400 Watt HPS Soil Grow,4-XXX Skunks and 1-Green Goo

theWOZZ87

Active Member
Tragedy struck today my friends:cry:. On my way out the door this morning I stopped in to check on my girls before I left to do a few things that day and prepare for a promising job interview. Upon entering my grow room i noticed that the lights were not as bright as usual, so i figured the HPS must've just come on and hasn't heated up yet. Come to find out the bottom of my HPS bulb burnt:fire: out and melted, as well as melted the conductor in the light socket which itself was also cracked in two pieces:cuss:.

I am very tight on money right now but pretty much spent some food money i should be saving to quickly order another bulb next day air. I will have enough cash to order a new light socket on thursday so hopefully it will all be squared away and working again by monday.(As long as my ballast wasn't ruined in the process, although it was humming and trying to start even though the bulb and socket were ruined). Only about $60 total damage, not counting the effect on the plants.

If everything works out the plants should only have to suffer under a few CFL's for a week max. I am just worried because it will be exactly the 4th flowering week out of the 7 or 8 weeks total time for this early flowering strain. I just hope it doesn't have a big effect on my 8 week schedule, bud potency/health, and most of all my yield:-(.

Anyone else ever had similar problems? I'm not much of a religious person anymore, but please, take a minute of your time and say a prayer for my baby girls:weed:.
 

theWOZZ87

Active Member
Just a little mini-update. I got some extra cash together and was able to order both things with second day air. I ordered my 400 watt hps ultra sun bulb on tuesday and I got it this morning, likewise i ordered the new light socket on wednesday so i hope to get it by friday. Getting the second day air should keep them from having to go the extra 3-4 days of the weekend without their beloved light. I also noticed some slightly crispy brown tips at the end of a few leaves on one of my plants. I think i will skip a few waterings with the fox farm big bloom, so that it doesn't get any worse, the buds look great tho, you can really see the pistils starting to stretch out and make the buds bigger.
 

theWOZZ87

Active Member
Day 51 Veg/Day 24 Flower

:leaf:Setup update:
So more bad:clap: news....after spending an extra $13 dollars to ship a 3/4 of a lb part with second day air I find out that even though i ordered it at 12 noon on wednesday, the company i ordered it from didn't send it til 6pm the next day. Meaning that instead of getting my package thursday night or friday night at the latest i will now have to wait until monday because theres no package delivery on the weekend without paying extra. Which i would've paid in the first place if i had known it wouldn't make it until 6 days after i ordered it.

Just sucks my plants losing the HPS light, 4 days was bad enough on what has been a problem free grow so far. Now it will be up to 8 total days without the light until i can pick the package up, assemble it, and rig it all back up the right way. I just hope that this week with only CFL's doesn't totally mess up my yield or potency, I've had such "high":bigjoint: hopes.

:leaf:Plant/Bud Update
Even with just the four CFL's the buds are still looking good and I am still noticing calyx and pistil development throughout all four plants. Right now the plants range from about 1ft. 3in. to 1ft. 6in. tall(long) but they're all pulled over sideways into a bush. From these four plants there is a canopy consisting of just over 30 top buds(colas). 10 of which have about 4-6in. taller stems than the rest and are much more developed, with up to 8 nodes filling in below the top nug.

The biggest of these buds is just over an inch in diameter(not counting leaf) and is about 4in. long, there are several nodes below already stretching up to it, soon making it 6in. long. Anyways I have been hoping for 1-2oz's per plant all along and hopefully this week without the HPS won't ruin all that.

Thanks for following along, I would love to hear any opinions/criticism and estimates on my yield would be helpful too. :leaf:Stay high guys:leaf:!
 

theWOZZ87

Active Member
Great News! Everything with my :leaf:girls:leaf: is great and everything with fixing up my new setup went great. I got my new light socket in the mail today, the wiring went good and didn't take too long. I made a new reflector for my bulb/ballast and the new bulb is really bright and running great, which is kool because is was only $20 (not including shipping) and I was just reading that the ultra sun bulbs are $40-$100 cheaper than other bulb's and it is actually brighter and reads higher on the spectrum than a $60-$80 hortilux bulb.

I also got some molasses and started using it in with my fox farm big bloom. I know you're suppose to fertilize every other watering but ever since i started it I have been using almost every watering and my plants are responding great to it. There has been a tiny bit of browning on the tips of a few stray leaves at the bottom but i figure this might be more due to splash back when i'm watering the soil.

I'm going to let the girls bask in the HPS a few extra hours tonight before they get right back on their normal 12/12, otherwise i would post some updated pics.

:leaf::leaf:!!!!New Pictures coming very soon!!!:leaf::leaf:
 

theWOZZ87

Active Member
So if you've been following along you'd know that I recently had to replace several parts on my 400 watt HPS ballast. So these are the updated pics at the end of week four but the :leaf:girls:leaf: are at least 8 days behind where they should be developmentally because they had only the CFL's for this whole last week.

Here are the pictures after the :leaf:girls:leaf: first day under their fixed ballast and new higher:bigjoint: powered bulb:

















:leaf:Been kinda quiet lately, whats everyone think so far???:leaf:
 

theWOZZ87

Active Member
Thanks a lot guys, this is kind of my big test grow. So based on what I get from this yield wise, I'll know how big I want to go next time around. I know its too hard to tell 4-5 weeks from harvest but any guesses on yield? Either way i'm sure i will always grow, it's just so relaxing, almost as relaxing as getting stoned(ALMOST), hahaha. Also i'm glad to say that after just two days under the new HPS, the trichomes that were already developing nice have gone crazy and started to get huge. I'm hoping that next week's pics will be nice and frosted for you guys.
 

Viagro

Well-Known Member
Yeah man, looks real promising. Your girls probably just figured it was just a few cloudy days, and the sun finally returned. They look ready to blast off.
 

theWOZZ87

Active Member
Ok, so were only two days into week five and I think I just did an update four days ago but their has been so much development:leaf: in the past four days with the new light fixed up its blowing my mind:bigjoint:!

The buds have started to accelerate considerably and with a couple new fans running onto my bulb i've got my light only 6-8 inches above the plants and I can put my wrist almost all the way to the bulb and hold it there without feeling too much heat or burn. I think this is why I have noticed the insane trichomes shooting out so suddenly and all at once and all the lower buds in the canopy are shooting up in height too. A few hairs have gone red on a couple of buds too and a little earlier than expected but most are still just thick pistils climbing toward the light.

Also I wanted to give a little more detailed description of my bud sizes/numbers than I have seen in some other grows because a lot of close ups/zoomed-in/zoomed-out photo's can be misleading. Although I should have done the lighter comparison trick I guess, forgot cuz' I was smoking some good blue cheese bud with my plants.

So I have just over 30 buds in the canopy not including tiny ones that can't reach the light, which I have contemplated just trimming off, any opinions on that? I know I should've clipped and cloned them but didn't feel like making another grow box at the time. 7 of these buds being the largest are about 6-8inches in length (with more lower nodes reaching up) and about 1.5-2inches in diameter. The second biggest group are about 3-4inches long and are about 1inch in diameter. Then lastly there are about 13 - 1-1.5inch long buds that are about a half inch in diameter.

Being that I have at least 3 weeks left and up to 5 weeks maximum, I'm hoping the buds get a lot fatter and longer, one thing I can tell you for sure is that the buds are gonna be very dense just as the seed bank described. Also if you take a look at my sig, thats the strain that i'm growing, heres more of a closeup: ( "XXX Super Skunk." )I thought it was kool how much this plant and its crystals in particular match up with my grow pictures, props to Ministry of Cannabis.

Anyways sorry to make you wait, here are the :leaf:girls:leaf::



















I have been following along on several grows and of the 2 or 3 I've been watching that have a 400watt soil grow like me have gotten an oz minimum off their lightest plants and up to 2oz on their heaviest. My bud is not very fluffy, you can tell its going to be heavy and dense. Also in all cases they veged at least 3 weeks up to 1 and a half months less time than I did.

I'm hoping to get 2oz from each of the four plants to make a HP, I would be happy with a qp tho and anything over an HP I would break down and cry. I figure of the 30 buds in my canopy, the 7 largest ones will be around 10-14 grams dried, the middle ones will be 5-7g's, and the smallest will be 1.5-2.5g's. If these figures were right this would give me just about 6oz's total or 1.5oz's per plant.

Whatever i get it looks :leaf:dank:leaf:, any guestimates or opinions on my figures? Thanks for following along!
 

theWOZZ87

Active Member
Thanks a lot guys! The smell has lessened since I put some carbon filters on the fans but the smell is so insanely fruity and then right away drifts into the most pungent eye watering skunk stank. The contrast reminds me of lemonade and limeade just so sweet&sour and delicious. It actually kinda reminded me of sour diesel i've smoked before. Also I hope to prevent smell from getting any worse in my place so thanks to chronic's thread and viagro's post I also bought one of these :

Hamilton Beach 04532 Febreze True Air Odor Eliminator

It's suppose to be good for up to 4 months before it needs a filter change, uses really low wattage, is very small, and is good for a 10ftx10ft room.
 

ChroniCDooM

Active Member
Thanks a lot guys! The smell has lessened since I put some carbon filters on the fans but the smell is so insanely fruity and then right away drifts into the most pungent eye watering skunk stank. The contrast reminds me of lemonade and limeade just so sweet&sour and delicious. It actually kinda reminded me of sour diesel i've smoked before. Also I hope to prevent smell from getting any worse in my place so thanks to chronic's thread and viagro's post I also bought one of these :

Hamilton Beach 04532 Febreze True Air Odor Eliminator

It's suppose to be good for up to 4 months before it needs a filter change, uses really low wattage, is very small, and is good for a 10ftx10ft room.
Let us know how this works out! I may have to pick one up. What a deal if it does! Under $17!
 

Viagro

Well-Known Member
Let us know how this works out! I may have to pick one up. What a deal if it does! Under $17!
Dang, that's a steal! And free delivery, too. Mine cost nearly $25, but I'm happy...it's pretty quiet, on low, and looks like it will do the job. Get one, CD.
 

DaBuzzard

Member
I picked up a Ozone Jr yesterday and I can't believe the difference, it took care of the smell in less than ten minutes. The Jr is good for 1000 square feet and it only cost $90.00 at the hydroponics shop. The manufacturer is C.A.P.S.
 
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