Moving plants from flower to veg....an approach question Any help appreciated.

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farmerted

Member
Here's the problem.... Hoping the depth and breadth of experience here can weigh in on this approach and poke any holes/provide constructive advice.

I have 4 girls (started with 9 bagseed, pared down 5 males). I don't have sufficient space or light to support the 4 girls at the same time.

Currently I have approx 8-10 23W CFL's to work with. More lights, bigger room, etc, etc are NOT an option. I need to work with what I have at the moment for a myriad of reasons.

I am considering moving 3 of the girls outside and concentrate on a singular plant at time. The approach being, move in one plant, use the lights/space available to really get her lit up appropriately. Once this plant has reached harvest, I would move the next plant from outside into the the now empty space. I would repeat 3x.

Only downside I can see right now is that the plants that will move outside will continue to grow and therefore I'll be dealing with bigger plants each rotation through (possibly running into light/space issue).

What else am I missing?

Any risk to moving plants from bloom to veg? Is there a rule of thumb as to how long they should stay in veg once moved?

Or, will they continue to bud once moved outside? I'm in the northeast so days are getting shorter, but not that short these days.

Thoughts?

Thank you guys!
 
jondamon

jondamon

Well-Known Member
IN order to do what you are looking to do it would take you 9weeks x4 plants which is 36weeks to flower all 4 plants. Can you keep them outside through november december january and february? does it get cold where you live?

MY honest answer would be to try and get more CFL's at least. They dont cost half the money of HPS systems etc. Just 2 decent 200W ECO CFL's for around UK £30 US maybe $50 each then possibly do all 4 at the same time and do some lollypopping to concentrate the light at the top canopy and just grow some monster colas in a SOG.

Without sufficient light and gauranteed temps outside i cant see how your plan to flower them 1 at a time could work im sorry.

J
 
desertrat

desertrat

Well-Known Member
jondamon said:
IN order to do what you are looking to do it would take you 9weeks x4 plants which is 36weeks to flower all 4 plants. Can you keep them outside through november december january and february?
Click to expand...
they'll flower naturally before that so he can probably get two done inside and other two will finish outside.
 
F

farmerted

Member
Hey Jondamon,

Thank you for the quick and thoughtful response. I didn't consider the timeframes, to be honest. I do agree with the 'more' CFL's and it's really not a cost issue. it's more of a location/how-to accomplish getting more lights in the small space (a corner of a room).

It may be an option to find another area to move 2 of the plants and configure lights/timers there. This may allow more lights, and a better configuration.

Or, to use the original approach but use 2 plants and move 2 plants outside, which would allow for good weather over the next couple of months.

Ok, those being said, and I will post pictures of the current setup. how do you get enough lights around 4 plants in a small space. I'm currently using 8 'work lights' with the metal half dome (I'd guess 6 to 8" reflectors) and 3-4 cfls hanging down to give light to the lower branches. I'm currently using a large camera tripod to clip the work lights off to (in order to be able to move them as the plants grow) and to give the plants varying heights of lights.

OH, and don't be sorry. I thank you very much for your input.
 
jondamon

jondamon

Well-Known Member
Unfortunately i cant comment to well on the use of CFL's other than the ECO CFL's i was refering to wher you attach them to a reflector. If you could get yourself 2 of these with the CFL's you already have for side lighting you could easily flower those ladies inside.

You do know that when they have 12 hours of darkness it needs to be pretty dark as in with virtually no light leaks whatsoever. Did you say you just have them in the corner of your room?

You could very well leave them all outside if you have the weather for it or you could do a side by side comparison of growing 2 indoors and 2 outdoors and see which you like best. You could end up growing some trees outdoors.

The CFL's that i am talking about are the larger ones you usually get from hydro stores. Not the little walmart style ones. Its not impossible to grow good plants using those style bulbs but you need quite a few of them to get a decent amount of light for the plant.

J
 
xxxcmackk

xxxcmackk

Active Member
i would bud all 4 of the ladies and cut off a beautiful looking clone, to utilize all avaible lite and space on that one clone....
 
F

farmerted

Member
J-

Apologies, they are in a corner of a large walkin closet, they do get 12 on and 12 of darkness with no light leaks. The underlying issue is that I was only expecting to get 1 or 2 girls out of the mystery bagseed...I'm happy with the 4...but hadn't planned the logistics well. They're definitely showing female and starting to progress, they just seem like they're going to be on the airy side. I will check out the CFL's at the local hydro store. Do these CFL's require special ballast or are they of 'standard' connection? I'm not sure I'm super familiar with what you mention.
 
jondamon

jondamon

Well-Known Member
They are self ballasting.

You just get one of these bulbs with a 2700k colour and plug it into a standard reflector and plug that in to your timing system.

I have attache some pics of the type of bulb i mean. BUt the one i am showing is a 6400k not 2700k.

But you get the idea.

If you look in the first pic at the silver reflector. This is just a standard light reflector with cord and bulb attachment. You should be able to get one of these for a fe dollars in your hydro store. They cost me £10 which is maybe $16 i think.


J
 

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