Hey guys new to the forum so I figured I'd start a thread and see what advice you guys can give me. It's a closet grow, about 2 foot by 2 foot and about 6 foot tall. I currently have 4 plants under the 150w (16000 lumens) hps light. The plants are about 3 weeks old now and I just did my first F.I.M on them last night. They're responding really well but how long should I veg them before switching to flower? They are currently on 20/4. I was also curious as to if i should shorten the light cylce as i get farther into veg and closer to flower. Thanks guys! P.S attached is a picture i took late last night
Sup man! welcome to the forums! I run a similar set up to your with the same type of light so I can give u a few pointers. You dont need to fim right now, you need to top it(if you want multiple colas). Also I would put the light about a foot from the plants if you have good ventilation maybe even a bit closer, but I think you have it at a good distance because they dont seem to be stretching. Looks like you have 2-3 weeks to go for veg. Have you been giving them nutes? they are a bit short for 3 weeks, in your space you want to shoot for 8+ bud sites before switching to flower. Good job on the side lighting I would throw a few more make sure you get some 5000k + if you do they will love the mix spectrum! As far as the light cycle after alot of reading I stuck with the 18/6 and it all went well, all I can tell you is read on similar set ups, I took crackmonkeys as an example and you can even read thru my thread I made alot of mistakes so you might be able to learn from them, also dankys thread has alot of info and he switch to and hps in the middle of his growth!
Very nice. Agree with Gmon, kept my 250 a few inches from my tops with a good fan in the right place. That will help max out your setup. Another tip to max out with a small light is to scrog your plant(s), but you'd have to sex them and veg longer. What's your plan here... is that bagseed or feminized? It's good if you expect to end up with one or two plants, I think one does the job nicely with a small light. Any more and you have to raise your light to an ineffective level to achieve full coverage. You can easily max out a 150 with a single plant, some lst, and 5-6 weeks veg from seed, if your grow conditions are optimal. So what's your plan? As for reducing your light cycle as flowering approaches, I think it's useless. I tried going into flower with MH for the first couple of weeks too, after reading that it might help reduce stretching. If there's any truth to these pearls it was too small for me to notice. Once your plants start growing preflowers under 24/0 or 18/6, it's mature and will start flowering very quickly once 12/12 is applied, as opposed to forcing them early which can take up to 2 weeks for flowering to actually begin (regardless of a steady reduction in light cycle). Sorry for the long-winded response, just thought I'd explain why I think that way. Cheers!!
hey thanks both of you guys your advice is definitely helping. ive been giving them an all organic strain of 4 nutes called "nectar for the gods". it seems to be helping a lot. my light was set at around 2 feet so im thinking that might be why they havent been getting so big? anyways, i lowered it to 15 inches to see if that helps, once the lights go off here soon i will post another picture so you guys can see some progress. i like the idea of scroging your plants im unfamiliar with that and will def look into it. all the plants come from bagseed so im really hoping at least 2 of the 4 plants will be female but im not sure if its too soon to tell. as for my plan, i want to be able to yeild the most in the shortest amount of time, so im not sure if that means growing multiple plants or growing only a couple in order to get them bigger. thanks for all the advice guys! oh and im also rotating my plants underneath the light, im not really sure why lol it just seemed more realistic
Your plants look great!! As for scrog, it's pretty simple. Lay down a screen and keep pulling branches under to maintain an even canopy. That allows you to keep your light close to as many tops as you can, increasing yield. I built a rack that holds the pot in place under the screen, so I can take it out of the growbox and tend to it. Scrog pics at the bottom of this post. Trust me, scrog gives you the best yield in the shortest amount of time, if you do it right. Basically, you're spreading out and pulling down a 4' plant to grow at half that height, allowing more light to reach more budsites resulting in a much higher yield. Training much vertical growth into horizontal, is how I'd sum it up. On the flipside, growing a full-size plant with little training and a small light might not yield as much. Scrog is a great method to max out a short grow area, or a small light, also provides support for heavy buds. I vegged a single plant for 6 weeks and flowered for 8 under a 250. Yielded 6oz. Those same conditions with a stronger light and no scrog are giving me about half that per plant (clones from the 6oz scrog, the only difference in grow conditions is the light and training methods, so it's entirely relevant). My screen was 10" above the dirt, and I wound up with another 8" above the screen so... a single 18" plant gave me a fantastic yield simply because of the scrog. That's why I said you don't really need more than one good female. She'll produce mounds if you tease her just right
Hey guys! So I have officially set up my scrog, and I can already say that I think it is working out well! However, I have encountered my next problem. One of my plants appears to have a whole on one of the leaves, I looked on the plant and under the leaves and didn't see any signs of spider mites.. What else could it be?? Ill try and post pictures later tonight
This is the most recent picture with my home made scrog, I've also added an additional 3000 lumen cfl on the other side as well
Hey guys! Here's the latest update! The two biggest plants are 5-6 weeks vegged as for the 2 smaller plants 10-12 days behind them. I've decided to switch to flower to an 8 week flower the 3rd of January, but I definitely do have some questions/issues for you guys! I've noticed several yellowing spots/tiny holes on 2-3 of some of the leaves, I've been looking into it and I'm thinking maybe a zinc deficiency? Just because the nutes I give them have no zinc in them. Also, as you can see in the attached picture 2-3 of my bigger leaves are starting to have purple stems, but it's only for these leaves? Just curious as to what that could mean. Thanks again guys for the advice and appreciate all the help!
PLEASE! In need of immediate help!! Some of my leaves are starting to get yellowish spots and one leaf is starting to have brownish black spots! Definitely not a good thing, I'm almost convinced I may have several deficiencies but I'm not sure what! Look at the pictures and hit me back guys thanks a lot
Phosphorous or Manganese deficiency? Have a look at this maybe it will help: http://www.marijuanapassion.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=158412&d=1295751999
Thanks a lot man this chart definitely makes it pretty clear that I have a manganese deficiency. I'm still really not sure about the yellowing spots/holes on the other leaves tho, could that just be another symptom of the manganese deficiency or a different additional deficiency?
Its really hard for me to say for sure...perhaps some others will chime in with their thoughts and hopefully you'll get a more definitive consensus. Good luck mate. Grow on, Pit
I've had similar problems with holes and burn marks. first the holes, it was yellowingm like yours and had brownish spots. my local hydro guy told me most likely magnesium and calcium deficiency. also those spots could have gotten dried up. i figured my plants were burned from heat and light. i was having trouble with temp. i also foliar fed when the lights were on and really frequent. so to me that explained the spots and holes. I'm still a noob but maybe someone can second my thought
what exactly is foliar fedding? thanks for your input too my local shops havent been much help. the helpful had the day off lol
Thanks man appreciate all the help since I'm still such a noob haha. So you think magnesium or manganese?