first grow questions

so i just figgured out how to use this page but i bought lotsa books and have been watching all the vids i can find
i have 8 clones at about week 3
under a flourescent and a couple low wattage cfls
i just transplanted out of the little 1 by 1 plastic cubes into bigger cups
i have a small fan running on them and a window fan venting out
i have recently uncoverd them because the humidity is high enuf and theyre at approx 80 degrees-90 degrees
i had them in a large rubbermaid im going to move them to open air i think tomorrow
im running 18/6
my soil is the orange bag of promix

now my questions
should i run my fan over night
are they ready for my metal hailide my room is about 10x15 and my bulb is 1000watts
how do i build a shade for my lamp
how much will my power go up with the big light
how far from my plants should the mh be hanging and if im not ready to put the mh up then how many watts or lights should i have on them i have 8 65 watt cfls set up in clusters but im only running a few of em right now i had a little leaf burn when i first brought them and i think its because i had too much light, also my a few leafs went flat so i think they were losing too much water through the leaves....
oh yea an when and how often do i feed them

they look way better tonight than they did this morning i dont wanna love them to death, its too easy to do.
thanks
sincerly, a lil stressed bout my babies
ill post photos tmrw of my leaf burn and flatening and the stage they are at for a better judgement on my light situation

Use the cfls for another week ago before switching. Maybe a foot or so (I don't use a HID). but 10x15 is too small for 1x1000w MH. and lower your temps shoot for 76-82

If you have the ventilation to move the hot air out of your grow room I dont see why you couldnt use a 1k watter in there... just watch the temps

10x15 is not too small for a 1000W MH. The footprint of a 1000W MH is 9ftx9ft. You should be fine with it but like BBbubblegum said don't use it for another week or so. It will justt fry the babies up. I would say when you do use the MH at first keep it about a foot and a half to two feet away from the tops and as they get more established move it down to around 18 inches. if you have a coolhood and very good ventilation you might be able to get it closer, all depends.

Here's a chart on metal halide distances
View attachment 2180655

jpockets420 said:

10x15 is not too small for a 1000W MH. The footprint of a 1000W MH is 9ftx9ft. You should be fine with it but like BBbubblegum said don't use it for another week or so. It will justt fry the babies up. I would say when you do use the MH at first keep it about a foot and a half to two feet away from the tops and as they get more established move it down to around 18 inches. if you have a coolhood and very good ventilation you might be able to get it closer, all depends.

Here's a chart on metal halide distances
View attachment 2180655

Click to expand...

i also have read that when you are switching from CFL to HID you should introduce the HID slowly while the CFLs are still on the plant. Move the HID a little bit closer everyday until its where it needs to be. could be wrong.. i dont use HID lighting...

"The footprint of a 1000W MH is 9ftx9ft" On the moon maybe not not earth. 1000 watts will cover a 3x3 area well, and a 4x4 area ok. Beyond that you are pissing in the wind or growing stringy crap.

The height of your light is a tradeoff and in part determined by your reflector. If you have the light very low, but high enough not to burn then you won't get as much coverage. If you have your light too high, you will get lots of coverage but not enough intensity. For my vented hood I typically keep it 18" to 24". In a 4x4 table I wind up having to rotate the plants a lot to get even development. You can just raise the light way up when you first put in your clones. If you're worried, do one first. I have a dimmable ballast so I just turn mine down when the clones go in and crank it up as they start to get bigger.

You can run your fan 24/7.

Feed them half as frequently as you think you should and then half as much as you think you should.

2000 watts would be just about right for a 4x8 table. The biggest issue is heat. Run you lights at night and suck out as much air as you can.

ok sounds good I was contemplating running the mh with the cfls anyway if it wasnt over kill. I wanted to add photos today but I havent got them off my phone and on to my computer for upload. I tried uploading them right from my phone but it didnt go well. the distsnce the light is from the plant doesnt matter with cfls? the mh will need more like 18 inches between plant and light? I corrected my temperature but the humidity outside lately has made it tough to keep it at the ideal spot

they are showing sex? did i mess something up? the light cycle??? help

heatstress?

did i screwed up baddd?

kevork...you have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. My 400w hps covers a 3x3 area. Any 1000w light whether it be hps or mh will cover a 9x9 area. Why do you think some grow up to 25 under one 1000 watter? In a 4x4 area you can only fit 4 nice sized plants. Your telling me you can only grow 4 plants under a 1000 watter. If that isnt a noob statement I dont know what is smh. It is simply the most absurd thing I have heard all day. Heatherton..dont listen to that fool. Google 1000W MH light footprint and you will see, no matter where you go that the footprint is 9x9..and Im sure everybody will concur with me. I would not use that light on them small of plants. You are burning them up, they are way heat stressed. 1000w MH should be used for a well established plant. Usually it is well established after about 3 weeks or so. Use them on seedlings and you will always get what your getting...heat and light stressed plants. Do what that moron above told you to do and your plants will die

I have grown with everything from a 150 watt to 1000s + supplemental. I've grown 6 plants in a 4x4, I've grown 12 plants in a 4x4. I could probably fit 16 if I was doing a sog.

Now... lets do the math... 1000 Watts kicks out 150,000 lumens (horribly optimistic there) Your 9x9 is 81 sq. ft. 1850 lumens per sq. ft. Optimal would be 7000+ lumens per sq. ft. Don't believe that... well, here is how it looks in watts. 1000/81 = 12 watts per sq. ft. You need a minimum of about 50. watts per sq. ft. . Daylight is about 10K lumens.

Next you will be telling me you grew 5 pounds with that 1000 watter spread over 81 sq. ft. That is what you would have to grow if you're getting 1.5 oz + per sq. ft. which is around what I get.

The only intelligent thing you have said is that you wouldn't use 1000 watts on seedlings. Well duh. You put the seedlings under the 1000 watt light once they start taking up enough room to justify that much electricity. I use a dimmable ballast so I can turn my light down but I still don't put them under there until they are a foot tall or so.

Here is a picture of 11 plants under 1000 watts. They are a bit cramped because they were LST'd and veged a little longer than liked. Even so, they produced about 24 ounces .67 grams per watt. If they were single tops they would fit quite nicely.


Here are 6 plants under the same light. They seem to look just fine to me. I expect them to kick out .8 grams per watt. Note these plants have been trained and have about 5-7 tops each. If they were left as single stalk I could obviously fit in twice as many.


I dont know where the hell you get the only 4 plants in a 4x4 thing since I've heard of people doing up to 24. If you are growing house plants, yeah a 1000 watt will cover 81 sq. ft. or more. If you are growing dense buds no no no.


The fact that you would even suggest such a thing tells me you've never even had a 1000 watt light.