i don't believe any one has answered ur third question about the quality of the bagseed, it all depends on how you treat your babies, try not to stress them too much with constant transplants, or other things of that nature, because it could cause them to grow balls, or possibly turn into a hermaphrodite, but if you just take good care of them and constantly monitor them, they should be as good, if not better than the bag you got your seeds from!

Hope This Helps!
Good Luck, and Welcome to RIU!

SmokesLikeBob said:

i don't believe any one has answered ur third question about the quality of the bagseed, it all depends on how you treat your babies, try not to stress them too much with constant transplants, or other things of that nature, because it could cause them to grow balls, or possibly turn into a hermaphrodite, but if you just take good care of them and constantly monitor them, they should be as good, if not better than the bag you got your seeds from!

Hope This Helps!
Good Luck, and Welcome to RIU!

Click to expand...

Ah yea true. The only bagseed I ever grew was probably the worst plant I ever grew (not like the weed it came from at all) so I've just never grown any again. But now that I think about it that was back when I lived in north carolina, since i've lived in Alaska I don't even get bags with seeds anymore lol. Either way it was still good weed, so i'm sure you won't be dissapointed.

Well here's a comparison. This is a picture from my 2nd grow ever and the first picture is of a strain called Stardust 13, Northern Lights #5x(G13xHashplant). Probably the most potent strain I've ever grown, including the white widow. And the 2nd picture is of the bagseed, unfortunately I don't have any later pictures then these.. they were all lost on overgrow.com. Oh yea and this was the first grow I tested out the S.O.G. method in little 16oz cups. And also back when I used a 250w conversion MH bulb for veg. and then a 250w HPS for flower. I just use HPS for everything now.

Hey Pazzo and S.L.Bob thanx for your advice! I just basically wanna do a couple test runs with these bag seeds b4 I actually get into the WW since its my 1st time doin this. So far they look ok! The bigger one has A LOT of roots coming out the bottom of the netpot and hanging into the rez but its not really stretching out too much (I think maybe cuz the lights so close). But that's a good thing right? Lol! Its only about 3.5 inches tall and has 4 really close internodes and looks pretty healthy to me! I'm praying its a girl cuz it would suck if its not since I'm so excited about it! But oh well... That's the name of the game egh!!! The other 3 aren't far behing and look pretty good too so I'm assuming I should at least get a girl or 2 out of them (fingers crossed). I have the light timed for 22/2 hrs on per day in hopes they grow faster. I'm hoping to get at least the same quality as I got in the bag if not better! I'll try to post some pics so ya'll can see. So Pazzo you think it'd be best if I got my hands on a HPS for flowering? I know the light spectrum is better for flowering... But can I pull it off with the MH through the whole process? If not I can just get a couple 100 watt HPS from Lowes or try and find a deal on Ebay or something! How long should I wait before switching to 12/12? I've read untill they get anywhere from 6 to 12 inches. I'm not expecting HUGE yields, although it would be nice, but I just wanna see the whole process take place and hopefully get sumthing I can smoke on a lil! Like I said... I'm just learning, so I know I'll get more experience as I go! Dude thanx for the pics... U got an awesome greenthumb! I've read your threads and I hope to have your experience someday! Oh... One more thing b4 I go... Is there anyway I can tell if male or female b4 switching to 12/12 or should I just wait it out and see? Lol... Its like I got a newborn at home! My wife looks at me crazy everytime she catches me just sitting in front of them like if they're gonna grow right before my eyes! Lol! I'm just excited I even got this far so I just find it cool as hell and find myself sitting next to em and looking at them every chance I get! Anyways... Thank you all for all the input so far! I didn't think I'd get too much response but you guys are awesome and I'll take any advice I can get! Hope to hear back from ya'll soon or anyone else who reads my thread! Till next time... N hopefully I'll have sum pics for ya!
Thanx again... HB

Hey Pazzo and S.L.Bob thanx for your advice! I just basically wanna do a couple test runs with these bag seeds b4 I actually get into the WW since its my 1st time doin this. So far they look ok! The bigger one has A LOT of roots coming out the bottom of the netpot and hanging into the rez but its not really stretching out too much (I think maybe cuz the lights so close). But that's a good thing right? Lol! Its only about 3.5 inches tall and has 4 really close internodes and looks pretty healthy to me! I'm praying its a girl cuz it would suck if its not since I'm so excited about it! But oh well... That's the name of the game egh!!! The other 3 aren't far behing and look pretty good too so I'm assuming I should at least get a girl or 2 out of them (fingers crossed). I have the light timed for 22/2 hrs on per day in hopes they grow faster. I'm hoping to get at least the same quality as I got in the bag if not better! I'll try to post some pics so ya'll can see. So Pazzo you think it'd be best if I got my hands on a HPS for flowering? I know the light spectrum is better for flowering... But can I pull it off with the MH through the whole process? If not I can just get a couple 100 watt HPS from Lowes or try and find a deal on Ebay or something! How long should I wait before switching to 12/12? I've read untill they get anywhere from 6 to 12 inches. I'm not expecting HUGE yields, although it would be nice, but I just wanna see the whole process take place and hopefully get sumthing I can smoke on a lil! Like I said... I'm just learning, so I know I'll get more experience as I go! Dude thanx for the pics... U got an awesome greenthumb! I've read your threads and I hope to have your experience someday! Oh... One more thing b4 I go... Is there anyway I can tell if male or female b4 switching to 12/12 or should I just wait it out and see? Lol... Its like I got a newborn at home! My wife looks at me crazy everytime she catches me just sitting in front of them like if they're gonna grow right before my eyes! Lol! I'm just excited I even got this far so I just find it cool as hell and find myself sitting next to em and looking at them every chance I get! Anyways... Thank you all for all the input so far! I didn't think I'd get too much response but you guys are awesome and I'll take any advice I can get! Hope to hear back from ya'll soon or anyone else who reads my thread! Till next time... N hopefully I'll have sum pics for ya!
Thanx again... HB

There's nothing wrong with growing with an MH bulb during flower. I just suggest an HPS bulb because you'll get more lumens and it's gives the plant a better spectrum for flowering.. plus it's not as hot as an MH bulb, but that doesn't seem to be an issue. Plants do seem to stretch less with an Mh bulb though.

Well i've flowered plants as young as a week old and 2 inches tall so you can really do it whenever you want in my opinion. In my experience though if you flower them younger then about a 3-4 weeks old then you need to add an extra week or so to the flowering schedule. Even though you have them on a flowering schedule they still haven't matured yet so they need a few extra days to click over to flower mode as apposed to a month old mature plant that is ready to go. This is the way to keep your plants as small as possible, if that's what your looking for.

You can't tell the sex of a plant until you either induce flowering early or wait about 3-4 weeks for it to naturally show sex. Since it sounds like you only have 4 seedlings going I would let them show sex before flowering to get the plants larger, just in case you don't get many females (maybe top/fim them to keep 'em shorter). I actually just built my first aero cloner tonight and I can't wait to use it. I've got 2 WW mothers and 1 Super Skunk (never even smoked it yet) at about a month old and just about ready for a few clones to be picked. I should have a perpetual harvest in no time.. been thinkin about makin a new grow thread but I don't know if I would have the time to keep it updated well.

But anyways, thanks for the props man and i'm sure you'll be a garden guru in no time. And don't sweat it about staring at your plants, i'm pretty sure we all do it. I have 3 cabinets now so I just rotate lol.

Update.... So I topped the 2 tallest plants just about a week ago right above the 4th node since those 2 were growing much faster than the other 2! Holly shit they bushed out. I'm amazed how fast these lil fuckers grow! But so far everything looks like its going really good! They all look very healthy! Its been just over 4 weeks since germ and still no sign of sex! Would it be ok if I added just a tad bit of the flowering nute to my rez to see if that will make them show sex without having to switch to 12/12 yet? Also I have a question about soil. Maybe you can advise me on this Pazzo since you use soil or anyone else is welcome to comment! I'd appreciate all the help I can get! I also have 1 in soil that's vegging and its the same age as the others. Before I water I always make sure the PH is correct... Then when I water, I check the PH on the drainage water and it comes back very acidic! My question is... Should I adjust the PH so that its higher before I water so that the drainage water is where its supposed to be? I have had no problems with this plant what so ever (other than it growing very fast)! Looks very healthy, growing very fast, and leaves are a nice shade of green. Short plant but VERY bushy, nodes are only about 1/4" appart! I'm just curiouse about the PH from the drainage water! Do I just leave as is and continue to water how I've been doing, or do I adjust the PH higher before I water? I really wanna start flowering soon so I can tell the sex! Oh BTW... I bought a bag of Purple Lemon Skunk (is what he called it) and I scored a seed in the bag! I quickly germed it and its already about an inch tall! I'm excited about that one! =). Well thx for everyones help so far and hopefully I can get some answers to my questions soon! Thanx all..... HB

I'd at least wanna know what the PPM and PH are anyways. Even though its growing well> It's possible you can push your PPM's to the limit to get the best growth out of what you have. Optimal yield will be .5g/watt at best. Don't forget your micros....

hey man i just saw ur post and started to read well i started close to the same time u did my plants are like 8 inches big bit the other one is 5 oh another thing i ordered from that same site tooo i got the citral ones i like the lemony smell but the plants look like different strains post some pics homie i really wanna see i topped mine too and man do they grow there getting more nutes than the recommended dosage on the label do u have a drip system in ur dwc i got both of mine in a 20 gallon rubermate heres some piks im a newb tooo.......wat i need to know is should i flush before i start to flower

Wheres the pics. I wana see sum buds damit.......lol

wow bro, for a 1st time them girls look fucking great.. nice and green yes i' willbe watching these bad little girls grow there tight big nugs...doing a fine job

mygirls said:

wow bro, for a 1st time them girls look fucking great.. nice and green yes i' willbe watching these bad little girls grow there tight big nugs...doing a fine job

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Thx alot bro! I been playin it safe and just using just the regular GH nutes... but now since they been in flower I've been adding stuff little by little. Like I had told ya... I just started using the FF Big Bloom along with the regular GH nutes and switched them over to HPS so hopefully they'll start fattening up n gettin more trichs n gettin all pretty n shit! Cant wait! These fukin emails are STILL sending so let me know what ya think when u see ALL the pics. Personally I think I've done pretty good so far! But its nice to hear good feedback from sum1 who knows they're shit. Thx

HB

HierbaBuena said:

Thx alot bro! I been playin it safe and just using just the regular GH nutes... but now since they been in flower I've been adding stuff little by little. Like I had told ya... I just started using the FF Big Bloom along with the regular GH nutes and switched them over to HPS so hopefully they'll start fattening up n gettin more trichs n gettin all pretty n shit! Cant wait! These fukin emails are STILL sending so let me know what ya think when u see ALL the pics. Personally I think I've done pretty good so far! But its nice to hear good feedback from sum1 who knows they're shit. Thx

HB

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got them all and man bro like i said for a 1st timer looking great, nice and green. them going to be frosty

mygirls said:

got them all and man bro like i said for a 1st timer looking great, nice and green. them going to be frosty

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Thx a lot MG! Out of the 4 I had only 1 turned out to be a male! So what I did was I cut the male in half along with all the pollen balls and I left a few fan leaves so the plant wouldn't die and cause root rot... Since it was damn near impossible to seperate all the male roots from the fems! And I check it everyday and if I see any balls growing... I pluk em b4 they open so that he doesn't polinate! Seems to be working just fine! The male is still alive n kickin... He just has no balls! LOL! So what u saw was my 3 chicks budding! I know I still have a while to go... But from what u saw... Can u give me like a guestimate on how much yield or is it still too early? From a top view I can count 10 main bud sites on top, not to mention all the buds forming on the lower branches! So there's well over 15 total stems that are forming buds, between what's on top and on the inside! So I'm hoping for a good yield! N ya man... They're starting to frost up like crazy! Its amazing to me since I've never seen/done this b4! U think I should finish them off with the FF-BB, or hit them up with the Bloombastic once it arrives? Thx again for ur comments and advice! Its nice to hear that I'm doin good from sum1 who has experience! Thx again...

HB

FYI to every1... U may be wondering why I don't post any pics up of my girls! Well just so yall understand... I'm not very thrilled about posting pics on the WEB! If your that interested and wanna see some bud porn... Just IM me your email address n MAYBE I might open the curtains for ya just a tad bit... LOL! But other than that... U prolly won't see any of MY pics up on this thread! Just thought I'd share that info with yall in case any1 was wondering! But pls... Every1 pls feel free to make any comments or sugjestions if ya got any! Thx RIU'ers... This site is the shiznits compared to other sites I've visited! So thx a lot for every1's support! Till next update... PEACE... wit a bucket of hair grease!

HB