I've run all the possible light schedules from 16-8 up to 24-0 and it doesn't seem to matter. The only trouble spot is getting a good match for summer. 15-9 or 16-8 translates best to outside to avoid flowering early or do like I did this year and ran supplemental light for June and July since my veggers came from a 24-0 environment. BNW
Whoops I was mistaken, I thought they had Prime. With shipping is it still cheaper than the SP? Anyway, the shipping is worth it depending on your needs. The pots are built like a tank, the price is reasonable, the company is local-ish, they're hot and they cook and clean, what more do you want guy?! Lol Sent from my SM-J700T using Tapatalk
Sorry for the confusion,I mean if I have my plants outdoors say January on and want not to induce stress or flowering what's the minimum lighting I would need to add on a timer? Some have said just adding 5 min mid darkness depleats the plants flowering hormone which will keep it growing in the vegetative state until nature triggers it which seems to be around August 1st from what I saw this year. The other thing you brought up which I need clarification on is your 24/0 vegged plants being brought out in June/July needing supplemental lighting to keep them from triggering flower. I know you said those two months are the only months which can fully support our plants to just veg. But now your saying something different,is this the case because of the continuous 24/0 to outdoor light is just to abrupt? Meaning if you were to slowly drop the light on time to 16 hours then put them outdoors in June they would then just seamlessly continue to veg till they naturally flower around August? Hope you understand,hope I understand too.
The real question was if these pots were up to the SP quality which I have no experience with what so ever. They are just a few dollars cheaper with shipping and tax and I didn't know about their quality and have used SP's which seem to be the gold standard. My soil is under a tarp(I can only make 4 ft.³ at a time) ATM and I wanted a home for it by Monday so I got the SP. I will need more and would consider another brand if I know it's quality was at least up to the SP,even better is even better. I won't be in any hurry for the next pots.
IME. Don't mess with changing the hours of light you use. You can lengthen the hours of light but any attempt to shorten will cause flower. Screwed enough plants over the years to now treat this as a NO DO. I chose 24-0 years ago when I had 2 identical veg boxes and testing proved 24-0 cranked out bigger plants faster then having a dark did. So for most of the year I run 24-0. Where this is trouble is the Summer set where I should be able to take advantage of the 2 months of additional veg hours but coming from a 24-0 they flower anyhow. Some will snap out by mid July but some stubbornly just finish flower despite the hours of sun. So if you want a natural unassisted summer run start with seeds and stay with 15-9 or 16-8 from germination to setout to avoid that preflower that many outside grower fight due to timing mismatch at setout. The other option is to plant seeds directly where they'll finish no sooner then May1st as the first 30 days a seedling is unsexed and unaffected by short light hours and by the time it's old enough your past the June 1st window of change and the days are long enough to hold it in veg. Hope that made more sense to you then it does when I read it back . . LOL ask what isn't clear. I don't mind teaching at all. BNW
And I truly appreciate all your help! So here is my dilemma,ATM i have 6 plants a month old now in 6 gallon pots in NT in a room not much bigger than they(maybe another 6 ft.² ) but 9' high using a 200watt LED on an 18/6. I figure about new years they will fill that spot and roots will also be near full. I would like to find a gradual light schedule which by then I could transplant in much larger pots outdoors adding a timed amount of midnight light to keep them in solid vegetation. Is this not a possibility?
Also,you say seed is an important starting point. Why would seed be different than clone,are the hormones just more stable?
Seeds have that 30 day childhood you can take advantage of. Clones are a bit more tricky as they are adult plants being photosensitive at any size and will flower at the drop of a hat. Clones taken from a 24-0 or 20-4 plant will flower if set into a 18-6 If your vegging at 18-6 run your cloner at that and don't try and change lighting hours. While it can be done it takes tiny changes per day and a longer overall time then I'm willing to wait for. I've run both and it's usually clones I'm just clone zero at the moment. BNW
Gotcha,makes great seance. Last July I got 6 clones 2 weeks old from 24-0 and hardened them for about 7 days in my backyard directly,then by 7-7 they were in direct sunshine and grew in solid veg til on August 7 I noticed it was in flower. Is it because I put it outside in the two magic months it held on to veg for a few weeks?
Some strains can take the jump from High hours to fewer without the instant jump to flower. The more Sativa Leaning strains seem less affected. Your mileage may vary. LOL Take my advice as general guidelines but each yard can vary from what I get. Hours of light per day. Angle of sun. Stray lighting from the house when lights are on inside. All can affect what happens with an outside grow. I have a spot the street light shines into the back yard just so and I kept having hermi issues with a pair of plants on that end of the patio. Finally got that figured and stopped trying to grow in that 4x4 zone. BNW
You know,I had two strains and one was 60% sativa and it yielded x2 than my Driver which is 60% Indica. This indaca dom. Plant I have just jarred is the first ever that I found one immature white fully grown seed in. Do u think that light change effected it in a bad way causing that?
Now I'm filling a 200 gallon SP ( 4 ft.³ at a time )needs 24 imo for my outdoor tree next year. Still not exactly sure how I'm going to do this with lighting. I guess if I want to take one of my indoor 18/6 plants out in Jan or whenever I would need to transition its lighting slowly to 15/9 prior to transplanting for it to continue vegging through August?
Is there any need to "charge" my biochar first with my compost for a time prior to mixing everything? My first batch was mixed and I did wait 3-4 days to plant but they look great and even my clover poked through my 2" mulch layer in 3 days!
IF the BC needs to be charged with only compost;in what amounts/for how long/how moist and how long. Also how long can this "charged" BC be stored. When I got my Black Owl they first offered me a cheaper product which they said was charged and it looked to be mostly dry with EWC in it.
I do understand the activated charcoal filter media needing to be "re-charged" by spreading it out in the sunshine. But this seems much different,it needs to be charged with microbes yes? From a rich medium,compost. The mixed NT is not pure compost but once moist it certainly has a huge amount of bio which ime should charge the BC in a little more time. I need to fill a 200 gallon pot so I will be mixing 4 ft.³ at a time and have no problem mixing the BC/compost first to charge if needed if I can get the correct charging instruction if it is indeed needed. We're over 650 pages here and on page 165 and I have yet to find this subject matter come up. Anyone know about this?