First HID grow, third grow ever.

I'm mostly starting this for myself to be able to look back at previous grows mistakes and accomplishments, feeding methods and amounts, and any other details. I would also really appreciate some fellow growers input.

As the title states this is my first mh hps grow. My first two grows were with cfls. Dumb autoflower first time and last round was some dank dank platinum Girl Scout cookie bag seed I got. Definitely from a hermie plant cuz two of three grew some nanners on the very bottom buds giving me some popcorn with lots of seeds and some dense tops with one or two seeds per ounce. Lots of stress on those babies though and I kept the one plant that didn't hermie and revegged it for clones I'll be using next grow.

Anyways this round again I'm using the platinum gsc bag seed grown in three gallons of ffof with 25 percent perlite, using fox farms nutes as well (very sparingly this time. Had some very unhappy burnt plants last time. ).
Growing in a 2x2x5 foot cardboard cabinet. My cab is freakibg awesome I think, as all of my construction has been very sturdy and all built without powertools. I will try to get some good pictures of the whole setup cuz it's fuckin rad if I do say so. 400 w hid wing reflector. Ventilation is pretty funky but it's an 8 inch standard metal cage desk fan thing, the really powerful ones that you see at any store ever these days, for the intake fan pushing air in and a four inch exhaust with carbon scrubber in one top corner and four pc fans hooked together on the other corner. You'd think with more than half the air comin out of the pc fans with no scrubber that smell would be unmanageable but there have been zero problems with smell thus far. In any grow. Great airflow and no heat issues at all. The light is about 8 inches above my flat as fuck canopy and no heat probs. I'm keeping steady temps of about 74.


So this strain is incredibly slow in veg. But I went two weeks two long at least because it sketches like a mother!!! I'm two weeks into 12 12 now and plants flipped at 11 inches Are now two 32 inch lst slash super crop slash almost a little bit of mainlining MONSTERS going and the othe girl was 8 inches when flipped is now 24 inches. DEFINITELY have some sativa phenos here. These were super dense bushes to begin with super tight nodes as they were vegged under 6500 k t5 followed by two weeks under 7200k metal halide and I tell you they were stacked so tight. Even kept the 7200k on for the first two weeks of 12 12 to hopefully keep stretch down but man they stretched. As my vertical space is limited especially by my choice of extra tall pots I've had to super crop ever branch. And I already had 20 plus tops on each plant. Now after recovering from the super crop there are hundreds of fucking tops and I don't know if that's too much. I'm gonna be defoliating in two weeks so that should help get light deep and on all the branches.

Haha after one week they had already more than doubled in height and girth and so I had to do some work to add another foot using all cardboard , tape and zip ties to get the light to stop burning em!! Then they kept growing too much causing me to super crop for the first time and I'm very happy with the results.


Feeding and watering has gone like this. Only when soil is almost dry so time between each varies. Water, water, feed is how I'm doing it with 10 cc of Big Blooming every watering. Used only 2.5 to 5 cc per gal of grow big in veg and first week of 12 12 now tiger bloom at only 2.5 cc per gallon and even that I fear will be too much. This strain doesn't like nutes at all so I really wanna look into organics next round. But I'm definitely gonna try and spot deficiencies rather than trying to get plants in deep flower to recover from overdose.

They are extremely healthy this time and I think they're gonna stay that way. Healthiest plants I've ever seen to be honest ha out of the 10 or so plants ive seen before.

. I'm only 24 but I have been gardening with my dad my whole life and I just have a very scientific and creative mind so this is coming very naturally to me. Doubled with the part about me spending an average of 4 hours a day reading these forums for the past 6 months, I believe I will be a very good grower someday. I just really really love growing and the reward of growing your own. I can't picture my life ever not growing again. Pics to come very soon. Enjoy and let me know what you all think. And help me remember any details I may be forgetting that need documentation.
 
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if anyone happens to take a look at this, i would really like to know what anyone thinks. is my space way too cramped? am i going to end up with a ton of tiny tops? or will they all turn out ok if i keep leaves out of the way?

Udated pictures from day 21 of flower. This last week was finally some non winter weather causing my temps to go up to 84-85 degrees!! i think things are going alright though. Also, my light is as high as it can currently go and i had to bend another rogue top the other day that got scorched. really wishing id gone with cool tube now. however i could not find any cooltube that would fit in my space.

also, i defoliated two or three days ago to get some more air circulation and to clear the jungle. probably chopped about 70 percent of the leaves and light penetration still only goes down inches probably, due to my super excessive veg time.
 

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treduece

Well-Known Member
I'm mostly starting this for myself to be able to look back at previous grows mistakes and accomplishments, feeding methods and amounts, and any other details. I would also really appreciate some fellow growers input.

As the title states this is my first mh hps grow. My first two grows were with cfls. Dumb autoflower first time and last round was some dank dank platinum Girl Scout cookie bag seed I got. Definitely from a hermie plant cuz two of three grew some nanners on the very bottom buds giving me some popcorn with lots of seeds and some dense tops with one or two seeds per ounce. Lots of stress on those babies though and I kept the one plant that didn't hermie and revegged it for clones I'll be using next grow.

Anyways this round again I'm using the platinum gsc bag seed grown in three gallons of ffof with 25 percent perlite, using fox farms nutes as well (very sparingly this time. Had some very unhappy burnt plants last time. ).
Growing in a 2x2x5 foot cardboard cabinet. My cab is freakibg awesome I think, as all of my construction has been very sturdy and all built without powertools. I will try to get some good pictures of the whole setup cuz it's fuckin rad if I do say so. 400 w hid wing reflector. Ventilation is pretty funky but it's an 8 inch standard metal cage desk fan thing, the really powerful ones that you see at any store ever these days, for the intake fan pushing air in and a four inch exhaust with carbon scrubber in one top corner and four pc fans hooked together on the other corner. You'd think with more than half the air comin out of the pc fans with no scrubber that smell would be unmanageable but there have been zero problems with smell thus far. In any grow. Great airflow and no heat issues at all. The light is about 8 inches above my flat as fuck canopy and no heat probs. I'm keeping steady temps of about 74.


So this strain is incredibly slow in veg. But I went two weeks two long at least because it sketches like a mother!!! I'm two weeks into 12 12 now and plants flipped at 11 inches Are now two 32 inch lst slash super crop slash almost a little bit of mainlining MONSTERS going and the othe girl was 8 inches when flipped is now 24 inches. DEFINITELY have some sativa phenos here. These were super dense bushes to begin with super tight nodes as they were vegged under 6500 k t5 followed by two weeks under 7200k metal halide and I tell you they were stacked so tight. Even kept the 7200k on for the first two weeks of 12 12 to hopefully keep stretch down but man they stretched. As my vertical space is limited especially by my choice of extra tall pots I've had to super crop ever branch. And I already had 20 plus tops on each plant. Now after recovering from the super crop there are hundreds of fucking tops and I don't know if that's too much. I'm gonna be defoliating in two weeks so that should help get light deep and on all the branches.

Haha after one week they had already more than doubled in height and girth and so I had to do some work to add another foot using all cardboard , tape and zip ties to get the light to stop burning em!! Then they kept growing too much causing me to super crop for the first time and I'm very happy with the results.


Feeding and watering has gone like this. Only when soil is almost dry so time between each varies. Water, water, feed is how I'm doing it with 10 cc of Big Blooming every watering. Used only 2.5 to 5 cc per gal of grow big in veg and first week of 12 12 now tiger bloom at only 2.5 cc per gallon and even that I fear will be too much. This strain doesn't like nutes at all so I really wanna look into organics next round. But I'm definitely gonna try and spot deficiencies rather than trying to get plants in deep flower to recover from overdose.

They are extremely healthy this time and I think they're gonna stay that way. Healthiest plants I've ever seen to be honest ha out of the 10 or so plants ive seen before.

. I'm only 24 but I have been gardening with my dad my whole life and I just have a very scientific and creative mind so this is coming very naturally to me. Doubled with the part about me spending an average of 4 hours a day reading these forums for the past 6 months, I believe I will be a very good grower someday. I just really really love growing and the reward of growing your own. I can't picture my life ever not growing again. Pics to come very soon. Enjoy and let me know what you all think. And help me remember any details I may be forgetting that need documentation.

I feel the same way
 

jeroly

Well-Known Member
400W seems like a lot of light for a 2x2 space.
You'll have serious temperature problems.
I think a 150 or 250W fixture would be a better match.
 
400W seems like a lot of light for a 2x2 space.
You'll have serious temperature problems.
I think a 150 or 250W fixture would be a better match.

My temps are consistently around 72-74 with lights on. I was planning on using the dimming feature at 75%, but the dang ballast won't fire any of my bulbs when left on 75%. And since I'm not having temp problems I figure they're lovin it. And I'm actually using a 7200k mh with lots of red and very full spectrum at 3200 lumens as I felt 55000 from the hips was a bit much.

Need to put up some more pics but I've been lazy. They be looking so dank. Frosty as can be.
 

jeroly

Well-Known Member
My temps are consistently around 72-74 with lights on. I was planning on using the dimming feature at 75%, but the dang ballast won't fire any of my bulbs when left on 75%. And since I'm not having temp problems I figure they're lovin it.

Need to put up some more pics but I've been lazy. They be looking so dank. Frosty as can be.
if anyone happens to take a look at this, i would really like to know what anyone thinks. is my space way too cramped? am i going to end up with a ton of tiny tops? or will they all turn out ok if i keep leaves out of the way?

Udated pictures from day 21 of flower. This last week was finally some non winter weather causing my temps to go up to 84-85 degrees!! i think things are going alright though. Also, my light is as high as it can currently go and i had to bend another rogue top the other day that got scorched. really wishing id gone with cool tube now. however i could not find any cooltube that would fit in my space.

also, i defoliated two or three days ago to get some more air circulation and to clear the jungle. probably chopped about 70 percent of the leaves and light penetration still only goes down inches probably, due to my super excessive veg time.
I give up. Good luck to you.
 
Well it's been a while. Week 8 now so 10 or so more days. Maybe I'll harvest on 420 if the trichomes look ready. They got too big and started smelling a bit musty, do I LSTd them and took one of the three plants into a different closet under 240 watts of cfl.

The cfl plant isn't plumping up as much as the ones under the halide not do they have even a fraction of the trichs. One of them is SUPER PUPLE and flushing to a golden color.
Oh to solve the mold issue I sprayed a mix of 60% water and 40% milk with some baking soda and h2o2. Smell totally went away and hasn't come back since. It's been about three weeks now since that.

So the worst thing is that I'm broke, and don't want to pay for meds when I have some at my disposal in my closet. I have no patience and because of that my yield will suffer big time. I've clipped so much off of my poor cfl plant. And gets me super high. Just tastes shitty and makes my heart race.
 

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