The payoff

It took me a bit of time. I posted a thread here some months back basically telling new growers not to give up. I took my own advice and after a lot of trial and error and well, some really dumb issues, things are looking up.

Seems like overall, probably my biggest issue was miscalibrated meters. I didn't realize that there are European and US standards for calibrating meters based on PPM. I was using the wrong scale and my readings were about 800 ppm off, which of course is enough to really f things up. That alone seemed to be the majority of my battle.

The other half was basically trying to simplify things. Initially I was trying to use two tents, I was trying to veg and flower in separate spaces and frankly it caused some complexities that simply weren't necessary. This round I just did everything in one tent so I didn't have to transplant or move anything.

Attached are some pictures of the latest grow and things are going nicely. A million times better then the last two attempts. Although I still have a lot to learn, I think I'm over the hurdle of constant disappointment and at least I'll have something to show for my efforts. Still not out of the woods yet, but I think I see the light. Check it out and let me know what you think. This is my third attempt.

you need more light, but otherwise things look not too bad.

Woomeister said:

you need more light, but otherwise things look not too bad.

Click to expand...

I have two 600w with digital ballasts. This isn't enough? I was considering upgrading to 1000w, but I think heat would be a problem. I'm constantly trying to battle heat.

Has anyone used the reflector heat shields by Hydro Innovations?

http://technorati.com/videos/youtube.com/watch?v=XTMuMu04i6Y

I could only see 1 light....2 x 600 should be loads!!! They just dont seem to have many nodes and look skinny thats all. Maybe you could get the lights closer?

I didn't know anyone else used those 6" rockwool cubes. I'm on my first grow, and got it started up before finding this forum. Here I've read nothing good about them, but I have no complaints. The one thing is you need to let them soak before you use them, or it's a constant battle with PH. Also, you don't need to feed/water as much as with other mediums, but this means if you have any sort of imbalance or anything, it takes a long time to correct, and I'm flushing a little early just because it takes so long to get everything out of the rockwool. I just watered mine three times/day during veg, and twice/day during flower. I didn't notice any of the algae problems people mention with them either... so anyway, good luck, and let us know how those cubes work.

Woomeister said:

I could only see 1 light....2 x 600 should be loads!!! They just dont seem to have many nodes and look skinny thats all. Maybe you could get the lights closer?

Click to expand...

I agree, they look stretched. You should be able to move the lights so they're only 6" away without anything burning, just make sure you adjust them every day.

Woomeister said:

I could only see 1 light....2 x 600 should be loads!!! They just dont seem to have many nodes and look skinny thats all. Maybe you could get the lights closer?

Click to expand...

And here I was thinking the stems looked pretty nice

This is 2 1/2weeks into veg from clones. In the first week I burned the plants due to my meter issue.

Edge,

Good for you on moving forward. Do you have any pics or diagrams of how you have everything set up in your tent (ducting, filters etc, I am setting one up now.) Also - what about the smell from the thing - does it have to cure for a while before you close up plants in it?