Trep's 2nd Grow - GDP, OG Kush, Master Kush

So after getting my first grow of GDPs under my belt under a 1000W light, I decided to start my 2nd. This is a log of that grow about 2 weeks into flowering. Sorry I started late, but just seeing if I can get any pointers or if any of my experiences will help out others

Equipment-
4* iPower 600W Ballasts (I believe these are Quantum OEM and at discounted price)
3* HPS Bulbs
1* MH Bulb
4* 6" hood
2* 8" Exhaust Fan
1* 6" carbon filter
1* 8" carbon filter
Foxfarm ocean forest soil
Mixture of nuts

I've been watering every 2-4 days (depending on when soil drys up) with 5.9 pH water mixed with nuts. Also temps have been around 75-81 degrees for the most part.

Space/Setup-
12'x7' Room (rough measurement). One 8" in line fan is pulling air out from all the hoods and then ending at a 6" filter. The other 8" fan is just pulling air out of the room connected to a 8" filter.

Main Room-
The backside of the room is about around an 8'x7' area. I'm using 3/4ths of this area with 3 600W HPS lights. I built a simple rack out of PVC pipe to hold the hoods up. Each "square" (out of 4) holds about 16 plants though I'm missing a few on the outside square.

Grow Tent-
I also have a 4'x4' tent I'm using for the cloning/vegging room.

Current Grow Log-
Main room I have around 30 GDPs that I had cut from my first grow and about 15 assorted plants I grew from clones from a local dispenser y (strains include OG Kush, Master Kush, Bubba OG and a few other assorted). These are all in 5 gallon pots using foxfarm soil.

Pictures of room



Picture of GDP

Picture of one of the kush? plants (not sure as I mixed up the clones early on accidently)


Tent I have 16 GDP clones that have just rooted and transported to 1 gallon pots and kept under 24 hour 300W MH light (600W ballast at 50% strength). I tried to cut clones of the other plants but unfortuneantely they all died this time around.

Picture of GDP Clones in Tent

Few questions I've had so far.
-Veg cycle takes way too long. To get plants to this size (will measure when I get back, but should be ~2') it took me over 2 months of vegging. Friend that helped me set up originally said it should only take around 3 weeks to get to that size. I'm trying to figure out what's wrong here.
- He also basically instructed me to trim all leaves except the big branches off the main stem so the plant would focus on creating larger nugs on the end of each stem/colas. Any thoughts on this? I tried on the first grow to not trim a leave but that one was way too bushy afterwards and it looks like he was right to a certain degree.

Thoughts on improvement-
-CO2 / air testing?
-Intake fan (I have enough vents so I'm thinking the 2 outgoing fans should let the room pull enough air in at the moment)
-Soil ph testing

I'm also looking at doing a vertical growing set up for my next batch, but it would be a big change for me as I would have to learn hydroponics and work with smaller plants (around 1' each level). I was thinking of starting with one 4x4 vertical set up while I finish flowering the 16 GDPs I have in the tent. When those finish (depending on my luck with the vertical grow), I will add an additional 4x4 vertical system. I most likely will move toward this as my current setup takes a bit too much work watering, trimming, space and I'm looking to be more efficient on my power bill.

trep said:

Few questions I've had so far.
-Veg cycle takes way too long. To get plants to this size (will measure when I get back, but should be ~2') it took me over 2 months of vegging. Friend that helped me set up originally said it should only take around 3 weeks to get to that size. I'm trying to figure out what's wrong here.
- He also basically instructed me to trim all leaves except the big branches off the main stem so the plant would focus on creating larger nugs on the end of each stem/colas. Any thoughts on this? I tried on the first grow to not trim a leave but that one was way too bushy afterwards and it looks like he was right to a certain degree.

Click to expand...

Some growers can grow their plants fast but 3 weeks sound pretty fast from clone. I would say a week until the clones build a decent root system and then another month until they get two feet, but it depends on the strain.(some a bushy and some are lanky.) your plants look great tho. Doesn't look like your doing anything wrong. as long as you keep your temps and humidity at the right levels, have good ventilation, good soil, and good lights you should be fine.

I will have to say those plants might be a little tall for a 600w light. you probably wont get any good buds on the bottom 12 -18". you can place your lights closer to the canopy(9" for a 600w) to get better penetration. hopefully the outside plants will still get some light.

I personally do vertical growing screen of green style. I can grow 2.5 pounds in my 4x4 grow tent. Smaller plants are so much easier to work with and I also don't have the balls to run over 1000 watts in my apartment. Maybe if I had a house.

I meant around 3-4 weeks for this size after the initial 2 week rooting for the clones. The schedule he gave me was roughly 1-2 weeks after flowering starts you cut clones so by the time you harvest, you can move those vegged new batch into the flowering room. My problem was it took me around 2-3 months of vegging to get to this phase (I think I should have cut down a little bit and gone with smaller plants). I originally was going with 1000w lights, but it created way too much heat so I opted for better temps, better energy bill but less light. My main cost at this point is actually power so I decided to put them all close together (I'm pretty sure light penetration is probably a little poor) and see what happens. My first batch I went with around 15 plants total under 2 lights and came up with around 3/4 lb.

Anyone else have any thoughts/suggestions for me? =)

So I've gotten tired of having to move all the plants to water the back ones, so I've decided to turn this into a vertical system so I can walk around the plants and water each (as I do it by hand). My plans are to make 3 rows of around 12 plants and stick in the extra 5-6 plans somewhere (or under a hood if I really cant squeeze them in). This is all really makeshift as I try to gain some experience for future vertical grows.
My pots are 5 gallon pots at 1' and the plants are roughly 2'-3' high on top of that. I plan on trying to bend the plant out a little bit in front so I can utilize the 1' space on the row above it. I realize this is not that efficient, but I'm thinking my original setup was already missing some penetration and for a 2nd grow, I don't have to have an optimal yield.

Diagram of height setup - each letter is 1 foot in my 8' room
o = pot
l = plant
u = where i will put my 600w hps bulb (a little bit higher on the top one and a little bit lower on bottom one, but cant demonstrate unless I use my awesssome ms paint skills again)

l
l
u l
lo
u l
lo
l
o

Decided to show off some more awesome paint, here's the basic gist of each level