saturday, 4-12-08
all of the bubblicious sprouts, the 1st lowdown mystery & cali-Os were out of their shells and ready for some sunlight. i decided it was time for phase 1 of lighting.
i put my shoplight in my bedroom closet with 1 philips 40w cool white bulb and 1 philips 40w daylight bulb for a full spectrum. the daylight bulbs have a slightly more orange bulb whereas the cool whites are more balanced and have more blue to encourage compact growth.
i simply used some CD cases as a base to prop the light up. in the past, i've used larger books but this closet is only about 8 inches over 4 feet so i wanted to block as little of the end lighting as possible as the space under the light fills up with more plants eventually transplanted into 16oz. cups. using stackable items like CDs lets me raise the light up as needed as plants get taller.
as the grow continues and some plants stretch taller than others, i'll continually roatate the plants with the tallest ones at one end and the shortest ones at the other as i've done before, and try to keep the lights as close as possible to the plants with at least a quarter inch space to prevent burning but i've seen leaves crash into flourescent tubes and still survive.
once i start getting plants on their 2nd leafsets, i'll put them on the $3 timer i got at a second hand store. i'll split the grow and keep all of the plants that are still sprouting on a 24 hour cycle with another shoplight. then, once plants show their sex, i'll revert them back to vegetative with 24 hour lighting and start taking cuttings as needed. i'd like to figure out a way to keep at least one female of each strain in vegetative until harvest so i'll already have sexed clones ready to go for my second planting.
i hope to have enough money saved up by cloning time for my 1st light, a 400w metal halide. as soon as possible after that, i'll add a 400w high pressure sodium too for more coverage and flowering stimulation. if heat becomes an issue, i'll stagger the light cycles with 6 hours MH and 6 of HPS to cut power use in half. i'm also considering digital ballasts with 20% dimming for heat control too. in the winter, i intend to run both lights flat out for 12 hours when heat is no longer an issue.
now i just need to figure out how i'm going to handle all these plants. i'm thinking i'll mix SCROG or LST for the taller sativas with sea of green for the compact hybrids. i really wish i knew how many square feet per plant i'd need to scrog. it would make planning the space easier but i've never been able to get a solid answer from anyone about it, just vague "it really depends" type answers. if i overgrow my space, i'll just have to prune plants back or overlap them.
monday, 4-14-08
even with the cardboard shielding i had set up on the side of the shoplight, some of the flower pots, especially those closest to the fan were drying out. the suction created by the fan pulling air out at the far end was strong enough to also pull pieces of cardboard to the shoplight. today i raised the fan over the top of the light so hopefully it still pulls heat from the light fixture but still moves some air inside too, but not so much that i'll need to water all 41 plants twice a day. that's the insulating mylar i'm going to be using in my growroom window to block light leakage and heat radiation once i start that room up.
speaking of watering, this is what i'm using, a soda bottle with three little holes punched in the top. so far i've been giving each plant 3 squirts about 1 to 2 seconds long but if they keep drying out, will do a 4th round before putting them back under the light. i'm going to need another light too. i have to stack some of the pots at the high end as there isn't enough room under the light.
here's the plants that have sprouted today. as you can see, the bubblicious ones started popping after the cali-Os, but they're taking off faster now. i'm really jazzed that 3 of the 4 A11s i planted have sprouted. those can't be replaced. hopefully the C99s will do well too. they're still dry in this photo as i'm watering in the closet and i've raised the soil levels as much as possible as some of the 1st plantings were only 2/3 - 3/4 full.
i probably should have just started everything in 16oz. cups from the start. if i do that before flowering though, i'll need a 3rd shoplight. i think you can only fit 36 plants under a pair of shoplights if i remember right from my 1st half assed grow. i should measure some cups to see how many i can cram under a light. i actually might not even be able to totally fill the space as the CD cases are still eating about 3-4 inches of lighting real estate. then, again, instead of doing 4 rows with 1 plant directly under each tube, i can add a 5th row in between the two fixtures. all i need to do is grow the plants large enough to flower, then i'll end up with about 20 plants.