dudes... i've got 5 babies happnin @ about 2500 lpsf with the light right close to them (emits almost no heat). i initially thought this would be way too low. they actually look ok surprisingly, strong growth & stems. all are well over 6" (one is close to or over 10" - which i suspect to be a male) with at least 8 leaves & beginning a more horizontal growth as well. I clipped away some shitty leaves that were small & weren't getting any light & topped the two most vigorous plants of the bunch. i'd post pics but have no means at the moment. the area is 1x5 & they are in week 3 of veg. i guess my first question is does this sound right? my second question is would it be smarter to a)go ahead & upgrade the lighting to 6000 lpsf now, or b)wait to spend the loot until flowering (at least 3 more weeks by my fuzzy math)??? please halp!!!
Seems about right. Did you feed them nutes? Seems like they are growing well. Pics would be good though. You topped at just 10 inches? I would say if you are going to upgrade later, why not upgrade now and reap the benefits? Why type of light are you going to upgrade to?
every so often i'll feed em some 30-10-10 @ 25% strength. probably half as often as i water (which is every 3-4 days). i plan on upgrading to a 6-light t5 deal. 5000 lumens per bulb. what i've been reading suggests 3rd-4th week veg would be a good time to top...i don't expect monsters, but this is experimental. i wanna try topping the rest in weekly succession & see what comes out. if i don't see preflowers by the end of week 6 i plan on forcing it. i'm thinking as soon as i have the money i'm gonna upgrade the lights. but for now this all aound good?
I read the following a while back and thought it worthy of saving: A garden needs "footcandles" not watts, so you will want to calculate how many "lumens per square foot" you will have in your garden. As a general rule, you will need at least 2,500 lumens of light per square foot of garden. To get the square footage of your garden, simply measure the floor space where your garden will be and multiply the length by the width. So a 400 watt HPS (50,000 lumens) will light a 4' x 5' garden adequately. Remember, 2,500 lumens per square foot is the minimum amount of light you'll need. Typically the brighter the garden is, the faster the growth and the bigger the yield should be. Some growers suggest a 400 watt light for an area as little as 9 square feet (3' x 3'). Footcandle: A footcandle is a measure of light intensity. A footcandle is defined as the amount of light received by 1 square foot of a surface that is 1 foot from a point source of light equivalent to one candle of a certain type. I have 4960 lumen per square foot in my growbox.
As long as you have 2500 lumens sq/ft your fine for flowering make that about 5000 for denser buds, but more is just not required without CO2 production. my grow area has been 3050lumen sq/ft for as long as i can remember and with LST, ive been producing crazy. and i keep it at 3050 for veg and flower and i dont even use 6500K light, 2700k start to finish and its all good.
OH i should also mention when you use MH "6500k" or CFL of that color less lumen has the same effect as if you had more during VEG because that blue light is absorbed better "less waste you can say?" for VEG id say 2500 of 6500k is like having 3250 of 2700k its not as bright sure, but WAY more of it is actually used. if you wanna understand what im talking about you just need to understand WHY 6500k is used for vegging and it makes sense