400 watt hps grow box Bio Kush, purple Kush, Vanilla Kush

I'm just new at growing, and learning as I go hear so any advice would be appreciated. I built this grow box from a bunch of random stuff but I think it will work well for me.. I'm running a 400 watt hps in it atm, I also have a 1000 watt ballast that I could use to flower, but for the size of the box I think 400 should do it? I will be updating as things progress.. if anyone has any good tips for me please don't be shy.. keep it kushy ppls.....

Any suggestions on how long I should veg for in a box this size? How do they look so far? And any other advice please comment.. thanks.

Looks very nice, if you can keep the temps with the 1000 then go for it, might be tricky with that size box. What are your dimensions? It looks like you might be tight for space once they start filling out.

thanks I have 4 foot 2" from floor to the light, 3 feet depth and 3 feet width. the cooling fan im using now works good.. Im running 24-7 and the glass is barely warm to touch. should I be concerned about light leaks?

You do want it to be light tight for photo period plants. plats will usually get 2-3x their size after you flip the lights. I would not use the 1000w because you need it to be a little further from the canopy than the 400, also the 400 should cover that footprint fine. Figure you get about 18" of light penetration from the 400 where you will get your best production. Other may argue these, but you would use this as a guideline.

12 Inches from canopy for 400w
18 Inches of light penetration


Then figure out how much space you will have from your light to the top of the pot when the light is fully raise and figure you can flip when you get about 1/3 that height (1/2 if strain is known to be a heavy indica or shorter plant).

It will be easier on your next run with the same strain since you will know what to expect. It would also probably be easier if all the same strain since they should grow about the same, but that can be boring

Thanks a lot brother. That's a lot of useful info, I appreciate the help, I'm super excited to see how these turn out. Im thinking 2-3 more weeks of veg still. cant wait to see some flowers

If you train the plants wide you will get a better yield. Look at low stress training, scrog, and mainlining to get some examples.

I agree with Bud, however I don't know how wide you will be able to get 5 plants in 30x30. if you look at my first strawberry dream grow from the sig, thats a single plant that fills up a 24x24 using SCROG and LST and I think was 5-6 zips op bud plus a couple zips of popcorn buds used to make hash/budder. I have 3 going now in a 2x4 and imagine that will be pretty damn full even with one being an auto.

Maybe I should down size to the best 3 ? or even just 2 until I have a room to work with I want my ladies to be comfortable I can only hope they turn out as dank as that strawberry dream did. she was Purdy sexy!! I'm reading up on this mainlining also... there's just so many ways to go lol...

i think you could get them in bigger pots this will help them grow bigger and yield more
they look nice and healthy good start, i do not think you need a 1000w but you could run a 600w on that ballast
still the 400 will cover the space well enough

being kush strains its unlikely they will stretch too much , i think it is better to have them a little to big than too small i would grow them until they were 12inch at least
you can always bend them etc, if they end up a little tall but if they too small and do not fill the whole space width and height yield will be lost
you have enough space to yield 1lb or so if all turns out well

good luck

thanks skunkdoc.I transplanted them from solo cups into those pots about a week ago. should I wait a few weeks before moving to larger pots? and do you think I should bring it down to 2-3 plants or keep them all in there? A lb sure sounds nice.. I would like to keep one from each strain for a bit of variety and im sure I can find a good home for the others.

thanks again for the advice guys I appreciate it a lot.. Im not very good with these posts it takes me like a half hour to write a paragraph lol

I would stick with the 4 hundo. U flip, they stretch, not a kush grower yet so idk how bad the stretch is, but If I had that amount of space, i would have basically did a 12/12 from seed/clone.
Don't think you'll get close to a pound, but its worth it. free smoke, n sell to your buddies to further your grow op. Aquire more lights, space, supplies, exp. You'll be going big within a year i bet lol.

You have a little over 1m2 so 1lb is easy possible if they stay healthy
think its best to keep them all then you have more chance at least one of them will be good with other traits like flavour and potency
if some look better than others and you favour them give them more space, you do not have to share the space equally between them all
really hard to predict how uniform in size they will end up when finished
also some plants put out much more growth in early flower so its not always so helpful to remove plants before you have seen how much they stretch
the most vigorous plants during veg might actually end up much smaller after other plants that were not so big in veg have stretched and grown a great deal during early flower
i would keep them all to about 3-4 weeks of flower if possible to see which ones will be the most vigorous and largest providers
on my last run i had a blue cheese pheno yield 15 oz its sister only yielded 4.5 oz
it was only after 3-4 weeks of flower that it was clear that the blue cheese was going to be a big plant it was average/slowish in veg
some kush plants can stretch tall and vine like branches others will stay like little indicas

you could wait a while yet before you put them in bigger pots
i would say the bigger pots the better 5 pots that fill all of your floor space will enable them to grow as big as possible and with a wider shape longer branches

peace

All good things to consider. thanks for the insight.. I will keep updating progress..