The Vault’s Skywalker Auto Comparative Grow - in association with Mephisto Genetics

Bbcchance said:

I'd raise the lamp higher, if it doesn't cool it down I'd try a fan blowing low in front of an open passive intake, maybe lower the ballast to 75℅ if needed

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I thought about raising the light, but based on what I have read on some of these threads, a 400 watt HPS in a cool-tube can be placed 8"-12" from the canopy. With that in mind, my impression was that if I can manage to get the cool-tube as close to the plant as possible without burning it then I would have maxxed out the performance of the bulb and get the best results from my cool-tube. Yeah, you're right, my fan needs to be in front of a passive air vent. I'll take care of that when the lights turn back on. Is is possible that my air filter is clogging up and needs to be changed? Idk, just guessing at this point. Anyway, thanks for some really good ideas and great advice. Let me see what I can do and I'll report back...good or bad news.

UniDragon said:

It looks like it's painted stone or plaster. You could be right, maybe the dragon is somehow collecting more heat with the HPS then the MH; let me smoke on that later today...LOL! As far as suspending the thermometer from the light, I'll see what I can do. I've seen pics where people have done that exact same thing, but I thought that it looked like a hassle to do something like that. I also thought that regardless of whether the thermometer was suspended from the light or sitting on the floor that the temp reading would be close enough either way; assuming that I don't put the thermometer in a darker part of the tent, which there really isn't any "darkness" inside the tent just small shadows here and there. Anyway, thanks for chiming in and giving me some really good advice. Let me see what I can come up with.

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You'd be surprised how much def the temps can be from bottom to top of tent and as far as raising your light that depends on how much air is moving thru your cool tube I have a 600w air cooled hood and I can keep it within 8 inches from the canopy without any problem but that's only if my exhaust fan is running at atleast 30% but my fan is also way bigger than what I need for my 4x4 tent ( 8 inch hyper fan)

I like to keep a thermometer on top of my hood and another at the bottom of my tent, find the average between the 2 and I get a pretty good idea of how hot it is in there. In the summer months my tent runs near 90F. Nothing I can do about it really. I have AC and good ventilation but the tent still gets hot. I have not had any ill effects from the heat as long as I choose my plants properly. I choose plants that I have tested in high temps and still perform well. Not all strains will work well in the high heat. I have had some Malawi Thai totally herm out in the heat while my Norther Lights cross performs great. It can be done if you have no way to drop the heat.

evergreengardener said:

You'd be surprised how much def the temps can be from bottom to top of tent and as far as raising your light that depends on how much air is moving thru your cool tube I have a 600w air cooled hood and I can keep it within 8 inches from the canopy without any problem but that's only if my exhaust fan is running at atleast 30% but my fan is also way bigger than what I need for my 4x4 tent ( 8 inch hyper fan)

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I am using a Vortex 449 cfm fan with a Phresh air scrubber rated at 550 cfm. My fan controller is set at 75%ish, so there should be tons of air movement; not to mention a smallish 6" desk fan for ventilation. So, probably not air circulation.

turn the fan up to 90%, your filter is rated higher than your fan, you can run the fan wide open and your filter should still work.

Roger A. Shrubber said:

turn the fan up to 90%, your filter is rated higher than your fan, you can run the fan wide open and your filter should still work.

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Thanks Roger. I thought of that, but the fan is so strong that I am afraid that it may damage the zipper(s) on the tent. My tent now has some places where you can see where the zipper is starting to come apart and there are little pin holes. This is because I turned the fan up too high and the air current was so strong that the tent seemed like it was going to collapse on itself. Temps seem to be holding around mid '80s and the plants don't seem to mind so I guess until they show signs of stress I've decided to not worry about it. I have noticed though, the temps seem to drop after I water/feed. So, I guess the solution here is don't let them dry out. Also, the temps seem to return back to "normal", (around 72ish) after the lights turn off for awhile. So, with this in mind, my hope is that the contrast between the hot and cold will make the plant(s) develop more contrast in color. I have read in the past that the blue/purple strains that came from Austin in the 80's and 90's were blue/purple because it got really hot during the day and pretty cool at night which made the buds turn blue/purple within those specific strains that grew in the area at that time. So, maybe this drastic change in temps will help the grow.

My thanks to everyone who chimed in with great advice! Y'all have a great and wonderful day!

Hey uni I hang mine from a string line at the same height as my tops and that lets me know what the exact temp is at the leaves. I am about day 52 and they seem like another 2 weeks how many days are you guys averaging? The one looks like white widow it's all frosted the other 2 are 3 ft tall and seem to keep growing. Lots of little popcorn nugs, I want to find a very high yielding strain to run outdoors in the spring to get a good crop before the men in blue get out flying around, they get bad around here in the fall. I hope the guys at the vault have something in the works for us, it's been some great comparison grows with some pretty cool people, I like everyone's different techniques, I have about 2 weeks of work left then I can focus on some good grows.. lookin good guys and gals

I have been using collodial silver to spray for fem pollen but she is very hardy and she started to curl leaves a bit so i know she stressin fingers crossed for pollen this skywalker is something i wanna keep

Mr black thumb said:

Hey uni I hang mine from a string line at the same height as my tops and that lets me know what the exact temp is at the leaves. I am about day 52 and they seem like another 2 weeks how many days are you guys averaging? The one looks like white widow it's all frosted the other 2 are 3 ft tall and seem to keep growing. Lots of little popcorn nugs, I want to find a very high yielding strain to run outdoors in the spring to get a good crop before the men in blue get out flying around, they get bad around here in the fall. I hope the guys at the vault have something in the works for us, it's been some great comparison grows with some pretty cool people, I like everyone's different techniques, I have about 2 weeks of work left then I can focus on some good grows.. lookin good guys and gals

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Hey Mr. Black Thumb,
The distance between the light and the floor is currently 27" and the distance between the light and my tallest plant is about 5", so I felt that hanging a thermometer from my light was a mute point. I just checked my temp and I am showing 81 degrees with no ill effects; everything looks green, lush and healthy. (Other than the missing branches on the one side of my Skywalker.) I'm pretty confident at this point that if I just water/feed more often then I should be ok, but monitoring my plants to a point of micromanaging them. In fact, my C99x is showing pre-flowers and it has another week and a half to two weeks to go in veg using nothing but Dutch Pro A+B Grow. So at least that plant is in near perfect condition. Thanks a lot for chiming in and offering your advice! I really and sincerely appreciate it!

Shes doing everything to stay female

Went ahead and pulled this organic one, going to let the other one get super ripe to compare the smoke.

I'VE been a refugee for 2 days so far, evacuated because of the fire, so mine are getting 3 or 4 days of darkness, no choice in the matter, the power is off. Just lucky they didn't get smoked along with everything else I own. Not sure when the power will be back on, not even sure if I can get back in today. My friend RobertHolmes lost everything, just a smoking concrete slab left. It's very strange, everything is normal then you go around a curve and it's a smoking wasteland, then back to normal. There are undamaged homes within feet of piles of smoking rubble. They haven't let anyone back in yet, just luckily we both know people close to firefighters and rescue people, who have confirmed whether or not our homes are still there. No one we know was killed or seriously injured, which is a fucking unbelievable miracle. But a lot of people here are in shelters, and don't have a house to go back to.i just hope they get the help they need. And I hope my plants are ok, I think I'm going to need them

Roger A. Shrubber said:

I'VE been a refugee for 2 days so far, evacuated because of the fire, so mine are getting 3 or 4 days of darkness, no choice in the matter, the power is off. Just lucky they didn't get smoked along with everything else I own. Not sure when the power will be back on, not even sure if I can get back in today. My friend RobertHolmes lost everything, just a smoking concrete slab left. It's very strange, everything is normal then you go around a curve and it's a smoking wasteland, then back to normal. There are undamaged homes within feet of piles of smoking rubble. They haven't let anyone back in yet, just luckily we both know people close to firefighters and rescue people, who have confirmed whether or not our homes are still there. No one we know was killed or seriously injured, which is a fucking unbelievable miracle. But a lot of people here are in shelters, and don't have a house to go back to.i just hope they get the help they need. And I hope my plants are ok, I think I'm going to need them

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Thinking of you and yours Roger. Sorry that I am nowhere close to you to help out somehow.

Roger A. Shrubber said:

I'VE been a refugee for 2 days so far, evacuated because of the fire, so mine are getting 3 or 4 days of darkness, no choice in the matter, the power is off. Just lucky they didn't get smoked along with everything else I own. Not sure when the power will be back on, not even sure if I can get back in today. My friend RobertHolmes lost everything, just a smoking concrete slab left. It's very strange, everything is normal then you go around a curve and it's a smoking wasteland, then back to normal. There are undamaged homes within feet of piles of smoking rubble. They haven't let anyone back in yet, just luckily we both know people close to firefighters and rescue people, who have confirmed whether or not our homes are still there. No one we know was killed or seriously injured, which is a fucking unbelievable miracle. But a lot of people here are in shelters, and don't have a house to go back to.i just hope they get the help they need. And I hope my plants are ok, I think I'm going to need them

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Best Wishes buddy. I hope you and yours get through this.

Roger A. Shrubber said:

I'VE been a refugee for 2 days so far, evacuated because of the fire, so mine are getting 3 or 4 days of darkness, no choice in the matter, the power is off. Just lucky they didn't get smoked along with everything else I own. Not sure when the power will be back on, not even sure if I can get back in today. My friend RobertHolmes lost everything, just a smoking concrete slab left. It's very strange, everything is normal then you go around a curve and it's a smoking wasteland, then back to normal. There are undamaged homes within feet of piles of smoking rubble. They haven't let anyone back in yet, just luckily we both know people close to firefighters and rescue people, who have confirmed whether or not our homes are still there. No one we know was killed or seriously injured, which is a fucking unbelievable miracle. But a lot of people here are in shelters, and don't have a house to go back to.i just hope they get the help they need. And I hope my plants are ok, I think I'm going to need them

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So sorry to hear this Roger. I hope everyone stays safe and you and everyone recover ok from this. I hope you all stay blessed and safe.

Roger A. Shrubber said:

I'VE been a refugee for 2 days so far, evacuated because of the fire, so mine are getting 3 or 4 days of darkness, no choice in the matter, the power is off. Just lucky they didn't get smoked along with everything else I own. Not sure when the power will be back on, not even sure if I can get back in today. My friend RobertHolmes lost everything, just a smoking concrete slab left. It's very strange, everything is normal then you go around a curve and it's a smoking wasteland, then back to normal. There are undamaged homes within feet of piles of smoking rubble. They haven't let anyone back in yet, just luckily we both know people close to firefighters and rescue people, who have confirmed whether or not our homes are still there. No one we know was killed or seriously injured, which is a fucking unbelievable miracle. But a lot of people here are in shelters, and don't have a house to go back to.i just hope they get the help they need. And I hope my plants are ok, I think I'm going to need them

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So sorry about everything your going thru brother, try to keep your head up.

Rob had to leave their pet pig when they got out. The wind blew down trees across his driveway and they had to walk to the closest neighbor to get a ride out. One of his neighbors snuck back in, and saw Charles(the pig). We had heard that the humane society and a lot of volunteers were stabling animals at the local fairgrounds, so we snuck in to try to save him. We got him and got him to a nice stall with hay and food (which was donated by the farm supply store, thank you). This is the remains of Rob's house

UniDragon said:

Thanks Roger. I thought of that, but the fan is so strong that I am afraid that it may damage the zipper(s) on the tent. My tent now has some places where you can see where the zipper is starting to come apart and there are little pin holes. This is because I turned the fan up too high and the air current was so strong that the tent seemed like it was going to collapse on itself. Temps seem to be holding around mid '80s and the plants don't seem to mind so I guess until they show signs of stress I've decided to not worry about it. I have noticed though, the temps seem to drop after I water/feed. So, I guess the solution here is don't let them dry out. Also, the temps seem to return back to "normal", (around 72ish) after the lights turn off for awhile. So, with this in mind, my hope is that the contrast between the hot and cold will make the plant(s) develop more contrast in color. I have read in the past that the blue/purple strains that came from Austin in the 80's and 90's were blue/purple because it got really hot during the day and pretty cool at night which made the buds turn blue/purple within those specific strains that grew in the area at that time. So, maybe this drastic change in temps will help the grow.

My thanks to everyone who chimed in with great advice! Y'all have a great and wonderful day!

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Temp fluctuations are not good for cannabis., More than 11 degrees temp drop or more between lights on and off is not good

Roger A. Shrubber said:

Rob had to leave their pet pig when they got out. The wind blew down trees across his driveway and they had to walk to the closest neighbor to get a ride out. One of his neighbors snuck back in, and saw Charles(the pig). We had heard that the humane society and a lot of volunteers were stabling animals at the local fairgrounds, so we snuck in to try to save him. We got him View attachment 3842880 and got him to a nice stall with hay and food (which was donated by the farm supply store, thank you). This is the remains of Rob's houseView attachment 3842881View attachment 3842884 View attachment 3842885 View attachment 3842882 View attachment 3842883

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Glad to hear the pig got rescued and is safe. Man that fire was so devastating from your pictures. Really sad how life can change in a moments notice.

Tupapa said:

Temp fluctuations are not good for cannabis., More than 11 degrees temp drop or more between lights on and off is not good

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Oh, somehow I was under the impression that wild temp fluctuations somehow brought out the contrast in colors. I'll have to re-read that I guess.

Thanks to the cold front that blew in, my temps are now 73-81. I ended up raising the light 14" above the canopy of the Skywalker, which is about 16" above the canopy of the C99x. 5" above the canopy seemed to burn the top of the plants a little bit, even using a cool-tube. So, the thread that I read that said 8" above the canopy is garbage. If memory serves, I think I read that 18" above the canopy is ideal for flowering, so I've opted to follow their advice instead. So, I raised the light yesterday before the light went off and as of this morning everything is back to normal. They'll stretch, but I guess that's that point, lol. My fear was growing another gargantuan plant that would almost outgrow my tent. So, I kept the light as close to the plant(s) as possible, but now have learned the hard way that my light was just too close. Hopefully I'll learn from this and not do it again in the future. Anyway, I'll see if I can get some pics up soon for y'alls review.

For what it's worth, I hope that everyone has a great day and going your way!

Roger A. Shrubber said:

Rob had to leave their pet pig when they got out. The wind blew down trees across his driveway and they had to walk to the closest neighbor to get a ride out. One of his neighbors snuck back in, and saw Charles(the pig). We had heard that the humane society and a lot of volunteers were stabling animals at the local fairgrounds, so we snuck in to try to save him. We got him View attachment 3842880 and got him to a nice stall with hay and food (which was donated by the farm supply store, thank you). This is the remains of Rob's houseView attachment 3842881View attachment 3842884 View attachment 3842885 View attachment 3842882 View attachment 3842883

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I "liked" your photos not to say that I like what happened but to show my support; so please don't misunderstand me.

Thanks for going back for Charles! No, he's not mine, but I am an avid animal lover and it really means a lot to me that you went back for Charles and saved him!

As for everything else, in times like this, I like to remember a simple rule of physics: "Where there is an action there is a equal and opposite reaction". Somehow, someway, my hope is that things will turn out better than they were before. We're still thinking of you down here in Texas.