Which lights should I use?

[JRegan420]

I have been experimenting a little after a semi-failed attempt at my first grow.I am germinating 8 seeds from a bank.(2 super skunk, 2 lemon skunk, 3 buddah, and a mystery bonus seed)..I am using rockwool and hydroton. I am trying to piece together enough stuff to do the bubbles, but might be stuck with either "ebb and flow" or watering myself inside a bucket of hydroton

I have the option of using 2 150watt HPS lamps inside of a 5 foot cabinet with sufficient airflow, or 6 26watt CFL (3 "daylight" and 3 "soft white") inside of my closet totalling right around 9600 total lumens.

I also have heard it is better to veg in CFL, and flower with HPS....is this true? If so...I would just use my cabinet as a flowering box, and veg in my closet.

Also, for the first stages of seedling and veg.....would it be advised to keep the plants in a germination tray with drainage and water manually to avoid overwatering? I found that was my biggest mistake on my first grow was overwatering, and I do not want to repeat that mistake.

I have 3 plants thats are over a month old, and were stunted during birth so badly(also eaten a little by a mystery worm) they are less than 6 inches tall...the tops look very healthy, and are still growing daily...but just sooooo tiny.

one final question....when is it too soon to cut the lights to 18/6? Anything to make my babies grow faster.

 

[AbeFroman]

I would piece together a bubble bucket. They are so cheap and easy its hard to beat them for the quality of growth you get. I can build a single big one for under $100 that would hold the 8 plants (even though I don't grow mine together that way). I would also look into running the GH lucas method for nutes, so easy and once again cheap. I don't use rockwool anymore after using rapid rooters. But in the past I just left the seedlings inside the rockwool and a high humidity germination tray with cover until the root comes out the bottom of the rockwool. I then put it in the netpot with rototon and introduce it to my system.

If i had to choose between your light choices I would probably go with the HPS but only because I never use CFL's. But I'm sure the CFL's would work great for veg. I just use a little T5 and it works great.

Hope that helps

 

[JRegan420]

thanks for the input...The seeds have just now cracked, and will give them another day to open up a little. All of the seeds except for the super skunk are opening up(SS seeds are much bigger). 6 out of 8 in a day....not bad?

I was thinking about using the HPS light as well, but cutting back to only 1 of the 150watt bulbs..to reduce some of the heat stress. My cabinet is about 84 degrees with both lamps on...so I figured it couldnt hurt.

I have a 264 gph water pump that I was using for an ebb and flow system I was using....will that work for a bubble set up?

I also have had a hard time finding a tub that will fit inside of my cabinet. Its only about 2 feet deep..so If I were to use bubbles, I would have to do that inside of my closet with the CFL bulbs.

Is it possible to do a bubble grow without a water pump? Just make sure the rockwool stays moist until the roots come out, then let the bubbles do the rest?

 

[AbeFroman]

My temps stay around 84F with my lights on and grow just fine. I also don't use a pump inside my bubble buckets. I just raise my water level up an inch into the netpots for the first week and then lower it to one inch below for the rest of the grow. I only use a pump outside my system to circulate from my res and to pump out water when its time for a change.

I would worry about space growing 8 plants in an areal that small. I grow less than that under my 1k watt haha

 

[JRegan420]

Yeah, I figured I would have to grow 8, to make sure i get at least 1 or 2 ladies. I am going to put them under the HPS lamps with both 150s on them. I have had very healthy babies using that method, just have to watch the stress.

How much harm is done to the plant if you alternate between CFL and HPS? for instance, if I see that the seedlings are curling or god forbid burning....Can I move them to the cfl lighting for a few days to recoop?

I was thinking of rigging something inside of my cabinet so that I can get both bulbs shining at once. would having HPS and CFL at the same time increase size/yield?

 

[AbeFroman]

You can use both lights. Come to think of it I would use just the cfls for the first couple of weeks and add the HPS ligting when they are ready for some nutes. If you keep the ph at the right level and don't feed them too young you shouldn't get any curling or burn. That small of an area you are gonna want to flower early

 

[JRegan420]

yeah, I learned my lesson about feeding them too early on my first grow...and unfortunately learned my lesson about heat stress and over watering at the same time! Not to mention the little tiny worms that decided to snack on my lower leaves.

I am trying to nourish my last 2 hopefuls from my first grow back to health as we speak. They are about a month old, and barely 6 inches tall. One of the 2 however has taken liking to the CFL and is looking beautiful for being a midget! heres a couple pics of her(hopefully her)

 

[MostlyCrazy]

It just takes a little longer without the distributor. You have to tend to them more or get them to a bigger size before you use what in essence is a big dwc. With the distributor you can plant a seed in the system.

 

[Green007]

to 420!

MC is correct. That's why I like the pump with the feeder tubes. Faster growth until the roots hit the water. Journals all over this forum have proven it.

Personally I like HIDs as main lights and CFLs, T5's, or LEDs for supplemental lighting. Many people don't like to deal with the heat of a MH bulb or HPS bulbs (which is cooler than MH by the way) so they use all LED or T5 or CFL or a combination. As long as you are giving the ladies enough lumens per sqft, your good. You want at least 3000L per sqft to grow minimum. 3000-7000L is the range to shoot for, more is better.

See the links in my sig for more info on growing with Bubbles.
Especially this one Deep Water Culture Tutorial

And post a link to your grow journal on the Deep Water Culture Home thread if you start one. Lots of very knowledgeable people there to help answer your questions.

Agent Green

 

[Green007]

My temps stay around 84F with my lights on and grow just fine. I also don't use a pump inside my bubble buckets. I just raise my water level up an inch into the netpots for the first week and then lower it to one inch below for the rest of the grow. I only use a pump outside my system to circulate from my res and to pump out water when its time for a change.

I would worry about space growing 8 plants in an areal that small. I grow less than that under my 1k watt haha

Are you saying your res water is 84°??? You must mean your room temp.
Temps and Humidity in Deep Water Culture

Over 72° res water and you start to be a candidate for root rot.
68° is optimal and up to 72° is OK.

Love to see a pic of your setup, sounds different than anything I've seen here before, that has produced anyway. Can you post one please?

 

[AbeFroman]

Are you saying your res water is 84°??? You must mean your room temp.
Temps and Humidity in Deep Water Culture

Over 72° res water and you start to be a candidate for root rot.
68° is optimal and up to 72° is OK.

Love to see a pic of your setup, sounds different than anything I've seen here before, that has produced anyway. Can you post one please?

I meant my room temp. But my water temp isn't much lower. It's gotten really hot out here lately and yesterday my water tempts were about 80F. Not where I want it to be but its where it's at. I know I'm a candidate for root rot but if it happens then it happens.

Here is a pic of my three girls in Flower. I had to take one out becuase it was a hermie.

I have 6 other girls I'm vegging right now and am expecting them to do better. The ones in flower were a test run. i can tell you though my water temps have been over 72F for the whole grow and the only time I had root issues was when I had light leaks.. i take extra care with that now.

 

[AbeFroman]

My system isn't anything spectacular. Its based off of Rumps over on Grass City and a lot of my methods are based off of his. When a guy is yielding 1lb+ off of two plants under three months under 400w, i couldn't resist. I am yet to see anything as impressive as his setup and grows.

 

[JRegan420]

I decided to go with both! I made room for 3 of my CFL bulbs, just have to figure out a way to get the other 3 somewhere. They are currently attached to a 3 headed desk lamp, and not really big on electrician skills. together they are giving off just a little under 5k lumen, combined with 2 150wt HPS, i should be okay!

all of my plants are still in veg...1 plant thats about a month old(keeping faith in the lone survivor of my first grow!)...the others are a week old, and a day old. the first sets of leaves on the week old plants got a little close to the CFL and sizzled, but the new leaves are looking green and healthy~

What is the best way to water the rockwool cubes? I have been dunking the bottom half of the cube into ph'd water and putting them back onto the rack....

 

[JRegan420]

Heres the 2 plants from above after 2 days under the HPS

and heres the little guy that I planted YESTERDAY! 3 others have cracked their seeds, but this one is cruising!