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New grower, first indoor 250W hydro, any input appreciated.


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Hey Space,

Lights are the least of your worries. You need HPS for flowering. Flowering under MH will work but with shit quality imo. LED's may be good for your powerbill but from all reports 'shit' otherwise. There are a number of posts here regarding LED's. But the established growers amongst us will tell you 'Don't even bother'. If you want quality (and who doesn't) spend the money and go HPS. You will only get quality out if you put quality in.

Light is not the big vexed issue you seem it to be, but you will discover that as you progress. Every setup is different and as you go along you will need to make specific adjustments to best meet your needs, but don't get stuck at lights. Airflow can be more of a vexed issue than light but again you will discover that as you progress also. So can the level of salts in your fluids, thus the importance of an EC meter. Just concentrating on your lights can make you blind to the other important issues EC, pH and airflow. All these things need to be balanced and not just light.

 

Merl1n

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Well, thought people might be interested in a quick update on the plants. 

 

Merl1n was absolutely right about having to increase the top drip flow. They became very dry after about a week or so, and I needed to hand water to top up their bottom reservoirs again (they were all pretty much empty). Plants were looking very limp. Point taken... So, I created new drippers with more outlets (will get pictures when convenient) and increased the water flow by replacing the 4mm rubber tube with 6mm tube. This helped a great deal. It's hard to get the black 6mm tube, but it's awesome stuff especially with a small pump because the flow is much better. 

 

Here they are a few hours after being topped up. As you can see, they recovered very well from their thirsty spell. They are about 15cm high here, after about 28 days of veg. 

 

post-51990-0-58135600-1384425016_thumb.jpg

 

 

Here they are today. It's been about 32 days of veg. They are getting close to touching the light, which is awesome. I topped them at around 26 days from sprout. They appear to be developing some nice fresh growth around the new apical regions, which is a great sign. 

 

[sorry about terrible picture quality - MH light was on and is no good for taking photos by!]

 

post-51990-0-08174900-1384424991_thumb.jpg

 

 

A close up from today shows the new apical peaks developing as a result of the topping. Again, not a good shot, sorry. 

 

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I've decided to build a SCROG screen and have a go at spreading them out a bit. Might be a bit of a dog's breakfast since it's my first go and they're already pretty crowded in there (think maybe a SCROG would be better with only 2 plants next time given the limited space, or only 1 even). I'm making the screen out of 15mm poly pipe with elbows etc. I'll post a few pictures of that on the weekend for your advice. 

 

Thanks for looking, everyone! I appreciate all comments and feedback. 

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Hey Space,

Ahhhh, see he's learning lol . I had 4 plants in a drobe and it was an almighty head%^&*. I decided to cutback on plants and just have two and increase the size of my grow space. I grew 2 different strains. One had a booming veg growth whilst the other was real slow developing. The 'boom' boomed too much and took over the grow space, blocking light to the 2nd plant. The resulting smoke from the smaller was exquisite but there wasn't a lot of it, which was disappointing, but again you learn.

Now Ive increased my space again and increased my lights to 4x600 HPS and grow one BIG scrog plant. Here are some photos 

https://cannabis.community.forums.ozstoners.com/gallery/member/24238-merl1n/

In those pics you cant see my SCROG netting, which is a square steel frame with steel netting welded to the frame. On the corners of the frame are the legs on which the frame slides up and down making it height adjustable, which is very handy. Also the top of the legs are great for the required additional support needed for the buds. In pic7 you can see one of the two trailer nets used for bud support around the top of the leg. The trailer nets stops the buds from falling over from the weight and snapping the stems.

Here is a bit of a scribble. To give you some ideas

post-24238-0-21832600-1384430248_thumb.png

 

Merl1n

Edited by merl1n
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Ahhhh, see he's learning lol

 

Ha ha, yep - Slowly but surely! I tend to learn best by trying crazy things and failing. Try to remind myself that failure is actually one of life's best teachers. 

 

Now Ive increased my space again and increased my lights to 4x600 HPS and grow one BIG scrog plant. 

 

Man, that's insane! You've got a single big plant in SCROG under 4 big lights like that? Wow. So how long do you veg for to get her that big? Do you start with only one 600W light during the early veg stages and just keep adding them as she gets bigger? What sorts of yields do you get from a setup like that. Must save you a bunch of money on fancy seeds... ;)

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I finished making the SCROG screen and put it in the wardrobe yesterday. As you can see below, it's a snug fit. I was playing 'growbox tetris' for a while there, but it eventually worked out and I'm feeling quite optimistic about it!

 

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You can see here that it's only a couple of centimetres above the plant tops. Plants were topped a while ago and they're developing a few nice new apical tips which are looking bright green, fresh and healthy. The light in this picture is a bit higher than I set it afterwards. It's now about 15cm from the plant tops (through the SCROG screen). That, at least, is a nice benefit of running the 250W in the cool tube - you can get it pretty damn close to the plants without burning them!

 

post-51990-0-55789900-1384680158_thumb.jpg

 

The SCROG screen has legs that are inserted into larger pieces of poly pipe with a bunch of holes drilled so I can run small bolts through them to raise and lower the screen if necessary. No pics of that, sorry. *facepalm*

 

Running the HPS light now from 18:00 - 12:00, so 18/6 overnight. Seems to be doing OK with temps. I think that they would peak just before lights out at 12:00, at a maximum of 36C. Too high, I know, but the plants seem OK and it's only for a couple of hours on hot days (of which there are not many yet). When I go to flower the lights will probably be on 20:00 - 08:00, so they'll be off during the hottest part of the day. I reckon I can do this thing and get a harvest before the Summer heat gets really stupid in Feb/March (fingers crossed!). Regardless, this is a great dummy run for another grow next year in Autumn & Winter.   :D

 

Thanks again for all your help, Merl1n. Great to hear what you have to say. 

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Thanks guys! Great to hear so much approval. Have to say I'm feeling optimistic. I did a lot of stuffing around getting it set up, and have wasted days trying to set things up a certain way only to abandon it and go back and try again... :S  Regardless, it's all part of the learning process and I feel awesome about it now. Couldn't have done it without the people on this site! Cheers. 

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Hi everyone. Quick update, if anyone's following. 

 

The SCROG screen is working beautifully. The plants are growing laterally now, and are showing a huge amount of growth. I'm noticing it every day. When I push the tops under the screen, within a day or two I have to do it again because they've poked up and added a few centimetres. It's awesome to see them going so well. 

 

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I installed a cloning chamber today! I want to eventually have a bonsai mother, with clones constantly being taken and then the best of them converted into a big single plant SCROG in the flowering chamber (ie. main wardrobe area). Not sure how this will work out! The mother will have to be very small. 

 

Here is the new cloning chamber. Had to put in a new shelf for it, and build the light holder. 

 

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I took 4 clone cuttings: two from the White Rhino fem, and 2 from the Super Kush reg. This is the size and shape of the cuttings, on average. I removed two bottom fan leaves and shoots, used rooting hormone powder, and stuck them in wet peat plugs (love those things!). 

 

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Here they are in the humidity dome. Not sure if it's the best, because it's a cloudy plastic. 

 

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I'll keep the lid on like this for a few days. I'm also misting them with a squirt bottle of rainwater. 

 

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Here's the underside of my shonky wooden lamp holder. There's sockets for 3 globes wired up, and room to add a couple more if necessary later. 

 

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I have a couple of questions if anyone has time or the knowledge to answer: 

  1. Is a single 23W light globe sufficient for these four clones? Should I use more light? Or increase light later? 
  2. How many days should I keep the humidity dome cover on for? Until there are roots? Just a few days? 

Would love any other advice also, if people have any. Thanks everyone for reading!

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