I am growing some plants in an underground location and i can get very cold down there at night when my light is off. i use one 400w mh bulb on 11.5 hours a day. Some of the leaves on my little guys are turning very purple cus of the cold im guessing. now the pistils are only about 10%~ orange/red and im thinking it will be at least another week or 2 before they will be even close to 50% orange.. so what should i do? my tallest plant is now almost completely purple except for the very center of some of the leaves. how bad is this for them? will is lower to potency or quality of the buds? any suggestions would be appreciated. this is my first indoor grow and i dont want to fuck it up thanks o heres some pics of my plants
how old are ur plants? what strain? ive seen purple leaves before in pics. i know that the branches on the leaves of my plants turn purpleish/brown before they fall off. maybe the leaves are about to fall off and ur ready for harvest?
the seeds i got just from some good bagweed.i actually started them outdoorsin mid june were i didnt get much light.. soo i baught the 400watter about a month ago and theve been under that ever since. so there about 4 mo old and had 3 mo outdoor and 1 mo indoor. im pretty sure there not ready to harvest the pilstils arnt even 20% amber yet..
lots of strains turn purple in cooler weather. if the plant looks healthy otherwise then you're fine.
would u say they look healthy in my pics? the really purple leaves arebecomming kinda brittle compaired to the green ones but then again the one next to it which i planted at the same time is still completely green no purp at allso ... u think they should be ok for another couple weeks?
Hey How's it goin? Why don't you put a little block heater in there on a timer for the nights? Actually they make thone little box heaters that you set the temp for the room and it regulates it for ya, I got one at Canadian Tire (hardware store) for $25.
why 11.5 hours in flower? purpling can be caused by several things. cold temps. mag. def. and ph probs. sounds like your problem is temp. like someone suggested, put a heater in there. pistil color isn't the way to check for ripeness. you need to look at the trichs. i don't think the temp. will affect the potency much. anything that is out of the norm will have some affect on your plants.
yea i was thinking about that but it wouldnt work out due to power reasons.. they do get pretty cold in the night tho like in the 30s sometimes is that bad? why 11.5 hours? i dont know really i heard b4 that with less light the plants will bud faster, y do u think i should pump it up to 12? two of them is now completely purple but they rest are all green ill post some new pics here in a minute..
ok heres some new pics i just took this morning. as u can see my biggest one is now completely purple and some of the leaves are looking pretty brittle. it kinda smells a little different then the rest of them too. other then that they all are loking preety healthy.. any suggestions/comment would help alot this is my first indoor grow so i dont wanna mess nuthin up
Yeah, Thirty degrees is way too cold. Keep the lights ON during the coldest times of the night. Purple can be a strain characteristic but, since we don't know what strain.... Yes, I would change the lighting to 12/12 or even 13 on 11 off just to give them the benefit of the HID heat. Keep them as close as possible to the light. It looks like they had a lack of light early on during growth because they are so leggy. What type of fertilizer are you using?
are you ok using MH for flowering? No-one seems to have mentioned the fact that the plant aint getting the right type of light if on 12/12ish. Metal Halide is unsurpassed for vegging,but Sodium will bring about many changes
@ SmknVTEC- i actually dont use any ferts .. there all planted in regular cheap potting soil with some flowering food pebbles mixed in im not sure off the top of my head what brand. would i be best off adding another hour on to my timer or would that shock them? and yeah i started them outdoors in a not very well lighten area which is y they are so tall and lanky.. :/ @stripeymoon - i just got a new hps ballast but its only 150 watts should i use this instead of the 400w mh? i would use both but cant due to power reasons. im not really expecting anything amazing with this grow it is my first time and im pretty excitedhow things have turned out so far i just dont want then to die or ruin them and i will be happy
personally I wouldn't EVER use MH after a few days after the start of 12/12.....Ever! It's worth noting that Grolux Bulbs(full spectrum) are a winner for newbies on a budget. Also....why don't you just put a 400w nsodium bulb in ya 400w ballast?? (you can use sodium bulbs in MH ballasts, but not the other way round--In addition to the ballast used for sodiums,MH bulbs also require an ignitor and capacitor to work.) Bulbs are well cheap nowadays
i suggest you call your grow shop before you do that. the above info. is incorrect. hps requires an ignitor, mh doesn't! but, you can use a hps conversion bulb in a mh ballast. mh require a cap. there are many growers out there that use mh from beginning to end. peace!
True but MH will yield good buds. Jc, Your plants have been stressed and miss treated from the beginning. Consider yourself lucky if you get any buds. Your biggest problem is the temperatures. It is a miracle that they are still alive. Next time they need to stay between 65-85 degrees. You also have a number of deficiencies because of no fertilizer and lockout from extreme cold. Next time you need some 10-10-10- or 20-20-20 fertilizer. Just use your MH till the end because 400 watts is better than 150 watts plus your 400 watts is giving off valuable heat. Your plants cool be 1 degree away from death if it gets any colder and losing a few degrees because of loss of wattage could send them over the edge. Not true man. Listen man, don't give advice if you don't know what you are talking about. NEVER use sodium bulbs in MH ballasts or vice versa unless there is a conversion bulb. If you don't have a conversion bulb or ballast, don't do it. Giving bad advice like this can injure someone.
hey thanks fore the info guys i really need to do something about this temp problem, i just checked on my little guys today and there all looking fine, it doesnt appear the cold has done any damage to them but then gaain i dont know what to look for, is there anything i can look for to tell if there getting too cold? also stripeymoon u gave me an idea i have a fixture with 2 growlux frouro bulbs, i dont know wat wattage they are but tomarrow im gonna put them down there to kick the heat and light up just a little more.
Isn't this underground? If it is your temps are always going to be colder than MJ likes during the dark as ground temp at three feet and below runs around 47-57 degrees Farenheit. Thats why ppl in north bury water lines, to protect them from freezing.