Quick question....i germinated a seedling in april and stuck it on the windowsill, it did quite well and grew to about 20'' with 10 nodes and in good health. in the last couple of week i was given a 45w LED panel, this has been great as she was pretty droopy (not a great summer) in 14 days she now stands at 28'' but isnt really bushing up and would take forever and a day to get any real density....so being an impatient toker i invested in a 400w HPS, digital ballast and reflector......do you think this will be too bigger a jump coz i dont want to shock or burn her....after watching her all year i dont really wanna settle for a nights toke, hence the investment!....she has about 60'' of space around her and i have upto about 2 meters above to hang the 400w HPS....any advice or experience coz its my first grow and not the norm as iv had her on the windowsil for 5 moons! Any advice for me would be most welcome cheers in advance
if she isn't flowering yet, I'd give her 12/12 and get blooming... she's about to get your height in a matter of 2 weeks or so, how much bigger do you want that thing??
now in a 10 Litre or 2 gallon bucket depending on what side of the atlantic u are! just a good organic soil, using a very small amount of tomato feed, like 1ml per litre a week...thanks for the reply!
without using hps yet it has nice pre-flowers but that crappy LED board would never support it when it flowers....i think id veg her for a week or so under the 400w to bulk her up.....i also need to take off the growing tip, i didnt realise, it doesnt look that tall
yeah, you're not gonna get real flower under that LED panel throw her under a 400 and get ready, she's gonna blow up! I hope you have an area with white walls or reflective mylar to bounce back all that light you're throwing to the side, she's gonna want every bit she can get!
Can we see some pictures of the plant and set up? May be able to guide a little more having some more information.
she's in a 2m tall closet & about the same in length....i dont have a grow tent so im gonna open the doors and make a makeshift room....yes luckily it was all painted white already! if you have any experience with HPS what would be your main concern? apart from massive lush resinous buds hehe
ah... closet may have heat issues if you're running it with the door closed (as it will need to be during it's dark period) I'm going to have a gap at the bottom of the door (probably with a cloth flap that'll let air pull in while it's running but block light when the fan's off). Light will be in a vented hood, which will suck outside air in thru the gap (heat rises, floor air = cool). This cool air will be pulled up thru the closet/trees, and sucked out the vent (running air over the light = keeping it cooler), thru a scrubber to kill smell, then out of the room. This should get me good airflow and keep temps down, I'll know very soon.
thanx for that HL! lowd - great link on your signature, thanks....its just very basic led panel just hanging in a white closet, I only just signed upto this site today as i purchased my ( 400hps YAY !!!! ) so im gonna gut the room out, sterilise it and prepare for when my kit comes...i will post pix soon...thanks for checking in, any tips much appreciated Merci!
click "go advanced" under the quick reply, and under your post box it'll give you an option to manage images that pops up a screen where you can upload pics from your computer, then attach them to the post
plant looks healthy, removed the yellow fan leaves on bottom 2 nodes....just guess i'll have to wait and see but any advice or tips most welcome!
Are you going to want to keep this plant going after harvest? Also how are your diy skills? A 400 watt can put out some heat. I have a tiny closet and im moving a shit ton of air through it to just keep it livable for my plants but I live in one of the hottest states all year round as well. What light kit did you get? lets get a link of what you have coming in the mail. Thank you for the compliment not sure if you read all the way to the end but I just had to chop my plants 7 or so weeks before harvest to. I had two little glowing lights in my closet and I believe the caused my plants to become sexually confused lol.
Missevo, good advice here for ventilation. The ideal way to ventilate a closet is through the roof into the attic, but you know what that means - a hole. If its your house go for it. If rented, consider if you can effectively repair the hole later. If you're not comfortable with holes in the ceiling, consider purchasing a cheap closet door to replace one of the ones there now. Then cut away after you've selected your vent mechanism. Save the good door until you need it for a closet. Your plant is quite tall now, and does not have good side branch structure, so chances are you will get one large top cola and a few decent side colas. But your main consideration now should be that your plant will easily double, probably even triple its height when you switch to a 12 hour bloom light cycle. This is called stretch, and most of it occurs within the first 3+ weeks of 12/12 lighting. That can overgrow any room's headroom. I would strongly suggest some LST (low stress training) for another week or two before switching to 12/12. The idea behind LST is to use string to bend the upper portion of the plant into a horizontal position, This will encourage any side branches along the horizontal portion to go vertical, creating more buds or top colas. With a 400W HPS, I'd recommend 50% of the plant being trained to horizontal. While LST is normally done earlier in the veg stage, in conjunction with topping & training, you could still benefit from this technique. Just bend slowly, a little at a time over a week or so, and you should be able to get roughly a 90 degree angle on the plant. Or roughly, the 1/3 bottom of the plant stays vertical, the second 1/3 gets trained into a bend, and the last 1/3 becomes horizontal width instead of height. Your plant, and your bong, will love you for it. How are your roots? If it's anywhere close to root bound, it could also benefit from a larger container - 4 to 5 gallons would be very worthwhile. As long as you can delay switching to 12/12 for 2-3 more weeks, re-potting then LST'ing will pay off. Keep us posted & bestaluck to ya!
iowd -sorry about your plants dude, i did go on to see that later what a shame about the crop! I dont live in one of the hottest states but its summertime here now and just heading for fall our warmest part of year. olde school -many thanks for these tips, this is the information that i really need!!!!! i saw someone doing LST on Youtube and yes it was much earlier but looked a great way to grow.......my roots were pretty much rootbound just before i put this in it 2 gallon pot....that was about ten days ago and the roots are already thick and showing at the bottom, so i will get one and re-pot it. Should i now Top my plant in as im going to have to start to get it to bend or leave the growing tip in???. As for the ventilation yeah its a headache but i working on it....i have a couple of options, i could go up to the sky but possibly not either way i'll get air to it.....yep DIY skills are fairly good so i'll have to figure something out, i can move out of the room luckily but i cant have it stretching that tall, which iv seen happen on others peeps grow! Dya think i should top my plant now, work on the bending as the bulb etc is coming very soon but the room and vent gear won't be here for 2-3 weeks anyway......again many many thanks missevo
I would look for a small shoot on the bottom I could clone if i were you then you can save her for later as well. Especially if you have a 400 watt coming in, it will make that plant grow a lot. You can take advantage of knowing its a female now though that its not to far into flowering. I guess topping it depends remember when you put her into flowering her height will double if not lengthen more than that as she goes through her stretch. If you can get a small oscillating fan on her to just dance her leaves a little shed like that to. If you have time and room you could take that plant and turn it into a couple plants to flower. The fun never stops, there seems to be something to do all the time in the garden. As far as bending branches or growing shoots its pretty safe as long as you don't snap said branch from its main stem and if you do lol its always nice to have a cloner to rush it into for later. Also don't tie the string or twist tie tight around any plant stem or node you don't want to cut circulation off. My mother plant looks crazy from so many bent and snapped branches lol.
Iowd - thanks for the reply, so many different possibilities my mind boggles....i just repotted her today into 5 gallon bucket, brought a medium sized air fan and i just set up the string for the LST......as i saw on YT i could see her rocketing upward way to close to where my HPS will go....but alas being a noobie we all make mistakes i made a gentle loop about a 3rd of the way down onto the main stem, i was conscious of the pistils on the node above and didnt wanna hurt them and it looks fine, but i guess from what your saying i need to attatch it to a fan leaf stem??? I really wanna clone but as such a noob still unsure where to cut from or how big or little it would need to be.....i have read books and posts but still worried, im sure when the HPS comes it'll all be ok! There is so much i need to learn, i did want to keep her as a mother i have her on 18/6 at the mo with LED thanx for these replies....so helpful!!!!