nice buds but not frosty

pushu

Active Member
just finished my first grow under T5. Used the aquarium lamps recommended in various post here on the forumn.
very pleased with the product but my buds were no where near as frosty as many that have posted here.

Don't get me wrong... they were a bit frosty but not quite like I had hoped for. seeds were from attitude and I grew three different varieties. I used two 4' four lamp fixtures.

Would you think this is from my choice of lamps? many have posted very frosty buds from T5 grows.
 

birdmananyweather

Well-Known Member
UV bulbs enhance the trichrome production during flowering stage. i would say genetics because i get major frost action with cfl's
 

pushu

Active Member
Could be not enough bulbs. Not close enough, strain.. Hard to tell without a bit more info
tell me what info you need I mentioned I used two 4' four lamp fixtures (side lit with 6 cf lamps), mentioned the strain and I constantly adjusted the lights to keep them just inches off the canopy.
I also grew as a sog keeping the tops very even
 

PetFlora

Well-Known Member
you didn't mention how many bulbs per overhead, which bulbs, and whether you swapped them out during flower, or how old your bulbs are
 

pushu

Active Member
you didn't mention how many bulbs per overhead, which bulbs, and whether you swapped them out during flower, or how old your bulbs are
not sure what you mean by bulbs overhead - but both 4' 4 lamp fixtures were overhead and the cfs were used as sidelighting
the bulbs were new for this grow = I have a separate veg chamber. they were in there for six weeks and then moved to the flower chamber
I use the 6500K lamps for veg and for flower it is a combination of red suns, coral wave and wave point
always kept the tops real close to the lamps
 

JohnBaked

Active Member
What kind of temps are you getting? Haven't had a lot of experience With the aquarium bulbs but the cfls can get pretty hot still. On some of my other grows I'd had higher temps and a bit less light and it had very little crystals but once I got more lights around em and more airflow I've had rediculous increases in frost and smell. I could still probably bring it a few degrees lower though lol. Do you know how many watts total you have for flowering?
 

pushu

Active Member
What kind of temps are you getting? Haven't had a lot of experience With the aquarium bulbs but the cfls can get pretty hot still. On some of my other grows I'd had higher temps and a bit less light and it had very little crystals but once I got more lights around em and more airflow I've had rediculous increases in frost and smell. I could still probably bring it a few degrees lower though lol. Do you know how many watts total you have for flowering?
I have good airflow ... the box is about 32 cubic feet and I have a 180 cfm fan exhausing to the outdoors running 24 hours
I kept track of the temps and for the most part temps were in the mid 80's when the lights were on
If a 4' T5 lamp is 54watts then I had 432 watts of flourescent and Probably about 200 watts of cfl
 

JohnBaked

Active Member
Yeah thats more than enough light for 5-6 decent plants, and temps shouldn't be an issue since it isn't too high. It's probably the strain then I can't really think of much else that could be limiting your grow.
 

pushu

Active Member
what color were the trics when you havestest? maybe your harvest was a bit early?
I did check the trics every day and when I thought I could see some amber, I waited a bit longer. When I harvested, I left a couple plants to grow longer (waited another two weeks) just to see if there would be some more changes (and there wasn't)

Perhaps it was just the strain? One questions I asked earlier in the thread that went unanswered was "does a frostier bud equate to a more potent bud?"
 

PetFlora

Well-Known Member
not sure what you mean by bulbs overhead - but both 4' 4 lamp fixtures were overhead and the cfs were used as sidelighting
the bulbs were new for this grow = I have a separate veg chamber. they were in there for six weeks and then moved to the flower chamber
I use the 6500K lamps for veg and for flower it is a combination of red suns, coral wave and wave point
always kept the tops real close to the lamps

That's a good combination (I only use 1/8 CW). Keep in mind, Indica wants more red than blue and vise-versa. Hybrids preference will depend on the dom trait.

How many hours are they on? Not a fan of 12/12 as the plant does not get a clear cut signal; I use 10/14 (11/13 is good too).

Temps & RH play a roll, as will pH, nute quality, overfeeding/underfeeding. I find most growers err on the side of way too much PK and ppms during tric production
 

pushu

Active Member

That's a good combination (I only use 1/8 CW). Keep in mind, Indica wants more red than blue and vise-versa. Hybrids preference will depend on the dom trait.

How many hours are they on? Not a fan of 12/12 as the plant does not get a clear cut signal; I use 10/14 (11/13 is good too).

Temps & RH play a roll, as will pH, nute quality, overfeeding/underfeeding. I find most growers err on the side of way too much PK and ppms during tric production
I did run the lights 12/12
I did not mention that I grew organically. Used a soil recepie I got here somewhere and fertilized with guano and earthworm castings teas - don't feel like I overfertilized them.
 

Mister Black

Active Member
I had the same thing under CFL's. Weed was ok but no frostiness. I put it down to consistant high temps during my grow.
 

pushu

Active Member
I had the same thing under CFL's. Weed was ok but no frostiness. I put it down to consistant high temps during my grow.
Maybe I should turn off the cfls... I'm just using those as sidelighting and to be honest, I'm not sure they really added anything
that should keep my heat down
 

hydrosoil78

Active Member
cfl is sort of a low intensity discharge, but they ripen fast in direct sun or under HPS lamps. it just takes longer I guess I never used em for flowering
 
Top