Hi HMHTW
Wow! your plants are looking so healthy! you're doing great by the looks of it. Sorry for such a late rply yes I was away in good old Amsterdam, so just recovering from the trip! (no pun intended)
With regards to the flowering under the 250W Fluro I have read that they do a good job, I have never tried flowering under a Fluro so I can't really give you any advice on that one! But as you say Babygro knows his stuff so go with his advice on that one for sure. I have only flowered under my 400w HPS. I harvested Grow#2 on friday (pics attached)
It smells so much sweeter & fruitier than my 1st grow (chemical nutes & no syrup) I reckon from what I have it will last me at least 3-4 months
In fact I have only paid for a 8th in the last 4 months saving me at least £400!
I'm now on Grow#3 & totally organic no hydro this time. Just thought I would see the difference in maintenance & final yield/taste etc. So far growing in soil has been great, as you don't need so much attention as with hydro. Basically I bought some Houseplant compost from B&Q, Vermiculite & Perlite and just put my sprouted seedlings (that were started in rockwool) in the soil & they are doing good so far. (seeds from Gypsy Nirvana a UK seed bank/headshop) I have Northern Lights X Bigbud, Durban Poison x Skunk & Misty Blue (Blueberry) & a bagseed all on the go now. My Grow tent has been converted into a drying room for Grow 2's yield. Thanks Mum for the loan of the Clothes Horse to 'dry my clothes' on! lol
Yes the Ph issue is now my biggest issue as I have yet to read the soils ph accurately as I have no ph soil tester yet! so I am just feeding it ph 6.4 water at the mo (no nutes yet) will start the nutes in a couple of weeks I think until they use up what nutes are available in the soil...
Ok the time to Veg query is always being conflicted I know! I go by the theory that the plant will triple its size from when you start flowering (mine sure did!) We both have the space in the tents so I would give yours a bit longer as mine were still a good foot & a half from the top of my tent once I finished flowering so start flowering when they are about a foot & a half?
The syrup I read up about in Jorge Cervantes Grow Bible (from Amazon) I was going to use Maple Syrup as this is more runny, the Golden Syrup I had to dillute in warm water so it dissolved a bit rather than sink to the bottom & congeal into a gloopy hard lump!
I went for Golden Syrup when I saw the price of Maple Syrup! about £5 a bottle! & only a few mils!.. I gave it a good heaped desertspoon & poured it in the 25litre reservoil so if I was using it with the soil i'd go with Maple Syrup & use 1 teaspoon per Litre I guess to be safe.
Hope any of this rabble was useful?! Just finished a J of Grow#2 & boy has it knocked me for six!
Here are those pics m8:
[img=http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/254/dsc01273zv4.th.jpg]