Well I think my girlfriend is actually going to be okay now. After I explained to her some of the benefits of a bigger box she started to get energized about it. I won't go big this grow but on my next one I will build bigger. So if I go bigger box then I can harvest every month or so and I would probably want really huge dank looking nugs so I guess growing them out would be good. I want to work on my cloning this grow anyway so I should probably keep it simple. I was just wondering because I am new to growing and I am trying to find a method that works for me and my swing. I found those 9x9x10 pots that are like 3 gallons on the net but then I found some that are 9.6x9.6x11.5 and those are 4 gallons so I will probably go with the bigger pots so I can grow them tall. I was planing on making the box like 6ft tall or around that. The hood is 8 inches tall. Do you think thats enough height for plants vegged for a month. Do you think I should use the same size pots to veg in for a month that I use for flower. I was thinking of getting smaller pots for veg but now I think I will just use the same size so I don't have to transplant.
the main thing to remember when growing a smaller plant in a larger pot is to water based on the plants current needs.. by that i mean dont saturate a 4 gallon pot completely down for a small little plant... you'll have to kind of play a slight guessing game when it comes to water as the plant grows up... the other thing you could do is to start the seeds/clones in 4x4 rockwool blocks and hand water them until you see roots growing out of them... then move them to large pots.. this way they have established roots and it will make over watering the pots a little less of an issue... but the more you can keep from transplanting pot to pot (where you have to remove a plant from one pot and replant in another) the better...
Hey simpson, with a good yielding strain do you think I will need side lighting also to get 2 zips or more per plant. Or do you think that the 400 watter with some 42 watt cfls on top around the 400 will be enough. If I try and keep the plants less than 3 and 1/2 to 4 feet tall will that help with light penetration making it an unnecessary purchase.
alright... now to talk about light and light efficiency as far as penetration goes...
first off a 400w lamp growing 3 or 4 tall plants is going to be a waste.... 400w lamps only penetrate about 1 foot into a canopy.. so with a 3 foot plant, the lower 2 ft wont get much light at all... if you want to grow taller plants, which personally to me is a much better plant anyways, you'll want to get larger lights... i would say a 1000w lamp... if you plan on getting 2 x 400w lamps anyways, you might as well get the 1000w lamp and have AMAZING results.. and you'd only need 1 for the entire tent... have smaller plants in the middle raised up some... and larger plants towards the outside.... a 1000w lamp will give you about 3 feet of penetration.. so the 3 or 4 ft tall plants would get flowered pretty well from top to bottom.. and your fan would more than keep it cool..
if you dont want to go that big then get a 400w lamp for vegging and a 600 for flower.. that would work very well too... or start the plants under the 400w and move them under the 600w to finish.. something in that sense...
or... if you are just sticking with 400w lamps... keep to shorter plants.. 2ft and under as a final height.. and just run more... big plants only yield big if they have the proper lighting.. they require more light since they are bigger.. no use in wasting grow space or extra time vegging if the light cant get the job done...
Great thread! Thanks. Scribed
thank you
SimpsonSampson... got another one for you. i asked you recently about 2 Northern Lights plants of mine. both plants were young and growing with twisting leaves... you said it was possibly a different phenotype. well, the grow started on 1/12/10. it's now 2/28/10, and i'm WAY behind schedule. plants have been growing very slowly and continued to have some twisting leaves. i planned on vegging for a month, however, my plants are only 7 inches tall! i did top them about 3 weeks ago, and they've barely recovered from that. they had less than 5 nodes when i topped them. they were probably 6 inches when i topped them. regardless, their growth has been terribly slow. i'm debating now on cutting them and moving on to a different strain. i've got 20,000 lumens worth of light on them, fox farm soil and nutes, everything by the book. i should've had a month in veg, and at the rate they're goin, i dont know if i'll ever even get out of veg! have you ever heard of this behavior before? have any ideas or suggestions as to what i should do? would really appreciate your insight.... thanks.
hey bro... sorry to hear things are moving slow... but i have a couple ideas....
first im sticking with pheno as the answer to the twisting leaves... aside from their short stature and twisted leaves you have made me think anything else is wrong... do they look ok otherwise?? if they look healthy then they are...
here are the remaining answers i have... some strains are super slow to veg... they can take what seems like forever to make any progress.. a friend of mine that grows la confidential complains about that all the time.. it takes him 2 months of veg to get the same results from that strain as he gets in 1 month with others... the problem is there are so many northern lights strains now, without knowing which cut or whos northern lights it is, its hard to tell...
the second thing it could be is just poor genetics... even if you got these from a breeder its still possible... especially if they are f1's.. i wont go to much into breeding or anything... ill keep it simple.. but if the seeds are the first generation of spring of 2 plants they may have a SHIT load of unknown phenos... which 2 very undersireable ones would be showing.. the twisted leaves and slow growth.. even if the parents genetics were strong, if the seeds were premature seeds, it could explain things as well... do you know how healthy the seeds were when you got them or where they came from?? i can try to do some research through what you tell me and see if that doesnt lead somewhere...
also.... if you can GENTLY pull the plant from the pot and look at the root system a little they may offer some insight too.. if the root system hasnt grown.. or seems stunted.. thats another very possible cause...
Alright, I took a little pic of the warterfam I found online & tricked it out a bit to illustrate exactly what they look like (they have photo of large plant w/ roots in manual but didn;t feel like scannin, illustratin took just as long & I believe gets the point across (let's hope my girl looks like the shot I found for my ill.
Hopefully, it shows ya what ya need to know.
And beautiful that you recommended reg. General Hydro (Flora series) nutes. As they came w/ the waterfarm & i have ready to go.
So take a look doc.
If they gotta stay in the 3" cubes til their roots are stickin out, I def. gotta start figurin out how to hand water my x2 mommies.
As my manifold will be maxxed out takin care of the proper amount (dozen) girls to fit into v-drip when autos are done. I realize it prob. wil be problematic puttin girls that are 4-5 weeks old into that small v-drip, as they are supposed to only handle plants 15-20" max. But fuk it, some of those autos are up over 2' and doin fine, and I'll just become the king od LST or learn up on some scrog. The pots are crammed close together due to system, but gotta descent amount of space around v-drip for LST.
Any resources regarding FIM, super croppin, & toppin that you wcould point me in the right direction of, I'd be most appreciative. Granted a little far off @ this point, but be good to start some readin. Just finished a kick ass book I was on, so have ample time & need some new good shit to soak in.
Finally, while on the topic of info. I need.
(Hope I don't fuck myself here, pride does come just before the fall, don't wanna say things are going well then slam fuk somethin up). But what resources could you tell me to look @, or any advice for the ultimate chop day??
I know I'm prob. getting ahead of myself. But I will need to prepare. I cannot obv. dry in closet, and I have some unique situations that will necisitate fabricating a box, or something else, as it will hav to be totally DL. (offspring)
Have a back room that is semi-climate controlled. (Some insualtion, but not a ton). Chop day should be mid-march, so natural temps back there should be right on. Just need to make sure they are dark.
So I suppose some guidlelines for both MIN. & MAX. temps, RH, lighting (do I need complete darkness). All that any any other ideas you have would be choice.
(Do also have any entire attic @ disposal. But have a bad vibe bout something that precious to me bein round rockwool in the air & shit. Fuk, now yeah, now that I'm thinkin bout it.
I really need some descent advice their. Fuk I might hav to rent a storage space or something. All depends on what I need I suppose. As I wouldnt have much control for climate in storage space either. Ah shit, need ya here goose. Let's hope I make it that far, jus didnt cover that for some reason.
Thanks for teachin me all this shit bro.
alright.... so first thing is first.. lets talk about the hydro farm....
you are more than ok to start throwing plants in that thing as soon as you want... the lower part acts somewhat like a dwc yea... but it also acts as the res that feeds the drip ring... its set up that way to promote root growth.. make the roots reach out and down for water and nutes... then when they get lower to the water line they have the dwc.. and really it looks like the roots wont grow all the way down.. more than likely they will stop at the gap between the hydroton and the water... but whenever you want to start that go for it...
the v-drip probably talks about not having large plants because of plant support.. not enough of anything for the roots to really take hold and support themselves with.. as long as you support the plants they should be fine...
as far as chopping here is a basic overview of how i do it... and a couple things that may help your situation also....
1) i start out by removing as many large fan leaves as i can.. i dont worry about the ones in the flowers.. just the ones on the stems...
2) once they are removed i cut off all the branches and side branches.. basically cut them down to easily handled sizes....
3) i then start trimming the flowers.. i save all these trimming for hash or butter or whatever in the end....
4) once they are trimmed i throw them on my drying net to dry.. takes about 4 or 5 days... then i throw them in paper bags for a day or two to allow the moisture to even out some.. then into mason jars to start curing.. which get burped a few times a day (leavin the lids off for about 20 to 30 minutes)....
the net i use is similar to this
http://www.greenshorticulture.co.uk/Plant-Care-407/Accessories-479/Drying-Nets-1273.asp they work great and hold a good amount of harvest... plus they take up little space... leave that near the ona gel and you have no issues...
another way to do things is to get a large box.. like a fridge box or something similar... run string across the inside to make drying lines... add a hole to the bottom for air intake.. a small fan (even a couple pc fans work) to the top for exhaust.. and let them dry inside the box.. again the ona should take care of all smell concerns... no need to rent a storage unit or anything like that...
the benefit of the box is that with it being enclosed it can hold in the moisture which means a slower drying process.. the slower the better (as long as there is no mold).... if you use the rack try to put it somewhere where the humidity level is a bit higher.. and it is dark.... dark is ideal as well..
