might be getting to big!!!help me out

im growing in a 4x4 flood and drain table 40 gal res

i only have 7 indica dominant plants going and 3 of them are reaching about 3.5 feet and im only in 3rd week of flower

another issue is im only using a 400wt hps system and i feel like the light isnt going to penetrate all the way down to the lower branches and other plants

also im almost out of room for raising my hood

basicly im just trying to figure out is this 400 wt light going to cut it for these 7 plants?

any help would be greatly appreciated.

If your plants are starting to show the beginning of buds, the stretch is about to slow down a bunch. It may grow a few more inches.

Uh.....400w for seven plants? Unless you have it on a light-mover the answer is you're way under-lit. You can hang some CFL's to help out, or pull the trigger for either a 600w (most recommended) or 1000w (only if you have enough height to keep it away from the plant tops). If you're on a tight budget, give Craigslist a try....I got all my flower-room lighting from there and it was relatively cheap.

Do some reading on super-cropping if you start running out of room between the lights and plants.

heres a few images if this at all helps some sideways, my bad, i know i need to upgrade lighting im trying to get the funds togethor now. let me know what you think and if this is too much for 400wt

first time with hydro, had no clue how rapid this process is i feel as if these plants have alot of potential i just need new lighting im assuming and i know i dont have space in this area for a 1000 do you think its to close for a 600 as well?

I have a very similar grow going on right now, hopefully this gives u some insight as to what ur in for.

OK SO HERE WE GO

my current grow
4x4 tent 7ft tall
1000w MH Veg - 1000w HPS Hortilux Flower - cobra hood - lumatek ballast
Using ReadyGro Aeration Formula by Botanicare
7 x Tripple OG Plants (Indica Dominant)
I started off with 8 as u can see in this pic but i soon realized this wasnt enough space for 8 flowering plants, they are extremely bushy plants. most as wide as the were tall.
This is a picture of day 45 The last day of veg, still 8 plants. You can begin to see that flowering all these plants is going to be difficult in the 4x4.
I believe this picture is about half way through flower, day 30-40 under 12/12 1000W HPS. By this time I had Already taken out the 8th plant. You can clearly see the tent is maxed out, at least from the canopy's point of view. This is an undershot of the canopy. a lot of lollipopping was done as you can see.
Keep in mind these plants were untrained, i will be using a scrog net for the redemption grow, i will also be growing less plants. im thinking maybe 4 of this same strain with the same setup. I feel like my yield for each plant was cut dramatically due to space issues, but also light issues (not having enough light penetration going through the canopy to lower bud sights.) So im looking at alot of nice tops but the under sides are garbage...underdeveloped buds unfortunately.

My personal opinion on your situation, is that I do not think you will have enough light provided for 7 medium sized flowering plants.
If it was me it would come down to either upgrading the lighting system, or getting rid of at least a couple of these plants to allow for optimal flowering conditions. Keep in mind that if you have the space and proper weather conditions, throwing a flowering plant outdoors is worth a shot. My 8th plant i actually waited on purpose to throw it outdoors. I waiting until about 3 weeks into flower for 1. to make sure that i did not have enough room. 2 - if it didnt i knew i could always throw it outside and hope for the best. HOPE THIS HELPS

with the 400 wt i know that im going to have light issues, do you think that using a 600 would help reach the lower branches or do you think i should get rid of the lower branches so that the plants energy is directed more towards the top colas, within the next month i could prob move one or two outside honestly within the next few weeks im sure i could afford the 600 or even 1000 but i dont have space for the 1000 for the time being

this did help though obviously i need a new ballast and light and i appreciate the ideas

I have 8 full-size plants (some are 4' tall) in a 5x7 room and have a 400w mh and a 600w hps over them on a light-mover. While light penetration is important, if you get enough light to each plant the bottom of the plants will be ok.

Here's a pic of my very cramped grow room:



Here's a pic of one of the plants....you can see that the bottom of these plants are not suffering:



It's a miss conception that a branch, bud, or leaf has to have direct light to be productive. Click on any of my grows in my signature link to see what sort of plants I get with a packed grow-room.

i dont really see an extra 200w's solving this problem completely, i know it would help for sure. I've never tried light movers before so this can be an option. I would definitely consider upgrading lights.

lilroach said:

Click to expand...

Very nice and very interesting, how do your light movers work?...does it just slowly go back and forth or does it make a slow sweep over the canopy like the sun would? which is better?..

My mover takes about a minute to travel the 4-5' and at the end of each run sits for about 15 seconds before reversing....this gives the plants at each end of the run the same amount of light as the one's in the middle.

I'm a big fan of light-movers, but have to warn that if you're using vented fixtures it takes a bunch of fine-tuning to get the venting right, and one has to take into account how to run the power cords on a moving light.

I must also add that I do have some CFL's lighting up the lower halves of my plants. I do this only because I have the lights anyway, and really can't say that they do much of anything since I leave them off during the summer to keep the heat down and the plants look the same then as they do with the lights on in my winter grows.

Lots of people have had your issue, myself included. I basically started to bend and manipulate things to keep branches out of light. I actually unintentionally broke many branches doing this and tied them up. The plants did great and the next grow was much better with less plants and less veg time. Good luck! And yes even now I will break and tie branches on some plants as it seems to increase growth on a few of my strains.

Fyi I'm not suggesting breaking branches lol.

Here's the short answer- you'll need to either add side lighting or train them for an even canopy like a loose SCROG. Your top colas will be ok I think but yeah not much light will penetrate thick canopy without help...I use the 100watt per plant rule when it comes to HIDs but you can squeeze more if you keep em real squat

when its on the day mode it seems as if the light is getting through just not enough energy but either way tax money will be back soon and ima pull the trigger on the 600 wt witch is what im assuming my best bet is. but hey at least i have a good veg set up now