That 5hit
Well-Known Member
pay the piper
and get the digital one you'll thank your self later.... trust
Dystopia's PPP 250w VScrOG
- Thread starter Dystopia
- Start date
and get the digital one you'll thank your self later.... trust
Dystopia
Active Member
I used to use a magnetic ballast...until I walked in to no light and the dreaded burnt electrical smell, which is one reason to get a digital ballast: they last longer. They also provide more efficient power - easier start-up, more lumens, no flicker, longer bulb life. And they're usually switchable. Prices have come down as well; I see no real reason not to get a digital ballast
lilmafia513
Well-Known Member
im here to watch this one, i like the PPP, its my best plant in my opinion
c5rftw
Well-Known Member
true dat, just watch out for cheap ones... always look for at least a 2 year warantee.. btw man... i think it is time for some more light for these guys.. im not saying its a big deal, like im sure you know, but now if when they need all the light they can get... maybe get 4 cfls at the top then use tose same cfls for cloning for your next setup ... peace manI used to use a magnetic ballast...until I walked in to no light and the dreaded burnt electrical smell, which is one reason to get a digital ballast: they last longer. They also provide more efficient power - easier start-up, more lumens, no flicker, longer bulb life. And they're usually switchable. Prices have come down as well; I see no real reason not to get a digital ballast
Dystopia
Active Member
Dam man awsome thread, you and Jigfresh, smoothe all going Vertical i think its a crazy way to go but fun as hell to watch
Keep up the great work man i will be watching
Thank you!
I don't think I can put a 250-watt light as close as I have it, LOL! If I were to do it over, I would add 6" to the bottom dimensions. I'm already thinking of investing in a 400-watt light and trying this out; I wouldn't make the lower dimensions any less than 36" x 36", though. I've already got several changes that I would do to my current setup in mind.
Nope, no additional lighting needed. I did have something up my sleeve for flowering, though, that intensifed the light over the top pretty significantly...
Dystopia
Active Member
Things are going pretty good. I finally got the pH to stabilize around 6.0, and the nutes stabilized around 1000ppm. They pretty much stay at these numbers all day, and all I have to do is add back 1000ppm water to replace what they ate and drank.
The buds are starting to fill up nicely.
The buds are starting to fill up nicely.
MostlyCrazy
New Member
Oh Goody! Halloween bud porn! Nice Job D!
diggitydank420
Well-Known Member
Dude, your stuff is looking mighty good! Doesn't PPP have just the whitest hairs ever on the buds?
Here's my PPP x Sour D at 28 days
Here's my PPP x Sour D at 28 days
captain insaneo
Well-Known Member
well i see 1 reason to get a non digital. you cant run a ceramic metal halide on a digital.
squarepush3r
Well-Known Member
great updates keep em coming
Dystopia
Active Member
Yep, it's hard to get the exposure right they're so white.
Thanks!
Dystopia
Active Member
OK, I left off talking about how I plan a grow to fill the horizontal footprint of the “flower box” with buds to maximize the yield. Basically, at all times I am trying to emulate a Sea of Green (SOG) type grow. If I don’t have enough plants to do a true SOG, then I’ll top to simulate one. Now I’m going to talk about the methods I use to fill the vertical part of the flower box. Again, it’s important to remember that these tutorials are based on single-source HID lighting.
If you recall from my first “Planning the Grow” tutorial I talked about how to determine the size of your flower box based on the size of your light. The following diagram is a general guideline to use for the size of the box based on wattage and the light being hung horizontally:
The general idea is to get the mass of your flowers growing inside the box; anything outside of the box is not getting enough light to flower properly and is generally wasted growth – those fluffy popcorn buds, the excessively vegetated plants that are only budding in the top 1/3 or less of the canopy, etc.:
Before I go any further, I want to revisit topping. In my last tutorial I talked about how I shoot for 2-4 main colas per square foot and how to achieve that ratio by topping. Now, some people object to topping – they say it actually decreases the total number of tops (true) and it doesn’t change the overall mass of bud (mostly true – depends on the light source).
The first argument states that topping decreases the total number of tops simply because all of the side-branching that you are supposed to be encouraging by topping is already occurring – all you’ve done is eliminated the main growing top. This is technically true; however, the side branching that is occurring without topping is secondary growth, and often it will never catch up to the primary growing top (and thus never make it into the flower box). Topping turns the secondary side-branches that weren’t getting good light into primary tops receiving good light, IMO. Again, you can achieve the same effect with LST or super-cropping; but topping is my method of preference due to its ease and predictability. Remember, I’m talking about single-source HID lighting; topping is pointless outdoors or with CFL’s shaped around the plant, or even with high-wattage HIDS in my opinion.
The second argument states that all topping does is change one big primary cola into two (or more) smaller colas – the actual mass remains the same. Basically, the idea is that there is a limit to how much bud a plant can produce, and it doesn’t matter how you slice it up – one big cola or several smaller colas, you still get the same yield. But I say it does matter how you slice it up. For instance, my 250-watt light does not have the vertical penetration to support one massive 24-inch long cola; but it can easily support four 6-inch colas. If I let my plant grow un-topped with one main cola, the best I’ll probably get under a 250-watt light is a 10-inch cola (the other 14 potential inches is lost). If I slice that one main cola up into four smaller 6-inch colas that my light can support I have basically more than doubled my yield from that one plant.
So what I’ve basically done by topping is to utilize my horizontal space (which I have plenty of, relatively speaking) to make up for my lack of vertical penetration. In my grow, I figured I needed to fill about 9 square feet (the bottom plus the eight 1 sq ft sides) with three plants. Since I shoot for 2-4 primary tops per square foot that meant I needed between 18-36 primary tops. I decided to go with the minimum, since I was training my plant in a screen and could use side shoots to fill any gaps.
My original plan was to top each plant to get 6 primary tops; however, I lost a seedling and had to start another that was a week behind. That seedling never caught up, so I had to alter my plan. I topped the 2 plants that were ahead to get 8 primary tops, and the laggard only got topped to contribute 2 branches (one of those branches is in the middle of the second picture below). The result was the same – 18 primary tops. The two plants that were topped for eight branches are responsible for 90% of the canopy.
OK, so I’ve topped my plants and now I want to train them so that they grow evenly with all of the growth focused on the primary tops. I’m going to use these primary tops to fill my flower box…any other growth that is not focused on these tops is wasted energy in my opinion. Train the growing tops – tie them down:
Super-crop them:
Whatever it takes to keep the canopy even:
These methods are covered extensively in other tutorials on this site so I won’t go into detail on them.
Next I focus the growth on the primary tops by using a form of lollipopping. I define lollipopping as follows: pruning the secondary branches which aren’t going to make it into the flower box, while leaving the fan leaves – which collect and store energy – alone:
I believe that this focuses the growing energy on the main tops. Anything that won’t be getting good light (with the exception of fan leaves) has got to go…and I lollipopped extensively in this grow. I probably pruned off over a hundred secondary branches; it was a clone factory in there (note that the fan leaves fell off naturally):
In summary, I control the vertical portion of my “flower box” through a combination of topping, training, and pruning. My goal is to get the largest volume of buds in my “flower box” as possible, with all of the growth focused there as well. Anything outside of the box gets pruned…with the exception of fan leaves, which I let fall off naturally.
Next up in planning the grow will be determining how long to vegetate…I believe that many people growing under a single-source light vegetate WAY too long and end up with wasted growth…hell, I vegetated too long on this grow, at least a week’s worth of wasted time…
If you recall from my first “Planning the Grow” tutorial I talked about how to determine the size of your flower box based on the size of your light. The following diagram is a general guideline to use for the size of the box based on wattage and the light being hung horizontally:
The general idea is to get the mass of your flowers growing inside the box; anything outside of the box is not getting enough light to flower properly and is generally wasted growth – those fluffy popcorn buds, the excessively vegetated plants that are only budding in the top 1/3 or less of the canopy, etc.:
Before I go any further, I want to revisit topping. In my last tutorial I talked about how I shoot for 2-4 main colas per square foot and how to achieve that ratio by topping. Now, some people object to topping – they say it actually decreases the total number of tops (true) and it doesn’t change the overall mass of bud (mostly true – depends on the light source).
The first argument states that topping decreases the total number of tops simply because all of the side-branching that you are supposed to be encouraging by topping is already occurring – all you’ve done is eliminated the main growing top. This is technically true; however, the side branching that is occurring without topping is secondary growth, and often it will never catch up to the primary growing top (and thus never make it into the flower box). Topping turns the secondary side-branches that weren’t getting good light into primary tops receiving good light, IMO. Again, you can achieve the same effect with LST or super-cropping; but topping is my method of preference due to its ease and predictability. Remember, I’m talking about single-source HID lighting; topping is pointless outdoors or with CFL’s shaped around the plant, or even with high-wattage HIDS in my opinion.
The second argument states that all topping does is change one big primary cola into two (or more) smaller colas – the actual mass remains the same. Basically, the idea is that there is a limit to how much bud a plant can produce, and it doesn’t matter how you slice it up – one big cola or several smaller colas, you still get the same yield. But I say it does matter how you slice it up. For instance, my 250-watt light does not have the vertical penetration to support one massive 24-inch long cola; but it can easily support four 6-inch colas. If I let my plant grow un-topped with one main cola, the best I’ll probably get under a 250-watt light is a 10-inch cola (the other 14 potential inches is lost). If I slice that one main cola up into four smaller 6-inch colas that my light can support I have basically more than doubled my yield from that one plant.
So what I’ve basically done by topping is to utilize my horizontal space (which I have plenty of, relatively speaking) to make up for my lack of vertical penetration. In my grow, I figured I needed to fill about 9 square feet (the bottom plus the eight 1 sq ft sides) with three plants. Since I shoot for 2-4 primary tops per square foot that meant I needed between 18-36 primary tops. I decided to go with the minimum, since I was training my plant in a screen and could use side shoots to fill any gaps.
My original plan was to top each plant to get 6 primary tops; however, I lost a seedling and had to start another that was a week behind. That seedling never caught up, so I had to alter my plan. I topped the 2 plants that were ahead to get 8 primary tops, and the laggard only got topped to contribute 2 branches (one of those branches is in the middle of the second picture below). The result was the same – 18 primary tops. The two plants that were topped for eight branches are responsible for 90% of the canopy.
OK, so I’ve topped my plants and now I want to train them so that they grow evenly with all of the growth focused on the primary tops. I’m going to use these primary tops to fill my flower box…any other growth that is not focused on these tops is wasted energy in my opinion. Train the growing tops – tie them down:
Super-crop them:
Whatever it takes to keep the canopy even:
These methods are covered extensively in other tutorials on this site so I won’t go into detail on them.
Next I focus the growth on the primary tops by using a form of lollipopping. I define lollipopping as follows: pruning the secondary branches which aren’t going to make it into the flower box, while leaving the fan leaves – which collect and store energy – alone:
I believe that this focuses the growing energy on the main tops. Anything that won’t be getting good light (with the exception of fan leaves) has got to go…and I lollipopped extensively in this grow. I probably pruned off over a hundred secondary branches; it was a clone factory in there (note that the fan leaves fell off naturally):
In summary, I control the vertical portion of my “flower box” through a combination of topping, training, and pruning. My goal is to get the largest volume of buds in my “flower box” as possible, with all of the growth focused there as well. Anything outside of the box gets pruned…with the exception of fan leaves, which I let fall off naturally.
Next up in planning the grow will be determining how long to vegetate…I believe that many people growing under a single-source light vegetate WAY too long and end up with wasted growth…hell, I vegetated too long on this grow, at least a week’s worth of wasted time…
