1200watt Blueberry, Lavender, Sharksbreath, LA Woman, AK-47

Whoa! That's quite a lovely setup you got there... And the strain selection ain't too bad, either! Rather, it's an awesome selection. lol Can't wait to see what you can pump out of that setup, mang.
Cheers!
DM

 

nice set up I pullin up a chair!
I love lavender
-subscribed

 

I highly suggest staying away from an HPS or MH while vegging, also you have no cool tubes how do you expect to keep your temps down near the plants. Your plants will stretch like MF'ers in veg under those lights. You need flourecents to veg for sure, unless you have cooltubes, and still you can't get the internodes as close. You saw what happened to my RR when I placed it under my 600W HPS, stretched to high heavens, yours did not and you got tons O' bud compared to me. Get 2 High Output T-5 flourecent ballasts, these are 375 watts each and are 45,000 lumens. I got mine on ebay here, you could get 4 of these for the price of your 2 600W lights, massive grow space, low heat, can actually grow against the bulb for 12 hrs before problems start. eBay Store – HighBayLowBay: Search results for t5ho.

You've got to get cool tubes man, have to. With my 400w MH I burnt my entire crop, killed all the plants in 12hrs under a 400w at 2ft away, 2 huge feet away. And with my 600w and a cooltube I can grow 4inches away. If the numbers dont speak for themselves. This is essential.

 

Yeah man those plants look young, you need to put them in smaller pots than the 5 or 7, it's way too big for them at this point. I transplant 3-4 times over a 5-7month grow. Start them in a 4INCH and then move to 8in 1 gal then to the 4gal+ size. You will also need to flush your new dirt that you have put the plants in, this helps blanace the Ph. You have some bitchin equiptment, with 2 600w you can eaisly pull 1.5 lbs every 2 months. We seem to have about the same size operation overall, I'm just 5-6months ahead of you, and its bitchin equiptment but if its not setup properly you won't get shit. So, smaller pots, more transplants, flush your plants after a transplant, get cooltubes, and get HighOutput T-5 Flourecent ballasts. Closer internodes means bigger, longer, more dense buds.

 

So does your FoxFarm come with nutes in it already and pearlite. Make your own mix for better results, follow my directions on my grow.

 

Why would you say pots are to big? Those are perfect. Trasnplanting causes stress. If you dont have to then dont do it. You want to start your seed/clone in the pots you plan to finsish them in if you can. And I have not had any streching problems with Mh really. Hps may be a diff story but I have never tried using it in veg. No idea where you get your info.

 

You do need to get some kind of cooling system though otherwise your temps will be to high. I got one at my local hydro shop and it keeps my 1000watt hps at 75 max. Never any higher than that and this is in a grow tent that can get very hot. My Flouros with just a fan would get it up to 80-85+. You also have to account for ventilation because the cooling system wont do any good with out it.

 

Transplanting does cause stress but your plants need fresh dirt every so often. It is best to start small and move big progressively. This will help prevent salt build up which will really do some damage to the plants, also your fox farm dirt only comes with a certain amount of nutrients, you will need to supplement organic nutes sometime throughout the grow, and a transplant does this. Also it's important to flush whenever you transplant to help "clean" the soil and bring ph down/balance it. I've used a 600w for vegging and when the plants are that small you will get much stretching. Also you have no cooltube; you aren't going to be able to get your plants more that 1.5-2ft away without killing them all. They will burn, and because they can't be placed any closer than 2ft w/o a cooltube they will stretch like mad. It doesn't matter MH or HPS for stretching, it will happen and both are HOT and need cooltube to be utilized properly. Now if you get a cooltube you can get your plants 4inches away like I said and get fairly close internodes, but they won't be ON TOP of each other like they would be w/ your CFL's or fluorescents. You are going to be RAPING your electric bill with a 600w on 18+hrs a day, I've done it and they don't cover enough space, get too hot, and are harder to work with than fluorescent 6 or 8 bulb ballast. The fluorescent's CFL's and High Output Fluorescents will be less hot, cover more space, and use less electricity.

And finally the most obvious reason to transplant a few times per harvest (I've noticed that you only need to transplant once for Auto's, 1-2 gal is fine in the end.) Your pots are HUGE, they will take up sooo much space, and space is sometime the hardest thing to work around. You have 1 600w that you will use for vegging. Good luck getting all of your plants under the light 4in away. IT WONT HAPPEN, the light footprint is nowhere near big/wide enough. If you get the cooltube and 5in pots you will be able to get them all under it with in prob 6in which isn't bad, I normally have to be about 6-7 because I have 10 plants under it, they are in 3 gal pots and those take up a retarded amount of space. Now as the plants get taller and Wider you can place them in wider pots, you want your plants as close together while still getting ample light all around and as close to the light as possible for internodes growth.

Now if you are to replace your 1 600 with 2 325's or something of that nature, you will be much better off. The HOT5's I use are 375W total and put out 35-40,000 lumens. With my 2 I can cover a space of 7x7ft with ease and prod 8x8 if I had to cram the heck out of it. These ballasts are so lightweight man and the replacement bulbs are much more affordable. Please take our suggestions, even DreaminGreen says the same thing, you need a ventilation/cooling system. So please for the goodness of all of us, put them back under your CFL setup, which btw was awesome +rep on the cleanness and all. This will keep your plants internodes close like they are now. Get a cooltube and fans and put em back under the 600w. Or optimally replace the 600w w/ 2 HOT5 or 325w MH. Good luck man, I'm gonna keep helping all the way, any questions shoot em this way.

Also what soil mix do you use, I've never used or read about FoxFarm but know allot of people do. Does it come with its own mix of nutrients in it? Do you add any perlite, lime, vermiculite, organic/chemical water additives/nutes? Did you flush your plants after your transplant? How often have you been watering and what is your Ph?

Also all my information come from grasscity. I'm a sceptical person and need alot of research to change my opinion and how I do stuff if it works. You say this is you'r first time with such powerful lights correct, so you should be open to suggestion? Anyways research what I've said here, education is key and you can't just rely on people posting, you have to be on this site all day for years to get really good at growing in a certain medium, dirt, hydro, aero..... So once again good luck to ya, get some more pix??

 

To be honest those black buckets only look to be about 3 gal, which isn’t HUGH like the 5-7gal you were saying. Could you get a pix w/ a tape measure showing how tall and wide your plants are, just 1 or 2 of em if fine. Do you have an extra that you can dump gallons of water into to see how big they are. Also you are correct plants do go through some transplant shock, and if you have run out of nutes in your soil mix before a transplant, it will double the amount of recovery time. Plants and life has an amazing ability to compensate and stay alive. Yes it's not good and if don’t properly you can transplant 5days before your mix runs out of nutes, and avoid transplant shock all together. Just be careful with the root ball not to cut any roots. They can be yards long easily, and if you cut 1 your possible cutting a foot of root system off. Some people say to take a knife to the side of the root ball to help root growth; I tend to stay away from this. I also place a small sheet of plastic under my rootball during a transplant. This causes the roots to grow out and around the plastic piece, making the plant utilize its bucket more efficiently from start to end. Isn't it amazing the things we can do to help something survive, absolutely flabbergasting.