Rider509
Well-Known Member
I wish I had Cornfield's problem! I'm just setting up my grow again after chopping everything down (for no reason, as it turns out).
The 4x4 Grow Tent Club
- Thread starter Batcave
- Start date
Cornfield Gro
New Member
Sorry for your loss. I really got lucky with the timing
GrowBird
New Member
Maybe it's not Watts or Lumens.
Herd two funny things on DGC (Grow Guru) today.
Lumens are for Humans and wait for it................................ More Roots, More Fruits.
If you look up the stretch characteristics of each plant when you switch to flower you will see that you are going to have a problem. If it were me, I would be looking to take the tops off of all of them. It is difficult to see from the pic, but probably a foot which is a lot. BEFORE I did it I would try and get more specific advice from people who know what they are talking about.
The Mountain - Grow Support From The Over 50 Club
I haven't personally gotten help from this thread, but they seem to know what they are talking about. Please let us know how it turns out. Good luck.
Cornfield Gro
New Member
If you look up the stretch characteristics of each plant when you switch to flower you will see that you are going to have a problem. If it were me, I would be looking to take the tops off of all of them. It is difficult to see from the pic, but probably a foot which is a lot. BEFORE I did it I would try and get more specific advice from people who know what they are talking about.
The Mountain - Grow Support From The Over 50 Club
I haven't personally gotten help from this thread, but they seem to know what they are talking about. Please let us know how it turns out. Good luck.
My local hydroponic store has a product called stop stretch. You mix it up in a spray bottle with a couple drops of soap. I'll see how it works
Cornfield Gro
New Member
Rider509
Well-Known Member
They look healthy and happy. You're def doing something right! Good thing you can get to the back plants through the side doors.
The time has finally arrived! Today is the day I switch to flower 
I cleaned the prefilter on the carbon filter, the pad was seriously straight black, took awhile to clean but I got it pretty darn white. I rearranged the filter/fan closer to the exit slot so I had head space for the 150w light in the back. I'm seriously surprised how freaking bright these two 150w HPS are...Holy cow!! They're small and still put off so much more heat than the giant LED panel haha I'm going to have to watch temps especially when i have to keep it sealed due to odor. I'm worried I'm going to have to use my AC a lot to keep the tent cool hope not though.
I waited too long to water them and they are all kinda droopy and sad. Some of the plants also started to get little yellow spots on just a few leaves, I think I may have either gone to heavy on the nutes last feed (Full dose on everything) or they were just thirsty idk but I just watered and my girls are starting to perk back up =). Anywho I'm super excited as this is my first grow attempt which means its also my first time attempting to not fuck up the flower phase haha, little nervous.
I cleaned the prefilter on the carbon filter, the pad was seriously straight black, took awhile to clean but I got it pretty darn white. I rearranged the filter/fan closer to the exit slot so I had head space for the 150w light in the back. I'm seriously surprised how freaking bright these two 150w HPS are...Holy cow!! They're small and still put off so much more heat than the giant LED panel haha I'm going to have to watch temps especially when i have to keep it sealed due to odor. I'm worried I'm going to have to use my AC a lot to keep the tent cool hope not though.
I waited too long to water them and they are all kinda droopy and sad. Some of the plants also started to get little yellow spots on just a few leaves, I think I may have either gone to heavy on the nutes last feed (Full dose on everything) or they were just thirsty idk but I just watered and my girls are starting to perk back up =). Anywho I'm super excited as this is my first grow attempt which means its also my first time attempting to not fuck up the flower phase haha, little nervous.
The time has finally arrived! Today is the day I switch to flower
I cleaned the prefilter on the carbon filter, the pad was seriously straight black, took awhile to clean but I got it pretty darn white. I rearranged the filter/fan closer to the exit slot so I had head space for the 150w light in the back. I'm seriously surprised how freaking bright these two 150w HPS are...Holy cow!! They're small and still put off so much more heat than the giant LED panel haha I'm going to have to watch temps especially when i have to keep it sealed due to odor. I'm worried I'm going to have to use my AC a lot to keep the tent cool hope not though.
I waited too long to water them and they are all kinda droopy and sad. Some of the plants also started to get little yellow spots on just a few leaves, I think I may have either gone to heavy on the nutes last feed (Full dose on everything) or they were just thirsty idk but I just watered and my girls are starting to perk back up =). Anywho I'm super excited as this is my first grow attempt which means its also my first time attempting to not fuck up the flower phase haha, little nervous.
Looking very organised
Let the flowering begin !!
I'd guess that much of this is because the ballasts are inside your HPS' housings. I suspect that they're old-style C&C (Core & Coil, aka "magnetic") ballasts instead of electronic ones, which tend to produce a bit more heat. And I've read that the ones used in those small, cheap, all-in-one lights aren't considered to be greatly efficient even for C&C ones.
Modifying those things so the ballasts will be remote is pretty simple. I'm not going to try explaining how to do it; I'm not a licensed electrician, lol, and would hate to assume - or mistype - something and take a chance on causing a little electrical <OOPS> on your end. But if you search around, you can find threads (some of which will have pictures to help make it a safe, step-by-step, more or less "no-brainer" process. IIRC, there's at least one here on the forum somewhere that was posted years back when these kinds of lights were in more common use than now. If you cannot find one here, you'll certainly be able to find one on the web somewhere.
The above would also make the fixtures lighter - but, again, the primary benefit is moving a big chunk of the heat-production out of your grow area.
As far as the actual light (only) being produced, you're looking at 300 watts from the two little HPS and, if I remember correctly, something like 345 watts from that LED panel. So in theory, it should be producing just a tiny bit more (about 153.6 more BTU/hour) than the two HPS do together. It will probably seem like the HPS bulbs produce more than the LED light does, because you're comparing a couple of things that (each) produce all of their heat from one spot, versus a panel that produces its (light) heat in, what, 200 locations? Like a gallon of water, kind of - if you separate it into 128 individual one-ounce spots, it might, at a glance, seem like less than a gallon. Err... If that makes sense.
Setting those HIDs up so that their ballasts are outside (of the grow space) is worth it, IMHO. And the light that they produce, while fairly small in terms of gross output, will definitely contribute to a bigger harvest. Both because of the extra illumination and because they may well help fill in any spectral deficiencies. You'll also get some "third light effect" between each "pair" of the three lights - if set up properly, the places in between where each light's output is dropping off will combine (again, if that makes sense). And they'll undoubtedly help cover areas that would otherwise have been shaded (if using only one light source) by leaves.
Rider509
Well-Known Member
My gut is that the HPS lights need to be dropped down. I'd like to run my PAR meter over your grow just to see what kind of coverage you're getting from them. I'd run the HPS lights as my primary light sources and then blast the LEDs at the HPSs height so there wouldn't be any shadowing. But then, I'm largely unfamiliar with the purple LED systems capabilities so take that with a grain of salt. 
Hey thanks for the thorough response! I love reading and absorbing as much as I can about this whole growing thing its just all so interesting!!! I'll definitely look into modifying the HPS lights I have because if i can do something to reduce the heat in the tent I'm all for it. Saves me money from not using AC. I'll have to wait until I finish this run before i start messing with anything. It's pretty late in the game to start messing with my lights especially since I'm a newbie.
What you're saying about the heat from the LED makes total sense I just found it funny that a tiny little bulb puts off more heat than a giant panel. Gotta love LED haha.
Rider509 said:
Yeah I'm thinking the HPS's are a little high but my reasoning for that is I didn't want to shock the plants once i flipped to flower by adding 300 extra watts of HPS light all of a sudden. I plan to slowly lower the HPS to about 18" or so. I'll have to play around with them the next couple days. I'm kind of considering getting a PAR meter depending how pricey they are so I can get a better idea of my light distribution etc.
I'll have to post a picture of the plants because I just got home from work and turned on the lights and immediately noticed all the budding sites/heads appear to have turned yellow since the last time I looked at them...Is it normal for them to change color? Maybe as an indication the plants are entering flower phase perhaps?
Alright well I wanted to wait until the lights turned off to snap a picture... The Pink photo is the reason I was tripping but after taking the second one without the lights it may just be an optical illusion or something. There just seems to be a large contrast in color all of a sudden... If you need better pics lmk!
GodOfPot
Well-Known Member
Did you flush them prior to switching to flower nutes? Or prior to switching to flower?
Yeah the last time i watered them it was strictly H2O, no nutes. I haven't fed them the bloom nutes yet.
GodOfPot
Well-Known Member
Was just informed about and reading up on something called Recharge that someone mentioned to me. Apparently it's similar to a tea, it introduces a bunch of great fungi and bacteria that are beneficial for your roots and work in any medium, helps your roots and plants greatly
I've only skimmed it so far, but will spend the day tomorrow reading up on it more, looks like it may be a great addition to helping out with many plant problems simply by allowing the roots to function and perform at a higher rate
I've only skimmed it so far, but will spend the day tomorrow reading up on it more, looks like it may be a great addition to helping out with many plant problems simply by allowing the roots to function and perform at a higher rate
To help remove those pesky vegetative nutrients, lol?
Some people refer to the early part of the flowering phase as a transition period... Cannabis plants begin producing more and more flowers, sure - but they also stretch for the first ~40% of that flowering phase. IOW, the plant is still physically growing. It seems to me that it's more beneficial to gradually reduce the nitrogen/etc. while at the same time, gradually increasing the flowering nutrients.
IMHO, and - as in all things, YMMV, of course. But I've been trying to read more about auto-flowering strains, and I've gotten the impression that changing nutrient ratios abruptly, switching to a set that lacks nitrogen... can result in smaller plants than would otherwise occur. IDK....
Rider509
Well-Known Member
That's a very civilized response, TS. I, however, was raised by cave-dwelling Neanderthals and would have responded perhaps a bit more succinctly:
Why the hell would anyone flush the veg nutes out of the soil? The plant is in transition, i.e., a gradual change from one state to another. Doesn't it follow that the soil should change gradually as well?
yoshi420pr
New Member
I got 4x4 gorilla grow shorty and it fuking great but you have to have money is almost 5