Need some Help with hydroponics

thats really good info. what lighting would be sufficient considering a small budget. like really small. the 2 cfl's are at 2700 lumens and the hps is at 70watts and the tube is at 2200 lumens. what else do you suggest

netpirate said:

ok so i now have different lighting and a completely new hydro setup. it took me a while but its done. now any feedback would help. from left to right i have one kush plant that just sprouted and is about 2 weeks old. in the middle i have 3 bagseed plants and they seem to be coming along ok and to the right i have assorted bagseed and some tomatoes and chilies growing. The lighting is 2 cfl's, one hps bulb and one long florescent for side lighting. the water is ph'ed at about 6.5 - 7.0 and they are not running on nutes but i do have some fox farm ready to go. when should i add nutes and what else should i do? thanks for looking

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Good job with the rubbermaid container! My only comment is see how the plants are streaching and have really long stems? Thats because you light is really far away from the tops of your plants. Thats one of the issues you had with your first plant on the left. I would wait a couple of weeks before aplying nutes. Those plants are still really young and you dont want to burn them. Where is your water lever compaired to the bottom of the net pots? Did you use rockwool on the new sprouts? Looks good so far so lets cross fingures!

Im not the person you asked my hawt friend but i would love to answer!!!

You already have the hps.. great... Add a couple more cfl's or even better is a cheap t5 flouresent or four.... Keep in mind that the difference in your 2700k and the 5000-6500k is the spectrum that the bulb gives off.... Use 6 2700k for flowering and one or two of the 6500k for veg....

here is what i learned from this forum

23-watt-2700k are lable soft white or similar

27-watt-6500k are lable Daylight or could be named fullspectrum.

You really have to know that you would need a shit load of the soft white or 2700k to get an effective veg but the same number would provide an outstanding addition to your hps and your buds would tighten and become more dense...

The daylights that i have are 27 watt and I use two per plant on a surge protector for fire reasons.... My plants went from oh no I need more light to Water my ass I want to grow!!!! Hope this helps and I love your hair as gay as that sounds you look like my x- she hated pot LOL thats why shes my x....

Newbie answers to lighting: HPSvsCFL During Flower = Quantity and Quality

Check out that thread lol. I suck on the computer! But thats going to show u what to expect from using cfls and hps during flower. The results are obviously clear what the better choice is. I have dropped easily a hundred bux on cfls and didnt know the answer to my lighting needs was just in the next isle.Im guessing you got that 70 watt hps from home depot. Before u waste anymore money on cfls just get another one of those 70 watters and add that. U can easily keep that fixture 5 inches from the tops of ur plants as well, its awesome for utilizing lumens. I leave mine there and just lean my colas and let them grow along side of it. Play with that.
Dont get me wrong, cfls 65k are awesome for vegging some very short, bushy plants and are excellent for vegging in stealth hydro with hieght requirements. But once again lol, u can pick up a 50 watt mh in the same isle where u got the 70 watt hps and achieve the same results as far as bushy and short but just twice as fast lol. But i veg with both at this point cuz the cfls were just laying around from previous attempts. Hope that helps lol. I just cant picture u getting mcgyver with that fixture and setting it up. U are now oficially riu grow queen at least in my eyes lmao.

A 400 watt HPS is $120 from htgsupply. That's what I started growing with about 9 months ago. I knew I was committed and resourceful enough to see a grow all the way to harvest so I gambled all my extra cash and it has paid me back many times over since then It seems to me you are pretty serious about this so if you have the cash to spend now, you will earn it back. If you don't have that much coin, your next best option is CFLs. 26 watt CFLs are about 1500 lumens a piece and $12 for a 4-pack. I use two 26watt CFLs PER PLANT to veg my clones and seedlings before I flower under the HPS. You can get $2 Y-splitters for the sockets from home depot or lowe's to fit two bulbs in one socket. My plants are plenty bushy in veg but I wouldn't flower with that setup because the buds would be fluffy and stringy. You are supposed to have 10,000 lumens per plant for flower as a baseline. That 400watt HPS makes more than 50,000 lumens. You would need 33 CFLs for that! So that's all the info I can give, it's up to you to look at your budget and make the decision. Good luck!

great info guys! thanks a lot im gonna be making minor modifications to the lighting and see how it goes. i'm actually going to be throwing some physics in to the lighting and see how it goes. maybe throwing some colored transparent paper under the bulbs for the lighting spectrum.

Whats your airflow like? what fans are u runnin?

they get fresh air throughout the day via windows and open door, as for fan its only the one small guy in there with them. there is no " stale " air. Im actually moving soon so the grow room is going to be a lot smaller "closet" so the air flow is going to be a problem. any suggestions on closet air flow?

They sell a small ionic/carbon filter setup at walmart for like 20 bux which will not only help with circulation but with stank as well, its made by holmes i think, one of those and a small fan with ur closet door open during the day and will be fine. At night u wont need much cuz the lights will be off.

if u dont have over 30K lumens total for the plant, it never hurts to put the plant outside during the day (depending on the temp where u live) cuz there is nothing quite like real sunlight.. bring it in before the sun goes down and put them under ur lights until morning .. 24hour light for veg is ideal .. if u must keep them inside and are on a tight budget, just try to get the plants as close to the light source as possible without harming the plant.. (put your hand at plants top level leaves.. if ur hand feels discomfort, then the plant will also).. also the greater the range of the spectrum the more healthy the plant will become.. good luck

so hows the plants?

hey there iamthatguy! the plants are doing ok i think. i moved and started a different grow room. it went from grow room to grow closet. i need some input on the vent system. maybe a diy vent. i can get down and dirty. ill be posting some pics up very very soon. let me know what you think

ok here they are. the new grow. under 3 daylight cfl's and one hps. 3 pumps and foxfarm nutes. all ph'ed right and fresh air all day. the closet is next to a window. so what do you guys think? any info would help.

By vent do you mean getting fresh air? Which is being taken care of from the window or do you mean vent as far as a scrubber to get rid of smell? OR do you mean a vent to get rid of hot air?

smell and hot air to be exact. im thinking about making a hole on the side with some of that dryer duct vent stuff and a vent fan from home depot.

haha she turning into mcgyver again!
Nice pirate chik, lol nice work u have done alot in a lil time.

haha! i do what i can with what i have sir!

Thats awesome pirate. Its come along way good job! Maybe ganja gueen soon

update: the roots have hit the water and are a nice white color. they seem to be coming along nicely. no my question is when should i change the lighting to 12/12 to start the flowering?

also when i drain the water in the tubs, how long can the roots stay out of water?