MGD420 First Grow: Autos

[MGD420]

Yeah the dehumidifiers kick out a fair bit of heat. I have a tiny one in my tent and that raises the temp a few degrees. Where is the extracted air going and where is the fresh air coming from? Interesting about the issues starting in flower and it looked earlier like they had too much N. N toxicity can lockout other nutrients the plant will be needing in flower. Process of elimination I guess. Get the environment stable and see how they respond. Hopefully someone with more experience dealing with these issues will chime in with their thoughts too.

The small one I originally bought was useless and ended up having to buy the big dehumidifier.

The extracted air from the exhaust is going back into the room at the moment as there's nowhere else I can really exhaust to without it being too conspicuous. The dehumidifier is blowing the warm air into the tent, I tried to exhaust it outside the tent but the warm air was what is lowering the humidity.
The bottom of the tent door and a couple of the flaps are left open, with the negative pressure it pulls fresh air back into the tent with the exhaust fan pulling air through the filter.
I did try opening windows and venting at the top to draw some of the exhaust air outside but it made next to no difference.
The issue I have with venting out windows and growing in the bedroom is the noise and ducting hanging out windows otherwise I would but being in the UK things need to be kept on the low hence why I want to move the grow into the loft area.

 

[MGD420]

Looking good..... I have had similar issues.... I figured it out. Lights are too close. My photo's loved my light being 12-13 inches off canopy. My auto's don't. It's because the lights are on for 18 hours. My photos were getting 6 less hours of lights on.

My lights are basicly at the top of the tent, couldn't put them any higher so have lowered the intensity while I'm out the house, both are 300 watt led, not sure what they put out but know they draw 300 Watts from the wall.
I'm positive one light is sufficient but when I replied to mars on here asking I never got a response from them. I might message them asking as I think the 2 lights might be overkill in a 4x4 tent

 

[VetSmoke85]

In the same boat and it can be a challenge. Problem is with venting in the same area you can end up just pulling that warm humid air straight back into the tent. But we do what we can with what we've got.

 

[MGD420]

Guys if I don't reply straight away it because I'm at work and the Internet is garbage where I am so the forum takes forever to load. I will reply when I'm able to but I appreciate the replies and help

 

[VetSmoke85]

My lights are basicly at the top of the tent, couldn't put them any higher so have lowered the intensity while I'm out the house, both are 300 watt led, not sure what they put out but know they draw 300 Watts from the wall.
I'm positive one light is sufficient but when I replied to mars on here asking I never got a response from them. I might message them asking as I think the 2 lights might be overkill in a 4x4 tent

Is it the TS 3000?

 

[MGD420]

Is it the TS 3000?

2 X SP3000

 

[MGD420]

In the same boat and it can be a challenge. Problem is with venting in the same area you can end up just pulling that warm humid air straight back into the tent. But we do what we can with what we've got.

Definitely been a challenge for my first grow thats for sure lol.
Yea I understand that that's one of the reasons I want to get things up the loft, better ventilation, bigger area etc. Enitially the grow started in a cupboard but that didn't work out to plan lol

 

[Plant Dad]

My lights are basicly at the top of the tent, couldn't put them any higher so have lowered the intensity while I'm out the house, both are 300 watt led, not sure what they put out but know they draw 300 Watts from the wall.
I'm positive one light is sufficient but when I replied to mars on here asking I never got a response from them. I might message them asking as I think the 2 lights might be overkill in a 4x4 tent

Wow!!! nice. I wish I had that many watts. Gives you lots of options. How many inches are they above canopy? I think Mars will say 12 to 18 inches in flower. They do have dimmers.

 

[bluter]

The issue I have with venting out windows and growing in the bedroom is the noise and ducting hanging out windows otherwise I would but being in the UK things need to be kept on the low hence why I want to move the grow into the loft area.

maybe you can build a window box. it sits in the window flush with the outside frame /window. window remains partially open, sitting on the box. exhaust vents direct to outside through the box. i've also built versions that replace the window entirely.

have to admit some of mine were pretty ugly on the inside, but at least you wouldn't notice from the outside. i've seen window ac units gutted and used for the same purpose. just looks like an ac from the outside.

none of that is relevant if you set up a space in the loft. the loft will need to be vented for sure as well though.

grow looks good. the burning on the top sugars looks to be pk excess, built up over flower. it's so close i wouldn't be worried, the plant probably plateaued, and the nute level remained higher. they ask for a little less very near the end. i usually miss it myself.

 

[VetSmoke85]

2 X SP3000

Nice. Yeah 1 would do it but because of the shape the core coverage is 2ft width ways. So with one you'd lose some intensity at those sides. With 2 dimmed overlapping you'll have good intensity across the whole canopy.

 

[Plant Dad]

Definitely been a challenge for my first grow thats for sure lol.
Yea I understand that that's one of the reasons I want to get things up the loft, better ventilation, bigger area etc. Enitially the grow started in a cupboard but that didn't work out to plan lol

That's why I will be happy to be back in my FFOF soil for next grow... It's like plug and play grow. I never want to grow in Coco again. Results are amazing tho. I can't believe difference between Coco and soil.

 

[bluter]

Nice. Yeah 1 would do it but because of the shape the core coverage is 2ft width ways. So with one you'd lose some intensity at those sides. With 2 dimmed overlapping you'll have good intensity across the whole canopy.

will need them both in a 4 x 4. i'd be running them 90% or so thru most of flower. start a bit lower the first two weeks.

 

[MGD420]

Wow!!! nice. I wish I had that many watts. Gives you lots of options. How many inches are they above canopy? I think Mars will say 12 to 18 inches in flower. They do have dimmers.

I'm not able to measure the distance with being at work but I reckon somewhere between 15 and possible 25 inches from the top of the tallest plant. I've tried putting them closer but with the heat and humidity issues and not knowing for sure what's causing the leaves to dry up and curl the way they are I've put the lights as far up to the top of the tent as possible

 

[bluter]

18 - 24 inches is optimum. i let them grow in to the 18 inch mark and raise the light to 24 while they are stretching. then leave it at 24 when they are done.

you can leave it lower if you run a little dimmer, but i would not recommend less than 90%. my canopy is usually a bit uneven so it's a give or take.

 

[Plant Dad]

I'd say 18 inches from top of canopy at 100% would be just fine. Any less I'd use the dimmer. Here's Betty.. she got hit the hardest because she flowered first and I got her closest to lights first. Other girls were showing signs of light stress too. I pulled light up from 12 inches off the top cola to 15-16 inches and other girls are responding. I'm using the Mars hydro TS3000. It is using 435W at 100% in my 4x4.

 

[MGD420]

Wow!!! nice. I wish I had that many watts. Gives you lots of options. How many inches are they above canopy? I think Mars will say 12 to 18 inches in flower. They do have dimmers.

Sorry forgot to say, yea the lights have dimmers, they're daisychained to each other so I only use the 1 dimmer to work both light.

 

[Plant Dad]

18 - 24 inches is optimum. i let them grow in to the 18 inch mark and raise the light to 24 while they are stretching. then leave it at 24 when they are done.

you can leave it lower if you run a little dimmer, but i would not recommend less than 90%. my canopy is usually a bit uneven so it's a give or take.

I have plants sitting on different hight platforms to all be at same hight. I had light 12 inches off tallest plant and adjusted others as they came into flower. Now all in flower they are same hight and now light is higher.

 

[bluter]

I have plants sitting on different hight platforms to all be at same hight. I had light 12 inches off tallest plant and adjusted others as they came into flower. Now all in flower they are same hight and now light is higher.

i'll raise a couple now and again as well. some are more touchy about light than others too.

 

[MGD420]

18 - 24 inches is optimum. i let them grow in to the 18 inch mark and raise the light to 24 while they are stretching. then leave it at 24 when they are done.

you can leave it lower if you run a little dimmer, but i would not recommend less than 90%. my canopy is usually a bit uneven so it's a give or take.

I try run the lights on as high a setting as possible as I don't like the thought of dimming them and then the plants don't get as much light as they're needing but more recently I'm having to dim them when the temp gets too high as turning the dehumidifier off the humidity goes too high. I'm guessing with them being led and pulling 300 watts from the wall that they will more than likely be putting out more light intensity for the amount of power they use ?

 

[MGD420]

I'd say 18 inches from top of canopy at 100% would be just fine. Any less I'd use the dimmer. Here's Betty.. she got hit the hardest because she flowered first and I got her closest to lights first. Other girls were showing signs of light stress too. I pulled light up from 12 inches off the top cola to 15-16 inches and other girls are responding. I'm using the Mars hydro TS3000. It is using 435W at 100% in my 4x4.

That looks almost identical to what my leaves are going like.