So I didnt get the system that i was originally looking at. I sat here all morning freaking out about Heat Issues. I did get a 400w HPS remote ballast system with an air cooled hood. It cost more and didnt come with the MH conversion bulb. But i can take care of the heat with the exhaust I currently use. I can still veg with tubes and CFLs as i always have. Here is a link to the system that I baught: 400 watt HPS GROW LIGHT AIR COOLED HOOD w 400w Sodium - eBay (item 390100002539 end time Oct-29-09 06:38:28 PDT) Thanks for the advice and the rep 77. Thats the first rep i have gotten here, i feel as if i am moving up in the City
remote ballast and air cooled is th3e way to go! Adding rep is easy & free, I try to do it for everyone posting in my journal & when ever I remember. Just clicking on the scales in the corner does it. Hey how are you able to keep the res temps at 68f? I'm just about to give up on mine & put the next batch of clones in dirt.
I wish i could keep them at 68, if I have posted that i do, it is a typo. My res temps stay between 70 and 72 degrees. My roots aren't brite white but they are not brown and slimy either. I have no other way of controlling them except for frozen bottles, and i cant do that with the scrog so i just let them do what they do
Hey bro dont worry too much about your res temps. Check out rumples led grow his room is about 85 and his water temps are the same. Just make sure your pumping alot of air into that bucket and you may need to change out the res a little more frequently. It sucks but youll be able to get away with it. And 70-72 is fine man. My res gets up to 75 sometimes, i just keep my uv sterilizer running and drop in frozen water bottles when I notice it too high. Im not saying to ignore your res but youll be just fine with 70-72. Your roots wont stay white, the nutes brown em up. Just worry when you start to see stinky slimy shit growing on the roots. Toss a lil hyrogen peroxide in there if your really worried. (just a cap full or 2 for your 4 gal res)
Hey I fought rez temps just this summer, I have had my rez for days at over 80 degrees and actually even in the low 90's I know that is crazy but all of my plants survived but 1, and produced some really good cannabis. I supposed it really depends on whether or not your strain can handle it or not. My roots were by all means not perfectly white, but they stayed healthy, I lost one plant out of 10 because of the temps. Anything under 75 will probably not effect your plants at all. I am by all means not telling you anything I have read, this is from my experience this year, during the summer. Just my 2 cents worth
31 days of flowering and i am noticing a few issues. As before, my ppm is rising, and now i am getting a big drop in PH. The ppm is around 1500, and the PH is 5 or a bit below. I have been topping of with straight tap water. My water is from a natural spring with a PH of 5.5 to 6 and a TDS of 30-35 ppm. She is still going through 1 gallon of water every 2 days. Could low PH be locking out the nutrients causing my gain? The plant still looks good for the most part. Not much vertical growth but the buds are getting bigger and fatter. Any advice would be appreciated.
everything looks fine to me Are you sure your ph meter is calibrated correctly? I have to re-calibrate mine every few days. What are the res temps? High temps make the ph go up. How often do you, or when was the last time you changed the solution?
I use a PH test kit, you know three drops in a vile. A good tri-meter is going to be my next purchase. Res Temps run around 72 degrees. The PH is dropping, and it is funny. My battles with PH have always been with High PH. I've been dealing with low PH since i switched to GH nutes. I flush every 2 weeks. The next flush will be done Monday morning. At that time I plan to change every thing to a recirculating DWC. I am going to use one of those big, round, and orange igloo industrial coolers as my res. The cooler with a couple frozen 2litre bottles should keep the temps down in the res and the bucket if it is recirculating. Thats the plan anyway. This may be a good idea for you as well 77. Thats is if you plan on sticking with hydro. When I get started with it I will take pictures every step of the way to give you an idea of how i am going to do it. I am hoping that 2 frozen bottles a day in the cooler should get temps down to 65* If I can get 65-68 degrees, I will be a happy man
Dude you need to go out tonite & get a ph meter... I started w/o one too & it was a mistake. I can't tell you how far off the colored drops are. Even a cheap meter is better than the drops I started with 20oz water bottles, I now use the quarts of gatorade for bottles and I put them directly in with the roots. One you put the screen in you won't be able to put them in directly you'll have to coll the res first. I put bottle in in the morning and at night, if I can get home for lunch I do it again. The 2 liter bottles will take too long to re freeze to be of use. Its still a PITA Y'all don't have snow on the ground yet? This weekend is opening weekend @ Killington. Wish I was there
I just flushed my system, and put back fresh clean water with a PH of 6.5. I am going to let it run over the weekend with no nutes then go back to the Lucas formula on Monday. Now that Goonie has helped me out with the add back calculations, I hope to keep the ppm stable. Thanks Goonie I took some more pics while I had the cab completely open. Its nice to see my lady from a different angle. Check her out.
Excellent looking grow dude. Planning on doing my next grow as a hydro scrog (my first on both) so I am watching yours. I can't recall reading how big your screen is and how far above the buds are growing.
Thanks Blake This is one plant. The screen is 24"x24" with 2"x2" holes, and it is 10" above the top of my bucket. check out this thread. Everything about the scrog method can be found here. This is my first attempt with this method, and that thread helped a lot. A scrog takes a little longer but i can already tell that the yield will be worth the extra time. I already have 4 times as much bud as I did with my last grow, and we still have at least 4 weeks to go. My last grow was a single plant as well.
Thanks Bro. My 400w HPS will be here tomorrow, and I hope to have it in by tomorrow evening. Then i hope to see the buds start getting bigger and denser.
Nice, and this is an unknown strain? Have you taken a cut yet to clone it? In case you don't know the traditions on GC, This means watchers of your journal get to name this plant. I'll start by nominating four possible, names... #1 Pussy Finger #2 Christmas Wreath #3 Lucy McGillicutty #4 Wicky Sticks
Actually this is the second generation. I got the seeds from some really good mid grade weed. I germinated 8 and got only one female. We smoked her a few months ago I did take clones, most I gave to a friend but i kept 2 of them. One for a mother, and the one in my scrog. As far as names go, I didnt know about the tradition lol, lets let the others put in thier 2 cents worth. The original buds were awesome. the plant got sick and almost died, I brought her back. she was about 18-20 inches tall, and i got about 3/4 on an ounce, and it was really good smoke.
Thanks dude, been reading on scrog for a while now. Wanted to know the size so I can compare grow times.. I'm gonna be doing 2 plants in a 10 gal rubbermaid in 6" pots with a 36x36 screen under my 400W. I will be watching
So you guys nominate the names, does this meen I get the pick of the nominations? Tell me how this works lmao + on #3 up there. I like it hehe
Yea, I am also going to do 2 my next time at it. i will be using a 36x24 screen though. 24 is as wide as I can go with it. I am also going to change my system a bit. i am going to use real buckets this time, they are a bit smaller than what i am using now. I am also going to convert it to a recirculating DWC. A stand alone res will make things so much easier.