Indoor :: 600W Digital HPS :: All Soil :: BG,NL,BB,TS

Just checking out your grow. I like your strain selection there. I also chose my current apartment for it's humongous closets. I've got a 6' x 6' walk-in that's been the perfect growroom so far. Try to find a place that has an additional second closet to use for growing. I was able to hook up 6 23watt CFLs in a second 2.5' x 3' closet and now I have a CFL veg chamber and a flower room with a 400watt HPS. This way you can harvest every 4 weeks instead of 12 because you can add fully vegged plants into your flower room every four weeks. Plan for it now because you'll want to do this eventually.

I'm a big fan of the 20 hrs on, 4 hrs off schedule. There's endless debate on this and it all boils down to this: the only scientific evidence I've seen compared 18/6, 20/4, and 24/0 - 30 plants each. 20/4 had the highest yield. Many pros use 18/6 and 24/0 so those obviously work as well. The difference is minimal. My only knock on 24/0 isn't backed up by any evidence but rather trying to apply some common sense. Stress causes hermies. We don't want hermies. Going from no periods of darkness for the entire plant's life to suddenly half of the time in the dark is a drastic change. I think the plants need some dark in veg, even if it's just a couple hours. Just my two pennies there. And I put my seedlings under a 400watt MH four days after they break the surface so you can do the same with the HPS. Just keep it 24-30 inches away for a while.

The last thing I'll say is I would stay away from the nutes and spraying for now. Having too many nutrients does terrible things to these plants and I've had 100% success with seedlings without spraying them even though humidity dipped down to 20% at times. And I grow in coco so I can assure you that a seedling can survive without nutes in a soilless medium for a few weeks. There's trace minerals in your tap water. You have all the ingredients for success here and I think you'll do well. I really didn't mean to write this much but I hope some of it helps. Peace.

aw yes finally some pics i can squirt some baby gravy to jk...but your babies are lookin great hopefully they grow into some big ladies with huge knockers..keep up the good work fellow dakotan..peacez

thanks cheetah.. i already went through your grow journal several times a about a month ago

thanks for the tips mared_juwan,

i think i might go with the 20/4 and i'll definitively consider your four week method.

peaceandlove im with ya praying for ladies!

the plants really liked the recent watering and im sure they'll be good for all of day today and probably tomorrow before they'll get some again. i'm making sure they dry out a little bit in between.

-focus-

NL and Big Bud are both commercial strains. Good weed no doubt but focused on quantity over quality.

The Bubblegum you have is VERY special though. It's as good as it gets. I just smoked some last week. The taste was beyond dreams! The high was almost too strong. You're Stoked!

Good luck with the Thai. I love sativas but I've had no luck growing them indoors. They take forever to finish and tend to run! If you have the time it's worth the wait. But at 11 weeks and everything else is long harvested and dried you'll be saying "WTF! is this bitch ever going to finish?".

I'm currently putting all my spare change into this grow StinkBud so I can't even afford to buy any smoke. That being said.. I'm sure the NL and BB will tie me over until the BG and TS fully mature to their highest potential.

Bad news...the digital camera I have been using is going to be out of town till Sunday. I gave them another watering just a hour ago and they have already grown so much since the last pictures. One Big Bud seedling has some yellowish burn spots on it so I would moved it to the outside of the lights. As the plants have gotten taller, I have also raised my laundry basket up about two inches so I would say the closet the lights come to the leafs are 2 1/2 inches. The 12" fan is on full speed and there is a little 4'' one that is positioned so it goes right through the middle of the V shaped light setup. Keep in mind this is still just a temporary location and I fully intend to do things more professional. However, the shoe laces I used to suspend my lights are really easy to work with! haha

Can't wait to bring out the HPS!

*edit*

took a peak at them earlier today and the soil was dry about 2 inches so i watered them about 60% of the water i did last time. i have one sick big bud! i've searched the forums and i can't seem to find an answer. what a bad time to not have the camera! it has yellow/orange rounded spots on its first pair of leaves. i've been reading a lot of seedling threads and i come a crossed plenty of pictures of plants that are 2 weeks old already on their 4th or 5th set? what is the secret! my tempatures are near perfect and the humidity has been high lately so i'm sure they are loving it. another smokeless night

focus.on.the.grow said:

However, the shoe laces I used to suspend my lights are really easy to work with! haha

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haha i am also using shoe laces to hold up my duct work for my hood...don't worry i was using speaker wire to hold up my previous light fixture that held my CFL's but is not located under my bed haha...keep it up focus...peace

Update time! Well what can I say...I'm not unhappy about them, but they are slow! They are about 1.5 weeks to 2.5 weeks. Depending on much they grow I may be putting them under the 600w by Sunday. I was planning on transplanting a week after Sunday into 2/3 Ocean Forrest 1/3 Light Warrior, but I've been fascinated with hempy buckets. It sounds more complicated, but in all honestly it would make things easier and the results speak for themselves. I have been letting them dry out. I compare the weight of a the plant cup with a cup with only LW in it and wait till they are close to the same. Adding 3-4 drops per galon of SuperThrive (maybe too much) and tonight I added a cap full of hydrogen peroxide per gallon. I loved the light about 1/2 inch closer to the lights and we'll see what happens. You can pick out the sick big bud, but I'm not worried because the new growth is fine.

I will also be continously planting bag seed that comes from good herb as we grow along Just planted the very germinated seed tonight.

Now to the pics!

Looking pretty good for the most part. The necrosis, drooping, and yellowing are all symptoms of overwatering but you described the correct way to water in your post. Have you been doing it this way all along? And what's "LW"? Most importantly, what is the ph of the water you are using?

LW = Light Warrior

I was watering too much before. I always let it drain out though. I'm only using PH strips and it comes out to be around 6.4.

Thanks for your presence mared juwan! I hope my grow turns out like yours.

focus.on.the.grow said:

LW = Light Warrior

I was watering too much before. I always let it drain out though. I'm only using PH strips and it comes out to be around 6.4.

Thanks for your presence mared juwan! I hope my grow turns out like yours.

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Thanks, man. This little seedling stage is the most delicate and difficult of the grow IMO. Just keep doing what your doing with letting the cup get light before you water. But make sure when you do water, you soak it good and let a good amount of water drain out the bottom. PH 6.4 is perfect. You should be getting some faster growth here soon.

lovin the babies focus...hopefully your overwatering problem will be fixed soon, don't worry i underwatered mine because i didn't want to over water them, it happens, you can still save them for sure...i just gave my babies a long dark period to start flowerin can't wait to see how many ladies i have, still watching your grow bro keep up the good work, peace out

No pictures tonight, but there isn't much new to see. I have been watering them less lately. They are in 16oz party cups so does about once every 2 1/2 days sound right? I've been comparing the weights of the cups versus a cup with the dry medium in it so I know when they are getting low. I'm getting frustrated! They are 2 weeks old and I'm looking at other peoples plants that are on their 5th or 6th node at this age already! What can I do, but wait though?

They still look to small for the 600W HPS don't they? I was hoping they'd be ready by Sunday, but I don't know if that is going to happen. I will be picking up some Ocean Forrest this weekend and I might pickup some gentle nutes like worm castings or whatever I can find to please my babies. They where such tiny seeds! I can't help but think that a smaller seed has less engergy stored away for the seedling.

I also have a few bag seed plants that have just hit soil so we'll see how those go. Focus is grouchy when he goes a day without smoking!!!

I would be more careful with nutes than with light at this point. Too much nutes are more dangerous to your plants than too much light right now. I plant my germinated seeds and put them straight under 400 watt MH light so I think you should be okay under that HPS now but just be careful with the nutes. The only thing that can help your plants now is time. Just water like you've been watering recently and they will get better soon. I've learned that above all, growing marijuana is an exercise is patience.

You should have been using that HPS from day one. That may be why they arent growing as fast as you would like them to. So get that 600W fired up! Just keep them at a safe distance from it and you'll be fine.

Nice selection of seeds you got there, good luck!

Thanks for the kind words as always guys.

I didn't fire up the 600w yet! The temperature in the current location is already 90+ F some of the time and I fear they are too small yet. I really let the cups dry out and I've actually been measuring the weights of the individual cups with a scale. They used about .75-1.5 oz of water in 24 hours. So I gave them each about 5 oz watering or a little less if they only used .75. The water just starts to sprinkle out of the bottom of the cups holes and then I stop. There are two new bag seed plants!

Wow, that is hot, too hot to add 600watts more thats for sure. I see why you waited, wise choice. I would take care of your ventillation problem asap! Before you start loosing seedlings, a few look like the are too hot already. HTG sells 250cfm inline 6" fans for 40bucks. It would be a wise investment to get at least 2, on for intake and another for exhaust. Maybe even a third for the light only.

blackcoupe is totally right. It would be a waste of time to continue to grow if the temps are that high. You can run high temps like that if you have a CO2 generator but those are pricey. Get a couple fans or if you already have some experiment with all possible locations for optimum ventilation. Just moving my fan around can change the temps in my grow closet by 20 degrees. You want fans either close to the ground to blow cool air in, or close to the ceiling to blow hot air out. Ideally you want three fans. One for cool air in, one for hot air out, and one to ventilate the HPS once you get it set up. I figure you've got at least $50 worth of seeds in sprout form there. It's worth spending a little more to keep them alive if you can afford it. Cheap Walmart fans will do for now.

yea def wanna get that fixed focus just try different ways as mared juwan said...hopefully you can get it figured out so you can start that 600 watter up soon, then your babies will love ya and grow fast, but hopefully you get the problem fixed man...ill have new pics of my girls up tomorrow they are now on day 3 of flowerin starting to sex. stop by if ya wanna peacez

Just to get my temps in the high 70's to low 80's range, I am using 2 250cfm fans on the cooltube alone, then one 250cfm fan bringing fresh air in and a 110 cfm exhaust fan in the ceiling to remove the hot air. Then also 3 6" fans oscillating on the plants and 1 10" fan blowing between the tops and the cooltube. My area is roughly 2' x 4' x 8' and im using 600w bulbs. It takes some real effort, and some $ to do it right, nut its worth every penny if you ask me.

The grow is at a temporary location for now. I'll be moved into a new place come August 1st or July 1st if things change. Proper ventilation will be purchased and installed then. I plan on fitting the 600w with a cool tube some time down the road. To clarify the temps on average have been around 75-85, but every now and then it'll get up to 93. I'm just using random fans currently and I'll add more tomorrow. I'm not sure if the temperature is too blame because I'm not stumped to why they are growing so slow. They are healthy so I'm not going to be inpatient with them. They are nearing 3 weeks and they are still in medium with no nutrients. Should I be giving them gentle nutes?

Thanks for the input guys!

-focus-