GREENOPS: 250w HPS stealth closet, Nirvana AK48 (needs guidance)

Rollitup,
I caught the grow fever my friends, my mind seems only to be occupied with how I can improve my stealh cab and grow the meanest AKs ever.

My grow space is about 6/3/2. As a first time grower I relied on the grow shops recommendation, so I got me some 250w HPS Lumatek Dig. Ballast (for vegging and flowering), a carbon filter and 180 m3/hr outtake fan, both 10cm diameter.
I use an extra fan for ventilation inside.

After hooking everything up and turning it on I noticed temperature was high and humidity low! Well Gddamn! Room temperature is only 71F, but inside the cab it reaches 88-91F (29-31C). Humidity can drop to 30%.
I kinda felt the grow shop screwed me and I went back and asked them if I should get a cool tube... they advised cool tube would lessen lumen output and still insisted that a 250w HPS shouldnt cause heat problems, I should add some more passive intakes (I already have intakes twice the size of the outtake). OK maybe the grow shop is not trying to screw me, since he advised against me buying another product from their shop....

So I did some more research and found that other people with high temperature didnt seem to have problems with their grow. Some say they had temps up to 95F, and shit was fine. OK, so I thought, Ill first germinate the 3 Skunk Nr1, use them to test the waters.

I planted them in soaked jiffies, after 3 days, 2 of them were coming out. I still waited 3 more days, just providing them with normal light coming from outside and the room... and damn they grew fast, in 3 days about 4 inch and thin! I was still hesitant to put them under the lights, so I left the 2 skunks at the window, and my little baby boy reached them and beheaded them! Just when I planned to put them in the cab that day. In the meanwhile the 3rd skunk came to life, I let two days pass with no light, grew about 3 inches, and now its in the cab.
Unfortunately, the 3rd one seems weaker than the two that got killed... it aint growing straight!
Is the reason why they stretched so much, because I didnt put it under the light right away?
Well, at least its looking a bit better now after two days in the cab, still not straight but leaves are growing a bit, but curling outwards...
... is this because of the heat? I have the light about 15 inches, I dont dare to put it nearer. But actually, if I put my hand under the light it doesnt seem uncomfortably hot to me... more confusion here.

Luckily I still have 10 AK48s. 5 of them I germinated 2 days ago.
I want to start the right way and avoid them reaching fuckin 4 inches in the first week, as I was planning to flower them when theyre around 10in cuz of the cab size!

I would really appreciate suggestions, guidance and any kinds of info that would relate to my temp problems etc.... THANKS! Now Im going to light one up

Update: The 5 smaller plants are the AK48s, tomorrow they will be 2 weeks old and they're 5 days younger than the Skunk#1.
I've noticed the Skunk has looked healthier than any of the AKs. And between the 5 AKs I found two different types, 3 of them have rather thiner light green leaves, while two are rather shorter with rounder, darker leaves.

If anyone is checking this out... need some advice with my space.

My grow space is 6ft/3/2. Is it advisable to keep all six plants? Or would I yield better when I just keep 3 plants or even less?
The final height of the plants cant be more than 110cm (3.6 feet), or else the plants get to near to the light and will suffer heat stress.

At what height should I start flowering? Since the Skunk is 5 days older than the AKs, should I top it, so they will all be equal in height come flowering time? This is my first grow and I dont wanna make a mistake by doing some unnecessary beheadings. Sooner or later I want to learn it tho.

The pix from today are the 3rd and 4th pic...

On April 20 I got my PH meter and what a surprise, our tap water's ph is around 8. That day I fed them all for the first time.
Plagron Alga Grow with a half the normal Rhizotonic solution. I adjusted the PH to about 5.8.
Just today (after two days) the soil got dry again and leaves were hanging down. Before, the soil remained moist for almost a week. I'm wondering if it has something to do with the adjusted PH, the plants being able to absorb it faster?
The bad news tho, the Skunk (upper right corner) is looking sick... the bottom leaves turning yellow and the tips of the new growth is yellow too. I don't think it has something to do with the feeding, cuz they appeared about 2 days before I fed them.
Anyone knows what this is? Is it normal, just ignore? Or is there something I can do about it?

By the way, do my plants appear to be heat stressed? I been getting high temps lately 90 - 100 F max temps, I'm sure that it doesn't stay long cuz when I check, the temps are around 88 F. I should be fixing the cooltube within next week.

broadcasting live...

Scrogg in effect:

I switched 10 days ago. This how they looked like last night. More white hairs, tighter nodes developing on the tops.

I read about trimming, but then again some people would say not to trim unless its really necessary.

What would you guys say, should I trim more? They look bushy to me..

That 250 is gonna blow ur mind.lol

Ok today is the 35th day!

iMHo they look healthy, and smell really good. The AK has a quite strong citrus smell. After I rearrange them my fingers smell like i washed it with some citrus flavored shower gel. The skunk is proper too! Grows really well.

ON the other side... some buds apparently start to turn brown, kinda early huh?
A lot of hairs are curly. They havent been stretching much lately, i guess now its the buds turn. Anyhow I ordered a jewelers magnifying glass (x45) today, I hope i can use that fuckin thing.

Oh yea, i found my old digi cam, well its not a good cam anymore but better than my iphone i was using bfore.

did you manage to get your temperature under control?
could be one reason for the early redhairs.
itherwise, they're looking good. no need to trim, imo. one thing: since you're concerned about mold, if you do take off any leaves, don't pull them out at the base. pinch the leafstem so the wound is visible (ie outside the bud surface), sometimes it's an 'in' for diseases.

mellokitty said:

did you manage to get your temperature under control?
could be one reason for the early redhairs.
itherwise, they're looking good. no need to trim, imo. one thing: since you're concerned about mold, if you do take off any leaves, don't pull them out at the base. pinch the leafstem so the wound is visible (ie outside the bud surface), sometimes it's an 'in' for diseases.

Click to expand...

yea i since i got the cooltube my temps went down to about 26-29 C.
i dont know if this made the hairs turn brown:

last week I miscalculated the dosage of the bloom nute and i might have given twice as much. I had no measuring cup then, so i used a teaspoon thinking my tsp = 1ml.
i just bought an injection tube with ml marks thats how i found out.

Is it even possible that hairs burn from that, i dont know. It was just that one feed and i was using organic nutes, Plagron Alga Bloom.


... oh and thanks for telling me about the pinching, i used to pull some out the base.