400 watt hps/mh conversion hid

just got my 400 watter, what do i need to know about using it? watering/distance/heat-fan requirements etc

thanks! psyched to finally be able to grow some nice girls.

you want good air movement, good venting. you'll need to keep the light off the plants about 14-18"

how often should i need to water when on 18/6 ?

I stick my finger in the soil to the second nuckle. When it's dead dry water. every 2-3 days in most cases. but it can very. young plants don't take up as much as a plant in full veg.

lol I think this is a pic of my 400 in a tube.

good idea with the tube, just putting in the 400 ramped up the temp 20deg. going to have to put some more fans in to get that back down to 80.

With the tube temps only go up a little. my room stays just a little warmer then the outside room temps. without it I pumped alot of air in and out to keep the room around 85. Of course outside temps affect your room temp you'll never get lower then what is going into the room. Oh and with the tube I can put my light where ever I want. I keep it about 6" off the plants.

thats sweet, notice any changes in the growth rate from being that close?

never had time to compare. went to the tube first grow with it. I was in a 4x4 room and was to hard to keep the temps down the way it was set up. The more plants I have the higher I need to keep the light so they all get some light. I also found anything over about 2' is a waste of growing time. the 400 just can't get it done. I had side lights but thought it was a waste. I'm sticking to flowering at about 2'. I have 4 clones more then ready to go to 12/12. just waiting on some auto's to start budding.

How many plants should the 400 be able to handle at once? About 14-18" away, assuming I grow no higher than 2 feet.

Thanks for all ur help so far, rep+

you can go as many plants as you can get in a 3x3 area. I've done as many as 11, way to many. 2-4 I think is best.

Thats suchs BS ! i have a 400 watt from HTG im first using the Metal Halid bulb 39,000 lumes its already 2 foot tall and growing massive ! i have a closet space of only 3 feet wide by 5 feet long by 8 feet high ! yea you know im gonna grow a closest monster ! p.s. 18/4 hours watering ever 3 days with one gallon of water with 3 to 5 drops of superthrive full strengh nuts " better gro " 25/14/13/ i have a 1 18 inch rec. fan and a 4 inch exhaust fan my temps stay at 82* to 76* during the day 76 in the morning till about 1:00 then 82 after 1:30 when the house is heated up.

How long did it take to grow 2 feet?

wait till you flower you'll only get the top 10-14" of plant with bud thats worth a shit. well here is a few from the 400w. I think most of these finished just under 4'

i say you should grow like 6 plants just top them all at 2ft. someone i knew grew 20 plants of northern lights with a single 400w no lie. but he had a light hanger that moved his light back and forth. some pretty good shit to. i dont recall if he topped it but he definately may have if you think about. but anyway he did it and grew bomb herb hope this helps. just experiment a bit let them veg for like 3-4 weeks and top them. thats my opinion. i have no exp with a 400 but learned everthing from him so

whats the best point in the plants growth to top it? like should you wait until the newer leaves are budding up from the stem (new node creation) and then cut in between that and the lower node?

btw thats a sick idea with the moving light system, may have to do something like that.

let them get about 2 feet and then chop at the very top. cut it like quarter to half inch above nodes. the last 2 branchs that split at the top. try to keep them short and bushy also. Oh and AVOID doIng it during flowering as this is going to stress it out. but it deffinately won't kill it

ok ill give that a shot.

good luck.

thanks, my mh bulb actually just blew today so i had to put in the hps temporarily.

is an hps ok for vegging?