Starting AutoFlower with 400w HPS From Seed 20/4

[AutoFlower]

Hello,

I am totally new at growing and i have chosen to grow Auto Flowers.

I am currently growing Bubba Big Buds, AK-47 and Auto White Widow now my question is.. is it safe to start with 400w HPS? the plants are really still babies and im afraid the strong beam and heat of 400w HPS can burn my baby plants?

My grow box is 5 feet tall and 5 feet in width too, i have 3x T8 fluorescent on the roof of my box and a 400w HPS on side of my grow box. I made this box myself and i hope i did it right :S

Here are the pics:

So yeah my question is it safe to grow baby auto flower with 400w HPS specially with 20/4 light cycle?? or i should use the 3x T8 fluorescent first then switch to HPS when it starts to flower?

Also ide appreciate some watering tips from experts here

Wish me luck

Thanks!

 

[KindOfBud]

If you Rally Want to use Ur 400w Hps all the way Threw You should Mount it horizontally some how roughly 2-3ft above the top of your seedlings and you should Water when the Top inch of your soil is Dry You Figure this out by simply using your Index Finger to Test your Soil's dampness Hope this Helps!

 

[AutoFlower]

thanks a lot bud, i will be mounting my HPS horizontally today but my biggest question remains... will my baby autos get hurt by strong 400w HPS Beam and Heat? because right now my plant is 1 foot away and im afraid that baby seedling will get burnt ?

what do you think?

 

[AutoFlower]

another question... my seeds are feminized autoflowers now question is do i need to plant a male and make them sex stuff like that so i get the flowers with thc? damn im so noob on this :S

if thats the case then im in trouble since i dont have any male seeds here and if i order it will take a month before it arrives to my country

Thanks!

 

[TorturedSoul]

thanks a lot bud, i will be mounting my HPS horizontally today but my biggest question remains... will my baby autos get hurt by strong 400w HPS Beam and Heat? because right now my plant is 1 foot away and im afraid that baby seedling will get burnt ?

what do you think?

Hurt? No. Helped? No... use the other lights to start. Hang them above the seedlings. Not too closely at first, a foot is fine. Lower gradually until they are an inch from the plants; hopefully, the plants will meet the lights halfway.

Use the HID when you have plants - not, sprouts.

another question... my seeds are feminized autoflowers now question is do i need to plant a male and make them sex stuff like that so i get the flowers with thc? damn im so noob on this :S

if thats the case then im in trouble since i dont have any male seeds here and if i order it will take a month before it arrives to my country

Thanks!

How to Grow Marijuana Everything You Need to Know

 

[AutoFlower]

i am now currently moving my HPS on ceiling of my growbox i noticed the stem of my plant is going side ways too its maybe coz of my HPS is on side of box lol so yeah plants do really follow the lights

Thanks for all the advice! cant wait to smoke my first plant

 

[KindOfBud]

Good Luck

 

[AutoFlower]

Re: Starting AutoFlower with 400w HPS From Seed 20/4 with Pics!

Hello so im on my 1st week now and here are my observations:

Again i am using 400w HPS, 3x T8 Flours, 2x 10' exhaust fan, 3x solo 6' fan.

1. With 400w HPS i notice that the pot / soil is being dry every 8 hours so i have to water them everytime the soil is dry but i do not over water them i just spray mist water on them
2. I dont know if 400w HPS burns out the plant but it gets the soil dry so fast BUT with strong HPS the growth is faster significantly so i think you should just keep HPS to 3 to 4 feet distance.
3. I am using different kind of soil, Soil Mix, Soil less and Normal soil but base on my observation they are all pretty the same.

4. I am not using any kind of fertilizer i just depend on soil nutes, i want this to be 100% organic... will this work ???


=====

Today i have decided to add Blue and Red CFLs to light up the side part of my box because the HPS does not reach them properly...

here are the pics:

Again this is just base on my experience, if you are using HPS 400w keep the distance between 3 to 4 feet to be safe from the heat and put a fan directing to it also, we just need the light not the heat that much..

Thanks!

 

[KindOfBud]

Nice little DIY Set-Up you good There

 

[TorturedSoul]

Re: Starting AutoFlower with 400w HPS From Seed 20/4 with Pics!

1. With 400w HPS i notice that the pot / soil is being dry every 8 hours so i have to water them everytime the soil is dry but i do not over water them i just spray mist water on them

Bad idea. First, I notice in the pictures water droplets on your seedlings' leaves. They act like little lenses and that makes it much easier for light to burn them. Second, because cannabis likes a good, well-drained environment where one waters well when needed instead of watering inadequately but more often. Cannabis also doesn't like to stand around (in soil) "with it's feet standing in water all the time."

Are you sure that the soil is drying out? Or is it only drying on top? Misting/surface watering does nothing to promote a strong healthy root system (in fact, just the opposite).

3. I am using different kind of soil, Soil Mix, Soil less and Normal soil but base on my observation they are all pretty the same.

Soil(sic) is not all the same! Even among "good" store-bought soil there is much variation in what it is comprised of. Both in terms of its capacity to drain (and/or hold water) and it's nutritive ability.

4. I am not using any kind of fertilizer i just depend on soil nutes, i want this to be 100% organic... will this work ???

As above, it very much depends on what is in your soil. At this point, no, you don't need to add fertilizer because they are seedlings. There should be enough for now. Later? What is the base soil composed of and what did you fortify it with?

I've seen it done, but generally with clones that were not grown in vegetative phase for any appreciable length of time and with reasonably short flowering periods. Even then, people often ended up feeding their plants to keep them healthy and productive.

Do some searching for different soil recipes. That should provide a lot of information. Here's a thread to get you started:
super soil

Today i have decided to add Blue and Red CFLs to light up the side part of my box because the HPS does not reach them properly.

I'm not knocking the concept of supplementary lighting. However, from the picture it appears that the angled part of your reflector is throwing light onto the doors and back of the cabinet - directing it along the "short side" of your box instead of the long side. Perhaps if you rotated your reflector 90° it might cast a footprint that better matches the shape of your box? Not only because it'll be more likely to bounce the light down and out but because light bulbs produce the vast majority "out to the sides" and very little from the end.

Speaking of which, the orientation of your CFL bulbs leaves a LOT to be desired. If they aren't in a horizontal orientation directly above the plants, they're throwing the bulk of their light-output somewhere else. I recommend adding reflectors to them as well. Yes, I know that you have constructed your box so that its walls are reflective, but the inverse square law states that the intensity of light radiating from a point source (in this case a bulb) that reaches a surface is inversely proportional to the square of the surface's distance from the source (if an object is twice as far away, it receives only a quarter the light). Drink a can of soda (or beer <SHUDDERS>) and you've got the material to make one single-bulb CFL reflector. A little effort and a Dremel Tool (a Dremel Tool is the indoor DiY grower's best friend) or something to cut it and you've just made a tension-fit reflector that both helps point the light at the plants and reduces the distance that the light must follow along the "reflection path" to reach said plants.

Oh, and about your pictures... You are encouraged to post them. But please do so only by uploading them directly to your photo gallery here and then using the button in the message entry box to then place them into your posts. Off-site image links are expressly forbidden in the site guidelines for the safety/security of the site, you, and others who view your threads. If you need help understanding how to do so, just ask. I have taken the liberty of flagging your posts to bring them to the attention of a staff member so that they may upload the images to your gallery and insert them that way but please follow proper procedure in the future (thanks!).

Always nice to see a DiY project, especially when it pertains to growing cannabis.

Do you have a small oscillating fan? If so, pointing it so that it directs a breeze towards the plants will be helpful in encouraging gas-exchange, building strong stem structure, and in encouraging transpiration.

 

[wild1]

Lucky me

Think i came to this topic by total accident, and saw your nice idea about cfl reflectors. Soda cans lol. Would have never come to think of it. Thanks