FlowerSermon tries growing with 400w MH/HPS

So after a little hiatus from grasscity, I'm back and up on my feet again. My last grow (red diesel with cfls) had many problems and ultimately was destroyed by mold presumably caused by poor ventilation, a two week period where I had no choice but to go away (my roommate thankfully watched the plant, but mold did develop while I was away), and having to move the plant temporarily due to a security issue. It was very sad throwing approximately 30 grams of heady looking red diesel that was over 10 weeks into flowering, in the trash.

Luckily I have solved my security issues, and invested in better lighting and ventilation.

I have a 400w HPS and 400w MH conversion bulb from sunmaster, and a 400w HPS ballast/reflector that came very recommended by the local hydro shop. I have a 25w 2100 rpm fan for exhaust, which I currently have pointing out the door to my closet, but am going to cut a hole in the top right corner of the closet leading to the room it's attached to, and insert the fan, which should be enough for ventilation. I also have 2 45w 16 inch oscillating fans that should increase airflow and simulate a breeze on my girls.

I am using a light mix soil from a local hydro shop that I have used with a great success and came recommended from their bio-bizz representative in the store. In addition I will be using bio-grow for veg, bio-bloom and top-max for flowering.

I started germinating 3 honey b, 1 Cole train (all from attitude) as well as 12 bag seeds from the last few months using the cup of water method for about 40 hours. Most of the seeds showed taproots, even though some had only barely cracked, I decided to plant all of them about 3 hours ago.

I've tested the bulb to make sure the temps stayed reasonable, as I live in a very very hot climate, and have been able to keep the temps between 77-83 degrees F with the lights on, which is about as good as I'm going to get until the winter months start to come. That's with the AC in the room next to the grow running at 68 degrees, and the door to the closet open. The strong fan seems to work well, and I need to cut a hole in my wall to have it work optimally. Anyone have any recommendations for DIY ways to cut a hole in a wall?

Below shows my closets new setup, where I attached the two shelves together and placed them sideways so I now can fit 9 large (about 3.5-4 gallons, it didn't say on the pot) pots, or can maybe squeeze 10 pots on there if I use two of the 2 gallon ones I have. If anyone has any questions, comments, criticism or advice, I would really appreciate it, and I'm sure my girls and my lungs would too

Sorry for the long post, didn't want to leave out any important details! Without further adieu....DAY 1 since germination!

 

Alright so it's been about 33 hours since germination and I still haven't had any of my seeds sprout. I did however have an eventful day.

I cut a hole to insert my inline fan, and now have great ventilation, keeping at a steady 27-28 degrees C with the lights on. I just need to get a exhaust fan duct so that it looks normal on the outside of the op, but it works fantastic.

I also have a new girl joining the party. A friend of mine had to go on a trip suddenly, and was left with no choice but to entrust to me a feminized Honey B that is in it's 6th week of vegging. It grew slowly at the beginning as the lights were far away, which means there is a tiny bit of stretching. This plant has been topped twice, and is very healthy and bushy. I plan to veg her for another 4 week weeks along with the rest of my seedlings, so hopefully she will have a fantastic yield with 10 weeks of vegging (4 of them with 400w MH).

Hopefully the next time I post I will have some sprouts!

Day 2 since Germination

 

So after 94 hours, I've had 5/12 bag seeds sprout, 1/3 Honey Bee sprout, and 0/1 Cole Train. I've been giving them about 1.5 mL of water ever few hours to keep the soil a little moist without overdoing it. Is there any way I can help those who haven't sprouted come above ground, because I would hate to go 1/4 on the feminized seeds I purchased.

As for the honey bee that I got 3 days ago. She is growing pretty fast. I gave her a tiny splash of water yesterday with a few drops of grow-big, as the bottom leaf set had turned yellow, and now today appears to be about to fall off. This plant looks very ready for flowering, but I have to keep her in veg until the other plants are mature enough for flowering. I am a little concerned that she might get too tall for my space, as I know plants can double in size during flowering, and I think with another 3.5 weeks under 400w MH she may grow considerably. Does anyone have any recommendations for me at this point to cause her to grow bushier instead of vertically? I feel like she is too big for me to attempt to LST as she was topped twice and is nearly 18 inches tall from the soil.

While it's a little frustrating that most of my seeds still haven't sprouted, it's exciting to finally see some new growth after this time off. Now all I need to do is get my digital pH meter calibrated, and I should be ready to rumble!

Day 4 since germination

(Pictures won't upload currently, I will post them when it works!)

 

Alright I will lay off the water, even though I doubt that's the issue as I thought I was supposed to keep the soil relatively moist, so I waited 3.5 days and then have been giving them literally 1.5 ml every few hours, which is really only a few drops. I'll see if I have any cfls laying around maybe to throw on top of that, but I thought the MH light would be far superior for this sort of thing than cfls. Anyone know why every time I try to post pictures here it says "this connection has been reset?"

 

Well it looks like I can post pictures again! Thanks to any mods on GC who may have done work to fix whatever my problem was

Well since my last post (and when these pics are from) 4 more beans have broken the ground. So far my tall is 8/12 bag seed, 2/3 honey bee and 0/1 Cole Train. Hopefully the rest of my fem'd beans will sprout soon.

I'll post some more pics of progress tomorrow hopefully. Any advice on making the honey bee I have now grow bushier instead of vertically would be greatly appreciated. I will try and do some research of super cropping but a good link would be sick @the chosen nug.

Thanks for tuning in GC

 

Is it as easy as it looks, or am I risking snapping the stem? It would suck to rip off a branch.