Hey Mystic, I would recommend starting up your own personal thread with your grow if you need help on it. Works best to put a link to your grow journal in your signature so others can check it out. You will get a lot more support that way. As for your white hairs, it is normal to have those come out, it is the start of new bud sites and is completely OK. Like I said though, post a thread with some pics and you will get a lot more feedback.
So, im thinking about starting to flower these guys in the next day or two. When i do start should i just switch over to 12/12 immediately or should i gradually ease into it. Just seems so unnatural to switch the light spectrum and hours of light overnight. Anyone have thoughts of this?
Theoretically you could ease into it but it will just waste flowering time. There isn't any need to ease into it at all. The plants build up a transmitting hormone that eventually causes them to change to flowering mode. By changing immediately to 12/12 it just causes that to build up faster. Your plants won't actually show signs of flowering for about a week. Just flip them straight to 12/12 and enjoy the show!
So i've kinda been researching hps and cfl's for budding, which I was originally gunna do cfl's for this but it seems like hps is by far the way to go. So let say I were to get a 150 watt hps for my 2 plants, could i find a ballast and bulb setup for under $80 you think. What should i look for in buying an HPS?
I know people recommend against this, but I got nearly ALL of my equipment used from ebay. I just saw a cheap 400w system for $80 on there. It was used, but came with 2 a mh and hps bulb, the reflector, and ballast for $85. To answer your question, yes, if you don't mind buying used you could actually do a lot better than a 150 for $80. I like to build for the future, so a 150 would be fine for 2-3 plants, but if you want to go bigger in the future you will need more light. HPS puts CFL's to SHAME in flower, there really is no comparison. If you are going to get an HPS system I would recommend getting one with a switchable ballast so you can use both metal halide and high pressure sodium bulbs. You would then be able to use that light through the whole grow by using the MH in veg and the HPS in flower. You will notice HUGE difference in your results. Here is a 400w that I just found on there. Used but comes with everything you need. Complete HTG 400 Watt HPS/MH Grow Light w/ New Bulbs!!! | eBay Here is a sun system 150w all in one system. The benefit to this is that it is all-inclusive in the hood so it saves some space. The negative is that if the ballast goes bad then you have to buy a complete new system, not just a bad part. Sun System HPS 150 Grow Light with 150 Watt HPS Bulb | eBay
Dang man thanks for the help, just one question on those. Might be dumb but how do i know what color spectrum these bulbs are (the ones in your links)? Are all Hps bulbs red spectrum or no? I honestly thought this would cost me way more for an Hps setup. Thanks again ck88
They won't all be exactly the same but in general, yes, HPS will always be red spectrum and MH will always be blue spectrum. They might vary by 500-1000 Kelvin but for your application and most growing you don't need to worry about getting that specific.
Think my plants are finally starting to feel comfortable in these pots, they have gone from 8 to 11" in the past 3 days!! I've also noticed in this past week that my plants have quite a bit of undergrowth, wondering if there is anything i should do? like trim or anything? Or should i wait till i'm a lil into flowering to do so?
My hps light will be a few more days before it gets here, Could I Induce flowering with my current cfl lights even though they are 6500k? These guys having been growing super fast the past few days and are already 13", and they could easily grow another 4" before it gets here.
I would say yes, you can induce flowering because its mostly the light cycle that makes the plant start to flower. the spectrum deals more with how much you'll produce in flowering. (i think. Lol)
Yes, that's right. You will have more vertical growth because of the "veg spectrum" lighting and less bud production, but for the relatively short amount of time until your HPS arrives it will be just fine.
Alright here's what they they look like on day 36/37 of my grow. Both are around a height of 21". From what it looks like the one pictured on the right looks like it's definitely female, and the other actually looks to me to be male, gunna wait 2 or 3 more days to make sure. I'm kinda disappointed since i was expecting both to be female because they came from feminized seeds. So yeah I've kinda been thinking about cloning my female, just a few questions though. 1. Is there a limit to how many clones i take from one plant? (only need two, well maybe 3) 2. Where on the plant should I take the clones from? 3. When would be a good time to do this?, I've heard right after you can tell the sex of the plant is all that matters. 4. Can cloned plants thrive just as well as plants from seeds? 5. Since I induced flowering around 14/15" with my female, do clones work the same way? Will my clones grow just as tall? Sorry so many questions, this is one of the things I hadn't researched as much, do to the fact I thought I would be getting all females. But yeah thanks guys.