Stresssssed... Need a new light for vegetation

[Cretin]

Whaddup, I just failed my 6th attempt at growing. heh.

Ok so heres what I used

20w Flourescent until they had their 2nd set of leaves out.
600w HPS (vegetation to flowering)
Pro soil (no nutes)
PH correct water
Temp is good in growbox.


Now they always die off the 2nd week when under the HPS. ALWAYS because I overwater at one point, I wait too long to water (Because I have no way of knowing when to water again, their leaves don't straighten out, and the new ones that come out arent even straight), so I wait too long, and they start sagging because they dont have enough water, and then just die.


I need a new light for the vegetation, this is what I think it must be. Under the CFL they were growing great, huggggge leaves, fast , etc. Moment they go under the HPS they start dieing or whatnot.


Money is not a problem, I'll spend another 300$ if thats what it takes. but I'm seriously getting stressed the hell out. I was thinking a 400w MH for vegetation, and then switch to 600w for flowering?

Any other recommendations please.

Also believe it or not I watered them (they have more than enough holes on the bottom), to the hope that the water drips out of the bottom. It did the first few waterings, then one watering it didnt, and it pretty much killed the plant. ! I'm going to put rocks on the bottom of the pot so it leaves room and doesnt clog the holes...


aaaaa so stressed! This has cost me several hundred already just for the electricity.

[keelo]

hps isn't great for vegitation i recomend a MH conversion bulb during vegitation and make sure you have it at a good distance while they're still young. the trick to watering is to make sure that the soil is kind of dry about a 1/4 inch down before watering good then letting dry out to that point again, while they're young depending on the size of the container their in and light distance/temp this can take anywhere from 3 days to a week.. pinkie finger is the best test to know if its time to water or not. as far as nutes.. let them mature a little before you throw it to em.. if they're good and healthy they'll take it better. it's more important to grow you plant right than it is to try and grow it fast. good luck

[Cretin]

Originally Posted by keelo

hps isn't great for vegitation i recomend a MH conversion bulb during vegitation and make sure you have it at a good distance while they're still young. the trick to watering is to make sure that the soil is kind of dry about a 1/4 inch down before watering good then letting dry out to that point again, while they're young depending on the size of the container their in and light distance/temp this can take anywhere from 3 days to a week.. pinkie finger is the best test to know if its time to water or not. as far as nutes.. let them mature a little before you throw it to em.. if they're good and healthy they'll take it better. it's more important to grow you plant right than it is to try and grow it fast. good luck

thanks man but i've been doing this for a year now, I know the watering thing, I know that 2 inches down if its dry, then water. I know all about the nutes, and the distance from light.

The store I grab my supplies from don't haev a conversion bulb for 600w I dont think.


Thanks for the advice though. It seems the steps to getting it to grow is pretty straightforward, except I can never get it to work

[senior_ganj]

Damn man, that sucks. I think you're overthinking things actually.

If they look good under the floro, leave them there until they start stretching. The 600w will do wonders for flowering, you just have to get through veg man. Any pics of them dying would help diagnose the problem too...

If it isn't broken, don't fix it.

[Steed007]

yer I agree use them floros till end of vegitation chances are the plant it far too young to cope with the light stress.

HPS does wonders for flowering but is not required during veg

(I would also get 55w floros )20W is far too low

or get MD lamp for seedling and veg stage

[frog-godbee]

Man once you set up a re-circulating system properly ... i beleive its the easiest system to maintain .... you can go away for a few days or even a week with no big dramas .... i like to top feed with ring sprinklers in expanded clay .... i use pots with holes in the bottom that sit in a tray .... same equipment as flood n drain except i top feed with it using pots ... the water runs out the bottom of the pots and down the tray ( which is slightly raised at one end) to a drain plag at the end ... the water then falls into a resevoir below .... which contains a submerable pump conected to your feed lines, ready to be pumped back up again .... (i am sure you know what i mean man iam dribblin just in case) .... when i first put in my clones i have them watering constantly for 10-14 days till my roots spread out a little bit ... then i connect my pump to a peg timer and water 15mins on 15 mins off ... for about 2 weeks ... then 15mins on 45 mins off ... once the roots are pumping .... the more roots the more moisture your pots will hold for longer (in clay) ... so you should definately slow down the watering as the roots grow bigger or you'll encourage root rot by drowning the roots ....
with the temp in your grow box man ... the surface tempreture of the leaves can get way hotter than the room temp ... if the side edges of the leaves start curling upwards (and the tip of the leaf may or maynot curl downwards) their surface tempreture is way too hot and needs fans blowing across the top of your canopy ... constanly pushing the hot air off them ..... i am just guessing man cuz there are no pics ... paste some pics with a digi

Also man what is pro soil ?????? .... ooooo also the core temp of the pots makes a massive difference .... 18-22o celcius is beautiful (whatever it is in farenhite) ... ever buried a digital tempreture probe in your pots to measure core soil temp ?... its better than guessing man .... cost about 10 bucks ... one thing people should spend money on is equipment to measure all aspects of their enviroment ... if you monitor and maintain everything correctly ... your meters should give you a pretty good idea of whats going on .... This pro soil has me thinkin .... but using the same soil under less intense light and they go fine .... sounds like heat and air issues .... also check your roots to see if they are white and healthy .... shitty roots grow a shitty plant man .... brown roots would be generally over-watering or soil temp .... water can't hold very high levels of oxygen once it gets above 25oC so you can suffocate the roots that way... thats why whales n shit live in colder waters cuz it holds more oxygen and can therefore sustain more/larger life ... just measure everything and take some pics man

[frog-godbee]

just another thing .... its just my personal opinion so please don't anybody get upset with me if you disagree ( iam trying to learn to type happy ... sometimes i read my replies and think wow i sound like a dipshit) ... anyway, personally i prefer to grow under HPS than MH ... i find HPS grows a more tighter plant with closer internodal spaces ... MH definately grows them up taller quicker ... but i just find the branching to be more leggy and sparse with larger internodal spaces ... Its been awhile since i done a side by side (same enviroment, segregated light source)... maybe i should do a more recent one and prove myself wrong ....

[Cretin]

haha, yeah thanks for the repsonses.

I dont know , they seemed to have recover a bit and are doing a bit better, I'll have pics once my roomates friends leave, but my growlog is at
http://forum.grasscity.com/grow-jour...-grow-log.html


you can see the room setup. there is a fan blowing over the tops of the fans, keeping it cool, and lots of exhaust fans, and the intake is from outside (at night) so its nice and cool

theyre the optimal distance from the light, I know 1 of the plants is doing better, the others, well, at least leaves are still coming out

The overwatering really messed things up. I waited too long and they dried up, thats why they started dying. But I gave them about a shotglass of ph correct water each, and seem to be doing a bit better

[frog-godbee]

honestly mate those little cups under 600w light ..... some bigger pots would be nice .... i bet your roots a slowly roasting away

[frog-godbee]

man honestly i personally witness on regular basis clones which are struck directly under 400w MH .... and as long as the enviroment which includes soil temp they pump ....