experience needed -3 weeks old. very "leafy"

damargentina

damargentina

Well-Known Member
hi everyone! this is my first and i ve improvised with my clever partner coming up with this. could you give me some feedback? Do they look well? how long until i can distinguish the males from the females? the lamp we have currently is a 250 watt hml mixed mercury by phillips. Is it enough? What other things will we need in the short term? thanks a lot!
happy smoke!
 

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Woomeister

Woomeister

Well-Known Member
damargentina said:
hi everyone! this is my first and i ve improvised with my clever partner coming up with this. could you give me some feedback? Do they look well? how long until i can distinguish the males from the females? the lamp we have currently is a 250 watt hml mixed mercury by phillips. Is it enough? What other things will we need in the short term? thanks a lot!
happy smoke!
Click to expand...
For three weeks im afraid to say they are very 'unleafy' and small. They look well enough, you wont know sex until you force them into flower by going 12/12. then you should see preflower signs at anywhere between 10-21 days normally, males come first! As for what else you need,lol, patience, experience etc etc. g luck:joint:
 
ceestyle

ceestyle

Well-Known Member
ditch the tin foil and the mercury vapor lamp. get some mylar and a suitable grow light - you can start with $20 and some CFLs.
 
spiked1

spiked1

Well-Known Member
Not looking too good for 3 weeks and your whole setup is wrong.
Tinfoil is only 55% reflective and causes hotspots, get some mylar or panda film.
Your light is not a good choice and is too far away.
Read through the GrowFAQ at the top of the page, it will answer nearly all of your questions.
Good Luck.
 
damargentina

damargentina

Well-Known Member
ceestyle said:
ditch the tin foil and the mercury vapor lamp. get some mylar and a suitable grow light - you can start with $20 and some CFLs.
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thanks for your honest feedback. In Argentina we dont really know what is Mylar. is like metalized wrapping paper?
Also, we initially had the plants with two CFLs 130 wts each )that is the most you can get in Argie...te spiral kind. Since we upgraded to the mercury vapor lamp they have improved noticeably. What lamp would you recommend given the following conditions:
there is not enough room for all the equipment a 400 W sodium requires.
it needs to be able to be plugged in the existing outlet for the lamp... make sense?
Currently it is in a 50x50x100 cm (aout two feet by three and a half feet)
 
damargentina

damargentina

Well-Known Member
Woomeister said:
For three weeks im afraid to say they are very 'unleafy' and small. They look well enough, you wont know sex until you force them into flower by going 12/12. then you should see preflower signs at anywhere between 10-21 days normally, males come first! As for what else you need,lol, patience, experience etc etc. g luck:joint:
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lol thanks. Here in Argentina, it is about 50º F and the mercury vapor lamp it seems to be getting the necessary heat. That is why we switched from two CFLs. I dont know which one would be easier to install that will give them heat, cuz they need it right?
 
Ravioli

Ravioli

Well-Known Member
damargentina said:
lol thanks. Here in Argentina, it is about 50º F and the mercury vapor lamp it seems to be getting the necessary heat. That is why we switched from two CFLs. I dont know which one would be easier to install that will give them heat, cuz they need it right?
Click to expand...
A space heater works nicely for my closet where the temps stay at about 40*F-50*F all year round without it. I turn it on it's lowest themostat setting and it keeps it at about 72*F.
 
damargentina

damargentina

Well-Known Member
spiked1 said:
Not looking too good for 3 weeks and your whole setup is wrong.
Tinfoil is only 55% reflective and causes hotspots, get some mylar or panda film.
Your light is not a good choice and is too far away.
Read through the GrowFAQ at the top of the page, it will answer nearly all of your questions.
Good Luck.
Click to expand...
thx i did find some interesting stuff. mylar seems soooo expensive here. and it is impossible to buy...ah things are very different here. what other substitute is there?
happy smoke!
 
damargentina

damargentina

Well-Known Member
17 days old! I added the CFL and the mylar. The temperature inside the grow box has improved considerably. There are no more hotspots! THANKS FOR THE ADVICE! ;-)
Will the CFLS work for flowering? How many lamps do I need given that amount of plants?
How are they coming along for Winter in Argentina?:peace:
 

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jahman2222

jahman2222

New Member
Cfls will work for flowering if you have a red spectrum in them (i think, anyone correct me if im wrong)..they look good..but in this post you said 17 days old but in the last post you said they were three weeks old? but if that is 17 days it looks very good:mrgreen:
 
damargentina

damargentina

Well-Known Member
jahman2222 said:
Cfls will work for flowering if you have a red spectrum in them (i think, anyone correct me if im wrong)..they look good..but in this post you said 17 days old but in the last post you said they were three weeks old? but if that is 17 days it looks very good:mrgreen:
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thx :$ they have been transplanted 17 days ago, we started germination about three weeks ago. :-)
Does anyone have any comments regarding that red spectrum??
thanks a lot! i appreciate it!
 
ceestyle

ceestyle

Well-Known Member
Okay, I count 13 plants. After you sex them, you will have probably 6 females or so, give or take a few.

With that space, 6 plants is a lot. Judging by the vertical room I see there, you will not want to wait too long to flower, as you should expect that they grow 2-3x their height after you switch to 12/12. The number of plants may actually work well, because you need to keep them short, meaning you won't get too much lateral growth, so it't good you have many plants to create a short canopy.

As for light, I would try to get at least 200 actual (not equivalent) watts over them if you can. You can get a couple splitters for that fixture you have in there, and you'll have to do some more work to properly position them in there. The spectrum for flowering should be lower, say 2-3000K, whereas for veg you want something higher, in the 5000K range. If you want, just buy a mix of them and throw them in there; it'll work out. The important thing is quantity of light. With CFLs, the more the better with little exception.

You are also going to need some ventilation to get them fresh air and control daytime temperatures.
 
damargentina

damargentina

Well-Known Member
ceestyle said:
Okay, I count 13 plants. After you sex them, you will have probably 6 females or so, give or take a few.

With that space, 6 plants is a lot. Judging by the vertical room I see there, you will not want to wait too long to flower, as you should expect that they grow 2-3x their height after you switch to 12/12. The number of plants may actually work well, because you need to keep them short, meaning you won't get too much lateral growth, so it't good you have many plants to create a short canopy.

As for light, I would try to get at least 200 actual (not equivalent) watts over them if you can. You can get a couple splitters for that fixture you have in there, and you'll have to do some more work to properly position them in there. The spectrum for flowering should be lower, say 2-3000K, whereas for veg you want something higher, in the 5 000K range. If you want, just buy a mix of them and throw them in there; it'll work out. The important thing is quantity of light. With CFLs, the more the better with little exception.

You are also going to need some ventilation to get them fresh air and control daytime temperatures.
Click to expand...
Wow! thanks for the taking the time to share your wisdom!!!
regarding the room, we are trying to find out all we well need so we can proceed. we have in mind a grow box measurin 1 mt by 1mt by 2 mt tall (about 6 feet). We have two 300 watt and two 150 watt CFls. Do you think the height is Ok for the lights? what should be the distance for these lamps to the plants?
Please review the photos i just posted since they show the new light and the distance from the actual plants.
 

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ceestyle

ceestyle

Well-Known Member
damargentina said:
Wow! thanks for the taking the time to share your wisdom!!!
regarding the room, we are trying to find out all we well need so we can proceed. we have in mind a grow box measurin 1 mt by 1mt by 2 mt tall (about 6 feet). We have two 300 watt and two 150 watt CFls. Do you think the height is Ok for the lights? what should be the distance for these lamps to the plants?
Please review the photos i just posted since they show the new light and the distance from the actual plants.
Click to expand...
You want the bulbs very close to the plants, but also you want to get the best coverage, so optimize those two. The rule of thumb for proximity to the plants is that if you put your finger where the leaf is and it is hot, then that's probably too hot for the leaf. You can experiment by putting them gradually closer; they'll tell you when it's too much!

I'm pretty sure that the two smaller CFLs are not 150 actual watts. They are probably equivalent watts. Find the model number or look on the side of the base of the bulb and it should indicate what the actual watts are. I don't think they actually make a 300W CFL, but I could be wrong.

If you are going to have a 1x1x2m area, you have about the right amount of plants. You are now big enough, however, that you should seriously consider getting an HID, either a 400 or 600W HPS. Even if you don't use it for veg, it will pay huges dividends in bud when it's time for flowering. You would need a shit-ton of CFLs to flower 1x1 properly, and you would have problems covering tall plants. You can put the ballast outside the grow area.... if you can afford it, you should do it.
 
havocdb

havocdb

Well-Known Member
tear out that tinfoil, and paint the walls flat white. Here in the states, potato chips bags like dorritos and lays have a very reflective inner lining. far more reflective than tinfoil.

HTH
 
B

Bongulator

Well-Known Member
Flat white paint is the best alternative to mylar. In fact, I like it better than mylar, because it's easier to work with.
 
davii

davii

Well-Known Member
hi i reckon if you want more light and are worried about heat issues you should go with envirolites



in europe they are known as envirolites in the states they are called ecolites you need the blue spectrum for vegging and red flowering i would go with the 200w bulb or maybe even 2 200w bulbs you can get em on the web or in a good hydroponics shop

Hope that helps:joint::joint::joint:
 
ceestyle

ceestyle

Well-Known Member
davii said:
hi i reckon if you want more light and are worried about heat issues you should go with envirolites



in europe they are known as envirolites in the states they are called ecolites you need the blue spectrum for vegging and red flowering i would go with the 200w bulb or maybe even 2 200w bulbs you can get em on the web or in a good hydroponics shop

Hope that helps:joint::joint::joint:
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Those things are ungodly expensive for the lumen output, and they will sure as shit put out plenty of heat. Also, do the math 400W CFL = 26000 lumen. 400W HPS = 55000 lumens. Price is probably about the same, or maybe even cheaper for the HPS ...
 
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