New Canadian grower with a willingness to learn more!

[homegrownsolutions]

Hi everybody! Thank you for the wealth of info that you have and are willing to share!!! Koodo's to all

I am not entirely new to the growing of cannabis but I am really new to this forum stuff so I will apologize now for anything that go's wrong. About a year and a half ago I realized how much I was paying for the weed I was smoking and decided to start growing my own. Just looking around sites like this one and especially this one, gave me a lot of help in doing so. Thought maybe it was time to become a member and give back some of the help that I received as well as learn new tricks.
I am presently a week to ten days from finishing up my present grow and will be starting another one after. I am planning on posting that one so everybody in this community will be able help me perfect it.
Right now I am averaging approximately 350 grams of dried and manicured bud, using a RDWC system and a 600 watt MH/HPS light in a 5' x 5' grow tent. The tent has a 240 cfm intake fan and a 440 cfm exhaust fan. The light also has a cool hood set up with its own 440 cfm exhaust fan pulling it's air from outside the tent. All these fans are 6 inch. The tent has a 12 inch circulation fan as well. At some point I will post pics of my set ups. I am also using Advanced nutrients PH perfect nutes. A complete grow usually takes 3 - 4 months to complete ( 2-4 weeks veg time, 8 - 10 weeks flower time) and temperatures are normally between 22 - 27 C. And I kinda LST them as well. I have a netting installed over the plants that they grow through, then they are tied down to it.
I have 2 questions now : 1) is this a reasonable harvest or should it be more? And I do realize that the number will fluctuate depending on strain etc... etc... And 2) How do I get to my end goal of 450g or more per harvest? Like I said my average has been 350g per harvest and has been for 6 harvests
Hello again too one and all. Thank you for your help...

 

[Spitz]

With HID lighting, 0.75 g/W is a respectable number. Because I’m the first to reply, I get the obvious answer... Swap to a 1000W or add some supplemental lighting.

Welcome and thanks for giving back. Why make us wait 14 weeks to see some sexy bud pics? Share the current ladies!

 

[homegrownsolutions]

Thank you for your answer. Yes it would seem that swapping to a 1000w is the obvious answer but I am not sure of the cost vs gain. By supplemental lighting you mean something like LED ? This is my present grow Obi Wan Kush. About 7 - 10 days from harvest. Not sure if these pics will do the justice, but there is presently 2 plants in there. A small Green Crack to the left in the pics with the net. the two bud close ups are obi wan kush .

 

[homegrownsolutions]

Sorry the first close up bud picture is Green Crack. The second Bud close up is Obi Wan Kush

 

[homegrownsolutions]

Sorry again, First and third bud pics are Obi Wan, the second is Green Crack. Lol

 

[Spitz]

Awesome! LED is an option. Theres nothing “wrong” at all with what you’ve got going on. Looks awesome! I wouldn’t change a thing personally. 1g/W is the gold standard With HID. Have you changed your bulb in the last year?

 

[Pat Puffer]

Yes it would seem that swapping to a 1000w is the obvious answer but I am not sure of the cost vs gain

I think that the 650w range is maxing out our plants. 1000w is feasible and able to get that cost vs. gain thing achieved if CO2 is supplemented during the grow.

 

[homegrownsolutions]

No i haven't changed the bulb yet. I was waiting for the next grow to do so. Plus these bulbs still look pristine but I realize that they lose their efficiency after a bit. Other then to switch the MH bulb to the HPS bulb they are the same bulbs that I got with the ballast. But I am assuming that they should be swapped out the next batch. Thank you for your input man. It's hard to know if your doing it "right", with out input

 

[homegrownsolutions]

I think that the 650w range is maxing out our plants. 1000w is feasible and able to get that cost vs. gain thing achieved if CO2 is supplemented during the grow.

Thank you for the input. I will definitely be looking into CO2 but was under the assumption that the cost to implement it wasn't worth it for my little 4 plant system, but I will be giving it a second look over. I don't know a lot about CO2 .

 

[Pat Puffer]

I have a 1000w HPS. It is a beast. I am not saying i used CO2 supplementation...on a professional level. I did a double 2 liter sugar/yeast mixture that burped in to another 2 liter bottle as a p-trap. Haha, it worked.

I have only read about maximizing the watts with those monsters. My reading stated the 650w range is about max for a tent set up at an average of 4×4. 650w for a 4×4 hits that window of 30-50w per sq. ft. at about 40ish. A 1000w in a 4×4 pushes over that 30-50w/sq.ft. to 60ish. Those extra watts ARE usable...but fresh air only supplies enough CO2. Supplementing that CO2 allows the plant to grow ridiculously fast.

In short, I think your 600w is sufficient. Contemplating upgrading to a 1000w brings more electricity use without being able to completely use it, unless supplementing CO2. This is just what I have surmised from the info I have read.

 

[Enjoil]

Yeah you are lucky cuz you can just get an ex-hale bag or two.. I’m looking at these intimidating contraptions that use propane or natural gas I think. Yeah fire!!! Crazy huh. Lol

 

[Enjoil]

I have a 1000w HPS. It is a beast. I am not saying i used CO2 supplementation...on a professional level. I did a double 2 liter sugar/yeast mixture that burped in to another 2 liter bottle as a p-trap. Haha, it worked.

I have only read about maximizing the watts with those monsters. My reading stated the 650w range is about max for a tent set up at an average of 4×4. 650w for a 4×4 hits that window of 30-50w per sq. ft. at about 40ish. A 1000w in a 4×4 pushes over that 30-50w/sq.ft. to 60ish. Those extra watts ARE usable...but fresh air only supplies enough CO2. Supplementing that CO2 allows the plant to grow ridiculously fast.

In short, I think your 600w is sufficient. Contemplating upgrading to a 1000w brings more electricity use without being able to completely use it, unless supplementing CO2. This is just what I have surmised from the info I have read.

Do you know how much co2 those ex-hale bags pump out? What do you use to monitor your levels?

 

[Pat Puffer]

I contemplated that. Obviously safety was my concern and went organic.

 

[Pat Puffer]

There was no measurement. It wasn't the bags. I actually mixed water, sugar, and yeast and capped off the bottle. The cap had a tube that fed in to another bottle filled with water and sat below the water line so it bubbled. I would know when the mixture was exhausted by no more bubbles in the water trap.

This worked and worked well in a 6×6×6 room. I had to remix about every 4 days i think. It wasnt cost effective given the price of yeast (yikes) and sugar.

The plants just kept putting out pistils/stigmas and wouldn't mature. Then I learned that with CO2 supplementation, it's advised to stop last couple weeks to let the plants mature.

 

[Enjoil]

There was no measurement. It wasn't the bags. I actually mixed water, sugar, and yeast and capped off the bottle. The cap had a tube that fed in to another bottle filled with water and sat below the water line so it bubbled. I would know when the mixture was exhausted by no more bubbles in the water trap.

This worked and worked well in a 6×6×6 room. I had to remix about every 4 days i think. It wasnt cost effective given the price of yeast (yikes) and sugar.

The plants just kept putting out pistils/stigmas and wouldn't mature. Then I learned that with CO2 supplementation, it's advised to stop last couple weeks to let the plants mature.

I will end up spilling that shit everywhere. Lol yeah idk about the co2 tanks yet. I don’t like that I will be polluting the planet if the plants don’t suck most of it up. And running a sealed clean room sounds like a pain in the butt.
That is very interesting that they continue to spit out pistols and the others slowly mature.

 

[Pat Puffer]

It basically brews a wine. I aint drinking it though. The whole by product is alcohol, maybe strip the paint off your car. It is terrible stuff but worked. That was actually my 1st ferment.

 

[Enjoil]

I made a couple of batches of hootch in county jail with peaches an oranges, bread and sugar and a little water. It took like 3 weeks and the guys that drank it loved the shit! 3 guys bought it all and drank it and were wasted!... what’s funny is That you have to burp the bottles or whatever you got your brew in cuz it will build up pressure. Well one night probably like 3 in the a.m in a dorm of 60 guys and one cop, I wake up and have to burp my bottle.... when I flip the cap for it to release pressure a piece of peach clogged the hole!!! For like 10 seconds then shot like freaking OLD FAITHFUL!!!! All the way to the ceiling! I lost like half that batch. Ha ha ha. I laid back down so fast and acted like I was asleep... the cop Heard it and a couple guys woke up, but nobody knew why. Ha haha! We laughed so hard talking about that the next morning, that stupid cop wondering wtf was that. But didn’t want to get up out his chair. Ha ha ha.I bet that peach is still up on the ceiling!

 

[homegrownsolutions]

I have a 1000w HPS. It is a beast. I am not saying i used CO2 supplementation...on a professional level. I did a double 2 liter sugar/yeast mixture that burped in to another 2 liter bottle as a p-trap. Haha, it worked.

I have only read about maximizing the watts with those monsters. My reading stated the 650w range is about max for a tent set up at an average of 4×4. 650w for a 4×4 hits that window of 30-50w per sq. ft. at about 40ish. A 1000w in a 4×4 pushes over that 30-50w/sq.ft. to 60ish. Those extra watts ARE usable...but fresh air only supplies enough CO2. Supplementing that CO2 allows the plant to grow ridiculously fast.

In short, I think your 600w is sufficient. Contemplating upgrading to a 1000w brings more electricity use without being able to completely use it, unless supplementing CO2. This is just what I have surmised from the info I have read.

Thank you. I had came to the same conclusion when I bought my light set-up. Just as a general question, what would you say the return would be with CO2 ? vs without? Would a grow hit that 1g/watt mark ? I like the DIY 2l bottle idea, thank you. I might look into giving it a try. Awesome info

 

[Enjoil]

Thank you. I had came to the same conclusion when I bought my light set-up. Just as a general question, what would you say the return would be with CO2 ? vs without? Would a grow hit that 1g/watt mark ? I like the DIY 2l bottle idea, thank you. I might look into giving it a try. Awesome info

Check out those new cool pads that you get wet and thy release it. I don’t know what they called sorry.