Not the usual set up! Advice please

That is amazing bro! Keep up the good werk

 

Hey Missevo, finally got a few hours to play catch up on your thread. Eileen's looking pretty damned sexy there, if you do any more LST I think you need to switch from string to garters!!!
A page or so back you'd asked about your clone lighting schedule. I stay away from 24/0 for clones for a few reasons. One, you don't want to encourage that much growth, especially if you're holding the clones until time to start another round in vegetative growth. Two, and I've never tested this, but many say clones need some darkness for rooting development to be at prime. Finally, I like to keep my mothers on the same schedule they will veg under (18/6).
Once you get ready to transplant and veg, you can use 24/0 if you want to hurry. Personally though, not a fan of 24/0. Bulbs last longer with the down time, and heat is more manageable with 18/6. And the extra light cycle time, while quicker, won't be proportionally faster than 18/6.
Glad to hear you got your 400 up & running!

Be seeing you around.

 

Hey, still catching up, glad the cloning worked for you. Keep this up & I'll be asking you all kinds of questions next!!!

 

You're welcome
I wouldnt recommend trying to switch the baby back & forth, it's soooo easy to miss a move. Plus the HPS bloom bulb is the wrong light spectrum for clone / veg growth. While it won't do any permanent damage if the 18/0 cycle deviates a little, it's really not worth the hassle moving back & forth... you might drop her or a 'juana vulture might scoop down out of the sky & take her.
The easiest / cheapest, and probably most effective way to keep one or two clones is with a 23W cool white CFL and one of those spun aluminum clip-on socket / reflectors you can pick up at any home improvement store (I'm guessing you're not stateside and don't have Home Depot?).
You can grow a full sized mother plant using a 42W cool white CFL and the same reflector, if you ever want to pursue a larger grow. Or root 10-15 clones under the same 42W setup. Back in my old days when I was still running SOG grows I would root 30 clones under a single 65W CFL; worked great.
Seems like I multi-purpose everything I've acquired over the years. Kinda like mix n' match for the old wardrobe

Bee seeing you!

 

Get the reflector, makes working with the CFL sooo much easier. If you don't get one by Christmas maybe I'll send you one. It's big enough to put a Y-splitter in it so you can run two 23W CFL's. Looks like a Dudley Dorkmaster invention but works great.
Yield, jeez, hard to say without having seen the strain in action before. You got a late start on training, so I'd guess three ounces. But just a wild assed guess. With your new 400, you should easily be able to run anywhere between four and nine plants next time, Then you'll get some yield.

 

[quote name='"missevo"']reflector? the same as the thingy above my HID or are they different...I've been looking a T4 or T5 kinda grow light, the same spectrum as you mentioned...i do have one thing on my mind though....the grow bible says do not take off the fan leaves or keep as many as possible, but from others pix i see alot of cutting down so just the bud is protruding....i have a lot of bud under the canopy of feeder leaves.....i do take the odd one off here or there but no haircuts.....do you think i should trim her up alittle get more light to the lower buds or less dominant ones???

hope you having a good day OS and you have a relaxing weekend![/quote]

I've been trimming when removing it just allows more light... As in, only if it was covering other leaves. If it's hanging over the edge, cutting it will lose that area's light, so I leave that alone.

 

Hey Missevo, yeah, same principle / function as your HID reflector but this is an el cheapo (about $10) that works well with CFL's. Here's a link to a picture of one:
Light Reflector home depot - Bing Afbeeldingen
Agricultural dry good stores also sell a similar one called a brooder light. Those are used for keeping cute little baby chicks warm. The clip-on handle makes for lots of flexibility in light placement. This works great for freshly sprouted seedlings, or to root a few clones.

I do not recommend cutting any fan leaves except during the early stages of vegetative training; these are converting CO2 and light into the sugars the plant needs to make those buds grow bigger. Years ago, leaf pruning was popular, under the theory that it allowed more light to get to the buds. But as growers got smarter, they realized, the bud itself is the "fruit" of the plant & does not contribute that much to the actual growth of the plant. It's those large, medium and small leaves that do that. The buds will grow out of the leaf structure and catch up. The LST you've already done makes up for the rest.
T-5's are very good; many growers do their entire grows under these. Very good for veg, but not as good as a metal halide conversion bulb for veg-ing under your HID. But for seedlings and clones, a CFL is all you need.

Hope this helps, be seeing ya around.

 

I've never tried LED's but if you have it, use it. There's such a wide variation in quality with LED's so I'm still waiting to try them (and keeping up with the technology through my buddy at the grow store). Many of the cheaper models made in China are notorious for only using approx half their advertised wattage and resulting lumens output. But even the cheap versions will produce lumen levels comparable to CFL's, so you shouldn't have to worry about using it for clones.
I'm told the high end units kick ass, but they have not made it into mass production far enough to drive the prices down. But from the science involved I see great things coming out of them in the future.
Reminds me of another winter project - totally useless for anything but to prove I can do it - mega-micro flashlight grow. Gonna show these PC box fanatics "how low can you go?"