8 Strains in a 4x4

[Harry Timbercrank]

I sure post a lot but it's for my own record and any advise I can use. It just feels like things are getting out of hand with all the hidden bud sites. Really wanting to pull some leaves! Trying to wait until the stretch is over. Pulling the canopy down is a daily affair. Went ahead and put 1.5 litres of water in each one with 5ml of Hi-Brix, 5ml of dry Epsom Salt, and 1ml of Bio Bloom per gallon of water for their first full feeding. Oh yeah, and 5ml of mycorrhizal per gallon as well. Later today I will be adding another litre or so of tap water making sure pot has some weight to it. Some felt light and some a little heavier but I hit them all the same. These smaller plants do not drink near as much as a single large plant. Last grow I filled up a 4x4 tent in a 25 gallon plastic pot and watered 2 gallons everyday and sometimes 3 gallons during flower. Now I'm starting to see why it's recommended to use the right size pot depending on how big your plant is so you can water more often.
Well it's hot as hell outside and the a/c is kickin keeping the conditions in the tent pretty good.

 

[Harry Timbercrank]

Nothing like waking up and reading a scientific journal for fun. Noticed a light was on early this morning. Checked my graphs and it looks like the qb96 has been on a 13hr schedule during the entire flowering period! Mechanical timers keep getting me! I switched to 12/12 on June 5th 7 days ago. I thought they weren't stretching as much as I've experienced before, especially with eight different strains someone should have exploded in growth.

Interesting thing is I thought a 13hr light period would have at least began flowering a few of these girls but I degress. Another thought is with only one light coming on an hour early it's mimicking sunrise compounded by the Vivosuns automatic sunrise feature.

Well after I read this article: plants-12-01061.pdf, it looks like this might have been a good thing. Seems like a longer light cycle at the initial start of flower might increase biomass without negatively effecting psychoactive compounds allowing the plant an opportunity to change processes in time by not ending the vegetative processes abruptly. I skimmed over some of the related articles as well.

Now I'm not going to experiment, yet, with changing the entire flower cycle to either longer or shorter daily periods but I will look further into my different strains origins and keeping that in mind when selecting and growing different strains in the same conditions. Really need to read this thing five more times so I can understand it better.

On another note, I might be screwed. These will surely stretch into each other forcing me to fire up one of my other five tents, kept finding them on marketplace for cheap new in the box. Why my friends keep giving me lights is weird because I have ten more sitting in a closet and I think there is more on the way!

 

[Harry Timbercrank]

It's only been two days since I went from 13hrs of darkness to 12hrs. For sure stretching now. My mistake with the timer has enabled these girls to grow oversized for this grow.

Debating on whether to stop spreading them out and just let them grow up but then I would need to either lollypop or harvest the tops and let the bottom finish. I could move some to another tent but these are my best lights and the air is filters going into the tent as well as out helping to keep at bay any pests.

Here is a current picture. Need to spread them out daily but yesterday a top broke off the Holy Snow and only noticed it to late. I will wait another day or two until the pots dry out more which should help keep branches from snapping.

 

[Harry Timbercrank]

Just cruising along. Sour Diesel by Growers Choice and the Holy Snow already dried out and got a few cups of

water.

Vpd at 1.3 average. Average lux is 30,000, some at 40,000 and some at 25,000.

 

[Harry Timbercrank]

Yeah so, airpots are getting more water and less light on average. These are the solid plastic type of airpot. Have watered the airpots with full nutes since I posted last. Def the way to go.

 

[Harry Timbercrank]

Shout out to 420magazine for storing all this information.

 

[Harry Timbercrank]

Watered the four airpots yesterday. Using the High-Brix, Liqui-Dirt, and Roots Excelurator Gold every watering. Using the BioBloom once per week whenever it falls on a feed so I have to log which plants are getting what and when. I actually take them all out and water each plant accordingly.

Tied them down a little bit more as well. Due to limited space letting them finish stretching up instead of out is about all I can do now. Removed some inward facing fan leaves blocking lower bud sites. Maybe removed 20 leaves in total so far.

There is some challenge growing eight different genetics in the same environment. Air flow at the bottom is restricted without much room between pots. Using four lights helps with differing heights being able to adjust each independently of one another. The plants not directly under a fixture benefit being lower due to the approximate 20 degree angle of light spread, so I optimized that with my lux meter.

Keep in mind these plant were stripped of the first five nodes while they were young. Wanted mature plants that didn't take up much space with eight plants in a 4x4. I planted them low 4" below the rim and filled the pot up the rest of the way once the first three nodes were removed. Not sure yet if I would recommend doing this.

The Marionberry Kush and Green Crack are catching 50,000 lux at 12" each under the two Samsung lm301h 3000k boards powered by Mean Well 240watt driver. Been using these lights for four years now! One board is a little brighter than the other by a few thousand lux but this is normal since they are wired in parallel.

Holy Snow is at 50,000 lux 16" under the qb96 elite v2 on a 185watt Mean Well driver and have been using this light for four years as well. Could be more light than that considering the far reds that a lux sensor might not pick up as well. In the past I settled on 36" for seedlings, 24" for veg, and 18" for flower with this light. Let's see how Holy Snow does at 16".

AK 47 is under the 150watt Vivosun smart light that has a fan blowing downward in the middle. Even at 8" it's only 30,000 lux. I assume my lux meter isn't picking up the far reds or the uv this light provides in flower mode. We'll see how she does.

From what I researched I'm understanding that without 280nm uv spectrum the benefits of uv are negligible and this light only goes down into the 320 spectrum. The smart controller is really nice though. The sunrise feature takes seven minutes to go from 25% power to 100%. I don't feel I could recommend this light. Four of them in a 4x4 tent wouldn't be enough light or coverage imo but we shall see.

If I had to recommend the absolute best light setup in a 4x4 it would be eight Samsung lm301h 288 boards at 3000k with four 240 watt Mean Well drivers. You would then be able to turn the drivers down keeping an even light spread at a closer distance while still having individual height adjustment. That's only $800 U.S.. Might even be able to get away with no heat sinks at that point lowering the cost.

Lots of growers like to use different light spectrums for differing portions of the grow but I've had the best results using 3000k all the way through. A few things I noticed in my years of experimentation are that with 3000k all the way through the grow produces tight node spacing and healthy foliage turning over to large dense frosty nugs with great color. And to be honest the qb96 grows even tighter node spacing with even frostier nugs, but the heat is greater and having such a focused beam of larger led chips means height adjustments require caution.

I have a Horticulture Lighting Group HLG 65 V2 4000k on a 60watt MW driver I tried vegging with but it seems to suck the green right out of the plants. Spindly looking branches with further node spacing.