So you want to grow Marijuana, your ?'s answered here.

[jcj77d]

Originally Posted by zake

I have an aeroponics set up. The plants are Great White Shark, Power Plant, and Kali Mist. I am near harvest - about 75% of hairs are orange and I have been watching the trichomes and they are for the most part turning cloudy and a few amber heads are showing. I cycled out the nutes for pure water about 4 days ago. Is there any harm if I changed to just water too early?

no, most growers will use just plain water for the last 2wks of so. this gives the plant time to use up all the nutes in soil or res as well as in the plant. by alowing the plant to become defenceny in all nutes, u end up w/ a better end product, who wants to smoke chemicals. it will taste better & everything. your plant might look like shit by harvest, but me as well as other profesional grower i know, say "i dont like to walk in or see a garden of nice green healthy plants at harvest, they should be yellowing & almost dead". i got about 2-3wks left, & mine look like they are on the verg of death. sometimes ill continue to use molassas in my water until 3-4days b4 harvest.

[zake]

Originally Posted by jcj77d

no, most growers will use just plain water for the last 2wks of so. this gives the plant time to use up all the nutes in soil or res as well as in the plant. by alowing the plant to become defenceny in all nutes, u end up w/ a better end product, who wants to smoke chemicals. it will taste better & everything. your plant might look like shit by harvest, but me as well as other profesional grower i know, say "i dont like to walk in or see a garden of nice green healthy plants at harvest, they should be yellowing & almost dead". i got about 2-3wks left, & mine look like they are on the verg of death. sometimes ill continue to use molassas in my water until 3-4days b4 harvest.

Thank you. I am just getting impatient waiting for the heads to turn amber. They don't look anywhere near death, so I think everything should be fine. I might try the molasses.

[jcj77d]

Originally Posted by zake

Thank you. I am just getting impatient waiting for the heads to turn amber. They don't look anywhere near death, so I think everything should be fine. I might try the molasses.

go by this & if u use molassas use at a rate of 1-2tsp of molassas per gallon of water. & make sure its unsulferized molassas

[LightBringer]

Hey Jcj

I've recently looked into envriolights. Those seems to be 125-250W very big CFLs, with 1 model that has blue light and 1 model that has red light.
Those seem IDEAL for my situation as I cannot use HPS cause of heat, and I have a reflector that suits perfectly with those babies. However, I cannot find anything about their lumen output, nor anyone that tried growing with them.

Do you have any info about these lights?

[jcj77d]

Originally Posted by LightBringer

Hey Jcj

I've recently looked into envriolights. Those seems to be 125-250W very big CFLs, with 1 model that has blue light and 1 model that has red light.
Those seem IDEAL for my situation as I cannot use HPS cause of heat, and I have a reflector that suits perfectly with those babies. However, I cannot find anything about their lumen output, nor anyone that tried growing with them.

Do you have any info about these lights?

i could only find info on the 125w ones. one site said the blue puts out 12,000 lumens, & thr red puts out 8,900 lumens, but another site said they both put off 12,000 lumens & 10,400 lumens 6" away, with that said, i caculate that the 250w will put out about 24,000 lumens & there cri is 92 & the suns cri is 100

[Devin33]

my plants like 4 inches tall maybe, is there anyway i can tell for sure if its a male or female?

[jcj77d]

Originally Posted by Devin33

my plants like 4 inches tall maybe, is there anyway i can tell for sure if its a male or female?

not yet, give them time, u can put really green bananas around the bottom of plant, & let them rippen & change when brown, this will help increase your chances of female plants.

[suspect]

how do you -/+ rep?

[Edge69]

It's the button to the right of somebody's post (in line with the date), that looks like a set of old school scales.

[wireless]

If I have a 6x3 space I am looking to cover will two 400 watt be sufficient or would two 600 watt be better? That'll be for my second grow, right now I am on my first with one 1000 watt light.

Also when I top my plants is good to top them more than once even if the plants aren't for cloning? Or would it be better to just top once and leave it at that.

[jcj77d]

Originally Posted by suspect

how do you -/+ rep?

the button that looks like a see saw scale above the quote button.

[jcj77d]

Originally Posted by wireless

If I have a 6x3 space I am looking to cover will two 400 watt be sufficient or would two 600 watt be better? That'll be for my second grow, right now I am on my first with one 1000 watt light.

Also when I top my plants is good to top them more than once even if the plants aren't for cloning? Or would it be better to just top once and leave it at that.

2 400w will work, but more light is better, but only if u dont have vent of heat issues. you can top a plant as many time as u want, just wait 1-2wks in between cuts, you can even top side branches as well, but a plant has its limits on how much bud it will produce so dont over do it. The wattage of the lighting system needed for indoor gardening will be based on a couple of factors. 1) What are the lighting requirements of the plants in the garden? Are they plants that need high, medium or low light levels? 2) What is the size of the indoor garden? A garden needs "footcandles" not watts, so you will want to calculate how many "lumens per square foot" you will have in your garden. As a general rule, you will need at least 2,500 lumens of High Intensity Discharge (H.I.D.) light per square foot of garden. To get the square footage of your garden, simply measure the floor space where your garden will be and multiply the length by the width. So a 400 watt HPS (50,000 lumens) will light a 4' x 5' garden adequately. Remember, 2,500 lumens per square feet is the minimum amount of light you'll need. Typically the brighter the garden is, the faster the growth and the bigger the yield should be. Some growers suggest a 400 watt light for an area as little as 9 square feet (3' x 3').

[LightBringer]

Hey JCJ or anyone else willing to answer

what do you think would happen if I put a 150W bulb in a 400W ballast?
The guy at the store it will fry the bulb right away, but I dont want to use it for more then 1 day, I just want to check if a 150W bulb isnt creating too much heat in my situation, and I already have a 400W ballast.
What do you think would happen?

[suspect]

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!
no more bulb.

[gonejah17]

I have a 400W ballast as well - and I know its on here a bunch of times, but I still get misinformation; What will happen if I put a 400WMH bulb into a 400WHPS socket/ballast??? I know it says not to a bunch of places but check out what this guy says . . . .


Lighting
Metal Halide (mh) or High Pressure Sodium (hps) are the lights to get for growing hydroponic marijuana. If you want to build your own metal halide light fixture, plans are located here. Metal halide light is close to regular room light or cool fluorescent light (blue spectrum) and is best for vegetative (beginning) growth. While high pressure sodium is in the red end of the spectrum and is best for flowering (later) growth.
You can run
1) either mh or hps light through both stages of growth (good).
2) run a mh light through the veg phase of growth followed by hps light through flowering (very good).
3) run both mh and hps light through all phases of growth (best).
I've found either a single metal halide or high pressure sodium light system works nearly as good as a dual system. So if you only have one or the other don't worry, it will work just fine. You can't use a standard hps bulb in a mh fixture, but you can use a mh bulb in a hps fixture of the same wattage. I didn't think this was possible till several months ago when someone I trust told me it was possible. So I decided to try using a 400 watt mh bulb in a 400 watt hps fixture. The plants are growing as well as they did under the mh bulb in a mh fixture. The bulb hasn't had to be replaced and the ballast runs as cool as it does with a hps bulb. When I want to use the hps bulb, I simply remove the mh bulb and replace it with a hps bulb. So if you can only afford or only want a single fixture, I recommend getting a hps fixture and standard mh and hps bulbs rated for the same wattage as your light fixture. Use the mh bulb for veg growth and the hps for flowering. There are hps bulbs that can be used in a mh fixture and vice-versa. But these are special bulbs and cost about double the price of a standard bulb. Bear in mind, you can only use a bulb of the wattage you light system was designed for. A 400 watt system only uses 400 watt bulbs. Don't use any other wattage than the one listed on the ballast of your light system. One exception would be a 430 watt bulb designed for a 400 watt system. There will also be a lamp type specified on you light system (probably on the ballast itself). My 400 watt metal halide setup specifies an M59/H33 lamp type. M59/H33 is an ANSI (American National Standards Institute) ballast rating. M59 is a 400 watt metal halide ballast. H33 is a 400 watt mercury vapor ballast. So my light fixture could run a 400 watt metal halide or 400 watt mercury vapor bulb. 400 watts is about the best size of light for growing hydroponic marijuana in a personal garden. You should be able to grow 4 to 12 plants at a time. 250 watts should be good enough for up to about 2 to 6 plants. Anything larger (the next standard size is 1000 watts) and you are going to draw a lot of electricity. Anything smaller will limit the size of your garden to one or two plants, unless you can supplement it with strong sunlight. Expect to pay $150.00 to $500.00 for a 100 to 1000 watt lighting system. You can get a 400 watt gym type (high-bay or low-bay) light (hps or mh) for about $150.00. While a 400 watt Son-Agro, or other high end grow light system will cost $300.00 or more. I use a 400 watt metal halide gym type light (high bay) on an 11 plant garden, it works fine with 6 to 10 plants. I usually grow 3 to 6 medium size (18 inches) plants at a time. If you can afford a lighting system made for horticultural purposes with a good reflector and ballast, get it. It will last longer, allow the light to cover a larger area (more plants), and increase the amount of light individual plants get. You can also find some high-end dual (hps and mh) fixtures. These dual systems can provide both mh and hps light through both growth phases. You might want to consider one of these, if you haven't already bought your lighting source yet. If you can't afford better, a high-bay or low-bay type light will work fine. I use one. The best source I have found for buying lighting fixtures, bulbs, and other hydroponic equipment at very good prices is eBay. There is lots of competition and selection.


So is it true about the MH bulb in the HPS fixture???? that would be tits!!!!!! lemme know.