My first Indoor Grow, all Help Appreciated

[oakley1984]

well it seems youve got a ton of help from alot of people so far, but if youve got any questions im happy to help with the knowledge i have

and No, definitely do not exceed the timers ratings... go find a timer thats rated for 15a @ 120v it needs to be a grounded timer, and try to avoid the digital ones, all the cheap ones lose programming often. mechanical = never fail. (im presuming thats what your ballasts are set to use is 120v)

 

[laserbrn]

That's interesting. I found many a mechanical that has failed me, but my digital timers work fantastically. The big benefit to a digi timer is that it has batteries in it. When the power goes out the timer doesn't get all f*ed up.

 

[oakley1984]

That's interesting. I found many a mechanical that has failed me, but my digital timers work fantastically. The big benefit to a digi timer is that it has batteries in it. When the power goes out the timer doesn't get all f*ed up.

weird! ive had the exact opposite experience, on all my aquariums, all my rooms... all the digi timers i had, Failed me... would randomly drop programming twice a week, fucked up alotta things because of it.... made the switch back to mechanical on all of them.. havent had a Single issue since!

 

[laserbrn]

Maybe I've just been lucky and used good quality digi timers? My mechanicals would fail to click off at times and leave my damn lights in flowering, I've had one stop working altogether.

I did have 1 digital timer a long time ago that I bought at Home Depot and I remember (I was growing in the closet at the time) in the middle of the night it started buggin' out and clickin' on and off repeatedly turning the lights on and off in the middle of the dark period.

I chucked that one and bought my current one and haven't had a single problem with it in probably 10 grows. I still use mechanicals for water pumps and things like that.

 

[oakley1984]

i think both are probably prone to approximate same failure rate, just seems we got it at different ends!

 

[Fatty420]

So below is a picture of the timer I picked up today from lowes, on the back it said "20amp - 1850 watt resistive" and "15amp- 1250 watt strungen" or something like that, will this power my 1000w light okay? i took the old timer off today and it was quite hot to the touch, so Im guessin it wasnt handling the power that well, the plugs were very hot too, heres a link to Lowes website for more info on the timerhttp://www.lowes.com/pd_155550-95363-TM13DOLBLPD_4294857038_4294937087_?productId=3342796&Ns=p_product_prd_lis_ord_nbr|0||p_product_qty_sales_dollar|1&pl=1&currentURL=/pl_Timer+Lighting+Controls_4294857038_4294937087_?Ns=p_product_prd_lis_ord_nbr|0||p_product_qty_sales_dollar|1&facetInfo=Anyways, no watering for the plants today and they really seem like they perked up and do look alot better, so thats good, so my questions..1. Will that timer be okay? or no?2. Does my light have to come closer to the plants? the light is exactly 2 ft away from the TOP of the plantsummm.. thats it for now.. hehe

 

[oakley1984]

So below is a picture of the timer I picked up today from lowes, on the back it said "20amp - 1850 watt resistive" and "15amp- 1250 watt strungen" or something like that, will this power my 1000w light okay? i took the old timer off today and it was quite hot to the touch, so Im guessin it wasnt handling the power that well, the plugs were very hot too, heres a link to Lowes website for more info on the timerhttp://www.lowes.com/pd_155550-95363-TM13DOLBLPD_4294857038_4294937087_?productId=3342796&Ns=p_product_prd_lis_ord_nbr|0||p_product_qty_sales_dollar|1&pl=1&currentURL=%2Fpl_Timer%2BLighting%2BControls_4294857038_4294937087_%3FNs%3Dp_product_prd_lis_ord_nbr|0||p_product_qty_sales_dollar|1&facetInfo=Anyways, no watering for the plants today and they really seem like they perked up and do look alot better, so thats good, so my questions..1. Will that timer be okay? or no?2. Does my light have to come closer to the plants? the light is exactly 2 ft away from the TOP of the plantsummm.. thats it for now.. hehe

yes that timer should be much safer... as for how close to put the light, as close as it will stand.. right now its young so 2ft is fine, when it starts getting larger with adequate cooling and ventilation you can get a 1000w as close as 12-14" Dont put your plant that close right away.. good way to burn it to nothing! increments!

 

[Fatty420]

Cool, yeah I hope this timer is safer, lol, hey its waterproof too, haha, so Im backin off the watering since the soil is still moist right now after a day an half no water, so ill wait til it dries up a bit and hit em with half dose nutes again

 

[oakley1984]

best advice i can give for soil, Know the weight of your dry pot, waiting Too long to water is just as bad as overwatering

 

[Fatty420]

Ok, well no water yesterday and no water most of the day the day before that, and this morning the soil is still semi-damp, so should I give a light watering today? today will be almost 2 full days without watering? but the plants are looking good though! they kinda perked up and dont look so droopy

 

[Fatty420]

Ok, plants are looking really good, and those damn suckers looked like they grew an inch over night!, I got the Ph meter and TDS meter already, I tested my faucet water, the PH was 7.4, and thats pretty much what Ive been watering them with, I know this is not good, someone said 6.3 - 6.8 is okay, but how do I go about lowering PH and PPM's or highering the values? with nutrients Im assuming? I think the chart on page 3 of this thread is what tells me which nutrients helps lower or higher the ph/ppms, let me know if Im wrong

 

[oakley1984]

i wouldnt over complicate PH with soil, mix your nutes, feed them.

 

[loyaltytoafault]

I had some recent PH lockout in my soil grow. It sucks. You need to know.more than water PH. You need to know the soil ph also. If your soil PH is 5.8 out the bag, then maybe your high PH tap balances it out. Get a soil PH tester and see what you get. A majority of people seem to agree that its generally not something soil growers.need to worry about.

 

[Fatty420]

Ok will do, well so far Ive been using the TDS meter and PH meter to test the water and nute mixture before I feed them, I been keeping the PH between 6.3 and 6.8 and the PPMS stay between 300-400, here is update with some pictures below, take a look at my first post in this thread and look at how much they grew, they are looking real good, a couple of them look a little ehh, but not too bad, and I noticed yellow spots on some of the leafs on one or two of the plants.. I dont know what that is, but other then that, all looks good!!

 

[grandaddypurped]

Looking pretty good man.

 

[loyaltytoafault]

Get a picture of the spots your talking about w/o the hps and ill try to help

 

[Fatty420]

Well, yellow spots pretty much went away, only concern now is, some leafs on some of the plants are kind of curling a little, or look like someone pinched a leaf and it stayed that way, but they are looking DARK green, with nice patterns on the leafs, is this good? Here is some pics below, sorry about the HPS light, Next time i will take the plants outside to get a better picture... but check the pictures below and let me know what you guys think! and when should I switch these babies to 12/12 lighting? Im still on 18/6 right now, they are around 2 months old, give or take a little either way, but "around" 2 months old... thanks!

 

[Fatty420]

Can anyone see the curls in the leafs in the post above?

 

[Fatty420]

Okay, I need help, someone has told me that my garage is very cold, too cold actually, they said I should introduce a small heater in the garage somewhere for the plants, is this a good idea???

 

[oakley1984]

the temperature in your grow room should be approx 70-80F with night time temps being no colder than 65f