fictionalgrower
Well-Known Member
It was an industrial warehouse light with the ballast and fixture all together.
Buds for Less setup (First Grow)
- Thread starter fictionalgrower
- Start date
Serious Weeds
Well-Known Member
Ha lol. Yeah when I first wake up in the morning and before I get ready for work I check on my plants, even a pair of sunglasses does nothing to block out the light it just blinds you in the for a bit before you wake up enough. and thats just opening the box.View attachment 1188685View attachment 1188679
Tying them down seems to have been a good idea. barely any of the soil is visible now. These plants are awesome.
After getting home this evening I had to plug the HPS in just to see if these things really make "that much" more light.... HOLY SHIT MAN! For those of you who own one of these this will come as no surprise. To those of you who have never seen one of these things lit up, after the bulb was on for about 60 seconds looking in the general direction of this light was like staring at the sun lol. I haven't got the HPS setup over the plants yet as I have to figure out some mounting and venting but I think I should have something figured out this weekend.
fictionalgrower
Well-Known Member
My girls have spent their first night under the HPS and all I can say is, I'm a believer..
12 hours under this light and my plants have tons of new growth. These plants literally have twice as many pistils today than they did yesterday. The color of the leaves are a deeper green, and generally the plants just look even healthier.
I didn't detach the ballast or setup a cool tube but this closet has awesome ventilation from outside of the house via the attached crawl space. With the ballast still attached to the light inside the closet you can see my temp in the closet after the light had been on for an hour was 71F. This last month of flowering is going to be awesome.
I really appreciate all of the input you folks have all given me.
Serious Weeds
Well-Known Member
Hey fictional grower Looking great nice to see you upgraded to a hps. If you wanted to you could get a mh conversion bulb for your next grow. And were you planing on chopping them along the same time line as in the book, Or harvesting off of oil glands.
HookdOnChronics
Well-Known Member
HPS fa life bratha! Only the sun's better! LOL. Nice lookin new setup.
fictionalgrower
Well-Known Member
I think I am going to recycle my CFL setup for a veg box and try for a perpetual grow keeping the HPS hooked up for flowering. maybe down the road if I find a good deal on one I will get a 150-250W MH for veg.
fictionalgrower
Well-Known Member
It kills me to know I have over 100 invested in my CFL setup and only 60 in my HPS.
If I were going to tell someone how to start out now, unless they are doing a PC case type grow to go with the HID lights. I had no idea when I started that you could buy a 400W HPS for 100 bucks new. I thought you needed like 4-5 hundred bucks to setup something like that.
At the end of the day, I'm having fun and hopefully I will have some killer smoke when I'm done.
Thanks for the kind words Hookd, I really appreciate it
Grumpy Old Dreamer
Well-Known Member
I still think that CFL's are the best for a vegging/cloning chamber - the light are a lot gentler, can be kept closer and you can easily add or remove lights as needed.
I have a huge number of CFL bulbs in both 2700k and 6500k. I will definitely use the 6500k for my new vegging chamber and maybe some of the 2700k ones will be used as supplementary lighting next to my LED (but not during my first grow) - so my CFL set up won't go to waste.
We live and learn I suppose.
I would still recommend CFL's for beginners due to the lack of heat and minimal ventilation requirements.
I have a huge number of CFL bulbs in both 2700k and 6500k. I will definitely use the 6500k for my new vegging chamber and maybe some of the 2700k ones will be used as supplementary lighting next to my LED (but not during my first grow) - so my CFL set up won't go to waste.
We live and learn I suppose.
I would still recommend CFL's for beginners due to the lack of heat and minimal ventilation requirements.
fictionalgrower
Well-Known Member
.Here are some new pics. As you can see my ongoing struggle with N continues... its not a real bad case but it's an imperfection none the less.
I watered this evening with 6.0 PH water (1.5 L per plant). Overall the plants still look healthy. Other than the leaves that have the yellow spotting from the lack of N the leaves seem much darker since the introduction of the HPS. The amount of growth under the new light is still impressive. Almost every node now has baby flowers and lots of pistils.
I am almost done building my veg / clone cabinet and I plan to start 2 more seeds this week to eventually use as mother plants. I plan on planting one more Killing Fields along with one of the freebies I got from Sannie, Herijuana x Big White. With 2 mothers, each of their own high quality strain I should have plenty to smoke
I would like to use SubCool's super soil eventually for all of my grows but since I still have a bunch of the MG soil I am going to use it all up first. That and the recipe makes such a large amount that a good deal of $ will have to be invested for ingredients which I don't currently have.
fictionalgrower
Well-Known Member
It looks like I got lucky and got the purple and green phenotypes out of the first two seeds I popped. Plant #2 all of the flowers are coming in purple while Plant #1 remains green.
You can't see any of what I'm talking about in the pics yet but you will
bigv1976
Well-Known Member
Keep in mind an hps isnt a fix all. You are gonna fight heat when you move to HPS. I run a T5 until my plants are at least 2 feet tall due to the radiant heat from the bulb. If I fire it up in my tent too soon my soil temp gets too high. I dont deal with air temp. It gets over 100 every day where many of these plants come from so to read everybody say high temps will hurt growth and then I check out a grow from southern cali where it is 115 for a month straight and the plants are 10 feet tall I have a hard time buying into the temp thing. I track soil temp only and as long as that is under 75 I am happy and so are my plants.
SocialFauxPas
Member
Brother you are applauded for your efforts....but with all the money you've spent so far you could have purchased a good low wattage (400) HID for less and had many more lumens than with all 6 of the CFL's you have rigged together. May b a good investment for you if you decide perpetual is really for you
fictionalgrower
Well-Known Member
Please read the thread fully before commenting. I do have a 400W HPS running on my flowering plants. I am using the CFL's for veg now as I am attempting to create my perpetual garden.Brother you are applauded for your efforts....but with all the money you've spent so far you could have purchased a good low wattage (400) HID for less and had many more lumens than with all 6 of the CFL's you have rigged together. May b a good investment for you if you decide perpetual is really for you
fictionalgrower
Well-Known Member
I agree with you about CFL's for veg. I was getting jealous of all the buds everyone else with the same age plants had so I got that HPS for flowering.
DumpsterKeeper
Well-Known Member
Lookin good. I've been planning on grabbing a 400w dual ballasted fixture so I can swap bulbs between veg and flower so I can dedicate my cfls to a seedling/clone/momma closet. That is if a certain vote passes in my state next month. Keep your fingers crossed for me.
fictionalgrower
Well-Known Member
You know that guy who can't leave well enough alone? Well that must be me lol. I had to see what would happen if I untied my branches. I figured this far into flowering they won't stretch too much and I just wanted to try it out. One night untied and the branches turned into "wood". I may have done myself a dis-service by doing this but being my first grow I am more focused on learning than what my final yield will be. There will be many more grows after this to get it "perfect".
They still look good to me
As usual thanks for watching!
Grumpy Old Dreamer
Well-Known Member
Looking good so far, how old are the ladies now?
When they put on a load of weight they will probably drop back to where they were tied down.
My single plant has just reached the height where it touches my SCROG screen, I plan on taking the lower branches for clones today (for feminised seed production) and fitting the screen after that ... then in maybe a week I will switch to 12/12.
When they put on a load of weight they will probably drop back to where they were tied down.
My single plant has just reached the height where it touches my SCROG screen, I plan on taking the lower branches for clones today (for feminised seed production) and fitting the screen after that ... then in maybe a week I will switch to 12/12.