First Timer - Hoping for Big Things to Happen - 400 HPS White Rhino

[greentrees]

Hello,

This is my first grow and my girls are 2 weeks old as of today. I was given some feminized white rhino seeds from a friend. Here is what I am using:

400 watt HPS light
2x4x5 grow tent
inline 4" air blower
digital tempature and humidity gage
metromix professional growers soil
tapwater out of the sink (no water softner)

I have 5 plants but one is a runt so I might be getting rid of that one if there isn't room in the future. For some reason, the leaves are starting to turn yellow. I have not give the plants any nutes yet, just good old H2O. I do have some protogrow organic fertilizer that I want to try once I transplant them. I had really good results using it in my vegatable garden over the summer. I have been using the inline fan to draw heat away from the light. I started blowing the air from the fan back onto the plants because it seem to be pretty cool by the time it goes through the 4" line. THe humidity has been pretty low in the tent. Usually between 12%-20%. I'm not sure how important that is for the plants health. If they need more humidity, is there an easy way to bring this up without getting a humidifier? The temp has been staying between about 60 degrees when the light is off and up to 90 degrees when the light is on. I was also told that if you spray the plants with seltzer water, they would get more CO2 and be healthier. Does anyone know if that really makes a difference? If anyone has any suggestions on things that I am doing right or wrong, I would be happy to hear. I really want the plants to start getting greener and taller. It seems that the size really hasn't increased much the last few days, just some more small leaves. Thanks for anyone taking the time to post. I will try to get some pics on here as soon as I figure out how. Peace!!!

 

[greentrees]

Re: First timer hoping for big things to happen.

 

[oldman60]

Re: First timer hoping for big things to happen. 400 hps white rhino.

Looks like a good start. I would leave them alone while I got their permanent homes ready.
Getting the temp down some while the lights are on will help.

 

[greentrees]

Re: First timer hoping for big things to happen. 400 hps white rhino.

Thanks oldman. I bought an oscillating fan today to help with the higher temps. Some of the bottom leaves are starting to curl and I feel like the plants are yellower than they should be. I have the light about 12" from the top of them. I also got a ph tester and sprayed the plants with some seltzer to help give them some CO2. The humidity is still really low in the room. I hope that is not too big of deal. My water tested at 6.5 on the PH scale so I hope that is OK too. I think I'm going to do a test giving 2 plants some soil and flower tabs and the other 2 plants some protogrow fertilizer. Opinions are always welcome. Thanks

 

[greentrees]

Re: First timer hoping for big things to happen. 400 hps white rhino.

Late last night, I gave 3 of the plants (including the runt) some protogrow. All of the plants are really yellow. One of them even has a brownish, kind of purple tint to the first two spiked leaves and another one's first set of spiked leaves have curled up and gone crispy. Does this mean that I am overwatering? I just want to get them back on track so they can grow big, strong, and funky. I also have put in a bowl of water to help raise the humidity. I don't know if this is actually going to do anything but we'll see.

 

[Dibs]

Re: First timer hoping for big things to happen. 400 hps white rhino.

they are doing well ! will watch this grow

 

[NCDude]

thanks for posting

 

[greentrees]

Thanks guys! I checked today and the ones that I gave the protogrow to have gotten noticably better. The leaves have perked up and they definitly look happier. My buddy with the tabs gave me the flower ones but can't find the veggie ones. I'll give him another day or so to look for them but I might just end up giving them all protogrow. I'll probably top and lst them once they get a little bigger. I've seen some people doing that online and they seem to be getting good results. I've never done it but it doesn't look too hard. Any suggestions are welcome. Love and respect!!!

 

[oldman60]

Must have been hungry. How long are you going to leave them in those small pots?

 

[greentrees]

Hey OM60! Yea, you're right. That was the first time that I've fed them and they let me know that they liked it. I guess I really don't know about when to transplant. Right now, they are about 3-4 inches tall. My tent is 5 feet tall but I don't mind cutting the ceiling if I have too. Do you think that 3 gallon pots are big enough? I've seen a lot of people using 5 gallon buckets. Is that the way to go? I wanna treat these pretty ladies like they should be and spoil them a bit. Do you think the 400 hps is enough light or should I get something stronger? Thanks!!!

 

[Acorn]

Hi buddy,

White Rhino's a good choice for a 1st grow I'd say. The one's I had were nice n forgiving. Got a couple of observations if that's cool.

For the humidity, I know it's a bit hill billy but a bandage tied to the top of the tent rolled down into a pot of water helps. I saw this method in a shed grow and my mate was on a tight budget. I'd lay off the seltzer myself. if you look at how many ppms of Co2 you need in the atmosphere to make a difference, its pointless. I just foliar spray light feed just before lights off if they need it, which I think they do.

As far the light, I think that's about all the hot light that fan can take. I add cfls to get more light, and the advantage is you can get then in between the plants not only helping the colas, but getting to the under canopy helping to fill the plants out. I got 2 300w dual spectrums to add in flower and they give out very little heat for the light they produce.
I personally have best results with Mh bulbs for veg, I tried dual spectrum sunblasters but went back to mh. Thicker stems, better roots etc,etc. I've read Hps in veg will lead to longer spacing of inter nodes meaning less dense bud sites

I've always been told if you can get the environment spot on (temps/humidity/light/medium) the plants will do better with their nutes.
Also, do you leave you tap water overnight before using? I noticed you have the plants on a breeze block You probably did because your setup looks nice n clean but always scrub and disinfect anything you bring in from outside. I've only once had nasty little pests and problems and I'm sure it was me that brought them in on a couple of engineering bricks.

I've always waited to repot until the roots are just emerging from the bottom. I can recommend sprinkling some mycorrhiza granules around the roots and into the new soil just before re potting.

Keep up the good work chief

 

[Korloin]

Hey Greentrees! Welcome!!

Looks like we might be close geographically. I have the same RH going in my place. It has definitely affected the growth rate at 16%. I haven't had much luck raising it w/ wet towels and such. I have a fogger unit I grabbed from fleabay for $25 running in a 3gal bucket in my box now(2.5' x 2.5' x 4') while my lights are on and have been able to bring it up to 70%. That and I diy'ed a co2 generator using Jandre's concept (link). It's helped get things back on track tremendously!

I might raise your lamp up a bit at this stage. Could be a bit of heat stress causing the yellowing. The penetration range for a 400w hps is @ 21" I believe. So your baby's are strokin in the big lumen zone at 12". Maybe get it up so that the 21" mark is @ top of soil level and grab a couple cfl's from the hardware store (I've got great results in veg surrounding my seedlings w/ the 23w 6500K ones @ 2-3" away from the tops). As Acorn said, it'll help keep the internode spacing tight and keep your stems and stalk nice and strong to support all those big nugs you'll be pushing in flower!

The mycorrhiza is ALWAYS a great thing for soil or hydro grows. IMHO. Maybe a silica supplement like Rhino skin as well. Really helps strengthen your girls and increase their resilience to stressors.

Still looking damn good though!

It gets easier and makes more sense the further you get. The best thing I ever did was to lay back a bit and wait for the plants to tell me what's up. Check out some of the links in my sig, if you haven't been to those threads already. Especially the first 3 and the last. They helped me tremendously when I first got going.



K

 

[greentrees]

@Acorn and Korloin

Thanks a lot guys for the info and advice. As far as the humidity goes, I put up a bandage hanging in water for now until I can get a fogger in there. I will try foliar feeding them with the protogrow and see if that helps. I had great yields in my veggie garden and everything had an awesome taste using that stuff. Also I'll try to get some CFL's in there. Do you think it is OK to switch to a 400 MH 3 weeks in? I found a good deal on one on craigslist so I might just swoop that guy up. I did raise the light up about 6 inches from where it was so maybe they won't feel like they're in a tanning bed. I like the DIY CO2 generator. It looks cool and since it's pretty cheap, I'm happy to put one in there. Why should I leave the water out overnight? I have the water sitting in sealed jugs near the plants. Should I take the caps off and let it breathe? Also, I'll be transplanting soon. I am starting to see the roots coming out of the bottom of the pots. Are 3 gallon pots big enough or should I go bigger? I didn't realize that I would be having fun messing with this. It's pretty cool and exciting to watch these babies grow and I can't wait till they hit puberty. I'll check out your threads a little more tomorrow. You guys are awesome and thanks for your time!!!

 

[greentrees]

@Acorn

Oh yea, I actually didn't disinfect that block in the tent. I will pull it out and put it in some bleach water and give it a good rinse. I didn't even think of some pests or little critters getting in there but I'm sure that's a very bad thing. Thanks again brother!

 

[Korloin]

@Acorn and Korloin

Thanks a lot guys for the info and advice. As far as the humidity goes, I put up a bandage hanging in water for now until I can get a fogger in there. I will try foliar feeding them with the protogrow and see if that helps. I had great yields in my veggie garden and everything had an awesome taste using that stuff. Also I'll try to get some CFL's in there. Do you think it is OK to switch to a 400 MH 3 weeks in? I found a good deal on one on craigslist so I might just swoop that guy up. I did raise the light up about 6 inches from where it was so maybe they won't feel like they're in a tanning bed. I like the DIY CO2 generator. It looks cool and since it's pretty cheap, I'm happy to put one in there. Why should I leave the water out overnight? I have the water sitting in sealed jugs near the plants. Should I take the caps off and let it breathe? Also, I'll be transplanting soon. I am starting to see the roots coming out of the bottom of the pots. Are 3 gallon pots big enough or should I go bigger? I didn't realize that I would be having fun messing with this. It's pretty cool and exciting to watch these babies grow and I can't wait till they hit puberty. I'll check out your threads a little more tomorrow. You guys are awesome and thanks for your time!!!

You can definitely throw a MH in there now. They'll stretch less and you could bypass the cfl's then. They just seem to grow better in veg under the blue light. But alot of folks go HPS all the way too. Whatever you're comfortable with man. Remember, it's YOUR grow and you're looking good. You pick up a few tips here and there and incorporate them or discard according to your goals.


I'm second guessing myself on the co2 thing now. I've had one in my box now for the last couple days and the gals really seem to like it! So there's that! But some peeps and I were crunching the numbers on my journal and It didn't seem mathematically possible for it to be boosting levels anywhere in the significant range. Ideal would be 1000ppm and our math was bringing in like a 1/2 ton of sugar weekly to get that level. Maybe we screwed up somewhere (most are pretty well medicated here ). I'm gonna let it ride for another week out of respect for Jandre2k3, as that dude knows his shit! But I am gonna go grab one of those mycorrhiza bag co2 generators as well, just in case our math IS correct.

Leaving the water out lets the chlorine dissipate, but that's really most necessary for soft water.

Pot size will depend on how big you want them to get. A plant can only grow as tall above ground as its roots grow deep. So if you're gonna veg them long, then go bigger. That strain is supposedly moderate in size, but I'll bet you could veg it for few more weeks and kick it up! A lot of folks like to wait until the branches start to alternate instead staying symmetrical laterally. It's an indicator the plant has reached maturity and is ready to get busy! LOL! It's best to transplant as little as possible though, so if your unsure, I'd go bigger just to prevent getting rootbound. When you flip to flower, your girls will stretch to between 1.5 to 3x it's height. So keep that in mind when choosing pot size. There is a link in my sig -the 40/60 rule- that adresses this very issue and ways to plan for it.

Long winded, sorry for that.

Hope I gave you something useful though.



K

 

[JB42]

 

[Acorn]

Hey greentrees,
Hope all is going well. Great advice Korloin.
Just 1 thing that sprung to mind, If you change your bulb make sure your ballast is able to run both Mh and HPS. If not, you might want to look into Ceramic Metal Halides, I believe many of them run off a HPS ballast but give much better light for vegging than hps. Guys here getting great results using them for the whole grow, I'm sure if you use the search you'll find some cool info. Really amazing spectrum.
Peace

 

[Korloin]

Thanks Acorn! I sometimes forget not everyone uses a digital ballast. (Face palm)

I'd not be able to forgive myself if something had happened.

K

 

[greentrees]

Hey guys,

Sorry that I have been away for a while but I had to leave town for a few days and I have been playing catch-up since. Things are starting to look a lot better and greener. @Korloin and Acorn- Thanks for all of the good advice. You guys Rock! I have transplanted 3 of them into 3 gallon pots and the other 2 into something bigger than what they were in but will transplant one more time in the near future to something bigger. I mixed in a little bit of mycorrhizae in with the new soil. I also added the DIY CO2 generator and a humidifier to raise up the humidity. It has been staying around 35% during the day which is a lot better than the 16% it was before. So 70% is where I want it to be, huh? I went ahead and ordered a fogger from ebay today so hope that will do it. I also got a 1000 Watt ballast and a MH and HPS bulb but they are still sitting in the boxes. I don't know if I should change now or wait till the next garden to give those bad boys a shot. Will it really make that big of a difference in the yield this far along. They are 4 weeks in vegging under the 400 hps and prob about 5-6 inches tall. Even the little runt is starting to take off. The runt's leaves are in set of 3 so I don't know if that means anything but she looks a lot better than before. I am still only using Protogrow for the nutes and I have foliar sprayed them twice. I'm not really sure on how often I should do that but I will probably hit them again in the next few days. I figured that I would want them to be at least a foot to a foot and half tall before I put them into flower. I also want to top or fim soon. Is one really better than the other? I guess they are ready for that but it's hard to do when they are just now starting to look so good. I don't know anything about cloning but I might give that a try also if I top them. Even this small, they look so pretty. I will probably start lsting them this week as well. Well, I'll post some pics here shortly. Once again guys, thanks for all your help. This is a fun learning experience.

 

[greentrees]

Right before transplanting

New homes

Added some of this

Also using this

How they're looking today