300 Watt CFL Scrog Grow

80mg said:

Cmon man he just answered all this, just read through the forum man...

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Ok, I just reread all 4 pages in case I was an idiot and missed it, but at NO point does he mention the light spectrum of the lamps he is using (maybe you misunderstood my question?). You do know what K means right? He mentioned lumens and watts, never K. Also he never said how long it was vegging before switching to 12/12 (but this question is much less important than the light temp question), which was why I asked. I rarely post in the grow diaries because I like to just lurk, read and take notes.

Now if you could have quoted where he actually answered the question I asked (which he hasn't that I can see through 3 readings now) then I would say Im sorry and go back to lurking and enjoy watching his grow. But I cant, because he hasn't that I can see. Which is why I asked in the first place.

Jesus, no need to be such a cunt about it.

80mg said:

Jesus, no need to be such a cunt about it.

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How am I the one being a cunt here when you first came in and said he already answered my question (in a very arrogant manner) when he hadnt.. now I am a cunt for explaining my question in more detail?? Seriously man you need to chill out. I'm just looking for some knowledge here, not threadjack this beautiful grow thread.

It's all good guys, lets not start any nonsense, just a simple miscommunication probably. Sometimes people come on and don't read the threads through, and then post questions that have already been answered, I see where 80mg was coming from. BUT, in this case, both of you are wrong lol...
I didn't ever say what spectrum the CFL's were, my bad, I will correct that in a sec., but I veg under 6500k and flower under 2700k.
I did, however, say on page 2, post #16:

GodSlave said:

...I vegged for a week and a half after they were under the screen,...

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and I also said in my original post:

GodSlave said:

...and I put them into flower about a week too soon. ...

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and in my original post I also put a plant count next to the strains, but that could easily have been misunderstood:

GodSlave said:

(1) AK47 X Black Dominion (left side in pic) (2) Trainwreck X Herijuana (right side in pic) Started in clone form.

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So, I hope that clears everything up!

@Roland- To answer your question about the HPS vs CFL... this is a long fought battle and I don't want to start that all over again. Bottom line for ME: HPS is most definitely superior to CFL in light strength. If you have the vertical space and the ability to vent the heat out, go HPS all the way. But for my situation, I don't have the vertical space, so I use CFL. You must keep an HPS around 12" above the canopy, CFL only 2 or 3, so when I only have 35" above the pots, you can see how that extra 8 to 10" would be a deal breaker. Also, there is the heat issue, CFL's will generally put off less heat, so the need for venting is not as extreme.
So... if you have the vertical space and can vent the heat, go HPS. If you do not, consider CFL and SCROG or LST. One area CFL's' fall short is penetration, so that is why I say consider SCROG. You will get a much higher yield with SCROG (or LST) vs. a CFL grow with a traditional Christmas tree type plant. In fact, SCROG was originally invented for adaptation to fluro's. But you can most definately do SCROG with HPS, and you will have some KILLER harvests! SCROG is more work, but in the end, you can really maximize your grow/harvest quantity.

Hope that helps, and don't hesitate to comment or ask questions.

GS

Dude thank you for answering! I have about 4 feet of height to work with (total) and am currently debating whether to go with the CFL for 2 weeks veg then 400w HPS for flower in a true ScrOG method. 200 CFL vent system makes me somewhat confident about this on a 3x3 screen but I am curious if you think I should go with the HPS or not. Heat shouldnt be a problem with venting and circulation, but I can get around 800 real watts of CFL for the same price as the HPS. Budget isn't a concern as I am simply a "plant manager" (pun intended).

So whats your honest opinion? Ive got a 9 square foot grow area with about 4 feet tops of clearance.

Being a newbie here sucks cause all the rep Ive built on other grow sites means shit. But I like this site, so still plugging away. Lots of good gardeners here with good knowledge.

ETA: So do you completely unplug your 6500K lights in flower, or keep a percentage for the extra lumens? That is another thing I have debated internally. Save the bulbs for another veg cycle... or use them to provide spectrum and lumens to the current grow.

xxRolandxx said:

Dude thank you for answering! I have about 4 feet of height to work with (total) and am currently debating whether to go with the CFL for 2 weeks veg then 400w HPS for flower in a true ScrOG method. 200 CFL vent system makes me somewhat confident about this on a 3x3 screen but I am curious if you think I should go with the HPS or not. Heat shouldnt be a problem with venting and circulation, but I can get around 800 real watts of CFL for the same price as the HPS. Budget isn't a concern as I am simply a "plant manager" (pun intended).

So whats your honest opinion? Ive got a 9 square foot grow area with about 4 feet tops of clearance.

Being a newbie here sucks cause all the rep Ive built on other grow sites means shit. But I like this site, so still plugging away. Lots of good gardeners here with good knowledge.

ETA: So do you completely unplug your 6500K lights in flower, or keep a percentage for the extra lumens? That is another thing I have debated internally. Save the bulbs for another veg cycle... or use them to provide spectrum and lumens to the current grow.

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Hey, no problem!

Here's what you need to figure:
-How tall are your pots
-You need about 8" clearance from the top of the pot to the screen. Really the more the better, but I get away with 6-8", it just makes it easier to train the more you have.
-You need about 12" of bud space. That is an estimate, I like to go more than what you may need, just to be safe, 12" is more than sufficient for CFL SCROG, bordering on not enough for HPS SCROG.
-You need 12" space between the canopy and your light if going with an HPS, 2-3" with CFL.
-Figure in the light fixture space, mine is around 6", that's pretty typical I think.

So, as you can see, you are nearing in on your max space with an HPS. It's probably doable, but you could run into problems if they grow too big. You'll just have to make the call. You won't get as much of a harvest with CFL, but if this is just for personal use, CFL's should get you along just fine.

As for my 6500's- My veg and flower chamber are seperate. They are under the 6500 during the veg and then I move them to the 2700.

GS

I wish I could give you more rep, but apparently I have to spread it around more before I can give it to you again. I have a grand total of 35 inches from bottom of tent to top. Im gonna take a hard look at where I can cut vertical space (getting short/fat 3 gallon pots, 8inch above pot for screen placement, possibly using a cool tube HPS or going cfl all the way). Thank you again! When grow diary goes up I hope you stop by! Im still in planning/preparing stages.

xxRolandxx said:

I wish I could give you more rep, but apparently I have to spread it around more before I can give it to you again. I have a grand total of 35 inches from bottom of tent to top. Im gonna take a hard look at where I can cut vertical space (getting short/fat 3 gallon pots, 8inch above pot for screen placement, possibly using a cool tube HPS or going cfl all the way). Thank you again! When grow diary goes up I hope you stop by! Im still in planning/preparing stages.

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Repped him for ya!

awesome grow man. i repped and subbed

Hey GodSlave, just replied to your message then found your thread so i can see your cab for myself, From the look of it and since you are doing scrog, i would say you could have a 250w HPS in there but you would probably need some sort of venting, its not that the bulb will be too hot for the plants by being too close its just the temp of the room will defo rise, although i went round a friends recently who started his 1st little grow using multiple big grow CFL's and some standard smaller ones in there and i thought it seemed really hot in there for CFL bout as hot as my 250w HPS woud make my cab, which i thought seemed odd as everyone always raves on about them giving off less heat, he was venting aswell, i dunno bout yours tho hows the heat in there? Nice1

theFLAKE said:

Hey GodSlave, just replied to your message then found your thread so i can see your cab for myself, From the look of it and since you are doing scrog, i would say you could have a 250w HPS in there but you would probably need some sort of venting, its not that the bulb will be too hot for the plants by being too close its just the temp of the room will defo rise, although i went round a friends recently who started his 1st little grow using multiple big grow CFL's and some standard smaller ones in there and i thought it seemed really hot in there for CFL bout as hot as my 250w HPS woud make my cab, which i thought seemed odd as everyone always raves on about them giving off less heat, he was venting aswell, i dunno bout yours tho hows the heat in there? Nice1

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Yeah, after talking with you, I'm going to give a 250 a shot. If it doesn't work out, I'll go back to CFL, but I have to try. Yeah, the heat can get up there with all my lights on, around 95ish, we'll see if the 250 gets hotter than that. But with the CO2, I've never seen any bad results, so I guess they are ok. 250's are pretty cheap, and I can sell it if it doesn't work out, so in the next couple weeks I will be doing that. Thanks a bunch for the insight and advice!
GS

NONHater said:

Repped him for ya!

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Thanks bro!

Tucapitan said:

awesome grow man. i repped and subbed

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Thanks, and enjoy the ride!

xxRolandxx said:

I wish I could give you more rep, but apparently I have to spread it around more before I can give it to you again. I have a grand total of 35 inches from bottom of tent to top. Im gonna take a hard look at where I can cut vertical space (getting short/fat 3 gallon pots, 8inch above pot for screen placement, possibly using a cool tube HPS or going cfl all the way). Thank you again! When grow diary goes up I hope you stop by! Im still in planning/preparing stages.

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I will most def sub your grow, I wish you all the luck, and you know where I am if you want to ask anything.

GS

Day 26 update:
Not much to show really, but you can see they have grown quite a bit. My canopy is not as even as I would like, it's getting taller in the middle, I tried doing some work with it, but it is just too far along to really mess with, plus the screen is full. Oh well, we'll see how it goes.

Take a look at the last photo and compare it to the last photo of the update before this. It's the heat damaged part, as you can see, they have rebounded better than I thought they would. Really only one bud site is effected anymore.

Notice the 3rd photo down, lower left corner. You can see a leaf that I previously trimmed to get it out of the way of another bud site. Can you see how that would benefit the bud being shaded, and can you see it did not harm the other bud in the least? This is an example of what I'm talking about when I say I trim the leaves to keep shading down to a minimum.

I didn't get all the dead leaves cleaned out of the bottom, I was in a hurry, it makes for bad looking photos, Oh well, call me a perfectionist lol.

Thanks for taking a look...
GS

Nice update GS! Did you weave your plants through the screen during stretch and fill, or just push them under and direct them with twist ties? I like the look of your canopy and am looking to emulate it. I have seen scrogs where people do and some where people don't weave their plants through it.

Thanks mate!

Thanks bro!
I push mine under and train them along. With this size screen, they only veg a week or 2, the screen is mostly filled after 12/12 and during the stretch. As you see them start to slack off, that's when I start letting them fill in the holes. With a little luck and experience you get it down to where your screen fills just as the stretch is ending. Put them through too soon, or let them veg too long, and you get high spots like mine. This is the first time I have used this size screen, so it's a learning curve. Some minor training after that and your done, now you're on auto pilot sort of. You will have to do some minor trimming and such, but pretty much you just watch them grow. The hardest part is learning when to switch to 12/12, which will only come with experience and knowing your strain.
GS

awesome job love the scrog !! excelent job!!subbed+rep

Looking real good bro! Whats your thoughts on trimming all that lower stuff out of there?....just read you didnt get to it lol.

+rep Subscribed

allen bud said:

awesome job love the scrog !! excelent job!!subbed+rep

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Bonzi Lighthouse said:

+rep Subscribed

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Thanks guys, come along and ride on the fantastic voyage! Slide, slide, slippity, slide...

NONHater said:

Looking real good bro! Whats your thoughts on trimming all that lower stuff out of there?....just read you didnt get to it lol.

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I've got most of it taken out, just a few dead leaves that need to come out. My vertical height is really limited, so I had to put my screen closer to the pots than I would have liked, only about 7". The less space you have between the pots and the screen, the harder it is to trim and train. The best I can tell, I got all the undergrowth out, save a few fans, but there may be some growth on the back side I cant see. Not to mention, the flower chamber is near the floor, so for me to really inspect down there, I have to lay down lol. In the future, I think I may swap the lower and upper chambers to make it easier to work with.
GS