My third time around with 600 watt hps

This is my third time around been growing for about 10 months. My neighbor gave me the hps light and a basic idea of what i needed and how to do it i also read a lot from these forums. My first grow i made a 4' by 6' by 2' deep box with 3 chambers , babies, veg, grow i might have pics somewhere. i did this in my spare room things everywhere huge mess. My second time around i moved it into a closet that had about exactly the same dimensions but i wasnt really happy with that space and never set it up properly i also turned a whole crop (5 x 2' foot plants ) into seed. the seed was of a new strain sumone gave me called mountain bud.. my neighbor gave me my first plants which i've been cloning since Sooo that plant was polinated by mountain bud giving me hundreds of seeds which i've just now planted. I was actually wondering what the strain would be in that case? i have some pictures of my current setup which is now in the laundry room any comments or suggestions would be great as i have 100s of questions daily. rather than try to think of everything there is to say about my grow i'd rather just answer any questions you may have regarding my grow and i can take pics regularly (these pics i'm posting first are feb 12th and i cut the one plant down thats in 1 of the pics it was my old mother I got 1.5 oz off it.

these are newer pictures of the grow area feb 21st in the first picture the leaf is damaged kinda wondering what it is i dont ph test my water.. but i've been told the ph in my area is what i need. i have a small mite problem to i've been trying the soap and water spray but results are temporary i bought a insecticidal soap from rona today to try that .. seems as though they are on my plants instantly so i'm wondering if maybe the soil has been contaminated.

ps the fluorescents are t8 32watt bulbs each bulb is rated 2850 lumens

The bugspray hasnt killed my plants yet thats a good sign. heres some more pics

I threw all my seedlings into 12/12 to determine sex. How long does this usually take and what is the risk of them polinating my females i've already done this once.. dont want it to happen again.
I also gave them #'s there are 20 so i just took some random pics
I think i planted the bigger ones on around the 4th of feb and the smaller ones on the 8th.
Is it to soon to determine the sex?
The clones in the pictures were taken feb 12th still no roots..

Man IMO its WAY too early to throw seedlings into 12/12. You need at least two weeks of vegetation. They aren't mature enough to show sex. Put them at 18/6 for a few weeks (depending on your grow room height) and then put them in 12/12. They wont pollinate right away, you'll have like a week to weed out males.

thanx for the info i actually had them on 18/6 before today i'll change it back
My 12/12 grow area is 48 inches about 44 to the bottom of the light i have 2 bathroom exhaust fans directly above it removing the heat temps in the room are about 80-84degrees and 50 % humidity

Shortest of my plants in flower is 24 inches from top of pot to top of plant
more pics of my seedlings
more pics of my setup as i constantly rearrange ....ever evolving
i've always grown them big.. and i dont usually top my plants.. any comments on that.. could i yield more if i went small.. i get usually about an ounce a plant at the size they are now
If there are any admins reading this.. is there a limit to posting pics.. cuz i takes tonnes
Also i've been having all kinds of trouble cloning lately i've read an amazing amount on the subject and i try to do it to the book but for some reason i'm having no success the first few times i took clones i did it sloppily and it worked now i do it as best and clean and proper as i can and no luck
its day 10 for my clones and no roots
I have recently bought most of the components to do an aero cloning or grow tub just need the pump depot wanted 99 bux for a 400gph i thought that seemed expensive based on the prices i'd seen quoted here.. do i actually need a 350 gph or more pump to run a 60 liter tub? that was a fountain pump btw.. not sure if there is a dif... i'm newb

Some more details: temps in my flower room at lights on is 23c - 73.4f
with 58% humidity and by lights out the temp is 29-30c - 86f and 41% humidity
My seeds were planted on the 4th and the 8th. Its Mountain bud mixed with a no name so not sure what i'm going to get. here is some detail (not the place i got the seeds though the seeds were given to me from a friend, labelled and in a vile).
Kind Seed Marijuana Seeds, Mountain Bud - Canadian Bred Seeds, Canadian Bred Seeds

"A 40/60 Sativa/Indica cross. Large Christmas tree shape with a perfume smell and sweet, fruity flavor."

heh

I'm just now reading about it I had no idea b4 hand, decided to google it for the journal.

Nutrients i use general hydroponics micro, grow, and bloom formulas.
For my seedlings i just used distilled water to expand my jiffy pots.
one they showed there root i potted them in small pots using sunshine #4 mix which is 55-65% Canadian sphagnum peat moss, perlite,dolomitic limestone(for ph adjustment in this soiless mix) gypsum, wetting agent
there is a pic of my bag of soil in my other posts as well as my nutrients.

I use a 1/4 strength mix in a spray bottle which i use to spray the seedlings and i keep the soil moist with the same mix
i use many dif size containers so the exact ammount i water varies pot to pot i just keep them all moist

My flowering plants in the grow chamber are in 2 gallon pots at 12/12.They get water every other day, usually about 1.5 liters of water each. again i dont use an exact amount because each plant is different.
They get a 2/2/2 mix of nuts (2 teaspoons per gallon) and at bloom ripen they get 1/2/3 micro, gro, bloom. thats just what on the bottle and it seems to be working .. i'm open to suggestions.

I used to give my plants nuts every watering.. and upon seeing some so so results,did some research, and now i just give nuts every other watering. Seems to be working.

I have a bunch of cheap tube fluorescents that i'm going to add to the room as soon as i decide where i want them

my new grow area is great i can tell my flowering plants love it. The flower development is better than i've ever seen it and i usually get about an ounce a plant so hopefully 1.5 this time. Pretty sure its because of the lower temps i can achieve now.

not sure if i posted this but i have 2 bathroom ceiling fans directly over my light I will post a pic of that

I think i'm pushing the boundary on pot size i know they should be bigger. next time around i'll(ie this time with my seeds) be using old dog treat containers (square and they hold 4 gallons) that is unless someone has some comments on yield more small plants or few big plants that is the question

been 11 days on my 5 clones... 3 look fair but 2 are starting to droop no roots on any (i just wanna crack the thing open to see wtf is happenein but thats what i did with the previous 30 that i wasted man i suck at cloning...
dont know why i'm having so much trouble maybe i'm being impatient

if anyone reads this that has or knows about aeroponics i'm wondering how big a pump i really need.. the one that filthy fletch talks about has 6 misters or he says 1 2 inch pop up sprinkler well the sprinkler i got (didnt even know what a mister looked like but i do now)says it moves 2.25 gallons a minute in other words 135 gallons an hour so would i really ned a pump rated for 350 gph or could i go smaller? This is in respect to a 70 liter tub

i'm itchin to change the game to hydro or aero or something.

i added a scale to the side of my box for my plants in flower the pots themselves are about 10 -12 inches to lazy to check atm so the plant in the pic is about 26 total inches not including pot

i have all kinds of questions about pinching, bending , topping (experimented with bending ended up with 4 colas instead of 2 but now sure i really yielded more)
pinching i dont know anything about

topping.. when do you guys top usually and where

PS my seedlings have been in for 11 and 15 days respectively. All in all i really only like about 5 of the 20
fuckin mites are stunting they're growth any suggestions.. i read a post that said he microwaved the soil and then froze it to kill bugs.. i'll be doing that from now on but is there anything other than a thorough cleaning of the room that i can do to kill these fuckers.. think they're mites at least.. had my 30x microscope on the lil bastard it lookes like a lil worm with eyes

uhh yeah like the title said
Do seedlings need any kind of special treatment?

My flower room is looking good.
Pretty sure my clones are going to die. HELP PLEASE
My seedlings at day 12 are looking pretty stunted (from other pics i've seen can anyone comment on the look of my seedlings?
I have 2 4' 2 Bulb fluorescents = 4 bulbs each bulb is rated for 2850 lumens
placed them within 3 inches of the plants .... too close maybe.. they do look kind of burned some of the tips have yellowed i bought 10 4 inch proper pots i'm thinking of replanting not sure if thats a good idea though

As far as the cloning goes all i can do is try and try again. All help appreciated
i need a day by day clone manager agent guy person thing to get my clones to work

I'll upload pics a little bit later

OMG FINALLY 12 days later one of my sorry lookin clones showed her root off so maybe there is still some hope for the others .After talking to my neighbor a bit he said cloning bigger branches is harder.. could be my prob.. when i first started i took tiny lil ones with some decent success then i started bigger ones.. not so lucky maybe i learned something there
heres some more pics.. seedlings on day 12 and 16 pretty sad growth i realize i should have a thermometer outside my flower box.. but i've kinda assumed that if the temps are within reason inside they should be fine outside.. i'm probably going to get another thermometer soon here

5 mins passes... think i'm going to plant 4 seeds again and i'll monitor those hopefully with the help of you peoples

oh something i neglected to mention accidently on purpose was the fact that my noob ass thought i could put a bunch of plants in one of these longer pots i had 4 plants 1 pot... def not enough soil so i have a feeling i'm going to have some probs with that later on
I've had a plant start to die at the top.. about 2 weeks b4 normal harvest, i always assumed i made some sort of water /nutes error but looking back now and after reading on here.. the roots were probably just tangled to shit.

some pics... my 4 plants in 1 pot, the pots i want to use to change my seedlings, some of the seedlings condition and my sexy flowering plants ..oh yeah my plant security system

I just thought of another question.. i have a 600 watt hps light what size an area would that sufficiently light..biggest space i've used for it is 4'long 6' high and 2 ' deep

and still no answer as to how big my plants should be to maximize my space, bunch of small vs few big (i've always gone big at least 2 feet(if you can consider that big)

Ok Finally have an update and some pics... of the 20 seedlings i planted i threw away about 15 of em.... they sucked. Ok i sucked but thats beside the point . I'm in the process of germinating 4 more seeds i use the wet paper towel into a ziplock into a drawer technique and so far of 24 seeds i've germinated 23 have worked.

1 seedling looks like its going to make it and be healthy (woot!) this is a new strain , Mountain Bud + the strain i have in flower .

The strain i have in flower makes some pretty potent shit but its not a strong smelling weed at all (makes venting very easy) so i'm hoping for a stinkier bud.

The plants in my flower room are now about 30 inches + 8 inch pot = 38 inches and the bud growth is looking great i'm sure they'll reap at least an ounce and a half each when i'm done. YAY week and a half of smokeper plant .. i'm such a pothead.

heres some pics

I also added an air purifier to my clones,seedlings area a lil extra ventilation.

I decided to grow some basil and jalapeno seeds that i grabbed from home depot.. just for the hell of it. and they have sprouted they are the last couple pics in the litter.

Oh and another thing.. the clones that i thought had had it.. well they seem to have sprung back fortunately 2 of the 5 showed roots now (15 days later ffs) and the others i planted as well since they look to be alive.So i took 5 more smaller clones (smaller in the hopes they'll root faster) and i used rooting gel instead of the powder i had

seedling should be germed til the tap root comes out then I use rockwool cubes to get them going. I put my seed or clones in 2 inch rockwool that has been soaked in 5.5 ph water over night then shake the excess water dont squeeze. They then go under 4 foot florescent shop lights under 24 hours of light. Keep temps around 70 ish not much higher and dont feed them just water. Avoid using things like cfls,clear pots or cups to start and the dreaded jiffy peat cubes to start them.Do this and they should go good. A plant from seed needs to be 8 nodes high before going to flower as that is the first stage of a mature plant and if its not at least 8 nodes its not a grown up yet and wont flower right and will give shit yields. If its clone it can go 12/12 as soon as it roots

"clear pots or cups to start and the dreaded jiffy peat cubes to start them"

yeah i've now done away will all my clear pots and other containers i had that didnt have air holes.

What i wanted to comment on is jiffy pots.. shit thats all i've ever used and i've actually wondered just how much better the rockwool would be.. i was told to use jiffys when i first started and they have worked.. but recently with the slow rooting of my clones and poor condition of my seedlings i had considered trying the rockwool(i actually had it in my hand one day heh)
the rockwool i imagine would be easier for the roots to travel through i'm guessing.

Also i read your thread about the aeroponic grow setup and bought a bunch of the stuff to make it.. i didnt know what a mister looked like when i was at the depot so i bought the 2 inch sprinkler. just curious, do you think i really need a water pump that pushes 350 gph... the sprinkler head i got says it only pushes out 135 gph. I'll probably build it anyways just cuz i'm to lazy to return the pump i already bought (250 gph)

Rona had what looked like rockwool, btw, but it was called something else.. cant remember what .. if anyone knows what it may be called..will that stuff work?

WOOT my neighbor is moving and gave me his 150 watt hps light which i will now use for vegging. lucky me

new pics coming

thats cool as hell

Ok pics are here new box is setup... I can pretty well guarantee it will not remain like this its a really well made box (that my neighbor made and gave me) but i dont think i get the most out of the light so i'll probably pull the light out of the box and have my plants in the open space below the light. (where my shop lights were b4 (and may soon be again with the 150 hps..

I planted the 4 seeds i germinated today they should have been planted 2 days ago as they were long ready. They actually rooted right to the toilet paper i used to germinate. The roots were over an inch long and the flower was out of the shell on 2 of them.. oops. I should have taken a pic of that but didnt sorry.

my Flowering plants look goooreat. The 4 plants i planted in 1 pot looks like only 2 of the plants are going to be worth anything. I'm wondering if i should just cut out the 2 smaller plants and hopefully give all the nutes and water (and remaining root space if any)to the 2 bigger plants?
^^^^^^<--- refer to pics attached
This is day 18 of the flower cycle (when i put it 12/12).

this is also pretty much day 18 for my seedlings as well

Question: What would cause a plant to grow slower?
probably a bunch of things now that i think about it.. but it seems like my clones/seedlings root slowly. Flowering seems to be good.. honestly never kept track of the day i put my plants in until this grow though. I'm curious to see if they will be ready in 8 weeks. Which i think is average for flower isnt it? If its not ready in 8 weeks then maybe i just have a slower strain we shall see.

temps are usually around 80 now (75-85) range
i dont give my clones or seedlings nutes,
Lights: <-- i have wondered if the slow rooting had anything to do with the shoplights i use.. but i'm pretty sure they are bright enough (i think my first post has the details of my lights) and i kept them, at first, about 3 inches from the plants but that actually seemed to hot for them then i moved the lights to about 8 inches above.

Ok i have to stop babbling now be back tomorrow

to be continued

here are some pics of my 4 new seedlings they were planted yesterday (should have been planted 3 days ago) and they are lookin nice. The last seeds i planted on the 12th look nowhere near as good as these are looking already i didnt use jiffys this time (filthy fletchs recommendation) and planted right into my #4 mix. also instead of fluorescents i'm using a 150 watt hps
i seem to have also ended the earlier mite problem i had which def didnt help my old seedlings. routine spraying of the leaves and a complete wipe down of my area with pine sol has WON for now...

these are my seedlings that were planted on the 12th ..so day 18 not looking very good 2.5 weeks in still alive though so we'll see what happens all i really want is one good mother out of this mountain bud + misc strain

Pics of my flower room to come in about an hour