First time grower. Just switched to flowering..

scarecrow77 said:

Height has nothing too do with when you should flower your plants....it's when the nodes on the branches start to alternate ...that's the right time to flower for best yeilds....growers flower from seed all the time with great yeilds but it is strain dependant....happy growing

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Nodes being where new branches start? I'll look it up but do you have any examples?

D3rrick said:

What's a single dim vs a multi dim? I figured I would just run the lights either on or off.. Do you change light intensity based on space available or heat?

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Don't get a digital ballast there shit...electronic ballasts are the biz........I use a switchable ballast than can take either hps or metal halide in the same fittings and run from the same ballast....great lights .....I have pics on the Irish growers thread under the 600 watt hps....3rd last page I think....they got 4 week veg check them out....

Alternating nodes means that there not next to each other on the branch after your plant shows sex the nodes on the branches start to distance from each other.....look it up ....it's hard to explain....

u change the power as the plant gets bigger older and needs more for u a 400 would do but thats wot i done got a 400 for my first grow but now that i half no wot im doing im wishing i,d splashed out the wee bit extra for the 600 dimmablethat runs mh and hps...

Bomixius said:

I would definitely suggest a 600, but with a good digital ballast which allows more then a single dim. Also choose a ballast that can be used with hps or mh. Then you can switch between hps and mh depending on whether your in veg or flower.

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You never wanna dim your bulb it greatly reduces the efficiency.. if your gonna dim get a switchable digital ballast one that can take you from 600 down to 250. only thing you ever wanna do with HPS is boost them say 400w boost to 430 or 470. bulbs are rated at 30% of what they say. so 1000w bulb can handle say 1100w. if it is a good company.. most ratings are within 30% of manufactured specs.

D3rrick said:

What's a single dim vs a multi dim? I figured I would just run the lights either on or off.. Do you change light intensity based on space available or heat?

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Ditch the cfl bulbs and if CFL is what you want then use the 8-10" circular ones better spread. not that i would use one.. look 400 on first grow got me just under a pound dried and was very happy.. but above is right 600 most efficient way to grow.... i today have upped mine to 630w mixed... HPS PLASMA not that the plasma needs help I'm bored and want to up my grow... Plasma offers better quality light more sticky buds by far but HPS will get these girls a bit fatter while the plasma tightens them up an gets them stiff.

So I took everyones advice and got a 600w HPS light.. The extra heat has been semi an issue so I had to increase my fans as well.. HOWEVER.. holy shit.. It's like having another sun in my closet.. My plant absolutely loves it and has responded super well.. i'll see if i can get some pics

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