First grow - Please critique my setup

S

sixfifty

Member
Received these from a friend and kind of threw together a setup on a last minutes notice.

4 plants under 4 T8 32w 2800lumens 6500k bulbs currently on a 24 hour light cycle. We have decided to stay with fluorescent for now, at least until the flowering stage when I believe we will switch to HPS. Should the bulbs be replaced with T5s? Higher wattage? Very new to this so not sure what's best for the plants. I've also read that two different types of bulbs with different color temps may better simulate sunlight?

My roomate decided to stick them in this: http://www.scotts.com/smg/catalog/productTemplate.jsp?proId=prod70308&itemId=cat80014 I'm wondering if maybe it should be supplemented with some additional nutrients?

Any advice for a newbie is appreciated :weed:

 
spliffyshirt

spliffyshirt

Member
That will work, but you should really invest in a decent grow light or even a tent (great investment). i would recommend not using miracle grow products, there's better stuff out there. Been using dyna-gro and have seen great results in terms of quality and especially yield. Higher wattage can only help, but i would get a new light instead of new bulbs. Personally, i use LED's, lower heat emitted, lower energy costs, and more light is absorbed by the plant, especially in flowering. Let me know if you want a company recomendation, since there is a lot of garbage out there. (will want at least 3 w diodes)
 
stoneyluv

stoneyluv

Well-Known Member
they look good all things considering.... spliffy is correct some MJ plants really do not like MG products.... some people have great success with it. it doesn't look to be hurting your plants so I'm sure your fine leaving them in there. You might want to look into some mylar to wrap around the shelf they are on. and maybe add a fan in there to keep the air moving. The plants love fresh air! I know it sounds wierd, put up mylar to restrict the air just to put a fan in..... the mylar will reflect the light which is very important. Keep the lights very close to the plants just as you have them. they have a bit of stretch going on but hell, a;most everybody did that on thier first grow.... good luck with grow!!
 
S

sixfifty

Member
spliffyshirt said:
That will work, but you should really invest in a decent grow light or even a tent (great investment). i would recommend not using miracle grow products, there's better stuff out there. Been using dyna-gro and have seen great results in terms of quality and especially yield. Higher wattage can only help, but i would get a new light instead of new bulbs. Personally, i use LED's, lower heat emitted, lower energy costs, and more light is absorbed by the plant, especially in flowering. Let me know if you want a company recomendation, since there is a lot of garbage out there. (will want at least 3 w diodes)
Click to expand...
Please link me! I had read about using LEDs and was considering this...

stoneyluv said:
they look good all things considering.... spliffy is correct some MJ plants really do not like MG products.... some people have great success with it. it doesn't look to be hurting your plants so I'm sure your fine leaving them in there. You might want to look into some mylar to wrap around the shelf they are on. and maybe add a fan in there to keep the air moving. The plants love fresh air! I know it sounds wierd, put up mylar to restrict the air just to put a fan in..... the mylar will reflect the light which is very important. Keep the lights very close to the plants just as you have them. they have a bit of stretch going on but hell, a;most everybody did that on thier first grow.... good luck with grow!!
Click to expand...
We were going to line the wall behind the plants with aluminum foil, but I will look into the mylar wrap. You're saying box them in mylar? Do I not have to worry about hot spots or burning the plants like with foil? There's a fan in there that we turn on for a few hours each day.
 
Kushafornia

Kushafornia

Member
Great set up man i started my first grow as well ill get some pictures up later, anyone know how to start a thread? yea ima noob to this site
 
spliffyshirt

spliffyshirt

Member
advancedledlights.com, don't use tin foil! doesn't do anything beneficial, mylar is a much more effective option. let them know you heard about it on the forum if you speak with anyone, doing some work on test lights for them since i've had such success with their current products. you can check out my pics on some of my older posts, can't figure out how to upload my current ones on here w/o a url
 
S

sixfifty

Member
In the meantime, should the bulbs be switched to T5 and the soil swapped or have some some nutrients added?
 
S

sixfifty

Member
It seems some of the plants may be a little malnourished... Or could this be on account of the MG soil? Possibly a nitrogen or potassium deficiency? What do you guys think? And can anybody give me a link to info on what and how to administer the nutrients to the plant?

Plant 2/4


Plant 4/4
 
spliffyshirt

spliffyshirt

Member
tha'ts most likely a N difficiency, seriously, get rid of the MG stuff. LED's work for veg too, just might want to spend an extra week in the veg cycle with them through. I also recommend tying down the branches to try and keep the top of the canopy to the plant so they only reach 1-2 ft max, so there is more of a consistant light penetration across the plant.
 
curseofnoob

curseofnoob

Active Member
MY VEGGING PHASE: (Almost ending)

Plant unit : 3
Bulb type : 6400 K (day light CFL)
Bulb Units : 4
1x60w : 3000 lumen
1x65w : 3250 lumen
1x85w : 5400 lumen
1x100w: 6000 lumen
---------------------
TOTAL WATT : 310 W.
TOTAL LUMEN: 17.650 L.

they been doing pretty good so far by those equipments
 
S

sixfifty

Member
I was told that the yellowing leaves were just a result of the cloning process... hope that's the case.. I spent a little time tying a few branches down, probably will work on it a bit more and then I'll post a few shots for you guys to tear my work up :-P I'm hoping the 11,200 lumens is enough to get these through the veg stage...
 
S

sixfifty

Member
Started the LST about a week ago, did a little more today... A few of them seem to be responding pretty well to it. Hopefully picking up a 250w HPS pretty soon to help them along as it doesn't look like the t8s are really doing the job... how do they look?









The last one, #2, got distorted by the wide angle a bit, it's not THAT small but is a bit smaller than the rest...
 
S

sixfifty

Member
Well, things are starting to look not so good. My only guess is the roots have started to grow outside of the rockwool and the Miracle Grow is killing them? What do you guys think? Should I re-pot in better soil? What do you recommend?

 
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