questions about lighting,, PLEASE HELP

hey i have a few questions about when i should switch from veg to flower.. i have one 5GAL bucket with two 4 inch pots with hydroton and my seeds are in rockwool, my light is a 200w CFL. they are in a room 2X3 in my basement. iv been told from a friend i should veg for at least 6-8 weeks before i start flowering, is there something my plants will show me that theyre ready to flower??

also should i be running my fan 24/7 from start to finish??

another ?.. my basement stays pretty cold,, it goes from 55 degrees to 65 degrees. is this an okay temperature to have my plants in?

any comments or criticism is welcome,, please help me out here. this is my first DWC grow so i need a couple pointers

i like to wait till i see one of two things, if not both before i flower.. the first is uneven nodes, or branch sites.. as a plant matures, it will start to put out its branches at uneven intervals on the main stem.. this is a good sign that it is reaching sexual maturity..
the second thing i look for is preflowers, whehter its the sack of balls or the two lil hairs coming from a female, you will see signs of sex once your plant gets sexually mature.
those temps sound a lil cool to me.. i was always told the sweet spot is around 68 to 78 f...

racerboy71 said:

i like to wait till i see one of two things, if not both before i flower.. the first is uneven nodes, or branch sites.. as a plant matures, it will start to put out its branches at uneven intervals on the main stem.. this is a good sign that it is reaching sexual maturity..
the second thing i look for is preflowers, whehter its the sack of balls or the two lil hairs coming from a female, you will see signs of sex once your plant gets sexually mature.
those temps sound a lil cool to me.. i was always told the sweet spot is around 68 to 78 f...

Click to expand...

thank you for the tips, il be sure to check for both of those. also when i switch over from veg to flower does anything with the nutrient supply need to change?? im trying to put together a rough schedule to follow as i go. thanks again

Aww damn I just typed out like a paper and hit the wrong button.

Oh well,

I usually see pre flowers from seed around 5-6 weeks. I usually veg that long because of height restriction ~ 12-14" about that time you can go longer depending upon your grow space

run fans 24/7 just like bubbles

Late into flower my plants were drinking 1 GA/ Day EACH! So your reservoir may need to be doubled, otherwise you will be doing reservoir changes every 2.5 days. BeaverHuntr & I use insulated team water coolers / jugs works pretty good and keeps our temps in line. May want to look into those?

How about some pics?

An electric space heater will keep space around 68 just set the temp to keep it ~ 68 - 70F that way when your light comes on it may warm up some but the heater will not let it drop below 68 it can rise but that is okay you just do not want the temps to drop too low when the lights go out which is usually the coolest part of their day.

young yeff said:

thank you for the tips, il be sure to check for both of those. also when i switch over from veg to flower does anything with the nutrient supply need to change?? im trying to put together a rough schedule to follow as i go. thanks again

Click to expand...

I use General Hydroponics nutrient line, get a good 3 part nutrient line, most have calculators online that are very easy to follow for example...

http://www.genhydro.com/calculator/index.html

Seedling Stage - Tap water or R/O water - 250 PPM or less

Roots in water, I add nutrients to reach 350-400 good nodes plant looks strong I add full strength but pour some out and dilute it to 550 PPM. I like to ease into veg reaching max PPM's of 650 (using 250PPM tap water) this whole process takes me over a month from seed. SLOW & STEADY trust me your plants will thank you for it.

young yeff said:

hey i have a few questions about when i should switch from veg to flower.. i have one 5GAL bucket with two 4 inch pots with hydroton and my seeds are in rockwool, my light is a 200w CFL. they are in a room 2X3 in my basement. iv been told from a friend i should veg for at least 6-8 weeks before i start flowering, is there something my plants will show me that theyre ready to flower??

also should i be running my fan 24/7 from start to finish??

another ?.. my basement stays pretty cold,, it goes from 55 degrees to 65 degrees. is this an okay temperature to have my plants in?

any comments or criticism is welcome,, please help me out here. this is my first DWC grow so i need a couple pointers

Click to expand...

everything ok ,but you will need min 250w hps for flowering. its the diff between soft airy weightless buds and hard solid chunk.

*buds said:

everything ok ,but you will need min 250w hps for flowering. Its the diff between soft airy weightless buds and hard solid chunk.

Click to expand...

i have a 200w 2700k cfl bulb to switch to for flowering. Should that work fine?

young yeff said:

i have a 200w 2700k cfl bulb to switch to for flowering. Should that work fine?

Click to expand...

you can flower with cfls, but they do not have the penetrating power of hps or mh if you do decide to flower with the cfl keep it as close to the plant as possible, id also reccomend Low stress training them or something like that so that you can keep hight down and keep the cflas close to the plant as possible... Youll probably get .5 grams per watt MAX with a cfl, and thats if youre a damn good grower. id reccomend at least a 150 hps for some decent buds.