1. The lack of a hood, or reflector, just means some of the light isn't getting down onto the plants. Not a huge concern, but one to consider, since HID lighting isn't cheap and should be milked for all it's worth. Also, I believe you can get away with putting your light closer than four feet off the top of the plants as long as they don't get too hot. 2. Your watering strategy sounds fine to me. 3.To increase air flow, you could add an exhaust fan at the cieling to draw the hot air out of the space. 4.As far as drainage goes, if you water so much that it comes out the bottom every time you will be over-watering, unless you have really quick draining soil, which I doubt, since you've never had it come out the bottom. I wouldn't worry about drainage too much at this point. 5. As for the bottom of the bulb being better, I don't know, but if you want to turn it 90 deg. you can, and you can easily make a reflector out of aluminum, or sheet metal. Just paint it flat white, and make it in the shape of a V.( only inverted over the light. An even better shape would be this "M" centered over the bulb. I don't claim to be an expert these are just my opinions regarding your concerns. Happy Growing!
1, I like to keep my light within 18 inces to start. Everyday I make sure the light is 1 inch or more closer. Some days the plants don't grow much. On those days I bring the bulb 1 inch closer until I have the lights about 4 inches away from my plants. You want to harden your plants to as much light as they can stand.HID lights are expensive. I try and stretch my lights as much as I can. 2,You seem to be doing OK on watering. 3,An oscillating fan stirs up all of the air in your room. They work much better than a regular fan for this. Your plants need good air circulation. An oscillating fan isn't an expensive item but to me is worth it's weight in gold. 4,You said you have pots with holes in the bottom. Use something to catch the extra water that may come out. These holes are needed in your pots to allow for proper drainage. That's what I meant. 5,Try to spread your light alittle bit. You don't want to concentrate it all on one spot. The reasons being you want the whole plant to get light and you don,t want to get the light to hot. Use a reflector man. You can even make your own, but that's for sure the way to go. Get the most out of your light!!!!!!PEACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So i've installed a reflecter and after one water cycle the semi rotten leaves sped up in their rottening and fell off. so that could be a coincedence or a consequence. both good "c" words. The next obsticle is air circulation. right now there's a fan moving around the same old air inside my closet. Does anyone have an idea for air circulation in my closet? there's an attic above it and other rooms on all sides.
With the ceiling 10 feet above the floor it was a little difficult installing a venting fan at the top of my closet. But what's done is done and damn it's good. I've now got a venting fan at the top to get rid of hot air and to draw in new air. Luckily i did the job while the plants were sleeping. I promise some pictures soon.
Is that bulb in the picture a Metal Halide? You may have yellowing foliage near the bottom of your plant due to a lack of light. Try to get the light as close as you can without burning tender leaftips. Start 18 in. away and daily the plants will reach for the light. Any more than 18 inches and plants tend to get a little leggy.Of course this depends on the size of HID your'e using. But do try and keep the leaves at about 4 inches away from the bulb , when your plants have been hardened to it. Get the most out of that light and you will see a marked increase in bud production. PEACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I shuffled the plants around and lowered the light so now the closest one is 5" and the furthest one is probably 18"... But.. ah... a bunch of leaves (lower sites) have been turning brown and falling off. Is that normal? Also, Some of the bigger leaves (like, big enough to droop sometimes) are blocking some buds. Should I cut them off? Can I clone the plants right now after they've already started to bud (like, about a half a cubed inch per bud right now; orange hairs are coming in)?
Because its only the lower leaves which tend to die I am prone to believe your plants aren't getting enough light at the bottom of the plants. Also do not cut leaves off your plant simply because they shade buds. You need these large fan leaves for maximum photosynthesis to occur. More photosynthesis=Bigger buds.Remove only leaves that are clearly infected or are going to die.Your buds need these fan leaves to help them with nutrient uptake. You can clone off of flowering plants,it's just most people do it during vegetative growth because it is faster. You are not asking a flowering plant to revert back to vegitative growth.
clones taken from a plant in any light/dark cycle will revert to a chronological age of "0" when switched to 24/0, this will mean an even longer veg period than if you switch it back to 18/6.
I'll have some pictures soon, but first I was wondering what is the easiest way to turn all my leaves into something. something like hash or oil... I know there's lots of things to do.. but what's the easiest/fastest? What about makeing oil using butane? I've no idea how this process is done and I think i want to use it.
we trimmed the yellow leaves since this and prolly a week and a half later, I cut. this is what our setup looked like,.
Undrunk you did a kick ass job. We are all proud of you. It is only going to get better as you become more experienced growing the Ganja. A+++++ Keep up the good work and God Bless. PEACE!!!!!!!!
Hey, just htought i'd drop a line letting you know the total yield from my first five plants was 5.7 oz. -tootles.