Re: Bassmans Master Kush, Blue Planet Nutes, GrowStealthLED Grow #3
Update:
Day 28 in veg.
Well roughly 28 days in veg. I forgot to mark my calendar when exactly I moved them to the buckets.
It's been 8 days now with 216w of T5 (4 bulbs 4 foot long). They love this more than the cfl's that for sure. Growth is good. Everything is healthy.
I've done some topping & fimming. The topped one has two nice leaders. The fimmed girls are slow to show. We'll see.
I took some leaves off the one on the right the other day. And the one next to her is now starting really veg up after her defoliation about 5 days ago. The first one in the 2nd pic is the topped girl and doing great. I'll defoliate her and bend as needed in a couple days too.
I am about 90% on making a change to this grow. A big one at that. I had to send off my LED to be repaired/replaced. A bank of lights went out and when I replaced the ballast sent by grow stealth it didnt fix it. So since I am without, I am thinking about putting in 600-1000w of HPS for this grow.
I would like to see what kind of results I get using this hi defoliation technique under hps anyways. I wasn't planning on doing it this grow. But I kind of need to harvest this in a certain time frame and knowing a replacement LED (or repaired) is a ways off it throws my timing off a bunch.
There are issues for me however with HPS.
1. Heat! I am renting this house and cannot go putting holes in shit to exhaust hot air. I am wondering about running a 500cfm or so intake fan through a light, with a exhaust fan sucking it out, then routing the duct work out the door of the bedroom the tent is in. And just let it blow into the hallway. I also think it would be a good time to add a can for smell.
2. Electricity. I live in the desert. It gets hot and stays hot from May-Oct. AC is on 24/7 practically during those months. HPS would mean more AC and more $$ on an already $300+ per month elect bill in summer. Easily over $100 more per month.
3. Noise? I don't know if this is an issue or not. I'm talking about the additional whur from adding a fan to cool the light.
4. Safety. Because I take care of elderly mom, and grow room is upstairs, which she can not navigate. I worry about safety/fire issues when I am at work. I basically am gone from 1am to noon, at work. I haven't worked out location of a ballast yet, but I understand they can get hot?
Any advice would be wonderful.
So, do I got 600w or 1000w? Whichever it is I need it to cover 4'x4' REALLY WELL. At 600w it's 38 watts per sq ft coverage. At 1000w it's 62w per sq ft. Pretty big difference. But is it worth it in terms of heat, electricity, and grams per watt results for this hi defoliation technique, to go 1k watts.
I tend to think 1k watts would be best so they get the deepest penetration possible. It's at this point my ass hurts from the reaming I'll take in electricity not only to run the system but to cool it too. Add to that, 1k = 8-10 amps and it's a 15 amp breaker in the room, running an air pump, chiller, couple fans, recirc water pump. I'll do the math later, but I dont want to be too close to the limit and start heating up house wiring.
ok, now what brand hps bulb and what brand ballast?
I lean towards digilux bulb and lumatek ballast. I will not go magnetic. So I'm looking for thoughts & suggestions on this.
Here's todays pics: