Stankie, I recently switched from a 1000 watt MH in my veg room to two 400 watt HPS ballasts with CMH bulbs. Within a week or so the reduction in nodal spacing was clearly evident. I'm very impressed so far and the reduction in heat emissions is a big plus also. chjunk
What do you use for flowering? Is it similar to what I quoted from LD on the previous page? I'm thinking about using the CMH for the first 5 weeks, then switching to an Eye HPS to finish out flowering.
Ceramic Metal Halide is a 'conversion' lamp for use only with magnetic HPS ballasts that provides a more natural light curve and higher UV levels. It is different than a standard MH/MH conversion lamp however. MH is high in the blue spectrum, HPS is high in the red, CMH is even throughout.
I realize that, I was trying to say that the old MH bulbs of any type seem to be on the way out in favor of wider spectrum bulbs. I use the eye bulbs with the CFL backup and it quite a set up really and cheap. I have two cmh bulbs that I run in old balasts that I have but I like the digital ones for a few reasons. and I can run that bulb in a ansi/digital but they dont seem to have the longevity of the horti bulbs.
Stankie, I veg with the CMH'S and flower with the Eye Hortilux Super HPS bulbs. I would really like to try flowering with the Eye Hortilux "Super Blue" bulbs but man are they spendy. The Super Blues are built with a 600w HPS and a 400w MH in the same lamp. Since I'm running 2000 watts, I'd be coughin' up about 400 bucks for the 2 lamps. Not only that, but I'm running a perpetual setup so I harvest 3-4 plants every few weeks, I'm moving vegging plants out of the tent and into the "bloom room" so it would be a PITA to be switching bulbs back and forth. I really think having some blue and red light in the first few weeks of flowering is beneficial, but logistically (for me anyways) it's tough to pull off. chunk
Man, I'm too old to try and remember what is what. So starting today with this very post, the pictures are real time. No 2 week delay or anything. We can see that the frost man cometh for the Purple Head Knocker and is just thinking about making an appearance from the unknown plant. Looks to me like the unknown plant is gonna have some pretty good sized buds. But as we all know, bigger isn't necessarily better, it is just bigger. The screen has filled out real nice, this grow I haven't done any trimming of the growth below the screen, nor have I taken any of the sun leaves. It is what it is. I don't know what the finish time for the unknown girl is gonna be, but the PHK should be finished sometime in early April (yeah, 13 weeks is a long time, but sometimes, long times are worth the wait) I'm not a commercial grower and I only do this for myself. Today I gave each pot a level tablespoon of the 0-12-1 guano. Yesterday, each pot also got like 1/2 gallon of zero filtered water. (I sure do like not having to mess with ph'ing water). Temps are running right around 78 and 60% humidity - lights on, and 70 and same humidity - lights off. If you are thinking powdery mildew, I am also. My thoughts right now are that if I see it, imma gonna make some bacteria tea and let the bacteria and PM spores fight it out for the food the leaves produce. I'm pretty sure the bacteria will win out. (At least I hope so, don't want to get a sulphur burner and deal with all that garbage). Enjoy the porn and thanks for all of the positive vibrations.
LMAO... I feel ya man! I think I know where your head was at with the 2 week delay thingy. LOL. Dude I'll tell ya. You sure had me going. LOL. Those first pics you posted were looking kinda week and spindly and now this! WoW. Looks really special. Great job man!
Me too, but I've been around long enough to know that with humidity levels that I have, it is not if, but rather when
PM I feel for ya bro. IMHO thats the biggest battle in growing.....you NEVER know if ya won or not!! on the other hand...those gals lookin sweeet!
Can PM and/or high humidity levels be better managed with increased air exhange? And if one lives in a high humidity place and is drawing air into the garden from outside there's probably all kinds of mold spores flying around. Right? IDK but having once lived in FL for a long time I know what a pain heat and humidity can be. Air quality, that's a whole 'nother issue we all share.
Your G, I hear you with the PM......Here in the PNW it's a fact of life. I'm hitting my plants with an EM-1 foliar application every couple of weeks and have not dealt with PM for some time. The lacto bacillus bacteria consider PM some fine dining. I used to hear of growers using milk to treat PM.......go figure. It's the lacto that does the work. Those are some fine looking plants/buds you posted. Really diggin' the PHK......read somewhere you were the breeder? Take care bro, chunk
Chunk Thanks for the positive vibrations. I appreciate it. Yeah, I've also heard of people using whole milk, IDK, the though of spraying my plant with milk is kinda.... you are right the lacto is what does the work (it is also the cause for milk to spoil). I'll do the bacteria tea first. If'n that don't work, then I'm going straight for the sulphur burner. Last time, I used a bunch of those closet dryer things that you can get at homo depot. They did take a ton of water out of the tent (which is 2' x 4' x 5'). You read correct, I am the one who bred the strain, but I can't take credit for naming it. One o' my best friends came up with the name, if it was up to me, I would have named it after the zip code I was living in. This PHK is from a mother which is right around 2 years old now. I got an youngin' I'm kinda teaching how to grow. He's doing real good, BTW. He's kept the PHK to himself and is gonna be a great grower in time. When I did the breeding I ended up with 4 different pheno's. All of them were good but 2 of them were, imho, real good. I gifted a friend "at the time" 10 beans with the hopes he would help me parse the 4 pheno's down into one stabilized strain. Alas, he greed got the better of him and he started selling clones in Colo. The funny thing is, in his haste he killed off the best phenos and went with the one pheno that has the biggest growth and let the others slip thru his fingers. LOL Greed is a muther. Here are 2 pics from the last grow of the PHK ThumbSnap - Simple Image Hosting & Photo Sharing ThumbSnap - Simple Image Hosting & Photo Sharing
Thanks Guerilla, your input and opinions are valued. Like I said above, I can't take credit for naming it. Thanks for swinging by and commenting.
Update: 1 month into flowering - 2 more months to go. First the unknown lady which are the 2nd and last images. She is slowly filling out and growing her buds. They appear to be now starting to get some frost, not much if any aroma. She does have a fairly thick stalk. In retrospect I think she might have done real well under a screen, but it is what it is. I didn't take any clones of her, so this is her first and last run with me. Moving on to the PHK, (the first and macro pictures). She is as normal - a short, fat & loaded with buddage, plus lots of frost, and the smell of ahhhhh Haven't done anything to them since the last post, just gave them zero filtered water. I use a turkey baster to prevent flooding the soil. It works really well. Hope you enjoy the porn.
Bodacious budZ, bodacious controller, bodacious tent, bodacious GroW man! Looking good. Is the clear tubing CO2 or ya got something else going on? Did I miss that already confused
Thanks Possuum, I appreciate the vibes. I got the controller (C.A.P. Extreme Greenhouse) from craigslist for a mere $400. I really like it. It takes all of the guess work out of regulating stuff. Yeah, the tubing is for co2. IDK if you can see it, but I took an upholstery needle and poked a bunch of holes in it where I wanted the co2 to fall on the plants. Does it work and better than just dispensing it from above thru an open nozzle? Phucque, IDK, but I prefer to think that it does. I keep the co2 at 1,500ppm. For anyone who is interested, I've got a 5' tank that has lasted me thru two complete grows and I think will last thru this one also. I'd really like to get myself a nice small tent for clones. Presently I'm doing clones in a cardboard box.