Greenthumb J
Well-Known Member
Re: Let's get this tent setup so we can get these Herbie seeds to cracking the soil :
Hey there Dizzy, i've read and caught up to your current progress.
May i make a suggestion or two?
Less plants is more. By this i mean, with less plants in your space, you allow them to grow bigger. They fight other plants less for the available light thus they can absorb it and photosynthesize more efficiently.
Light transitions:
I start my spouted seeds under 600w MH. they love it! the more light you can give them when they have leaves to absorb that energy, the better, more established root systems they will develop. CFLS WILL work dont get me wrong, but you have to have them super close to your babies to keep them from stretching too much which will run the risk of your young plants stem being too weak to support it.
My MH is about 2.5 feet (30 inches or so) away from my little sprouts which i popped 2 weeks ago and are already transplanted into 4" square pots.
I also have a small 165w LED i'm using for veg as well as part of a Sponsored Grow Journal and review, which i have to say is very impressive, and keeps the heat in my 4x4 tent at a comfortable level for my seedling in there. The vegetative growth under this particular LED is great for anyone wanting to set up a small veg area.
Hood:
Definitely pull the air through the hood, the colder air drawn over the bulb will increase its lifespan which will give you more hours of growing before you have to replace the bulb. Plus it will suck away the hot air that your bulb would normally emit towards your plants.
Exhaust:
I read that you said your carbon filter was going to be on the bottom of your tent? I would suggest you attach it to the rafters of your tent. Hot air rises, right, so when you are drawing in cold air from the bottom vents on your tent (most tents have vent flaps, mine do. check my current journals out for pics of those) you want that cooler air to be drawn across your plants which will bring the Co2 enriched air for your plants, rather than just being sucked away cause the exhaust is at the same level as the intake. you want constant air transfer so the air is always rich in Co2, and not stagnant for your plants, without having to supplement with additional Co2.
Distance of Light-plants:
this isn't so much about how far or how close, you will figure out what your plants prefer. I am referring to your comments about lowering the lights or leaving them fixed to the rafters of the tent. I dont have a bad back, or am immobile in any way, i just hate bending down and leaning over to work on plants. I have a grow box thats mere inches off the ground and i dread the days i have to do work in there because i'm slumped on the ground with my head stuff into a box. My point being, raise your plants to your light. Work smarter, not harder! You are going to save yourself the discomfort of being laid out on the ground just to look at a plant or to do some watering or whatever... see my point? Personally, if i dont have to roll around on the ground, why should i? you will be growing in soil, which could get messy all over your floor right? wanna roll around in perlite and shit? I grow in hydro (DWC and a top feed system) so i dont worry about my floor being dirty but i still dont like to be the broom thats sweeping up the floor, you dig?
Mother Plants:
Just dont.. You dont need them. As long as you learn the basics of cloning, you will never need to take up space with a plant thats only purpose is to give you a cutting or two every few weeks. What happens when you get bored of the strain?
Point #2. A mother plant wastes expensive nutrients. Save those nutrients for your plants that are in flower, the ones that really need it.
I find that Mother plants that have vegged for an extended period of time produce clones that take longer to root. I started taking clones from my White Widow i have in flower when she was 5 months into veg. These particular clones have taken like 2 months to finally grow, when i see peoples clones, from younger plants, only taking like 7 days to root, and like a month to become a bush.. so i'm going to test my theory on a younger plant, and see if it is true.
Mother plants also count towards total plant count. So if you have a limit, this mother ( or two even) could put you over your limit once you start taking clones. If you want a great semi-perpetual schedule that eliminates mother plants and helps utilize your space, then follow this.
1. start seed
2. veg plant for minimum 8 weeks (2 months)
3. take 2 or 3 clones (you essentially just need one, the other two are just in case)
4. give the clones 7-14 days to root. Once they do, put the plant you took the clones from into flower.
5. veg the clones for the entire flowering process, once the original plant is done flowering, the clones are then ready to replace the original.
This method will pull you in close to 1lb harvests PER PLANT. this is based on one plant under a 600w Cooltube. Its easy and many people are doing it on 420 here.
For your sprouts you just germinated, they dont need any light until cotyledons have broken the surface of your soil, from there, i would give them indirect light for 18 hours each day. Once they have formed the first true leaves, you can move them under direct light. also, its more than okay for the seed casing to come off during germination, as long as the taproot continues to grow it will be okay.
Hell, i just germinated about 25 seeds, and one of my White Widow x Great White Shark sprouts had the tap root break off while in the rockwool cube. The broken piece died off, and the remaining taproot has continued to grow, so you would be surprised at how resilient these little "weeds" are hahah
i'm subbed up and will be following along! congratulations on your first growing endeavor!
Hey there Dizzy, i've read and caught up to your current progress.
May i make a suggestion or two?
Less plants is more. By this i mean, with less plants in your space, you allow them to grow bigger. They fight other plants less for the available light thus they can absorb it and photosynthesize more efficiently.
Light transitions:
I start my spouted seeds under 600w MH. they love it! the more light you can give them when they have leaves to absorb that energy, the better, more established root systems they will develop. CFLS WILL work dont get me wrong, but you have to have them super close to your babies to keep them from stretching too much which will run the risk of your young plants stem being too weak to support it.
My MH is about 2.5 feet (30 inches or so) away from my little sprouts which i popped 2 weeks ago and are already transplanted into 4" square pots.
I also have a small 165w LED i'm using for veg as well as part of a Sponsored Grow Journal and review, which i have to say is very impressive, and keeps the heat in my 4x4 tent at a comfortable level for my seedling in there. The vegetative growth under this particular LED is great for anyone wanting to set up a small veg area.
Hood:
Definitely pull the air through the hood, the colder air drawn over the bulb will increase its lifespan which will give you more hours of growing before you have to replace the bulb. Plus it will suck away the hot air that your bulb would normally emit towards your plants.
Exhaust:
I read that you said your carbon filter was going to be on the bottom of your tent? I would suggest you attach it to the rafters of your tent. Hot air rises, right, so when you are drawing in cold air from the bottom vents on your tent (most tents have vent flaps, mine do. check my current journals out for pics of those) you want that cooler air to be drawn across your plants which will bring the Co2 enriched air for your plants, rather than just being sucked away cause the exhaust is at the same level as the intake. you want constant air transfer so the air is always rich in Co2, and not stagnant for your plants, without having to supplement with additional Co2.
Distance of Light-plants:
this isn't so much about how far or how close, you will figure out what your plants prefer. I am referring to your comments about lowering the lights or leaving them fixed to the rafters of the tent. I dont have a bad back, or am immobile in any way, i just hate bending down and leaning over to work on plants. I have a grow box thats mere inches off the ground and i dread the days i have to do work in there because i'm slumped on the ground with my head stuff into a box. My point being, raise your plants to your light. Work smarter, not harder! You are going to save yourself the discomfort of being laid out on the ground just to look at a plant or to do some watering or whatever... see my point? Personally, if i dont have to roll around on the ground, why should i? you will be growing in soil, which could get messy all over your floor right? wanna roll around in perlite and shit? I grow in hydro (DWC and a top feed system) so i dont worry about my floor being dirty but i still dont like to be the broom thats sweeping up the floor, you dig?
Mother Plants:
Just dont.. You dont need them. As long as you learn the basics of cloning, you will never need to take up space with a plant thats only purpose is to give you a cutting or two every few weeks. What happens when you get bored of the strain?
Point #2. A mother plant wastes expensive nutrients. Save those nutrients for your plants that are in flower, the ones that really need it.
I find that Mother plants that have vegged for an extended period of time produce clones that take longer to root. I started taking clones from my White Widow i have in flower when she was 5 months into veg. These particular clones have taken like 2 months to finally grow, when i see peoples clones, from younger plants, only taking like 7 days to root, and like a month to become a bush.. so i'm going to test my theory on a younger plant, and see if it is true.
Mother plants also count towards total plant count. So if you have a limit, this mother ( or two even) could put you over your limit once you start taking clones. If you want a great semi-perpetual schedule that eliminates mother plants and helps utilize your space, then follow this.
1. start seed
2. veg plant for minimum 8 weeks (2 months)
3. take 2 or 3 clones (you essentially just need one, the other two are just in case)
4. give the clones 7-14 days to root. Once they do, put the plant you took the clones from into flower.
5. veg the clones for the entire flowering process, once the original plant is done flowering, the clones are then ready to replace the original.
This method will pull you in close to 1lb harvests PER PLANT. this is based on one plant under a 600w Cooltube. Its easy and many people are doing it on 420 here.
For your sprouts you just germinated, they dont need any light until cotyledons have broken the surface of your soil, from there, i would give them indirect light for 18 hours each day. Once they have formed the first true leaves, you can move them under direct light. also, its more than okay for the seed casing to come off during germination, as long as the taproot continues to grow it will be okay.
Hell, i just germinated about 25 seeds, and one of my White Widow x Great White Shark sprouts had the tap root break off while in the rockwool cube. The broken piece died off, and the remaining taproot has continued to grow, so you would be surprised at how resilient these little "weeds" are hahah
i'm subbed up and will be following along! congratulations on your first growing endeavor!
