MotaFina - 2nd Indoor Grow - Damnesia & Special Kush - Supersoil - HID

[MotaFina]

If I may give my 2 cents on the low wattage in veg...
If plants grow fast, with short internodes, and consumes a good amount of nutes/water, they are getting optimal light.
If they grow slowly and elongated, they are not getting enough.

A good way to start progressively on the power-bill is to start each seedling with one 23w CFL bulb, then 2, then maybe 4 or whatever you have/prefer (HID, LED,etc) you have. 8 CFLs (2 x 4/plant) at 23w mean 184watts. MF's 400w MH should be perfect for 2 plants in early/mid veg. Is the coverage good enough for 2 plants with a 400w MH ? Hmmm... About 3' x 3'... that's a bit restrictive with 2 big plants in later veg. Maybe put the 1000W HPS early, or buy a 1000w MH buld (20-30$ ?) for late veg ?

Personally (I'm no expert on LEDs), I'm skeptical of the LEDs. Costs a fortune it seems and I see mixed results... a lot of people with either elongated plants (light too far) or burned plants (too close), unhappy plants (light spectrum). Possibly there are good/bad brands of Leds. Even on youtube I saw tests with (side by side), with the sun/leds/HIDs/CFLs, and the led results were mediocre. Strange leaves, strange color, poor growth, etc.

Then again, its always about compromises and each case is unique. Investment/power bill/lumens/heat/space/ease of use.... erk.

My young plants absolutely loved daylight CFLs at ~2 inches. Each day you have to elevate the cfls and keep em from touching. But I've had the plant as close as 1/2 inch without burning.

I'm pretty much following your progressive method so far. I started the seedlings on 2x26W daylights and now I added a second set of two. And I have them about 2-3 inches from the leaves. So far so good. And thanks to Penny's advice, the two that had stuck leaves are now showing their first set of 'true' leaves.

As far as the 400w MH bulb, I will supplement the edges with CFLs, so should be totally adequate for my 4x4 tent.

I still need to clean the tent really good before I move the seedlings into it. There could be pollen in there from the last grow. I've heard that just wiping it down with plain water should be enough, so that's what I'll probably do.

 

[Phalangeal_Worrior]

So I'll be buying a 600w HID a bulb for veg and a bulb for flower. I'm also buying a digital ballast to enable wattage adjustment. Is it possible to use the veg bulb on a lower wattage (250) when young and progressively increase as the plants grow, reaching 660w? This will be for four plants. I am also considering buying another young veg light so I can start growing before I finish flowering on my first grow, however being cautious of the overall output, not to flag the electricity company . I'd like to keep it around 300w. I'm going to delay on LEDs until i have greater experience and .

I guess my big question is, what can I use to veg my plants that is electrically efficient and does not hinder yeild or plants health. CFL's seem like a good bet . Thanks everyone for your help.

 

[BluePhoric]

I guess my big question is, what can I use to veg my plants that is electrically efficient and does not hinder yeild or plants health. CFL's seem like a good bet . Thanks everyone for your help.

This is what my plants looked like with 4/6 cfls at day 25 :

Day 30 after some defoliation :

I used progressively 1,2,4,6 cfls per plant until day 35. After that, 8...
I think you can do with 4 until day 25 at least.

 

[MotaFina]

So I'll be buying a 600w HID a bulb for veg and a bulb for flower. I'm also buying a digital ballast to enable wattage adjustment. Is it possible to use the veg bulb on a lower wattage (250) when young and progressively increase as the plants grow, reaching 660w? This will be for four plants. I am also considering buying another young veg light so I can start growing before I finish flowering on my first grow, however being cautious of the overall output, not to flag the electricity company . I'd like to keep it around 300w. I'm going to delay on LEDs until i have greater experience and .

I guess my big question is, what can I use to veg my plants that is electrically efficient and does not hinder yeild or plants health. CFL's seem like a good bet . Thanks everyone for your help.

The adjustable wattage HID sounds great...I wish I had that capability. It'd also be great if the ballast is switchable between MH and HPS. MH has a better light spectrum for veg and HPS for flower. That said though, Bluephoric is seeing great results with CFLs alone. He uses quite a lot of them, but the results are looking awesome. Daytime CFLs for veg and soft white for flower. Or a mixture along those lines.

 

[BluePhoric]

Digital + Dimmable ballasts don't look too expensive; like 80-100$ for a 1000w?

They're supposed to support HPS -AND- MH, and are switchable (not exactly dimmable) between presets like 400-600-1000w.

If I was using those kinds of lights, that would be an absolute must ;-)

 

[BluePhoric]

So I'll be buying a 600w HID a bulb for veg and a bulb for flower.... This will be for four plants.

600W is supposed to cover a 3.5' x 3.5' (max 4x4) space. Is it covering large enough for 4 plants ?
Each plant should be no larger than 1 foot (1+1 * 1+1 = 4sqft)?
OOOPS, bad maths... 4x4 is 16sqft ;-) so each plant can grow 2x2, that's ok.

I know the 600W are very popular, so they probably do the job ok.

MF has a 600 and a 1000w, he must know exactly if 600 is enough for 4 plants...

 

[EastCoastGhost]

LED will definitely grow some great bud, I just got done doing a mars 1200 (600 w actual draw) led and a 1000w hps and as far as the quality the buds are much better from led, more dence and better tric production, alot of people like hps but for me I getting rid of my hps and going all led, as far as money they pay for their self on your first run...️

 

[Cannibcody]

So I'll be buying a 600w HID a bulb for veg and a bulb for flower. I'm also buying a digital ballast to enable wattage adjustment. Is it possible to use the veg bulb on a lower wattage (250) when young and progressively increase as the plants grow, reaching 660w? This will be for four plants. I am also considering buying another young veg light so I can start growing before I finish flowering on my first grow, however being cautious of the overall output, not to flag the electricity company . I'd like to keep it around 300w. I'm going to delay on LEDs until i have greater experience and .

I guess my big question is, what can I use to veg my plants that is electrically efficient and does not hinder yeild or plants health. CFL's seem like a good bet . Thanks everyone for your help.

I started my grow just before you an I got 6 24 inch t12 20 watt daylight flourescent bulbs in my veg cab an they seem to be working great... i keep the plants bout 4 inches away..... gonna upgrade to led when i get closer to flowering.....subbed .

 

[MotaFina]

Update - Day 11 from seed:

Here's the little girls:

Special Kush in the round pot - Damnesia in square pots. The little ones had some difficulty early on just getting the first leaves split apart, but I think they'll catch up.

I've got them under 4x26w daytime (5000K) CFLs on an 18/6 schedule. I'll probably add 4 more CFLs once they're a little taller, then switch to the metal halide in a week or two.

 

[Phalangeal_Worrior]

I the sound of your mixed light set-up, I'm thinking of something similar. I am wondering if you have an Idea of your thoerectical yeild? Absolutely subscribed

 

[MotaFina]

I the sound of your mixed light set-up, I'm thinking of something similar. I am wondering if you have an Idea of your thoerectical yeild? Absolutely subscribed

All I have to go on for predicting yield is the results of the first grow. I think the benchmark is grams/watt. Since I'm running 1000W in flower, and I achieved about 375g, that's .375g/W. That's pretty low when compared to an expert grower, and even pretty low for a first attempt. But I had some problems on that grow. If I can achieve .5g/W on this grow, I'll be pretty stoked!

 

[Pennywise]

.375 isn't bad for a first grow, a lot of people get less. .

 

[Phalangeal_Worrior]

All I have to go on for predicting yield is the results of the first grow. I think the benchmark is grams/watt. Since I'm running 1000W in flower, and I achieved about 375g, that's .375g/W. That's pretty low when compared to an expert grower, and even pretty low for a first attempt. But I had some problems on that grow. If I can achieve .5g/W on this grow, I'll be pretty stoked!

Did you blog your first grow? I'd like to take a peep. .5g per watt is my first target goal, may be a little out of reach for my experience. The GPW, however doesn't consider time taken. I really hope to find the most effective way to grow whilst reducing electric. Your doing perpetual grow and getting that quantity in less time and only using 1000w in flowering (using less electric). Your defiantly on the right trajectory.

Keep using them green fingers x

 

[BluePhoric]

Since I'm running 1000W in flower, and I achieved about 375g, that's .375g/W.

Did you use 600w 50% of the time and 1000w for the rest ? If so, i'd say you used 800W and did 0.47 g/w ;-)

 

[BluePhoric]

Did you blog your first grow? I'd like to take a peep. .5g per watt is my first target goal, may be a little out of reach for my experience. The GPW, however doesn't consider time taken.

Yeah... I find g/W doesn't take into account important things like total grow time. "Grams per watt per month" OR calculating real-life Kilowatt/hours consumption over the entire grow would give a more realistic benchmark.

0.5 g/W on a first grow in soil is ambitious. I think even experienced growers are often satisfied with that.

 

[Kidokush]

Sitting in on this one.Good Growing

 

[MotaFina]

Did you use 600w 50% of the time and 1000w for the rest ? If so, i'd say you used 800W and did 0.47 g/w ;-)

Yeah it was split about 50/50. And my veg light is actually only 400 watts, not 600. I'm definitely satisfied with my yield on the first grow. My bigger goal for this grow is to get the quality up.

 

[MotaFina]

Did you blog your first grow? I'd like to take a peep. .5g per watt is my first target goal, may be a little out of reach for my experience. The GPW, however doesn't consider time taken. I really hope to find the most effective way to grow whilst reducing electric. Your doing perpetual grow and getting that quantity in less time and only using 1000w in flowering (using less electric). Your defiantly on the right trajectory.

Keep using them green fingers x

Yeah, my first grow is in my signature on this post.

I'm not doing a perpetual grow now. I did that in the past and it is a great way to keep a constant supply. And cloning is really easy. I just don't have the space right now for two tents.

 

[Pennywise]

Yeah... I find g/W doesn't take into account important things like total grow time. "Grams per watt per month" OR calculating real-life Kilowatt/hours consumption over the entire grow would give a more realistic benchmark.

0.5 g/W on a first grow in soil is ambitious. I think even experienced growers are often satisfied with that.

Ive never hit 1g per watt, its a goal i have though.

 

[MotaFina]

Update - Day 16 from seed:

Here we are at day 16 from seed:

I transplanted yesterday into 1 gallon pots using a mixture of 'Coast of Maine' organic potting soil and my super soil mixture. I tried to put the super soil into the bottom of the pots, but in the process, I think it all got pretty mixed up. I watered with spring water with a little bit of EJ Rootstock (kelp) added.

Special Kush:

Damnesia 1:

Damnesial 1 profile:

Damnesia 2:

Damnesia 3:

And here is a look at the current setup:

I added 4 CFLs to make it 2 CFLs per plant. I'll move to the metal halide in a week or so. The CFLs are doing a fine job. The only complaint I have with them is it's hard to look into the tent - they're absolutely blinding and hard to avoid looking at them with them being right on top of the plants.

My plan is to top down to 3 or 4 nodes once the plants get up to 6 nodes, then start LST on branches. For up-potting, I'll go to 3-gal next, then to 7-gal and perhaps one plant will go into a 10-gal pot I have. Not sure if the 4x4 tent will be enough room for a 10-gal pot though. I was only planning to go into flower with two plants, but they're all looking healthy at this point, so we'll see how it goes. I suppose I could go into flower sooner with four smaller plants to get the same yield in less time??