400/1000 Watt HPS setup question

Hi I have one of each, a 1000W HPS setup, and a 400W HPS setup. I was thinking its best to use the 400W for the 24 hr cycle, and move them up to 1000W for flowering. Any thoughts on this?

Also, if I clone should the clones remain in the 400W box for a bit and then go into the flowering box?

Very close to finishing my first setup just need to figure out those thing so any help is appreciated. Thanks

if u can afford it MH be much better for veg and clones be best under florest from wat i'm to understand

How do you think the clones will do under 400W for a little while then 1000W for flowering though?

OhYesTheDopeMan said:

Hi I have one of each, a 1000W HPS setup, and a 400W HPS setup. I was thinking its best to use the 400W for the 24 hr cycle, and move them up to 1000W for flowering. Any thoughts on this?

Also, if I clone should the clones remain in the 400W box for a bit and then go into the flowering box?

Very close to finishing my first setup just need to figure out those thing so any help is appreciated. Thanks

Click to expand...

I wouldn't veg under HPS it can cause too much stretching. You'd be far better off either getting a 400w MH conversion bulb (a MH bulb that works in a HPS ballast) or using a MH bulb in the 400w HPS if your ballast is switchable (not all of them are).

Clones are best rooted under a fairly low intensity light source - fluorescents/cfl's are ideal, I wouldn't be putting them under a 400w HPS. Clones are a lot like small seedlings - they're very delicate and whilst they're growing their own root system they neither need nor require high light intensity - basically because they're not photosynthesising, or at least it's drastically slowed down because the little clone doesn't have a root system yet so it cannot use it's root system to uptake sufficient water and nutrients to sustain photosynthetic growth - most of it's energy is going into creating a root system.

Mr. Dopeman..

You idea sounds very sound to me.. this is a common setup for many growers!

You can flower a healthy clone as soon as you see roots.. or you can wait several weeks...

How tall you grow (veg) your plants really depends on.... a few factors

1. local laws on the number of plants..
2. how large your grow room is...
3. wattage of lights in flower room..

To get the best yield it is not necessary to grow your plants larger than 6-10 nodes.. this is VERY SHORT and requires lot and lots of plants which may not be legal or worth the risk.. but it does provide the most bud in the shortest turn around time.. It also makes having an MH light for vegging totally unecessary..

cheers

I just checked and my 400W are in fact MH So again can I veg under the 400W MH and will clones be ok under the 400W MH? And then once theyre ready for flowering can I put them under the 1000W HPS? Thanks

Garden Knowm said:

Mr. Dopeman..

You idea sounds very sound to me.. this is a common setup for many growers!

You can flower a healthy clone as soon as you see roots.. or you can wait several weeks...

How tall you grow (veg) your plants really depends on.... a few factors

1. local laws on the number of plants..
2. how large your grow room is...
3. wattage of lights in flower room..

To get the best yield it is not necessary to grow your plants larger than 6-10 nodes.. this is VERY SHORT and requires lot and lots of plants which may not be legal or worth the risk.. but it does provide the most bud in the shortest turn around time.. It also makes having an MH light for vegging totally unecessary..

cheers

Click to expand...

Hey thanks... Ok I was just making sure I'm just waiting for seeds to germinate...been something 15 hours. I'm looking to grow several smaller plants so that I have a continuous cycle. Now that I know my idea is sound I will go ahead with it and even take some pics. Thanks!

OhYesTheDopeMan said:

I just checked and my 400W are in fact MH So again can I veg under the 400W MH and will clones be ok under the 400W MH? And then once theyre ready for flowering can I put them under the 1000W HPS? Thanks

Click to expand...

You can veg under 400w MH, no problem.

Regarding clones - it depends on how far the light is away from them, as I said, clones don't want high light levels whilst they're trying to form roots. You'd be far better off having a separate cloning area lit by low power cfl's or fluoro's than putting them in with the vegging plants. I'm not saying you can't do it - I'm saying it would be a better setup.

Clones can take anything between 2-3 weeks to form a good root system and then depending on how big they were when you took them, they may require some vegging time as well.

Just to give you an example. My clones took about 3 weeks to fully develop a root system, I then repotted them into 4 inch pots and vegged them for about 2.5 weeks before repotting into 8 inch pots and switching to 12/12. They're still only 12 inches tall

babygro said:

You can veg under 400w MH, no problem.

Regarding clones - it depends on how far the light is away from them, as I said, clones don't want high light levels whilst they're trying to form roots. You'd be far better off having a separate cloning area lit by low power cfl's or fluoro's than putting them in with the vegging plants. I'm not saying you can't do it - I'm saying it would be a better setup.

Clones can take anything between 2-3 weeks to form a good root system and then depending on how big they were when you took them, they may require some vegging time as well.

Just to give you an example. My clones took about 3 weeks to fully develop a root system, I then repotted them into 4 inch pots and vegged them for about 2.5 weeks before repotting into 8 inch pots and switching to 12/12. They're still only 12 inches tall

Click to expand...

Hmm ya.. Id love to have a separate area for cloning, but I don't think space will allow me to. Hopefully putting them into vegging right away won't be too awful. Anyhow, Im a far way from having any clones so by then maybe I'll come up with a system to have a separate clone box. Also, how do you know its developed a sturdy enough root system to be flowered?

By the way, all your help is greatly appreciated

24 hrs later I notice no difference in 3 different batches, I can't understand how some of you germinate your seeds in 24 hrs.

OhYesTheDopeMan said:

Also, how do you know its developed a sturdy enough root system to be flowered?

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Clones (and all plants) need a root system to survive and enable the plant to uptake water and nutrients via it's root system. Depending on the medium for rooting the clone - if you're rooting them in 1" rockwool cubes, the clone should be ready for transplanting into a small 4" pot after about 2-3 weeks or until good strong white roots start appearing through the rockwool cube. It's then best to transplant into a small 4" pot and veg for another week or so before switching to flowering - this enables the plant to overcome its transplant stress and grow accustomed to it's new root environment.

Ideally you should pot up the clone into progressively larger pots 4">8">12" before switching to flowering to enable the root system to fully develop as root growth slows somewhat once flowering is started, but you can still pot up to the larger pots whilst in the early stages of flowering - but it's best not to so you avoid stressing the plant.

OhYesTheDopeMan said:

24 hrs later I notice no difference in 3 different batches, I can't understand how some of you germinate your seeds in 24 hrs.

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Viable seeds can take anything between 24 hours and 2 weeks to germinate.