Thank SimpsonSam I was kinda of leaning towards your advice and just gett another enhanced 600wHPS bulb and just supplement with some t-5 side lights which I already was going to do,heat shouldnt be a prob, but we will see very shortly Thanks that was the way I wanted to go but it's still nice to hear confirmation from someone that's more knowledgeable than I am about this. I will post some pics next week everything should be arrived and Ill finally be able to get truly started, just the gun three times just being impatient and setting everything up before I was Truly ready, and im making myself wait, which is making me even more neurotic. anyway
Thanx again,
K.I
if you have a chance to get things set up and give it a test run to check heat and everything prior to adding the plants you'll be way ahead of the curve if there are any issues.. it will give you time to fix/adjust things without having your plants suffer... good luck on everything tho and i cant wait to see pics of how things are going for you!
hey bro im new to growing and u sound like you know your stuff so just to ask and exp grower to an un exp grower that im ussing a 55gallon rubbermaid tote and these plants look ok one is an LST and the othere was just straight up growing but i think it got to much heat to it and it almost died so i trimmed the dead leavs now shes comming bak so i was wondering about watering i always have trouble watering either to much or to little its so frustrating idfk what to do bro ne advice?
hey bro.. ill be happy to help you out...
first make sure you have adequate drain holes at the bottom of your tote... there can be a lot of water that gets trapped in there during watering so you want to make sure it has an out...
the easiest way to tell if you need to water is to purchase a 10 or 15 dollar moisture meter and use it... they are usually 12 inches long.. so you can get to the middle of the pot.. dont worry if it hits the roots some.. they wont mind as long as you are somewhat gentle...
as for the actual watering here is the best way to do it with the size of container you are working with...
start out by breaking up the top inch or 2 of soil across the top.. this will help the water penetrate through the soil... especially make sure you do this around the edges of the tote... water is likely to just run off around there...
when you get your solution mix or plain water ready add a couple drops of non-scented biodegradable liquid dish soap.. i think dawn (the original blue stuff) is what i used... just make sure its non scented and biodegradable... this will again help the water penetrate...
when you water (assuming you are using a 1 gallon water can??) water with about 1/2 of the gallon.. wait a few minutes and allow that water to be absorbed throughout the soil... then water with 1/4 of the remaining.. again waiting for a few minutes (say 10 minutes each waiting period)... then the other 1/4 can....
if you need to use a second gallon just keep repeating with the 1/4 gallon amount.... do this until you begin to see water running from the drain holes.. once you see that you know you are good to go...
so a moisture meter + the rest of the advice should = a perfect watering each time...
also.. remember that there is not perfect amount of time between watering.. your plant will use more water sometimes.. less water sometimes... it may take 7 days between 1 watering and only 3 between the next.. using a meter will take the guessing game out of it...
out of curiosity, what kind of soil/amendments are you using?? nutes?? and why do you think that the temps were too high beside the plant almost dieing?? what were the temps??
hey man, here's where my little dwarf ladies are lookin like. Take a peak & lemme know what ya think.
And there are a few more of those yellow spots left on one of the plants. I kicked up the Micro Boost and added some Magical, which helped a bit, but it's weird, bout 4 of 'em have at least a few of the spots, but they tend to be the larger of the crew. Who knows? I don't suppose those spots will affect yield or anything do ya?
I'll keep the calciaum up a bit. I'm bout 1-200 in the PPM shit. Says supposed to be @ round 1150, and I'm around 1300 after adding extra boost & magical, so i feelin that i'm alright, but lemme know if i tweak anything different.
preesh dude
they look good bro.. really nice and healthy.. congrats!!
can you take a pic of the yellow spots?? from what you have said i would just assume its from excelerated growth rates.. nothing to be concerned with.. especially if it is just on a few of the larger ones.. makes sense.. sometimes they can grow faster than they rate at which they use nutes.. this can cause minor defs in the plants.. you did perfect uping the ppm and magical tho...
everything else sounds good... ppms are good... plants are good.. i can see budsites wanting to start to show.. so anytime soon you'll be making the switch to bloom nutes.. keep it up bro.. you should be very happy...
Long Time No See Guys!
Just about finished setting my tent up, and I had a quick question. I got one of those purple digital ballasts and I am wondering if anyone thinks it could get too hot to put on top of the tent. Also: I have a yield master II supreme with a hortilux super 400w hps with the glass and some venting on each side going out of the tent. Until I get a vent fan to suck/blow air through the reflector hood, would I be better off removing the glass to keep the bulb cool? Or do hps run cool enough to keep enclosed with virtually no air flow?
I'm guessing the answer to both is no, and I should take the glass off, t hen raise the hood, and add a fan that blows somewhere at the bulb.
PS: 12 inches above plants for an hps is pretty standard yes? With glass can it get much below that? I've seen that one chart but it dosen't mention if glass is used or not (says no closer than 6 inches)
PSS: Sop tomorrow is a scheduled watering day without nutes, and i will be able to move them into bigger pots and give them the hps. Is there any problem with watering them at 6 in the morning when their lights come on, transplanting to bigger pots, and sticking them in the big tent with their first day of 400w super hps in a grow tent? How bad would it be if i did that and switched to 12/12 all in the same day?
I'm not sure how much longer I will veg, they are looking their best ever now and with a calculated average height of 8 inches (one is tall, medium, small with about the same difference between each) the pots I got are as tall as a gallon jug of milk with the lid top cut off and can fit a gallon jug of milk in them with about an inch of room on each side.. Haha square pots about 9 inches across and about 7 inches deep. So yeah how long do you think i can afford to veg in these pots before I will ultimately have to get bigger ones down the line? With pots this size should I switch to flowering soon so they don't outgrow these pots too? *I don't really want to get even bigger pots but I will if I have to
PSS: So I might just move them into their tent now with the hps, haven't test run it yet but will any minute now. Question: Do marijuana plants experience any shock when switching types of light? I will be going from 4 24w 6500k bulbs a a few inches above them, to a 400w hortilux super hps about a foot above them, will that stress them out at all?
PSSS: also, it may make sense, but it seems pretty strange that neither my reflector nor my ballast have an on/off switch (the only way to turn it off appears to be to unplug the 120v line of the ballast from the regular wall socket it plugs into) - thoughts?
hey brotha.. glad to hear your making progress too... congrats...
so the ballast shouldnt get hot enough that it cant be on the tent.. i have mine sitting ontop of some poly and they dont melt it.. especially being a 400.. it will stay plenty cool...
using a ballast with the glass is the best way to go... you really should have an exhaust fan set up tho to help.. but i can tell you know that... as for the question, i would personally leave the glass and just sit a fan up to blow hot air away from the reflector... think of a 1000w hps in an outdoor light.. they are enclosed and put off a shit load more heat... with just the outside to cool it off.. its for the most part the same idea as you are going to do.. just a smaller bulb for you to worry about heat.. if it seems to get to hot you can always remove the lense and attempt to cool.. you may want to try both ways and see what works best...
12" is a good height amount.. when they are younger (Seedlings) i would go more like 18 to 20 inches to be safe.. but once they are in good veg you can move that a lot closer...
you can do everything you want (switch pots and to 12/12 under new light) all in the same day fine.. if you are careful with the transplant it should cause little shock.. the light may shock them a little... just from the increase.. but nothing to worry about.. 12/12 switching can always somewhat shock plants.. but its again nothing to worry about.. i would hit them with light nutes when you water if you do transplant...
as long as you stay up on watering and feeding them you can run the entire rest of the grow in the pots you are talking about above.. you just may have to water more frequently than if they were in even larger pots.. but i'd say you could veg a few more weeks if you wanted to.. but i think starting to flower sooner than later would be a better idea so you can get the most out of your light...
again light can shock them.. but usually its because its too intense put to close.. if you give them an adjustment time with it backed off a little and increase the closeness over a couple days they will be more than fine...
yeah.. they dont have switches.. kinda stupid.. but un plug when you want off... plug in when you want on.. or better yet get a timer to do it for you.. lol
i think that covered everything..
Hey bro, gonna grab some type of bubble bags & try them out. Do you think it is worth it foe the autos, or does the ruderalis make it not worth fukin with, and just wait & use for other reg photo girls?
as always, thank ya thank ya
honestly... i dont like bubble bags.... making bubble hash is a pain in the ass.. and some of the bags are far too fine to actually use... when i make hash i just use a hash box similar to this
http://www.bcboxes.com/ it just makes dry keif that you have to press or use as is... but it seems to yield a lot more in the end.. plus is much easier.. plus when you are done removing the keif, you can use the trimmings left over to make butter/oil for cookies and shit... just works better for me i guess...
if you REALLY want to try bubble bags and bubble hash then i encourage you to do so.. the more ways you can try shit the more you'll know what your style is in the end..
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