Light Distance from plants, Unattended for 10 days

A tragedy has hit, and i need to leave my babies for 10 days.

I have everything sorted other than light distance, as i don't want to stretch my girls, then again i'm not a massive fan of uncontrollable fire.

I have three options here: 250 cfl, 400w hps, or 400w mh.

Could anyone recommend which would be the best/safest left unattended for two weeks, and the distance that would be SAFE from the plants.

The plants are autos, small ones, which grow to 80cm tops and will be in week 2 of veg (at the time of leaving).

Looking for as many opinions as possible here please.

Thanks in advance!

Personally just to make sure you dont fry everything, I would use your 250 cfl and place it 10-12" higher than the normal height you would normally put your light.

Other option is to use your HPS but you would want to put this well above the canopy, prob 18" higher than normal, but you will lose lots of lumens doing this.

reverof said:

Personally just to make sure you dont fry everything, I would use your 250 cfl and place it 10-12" higher than the normal height you would normally put your light.

Other option is to use your HPS but you would want to put this well above the canopy, prob 18" higher than normal, but you will lose lots of lumens doing this.

Click to expand...

Thanks for that, my concerns with the hps is it sounds quite sketchy to leave it unattended, as apparently under 18" it can cause fire... ahhh.

Thanks for the reply, keep the suggestions coming please guys!

cfls suck, use your 400 either one and give yourself 16 in away from your tops, feed and spray with bushmaster, to stop vertical growth, and potassium silicate to help prevent heat stress.. co2 if you have it never hurts.. make sure you have enough water in your reservoir, or if your dont have one set up an irrigation system. pm me if you need any help setting that up.

Oh I dont disagree that cfl sucks, but the man is gonna be gone 10 days and is only 2 weeks into VEG, his prime growth is about to kick in over the next 10 days. I would rather be safe and slow them down growing a little and then come back and hit them with MH then take the chance of burning the plants, his house and whatever else can go wrong with a 10 day unattended grow.
Be safe, atleast in 10 days you will come back to your girls and your house.

Just my .02

Hi, thanks again for the replies. Luckily i'm sorted on the water front, as i'm currently using an autopot system with good results. I know Cfls suck, but by the sounds of it my cfl might be the safest option, as my number one concern is their survival, and the prevention of an almighty fire. That wouldn't be stealth.

Right, now the key goal is to figure out light distance. I'll use cfl whilst i'm away for the safety aspect, and i'll mh them when i'm back.

So you reckon 10-12" higher than normal? They are growing at about 1.5" per day atm! They are only lowryder type autos, so i'm quite surprised at the rate of growth, but then again i'm new to autos.

Any further height advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for all of your help!

since they are only 2 weeks in, I would consider scrapping them & starting fresh when you get back.wont they show sex will you are away & possibly go to seed? I'm not big on autoflowers but know they move fast due to the short life.
my condolences on your tragedy

cfl isnt optimum, but if you dont have a house to come home to, does it really make a fuck what you used?? id go cfls and place em like a foot away... lumens wont be for shit, but when you get home, you can deal with whatever you need to... a cfl isnt going to make them grow like hell or anything, but mainly, the FD wont be having to extinguish your next tragedy, and when they find the cause of it (the plants), then they call the police... fuck the fire, worry about the 5-0!!!