LED Grow Light Forum

Hey, those ladies are lookin real perty there my friend! Nice level canopy...love it. My girls are 19 days in to flowering, and one of them is "reachin for the stars" hahah.

Question for you...do you eventually tie the stalks/buds onto the tomato cage? or are they enough to support the weight just being there?

Peace!
ICB

ItsCurtisBaby wrote:Hey, those ladies are lookin real perty there my friend! Nice level canopy...love it. My girls are 19 days in to flowering, and one of them is "reachin for the stars" hahah.

Question for you...do you eventually tie the stalks/buds onto the tomato cage? or are they enough to support the weight just being there?

Peace!
ICB

Curt,

I do tie to the ring but not for support, so far have not had enough weight to tie for support, I tie to separate the cola.
My question to you is, at what point in the growth, height, do you put your plants into flower?

GR

Hey GR...I guess I can say that after my first grow, I have been pretty consistent with flipping the girls to 12/12 right around the 12-14" range...which has nearly always coincided with a 32-38 day vegging phase, for me. This time frame is obviously very dependent on the topping/pruning/flimming/mainlining you may do. By flipping at this height, the girls have usually ended up between 24-30" at the end of flowering...my first grow I was hesitant to do so, and ended up with 36-40" monster plants with way too much fluff at the bottom...

I think the key "to me" has been ensuring they are transplanted to their "final" home at around 10" in height, and allow at least a week POST transplant to get their roots developing into the larger container before flipping. In my limited experience, I have noticed an explosion in growth after transplant every time, so I need to make sure I have the space to accommodate that growth.

Still love that mainlining you do my man!

Peace
ICB

Today is day 6 of 12/12, started flower after exactly 2 months of veg, growing in 2 gal. Hempy buckets and Mainlining all plants. I like the structure, and they are started to stretch. My CLW SS400 is 18" from the plants tops. One thing that is strange, C1 leaf color is not as dark as the other CC/BBGA plants and it is the one that it's leaves are curly like. The others are like regular indica cannabis leaves. Hoping it is a fem, should be real nasty buds.
The WW is showing sex, a fem., not sure about the rest yet. Feeding every 36 hrs. and tucking leaves, way to many plants for my space. Hope they all show sex soon so I can reduce the number of plants in there, hoping for 3 to 4 fems, if I get more then I will put them up for adoption.

WW is 23" from floor, 15" from top of mix, the rest are around 19 inches from floor and 11 inches from mix, except C2 is 15" from floor and 8" from mix.







Peace out,

GR

I sent SME a private message, not related to CFL, and she suggested I post it here.

Hi SME,

Since you are a HID grower, you would be the one to ask.

My Cabinet is 7.5 sqft, and about 6' total height. What light, reflector, ballast etc should I use. I have a new 6" can filter and a 6" Max fan Pro to use with this.
I am not sure how to set this up either, I am thinking the filter before the cool tube, then fan to exhaust, or do you think I can just run the light and have the filter and fan separate.

I am not displeased with the CLW SS400 but just want to see the difference myself. I also have another question, if I go with a 400 W system, how many total watts will I draw with the light, ballast, and fan.

Thanks,

GR

The reply was good, very informative.

"Questions really should be asked in public so others can learn too but based on the sqft alone I'd say at least a 400w. If you don't want to ask HID questions here I also have the growtutor.com forums which isn't LED specific.

Separate fans for odor/heat control and for light cooling are better but it kind of depends on the environment.

You'd have to add it all up but it'll be more than the SS400w because the LED light isn't really 400w and fan wattages vary, the MAX even has variable speeds. My guess 450-ish...

Also be aware that a 400w HID isn't as powerful as a 600w which isn't as powerful as a 1000w. The smaller the HID the less intensity."

What I have read is that you want about 50W per sqft, and this will give me 53W per sqft, would like to have more, but for the limited space I have this is it.

If anyone has other infor for me I would like to hear it.

GR

Let me clarify a couple of things; imho, you want 50+w/sqft so 50 is on the low side to me. Many growers will stuff a 1000w HPS in a 4x4 tent for over 60w/sqft and I've known people to go over 100 but that might be a bit of a waste. I'd say that there's a point of diminished returns in the 60-80w range, depending on other environmental and genetic choices.

Assuming that you use an air-cooled hood and can control other environmental conditions (heat, humidity, co2, etc) and with the right genetics (no sativas) and grow style you *could* throw a 600w HID light in there, for 80w/sqft, which would penetrate better than a 400w and should increase yield substantially. You could even use a 600w dimmable ballast, like the SolisTek Matrix, at -25% for 450w (60w/sqft) for something in between. You are height limited with only 6' so smaller plants are going to be better.

As always, the choice is yours.

Lot's of very good info SME, at some point I hope to have the opportunity to grow in that manner. Going to give this a try, main reason being I have had other grows with the SS400 and want to see if and what difference there might be between the two lights of similar wattage's.
Being as how I am only growing for my own med's, whatever I get is a blessing.

I am enjoying the learning, having fun with a wonderful hobby, growing my own med's that I know what they are, how they are grown, and that they are safe for my body.

This is such a great forum, and I love the exchange of info here.

GR

5 females, one male.
Going to have to give two away, no room!
lets see where it goes.

GR

gr865 wrote:This is such a great forum, and I love the exchange of info here.

We might not be as big/busy as other places but I like the civility here...

Day 16 of 12/12!

Just maneuvering branches and leaves. May do some light pruning at day 20, any suggestion on this are welcome. These three fill the 7.7 sq ft cabinet well. Get new light this week, going with a 400W HPS in a 6" cool tube, new 6" fan and filter. I am going to empty the old 4" charcoal filter, keep the pre-filter on it and use it as a pre-filter before the cabinet. This old carpet, in the room I am pulling the air from, produces too much dust and blocks the little pre-filter i have on there now, only 12 sq in of pre-filter. New pre-filter will be 240 sq in of surface area. Should keep most dust out and not have to be changed every few days like I do now.
All are 18 to 20 inches tall from the soil line.

C5 left front, C3 right front, and WW in the back.