2 days into flowering and this! Hydro
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- #122
Girls downstairs. We put hydroton in the bottom of the blue buckets where the little bit of water sits. this displaces some water. Also, we learned where the bottom of the wool avergaes in the mesh pots and marked that spot in the control bucket so we will flood up to about half an inch above the bottom of the wool and release. We are experimenting. Will keep you guys up to date!
Much love, Snichols
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- #124
Good idea!
We have had everything up in the air with where things were to go. Now we have a plan and need to get it together, we have just been busy. But tomorrow we go at Wiring!!
Thanks, Snichols
ZARBU
New Member
Hi Snichols1,
If you have a Samsung Galaxy smart phone or similar phone with light sensors go to the google play store and down load a free lux light meter app to test light levels.
One called LUX meter, is one and Light Meter is another.
Lower your hps lights and your fluros\ until you get 58000 LUX at the top leaves of your plant, this is the perfect height to hang your lights for best yield in budding and growth in veg, if you cant hit 58,000 with the fluro tubes bring the lights as close to the leaves as possible without touching, check heat between light and leaf.
Check for heat with your hand with the hps, warm is ok but if heat too hot raise it a little, and check LUX reading again.. fluro tubes can come within a inch of the plant.
Test Lux on both lights and let me know your light level to canopy.
What Wattage are your HPS bulbs?
Once you have a LUX light meter you will see for your self how quickly light levels drop with distance from the bulb.
this is why experienced growers try to veg small compact bushy plants with very close nodes, so they don't become too tall when they stretch when the hours are cut to 12 /12. tall veg plants mean the bottom canopy wont receive the needed light intensity after the stretch that occurs in the 3 weeks after the flip to 12/12. .
Any plant buds receiving less than 20,000 lux will be light fluffy and of poor quality and weight.
aim to have your plants receive at least 25,000 lux at the growing media level after the 12/12 stretch . With lower wattage lights less than 1000 watts this means growing short plants in veg. Plants grow short in veg with 58,000 LUX because they have no reason to stretch for the light.
A plant should be measured in number of leaf nodes not height, smaller the inter node length the better the grow and higher the yield will be.
your plants are looking much better now, no droop which is good.
Kiwiiwik
If you have a Samsung Galaxy smart phone or similar phone with light sensors go to the google play store and down load a free lux light meter app to test light levels.
One called LUX meter, is one and Light Meter is another.
Lower your hps lights and your fluros\ until you get 58000 LUX at the top leaves of your plant, this is the perfect height to hang your lights for best yield in budding and growth in veg, if you cant hit 58,000 with the fluro tubes bring the lights as close to the leaves as possible without touching, check heat between light and leaf.
Check for heat with your hand with the hps, warm is ok but if heat too hot raise it a little, and check LUX reading again.. fluro tubes can come within a inch of the plant.
Test Lux on both lights and let me know your light level to canopy.
What Wattage are your HPS bulbs?
Once you have a LUX light meter you will see for your self how quickly light levels drop with distance from the bulb.
this is why experienced growers try to veg small compact bushy plants with very close nodes, so they don't become too tall when they stretch when the hours are cut to 12 /12. tall veg plants mean the bottom canopy wont receive the needed light intensity after the stretch that occurs in the 3 weeks after the flip to 12/12. .
Any plant buds receiving less than 20,000 lux will be light fluffy and of poor quality and weight.
aim to have your plants receive at least 25,000 lux at the growing media level after the 12/12 stretch . With lower wattage lights less than 1000 watts this means growing short plants in veg. Plants grow short in veg with 58,000 LUX because they have no reason to stretch for the light.
A plant should be measured in number of leaf nodes not height, smaller the inter node length the better the grow and higher the yield will be.
your plants are looking much better now, no droop which is good.
Kiwiiwik
- Thread starter
- #126
I do have a galaxy s 6 edge and will check lux tomorrow. In the meantime, Here is the link to our bulb
1000W SUPER HPS Grow Light Mama's Grow Shop
We have selectable ballasts and low pro reflectors. 4 of everything and everything is at 600 watts right now and can go up to 1000w and then "Turbo" 1100 I believe. THoughts on wattage we should use? Again I will check everything out tomorrow during lights on and let you know! Thanks, Snichols
1000W SUPER HPS Grow Light Mama's Grow Shop
We have selectable ballasts and low pro reflectors. 4 of everything and everything is at 600 watts right now and can go up to 1000w and then "Turbo" 1100 I believe. THoughts on wattage we should use? Again I will check everything out tomorrow during lights on and let you know! Thanks, Snichols
ZARBU
New Member
Great gear, if you lower your lights you can use less wattage to achieve 58,000 lux at the plant thus saving power.
If you dont want to lower lights you can up the wattage to achieve 58,000 lux at leaf level, but its a waste of energy unless you can fill in the entire grow space the light covers., higher the light greater the area coverage but less light intensity, you really should fill a lights area with plants as to not waste energy and max yield.
You only need 1 lamp going for those 3 plants, lower it, turn off the others, its a waste of power and lamp/bulb life span.
Move the 3 plants closer together in a line under the one lamp. move them to best suit light shades foot print.
In your new grow you can grow 9 compact high yielding medium sized plants per 1000 watt hps light, thus 36 plants. (9 plants x 4 lights = 36)
grow a few more plants/clones than you need for spares. say 40 plants /clones.
You should very easily be able to achieve 4000 grams of buds every 12 weeks with this top quality gear.
clones in general are better than seed with indoor growing, faster turn over and shorter plants. clones are mature and ready for flowering as they are as mature as their mother they came from, seed must mature first before they can be flowered.
Kiwiiwik
- Thread starter
- #128
I see us leaving the lights just because we will be fitting 12 plants in there the next cycle which should be a month or 2 now. But Im stoked to see what we can get out of the equipment we have. I havent known how to test it up until now and i appreciate it.
Will let you know in the am! Are you in the us? Im EST
ZARBU
New Member
Girls downstairs. We put hydroton in the bottom of the blue buckets where the little bit of water sits. this displaces some water. Also, we learned where the bottom of the wool avergaes in the mesh pots and marked that spot in the control bucket so we will flood up to about half an inch above the bottom of the wool and release. We are experimenting. Will keep you guys up to date!
Much love, Snichols
I recommend you only flood the bottom hydroton and let the rock wool wick the nutrients up from the flooded wet hydroton.
Dont flood the rock wool at all, its designed to be a wick.
Kiwiiwik
ZARBU
New Member
You may be forced to lower your lights if you LUX is too low, it is likely it will be even with 1000 watts so far away.
In my time zone it is Friday 22nd and 7.30 pm , Im at least a 12 hours ahead of you in time.
Im from a country called New Zealand, you can Google my time.
Light intensity is everything, light is plant food. more it has, faster it will grow and higher it will yield.
once you use your light meter you will understand light drops off fast with every cm.
distance from light will make or break you as a grower, its up there with the oxygen lesson in priorities.
You could half the time it took you to veg those plants if you get the light height right, remember plants are measured by number of nodes not height.
Kiwiiwik
- Thread starter
- #131
What do you mean by compact medium? We have the titan controls flo n gro in the flower room right now which has 12 sites. It is expandable and i suppose we could put 3 plants in each site to make 36. Now that this group of 12 is all the same strain, we will begin taking clones. (SCARY)
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- #132
We have 26 thousand lux at leaf level in the basement right now. The problem with moving the lights is that they have inline fans. So if we up the wattage we are set. But I only get about 8 thousand lux in the veg tent. Is this bad? We need both rooms to continue the cycle how we would like to but i am kinda confused. Also what do you mean by 12/12 stretch? We go to 12 12 in flower but is there other 12 12 im missing?
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- #133
When we clone, we want to keep the clones the same size right? Let them get "Thick"? I have yet to clone. And these clones would skip veg all together?
ZARBU
New Member
Ok just ignore what I said, im confusing you. Just stick to one plant per pot.
just work on getting you LUX as close to 58000 as you can in both rooms, if you cant lower your lights maybe you can raise your pots/system just a thought.
Your LUX is way too low in both rooms, your lights are too high.
ZARBU
New Member
Yes keep the clones the same size, I think for your system and number of plants you will need to veg. how long you veg will depend on your LUX levels.
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- #136
Update! At 60k lux in basement. But why the droopiness? There is a bit of water in the bottom of the flo n gro sites but not much! the hydroton in the bottom of the outer buckets is wet but not watered over. Some brown spots on leaves and chola of the leaner is upside down. They seem stressed. Thoughts?
We havent even flooded in the basement yet!
The roots hanging out of the bottom of the mesh pots into the hydroton underneath are probably getting a bit of a moist bath.
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- #137
We are getting ready to cut a few lower fan leaves right now. What do you guys think about chopping some of the roots that are coming out of the bottom of the mesh pots to avoid the roots sitting in water? We just flooded but not up to the wool. Just trying to combat the droopiness.
ZARBU
New Member
The Droopiness could be heat from the HPS lights?, raise the light back to 40,000 lux and see if that helps.
Update! At 60k lux in basement. But why the droopiness? There is a bit of water in the bottom of the flo n gro sites but not much! the hydroton in the bottom of the outer buckets is wet but not watered over. Some brown spots on leaves and chola of the leaner is upside down. They seem stressed. Thoughts?
We havent even flooded in the basement yet!
The roots hanging out of the bottom of the mesh pots into the hydroton underneath are probably getting a bit of a moist bath.
the plants need time to adjust to the new light levels, you may need to lower them a little bit over time. till you get to 58,000
Plants prefer gradual change rather than sudden changes, it gives them time to adapt to their new environment..
Test for heat with your hand at plant level. 1000 watt bulbs are very hot, i only have 600 watt bulbs.
What are the temps like in your environment? aim for around 22 degrees Celsius
The roots sitting in water should be fine as long as your air pump bubblers in your master tank are working well and you flood and drain often enough.
you may need to increase the LUX gradually over time.
Small plants i.e seedlings and clones also cant handle high light levels, match the light intensity to the amount of roots your plant has, increasing the light as your plants grows and develops until you reach the sweet spot of 58,000 LUX for flowering.
Ive never had plants droop at 58000 lux, but your roots are compromised in that rock wool.
your doing the right thing flooding the hydroton and letting the rock wool wick the moisture up.
In my flood and drain tray there is aways some water left in the tray after the drain that the roots stand in, it doesn't hurt, the next flood will replace the water before the plants use the oxygen up in the water, i flood and drain every 3 hours when lights are on in my tray. I also use air stones in my tank. My small clones are getting a flood and drain every hour currently until they adapt to the hydroton after coming from a dwc bubble cloner.
as you are now effectively using a NFT hydroponic system you can flood and drain often, but only the hydroton below the rock wool, or the first few mm of the rock wool and let it wick it up like NFT, you are effectively using your very own hybrid system, a cross between ebb and flow and NFT.
you can bungee that leaning plant, hang a yo yo trainer from the ceiling and pull in up straight. or even use a piece of elastic, get it straight up and the plant will build roots to supports it.
heres a yo yo trainer. these are good for holding heavy buds up too.
Hows the transplanted plant? did it die? I wish i got you to spray all the leaves with cloning wax now.
natures own, cloning wax is my most favorite horticultural product ever.
Google Natures own cloning wax. awesome for transplants and clones, forget using a clone dome.
Kiwiiwik
ZARBU
New Member
Snichols1, have a read of this thread to see how those rock wool blocks are meant to be used, and adjust for your system.
Kushtie - ShortStuff Autos In NFT
Read from page one to finish.
Cheers
Kiwiiwik
Kushtie - ShortStuff Autos In NFT
Read from page one to finish.
Cheers
Kiwiiwik
- Thread starter
- #140
Im about to immerse myself. Be right back.
