Lowryder CFL/HPS Grow

[h20xygen]

Hey guys, aint posted in a long time been loving my harvest from my first lowryder grow, question is:

My first attempt I grew under a 400W HPS at a very high electricity cost, got an ounce yeild and an awesome smoke but...

The second time round I went and bought myself 3 125W CFL lamps, 2 red spectrum 1 blue spectrum. I've been vegging this lowryder under my Blue Spectrum for 15 days now and it's only 45mm tall...

however the plant itself looks really healthy, it's got a mass of leaves but no branches splitting off as of yet... i think i've counted about 17 small leaves on this 15 day old plant, my lights are 2 inches away from the top...

Any ideas, but should these plants be bigger than they are? or is it just healthy and soon enough they'll shoot up...?

 

[dannyjw]

you should get your red spectrum lights on now!! lowryders have an extremely short veg stage. you can keep lr purely on red as they go almost instantly to flowering

 

[babygro]

Any ideas, but should these plants be bigger than they are? or is it just healthy and soon enough they'll shoot up...?

Hiya Paul

What an earth possesed you to bother with lowryder when there are way better strains out there for less money? Weird, I just fail to see people's attraction to lowryder.

The answer to your question lies in your question - you've switched from a 400w HPS to a 125w blue enviro - you're going to get slower growth for a number of reasons - 1) you're getting less light, 2) the blue enviro is primarily blue in spectrum which will keep internodes short 3) red light causes more stretching between the internodes.

With a 125w blue Enviro you'll always get slower growth than your 400w HPS.

I wouldn't sweat it though, lowryder will start flowering when it's chronologically ready to start flowering and that's when you can switch in the 2 red Enviros.

For your next grow check out White Satin from Mandala - low odour, low light requirements, heat resistance, easy to grow, finishes in about 50 days flowering. Would knock Lowryder into a cocked hat.

 

[babygro]

you should get your red spectrum lights on now!!

No he shoudn't.

 

[lngarcia]

Hi, "moinas"

Need some advise on the Lowrider #2...if possible...
1-How I distinguish a male from a female?
2-Should the females be separate from the males’ ones? When?
3- I read somewhere that the right time to cut and put to dry is when the buds (or leaves?) are getting brown red colour, is this correct?
4 – Till the buds start to appear, the correct light to use is the 6400k and then we should switch to the 2700k, right?

Thanks for your help,

 

[covertgrow]

3 x 125watt cfls use only 25 watts less electricity than the 400watt hps so seems a very small reduction in power costs,
not that im one to talk, im using a 300watt cfl instead of the 600watt hps lol,

 

[Jimmy Luffnan]

I have a question regarding the auto flowering strains and the spectrum they require???
I just don't seem to be able to get a definitive answer...

Blue for veg, Red for flower.. I understand this... but with an autoflower.. they dont have a veg state really at all.... so no need for the blue?

They come into flower automatically.... so do you need the red light?

It says 24/0.... or 20/4 like you would with a veg state in a normal strain... so that leads me to beleive it needs a blue light...?

So whats the deal... auto's need red all through the cycle or blue??? Or both just like normal plants?

Cheers!

 

[jbuds23]

just got a variety pack of 20 lowryder seeds. if i got i grew them in a pots below the windowsill would that be sufficient light

 

[Jimmy Luffnan]

just got a variety pack of 20 lowryder seeds. if i got i grew them in a pots below the windowsill would that be sufficient light

In my experience with lowryders strains, they require as many lumens as possible!

Whether it be strong sunlight, CFL or HID... the key is as much as possible....

I imagine it is summer in the US now... so as long as they get a fair bit of light on the window sil ... you will be laughing

 

[Lazerith840]

I really think that if you want to grow lowriders the best way to go is in a vertical grow system. The plants are so small you could get 150 to 200 plants in a 4' , 4' , 7' grow area.

 

[Jimmy Luffnan]

I really think that if you want to grow lowriders the best way to go is in a vertical grow system. The plants are so small you could get 150 to 200 plants in a 4' , 4' , 7' grow area.

Im sorry, but that is a terrible idea IMO

Lowryders yield sh#t compared to a normal strain.

They need to be started from seed (unclonable)

And unless you live in a country/state where growing is legal.... would you really want to get done for 200 pissy lowryders?

The courts dont care about size or strain... only numbers.

I find that lowryders or 'autoflowers' are only really good in the summer.... plant a stack of them outside.... 10 weeks you get a couple of ounces. Any other kind of cultivation for these I think is pointless...

Not being harsh I promise.... I just have grown a fair few of these now and I have learnt

 

[Lazerith840]

I agree with you, that is a high number. I only say this because I dont see the point in spending money on lamps and fans for such a small amount. You dont need clones to start a vertical grow so the fact that you cant clone autoflowering strands does not mean anything. The slickest set up I've seen was a vertical grow system, with plants growing from dirt. Also if your growing in a place where it is not legal then your already breaking the law and the police dont care if you have 1 or 100 your still in trouble.

 

[Ap0c0leS]

Lol dude its gonna be small its a dwarf plant. It reacts to age not sunlight to flower so keep it in the red spec i would imagine..24/0

 

[Astaldoath]

Lol dude its gonna be small its a dwarf plant. It reacts to age not sunlight to flower so keep it in the red spec i would imagine..24/0

how much is ur electricity per kilowatt hour, shouldnt jump more than 8-10 bucks, for 12/12, if u were vegging under hps why?

Im a noob so im not hating just figured MH or CFL for veg would be a better option. Hell im vegging 7 bag seed under 7 CFL 23 watts, and they are growin nicely, Bill went up 4 bucks. It will jump 9 when i get my HPS 400 for flower.

 

[Lazerith840]

how much is ur electricity per kilowatt hour, shouldnt jump more than 8-10 bucks, for 12/12, if u were vegging under hps why?

Im a noob so im not hating just figured MH or CFL for veg would be a better option. Hell im vegging 7 bag seed under 7 CFL 23 watts, and they are growin nicely, Bill went up 4 bucks. It will jump 9 when i get my HPS 400 for flower.

there talking about autoflowering plants so there is no switch to 12/12 the plants flower due to age, not a change in the photoperiod, so people tend to use whatever lights they use for flowering the whole way through the plants life cycle.

 

[Jimmy Luffnan]

I agree with you, that is a high number. I only say this because I dont see the point in spending money on lamps and fans for such a small amount. You dont need clones to start a vertical grow so the fact that you cant clone autoflowering strands does not mean anything. The slickest set up I've seen was a vertical grow system, with plants growing from dirt. Also if your growing in a place where it is not legal then your already breaking the law and the police dont care if you have 1 or 100 your still in trouble.

Okey dokes.
But what you are talking about is a vertical grow to grow autoflowers...
If you went to that effort, whyyyyyy oh whyyyyy use autoflowers???

Seedling stage is slowest in the process... clones will will come up harder and bigger in the time it takes for a seedling.

You are going to have to plant a lot of Autoflowers to get 200 stable, female plants for a vert grow.... and then after 9-10week do it all over again???

You are making it hard for yourself....

 

[Lazerith840]

Okey dokes.
But what you are talking about is a vertical grow to grow autoflowers...
If you went to that effort, whyyyyyy oh whyyyyy use autoflowers???

Seedling stage is slowest in the process... clones will will come up harder and bigger in the time it takes for a seedling.

You are going to have to plant a lot of Autoflowers to get 200 stable, female plants for a vert grow.... and then after 9-10week do it all over again???

You are making it hard for yourself....

personally I don't touch the dwarf plants so I admit I don't know too much about them. All I basically was saying is, why bother with such small plants that in your words don't harvest shit, unless you do allot of them, and the cheapest way to grow allot of plants is to make a vertical grow system and utilize 360 degrees of your light, and less space. I mean honestly your making yourself sound lazy, who wouldnt want to get a couple of pounds in two to three months of work start to finish. Sure there's risks, and yea your right clones from other plants would just be better all around for a vertical grow, I agree with you there, but the reason people grow autoflowers is so they can get a quick harvest, why not make it a bigg ass quick harvest or at least try, if it doesn't work out at least you'll have what you need to grow allot of non autoflowering plants in a system that doesn't take up allot of space.

 

[Jimmy Luffnan]

Yeah that's cool Lazerith, I get what you saying

Im not a hater of auto flowers, and Im trying to come across in the happiest way

Not trying to butt heads with you just for the hell of it.. haha

Im just trying to let you understand that in my experience with auto flowers, they simply dont carry the same characteristics of a normal strain.

If your talking about vertical grow setup, then you are concerned with yield vs watt.
If this is your concern, then you will realize that no auto flower strain will ever produce as much as a normal strain.

There simply isnt enough of a life period for it to grow large amounts no matter how much light it gets

IMO.... the only things autoflowers are good for is begginers & like I said earlier.... if you have summer coming up, plant 100.. plant 1000 if you want outdoors... they will get plenty of strong natural light, and in 10 weeks you will get some great weed!

People growing them CFL style in computer cases, yeah.. thats pretty cool and novelty!

But I believe the 'summer' method is the only method you can use an auto flower that will be better than a normal strain in application.

 

[Lazerith840]

Yeah that's cool Lazerith, I get what you saying

Im not a hater of auto flowers, and Im trying to come across in the happiest way

Not trying to butt heads with you just for the hell of it.. haha

Im just trying to let you understand that in my experience with auto flowers, they simply dont carry the same characteristics of a normal strain.

If your talking about vertical grow setup, then you are concerned with yield vs watt.
If this is your concern, then you will realize that no auto flower strain will ever produce as much as a normal strain.

There simply isnt enough of a life period for it to grow large amounts no matter how much light it gets

IMO.... the only things autoflowers are good for is begginers & like I said earlier.... if you have summer coming up, plant 100.. plant 1000 if you want outdoors... they will get plenty of strong natural light, and in 10 weeks you will get some great weed!

People growing them CFL style in computer cases, yeah.. thats pretty cool and novelty!

But I believe the 'summer' method is the only method you can use an auto flower that will be better than a normal strain in application.

Hell yea man I agree. You seem like a cool person, I wouldent mind chilling and smoking out with you.

 

[Jimmy Luffnan]

Hell yea man I agree. You seem like a cool person, I wouldn't mind chilling and smoking out with you.

Thanks champ! Likewise

But just an idea... every year just about... I save a little money and buy a variety of auto flowers from a seed bank. Germinate them about 2-3 weeks before calender summer in a nice little secluded place and you will have smoke for the rest of your summer!!!

And you get to sample some of the different 'great' strains without having to wait 9 months

Most of the strains are actually a really good hitting smoke!

Jimmy.