New Grower

They do look a bit droopy and i'm not quite sure why? They are getting fed every 36 hours at the minute (that's when the rockwool doesn't feel saturated) so i don't think they are getting over watered?

EDIT I think they maybe getting under watered, my paranoia from over watering may have been my downfall lol?

They look like they are doing well. Your temps are right where you want them but I would try to get the water temp just a bit higher, about 19 is ideal I think. I noticed a couple of them have some yellowing on the lower leaves but that isn't an issue as much as something that often happens when the first leaves set right against the soil/medium. I don't think they are over or under watered. They are fine I would give them a full 7 days at 180ppm then raise it to 300ppm for another 7-10 days depending on how quickly they grow, then bump to about 450ppm and add a small amount of cal/mag, about 2ml per 4ltr of water.

So all is going well now i think, temps are stable now after adding an exhaust fan and so is the PH.

I've just set up my flowering tent 2.4m x 2.4m and i'm stuck on how many lights to put in. I initially thought 4 600 watt lights but now i'm swaying towards 2 1000 watt lights?

I'm guessing with 2 1000 watt lights, temps will be easier to keep under control? But will it be enough lumens for the tent?

Any input would be great.

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That is a big tent my friend. I would use 4 1000wHPS to flower with myself but you could use 4 600wHPS and still get away with it, especially if you set your plants so that you form a U shape so that the plants are under the lights. But if you are going to set them in an sog then you really need to blanket them with lumens to get the really dense buds.

Ideally you want to have 6500 to 7500 lumens per square foot of lighted area. You have just under 64sqft in that tent. 4 of the 600w at an average of 92000 lum per sqft will give you 368000 lumens total which is 5750 per sqft. That is doable but you will need to keep the plants divided and set directly under the lights which will need to be kept 30-40cm above the plants for best results.

Iff you go with 4 1000w lights which produce deeper penetrating light at an average output of 120-130,000 lumens per sqft, gives you about 500000 total lumens, which is 7812 lumens per sqft of lighted space. This will allow you to spread the plants out some without worrying about those plants on the outer edges of the light footprints not getting enough lumens to produce fat, dense buds.

Now this is going to require you to have some very good ventilation to pull the heat away from them lights. If you go with 6" fans and ducts, you may need 2 of them so that you can pull 2 lights on each fan. Iff you go with 4 600w, you can pull all 4 of them with 2x2 in parallel to the 1 exhaust ffan, If it is greater than 400cfm (which I think yours is about 450cfm). However, you will need to have 2 equal size carbon ffilters. so that you have one on the end of each pair of lights(which are connected in series). You would have to get a wye duct connector to do the parallel connection to both pairs of lights.

Thanks for the reply again Hush, i may have been slightly ill informed with the size of tent i required by the sounds of it, but that's no problem i can always cut a bit off the tent with some white sheeting if worse comes to worse.

I would love to stick 4 1000 Watt bulbs in there hush but i'm a bit worried about the sudden jump in my electricity bill, i was still even worried about sticking 4 600 watts in there. I'm not sure if it's propaganda used by the police to scare growers off though?

I think i will go with 4 600 watt lamps and maybe cut off 2 or 3 foot of the tent so all the plants are closer together and the lamps are closer together also for better penetration?

If i get air cooled hoods and attach the carbon filter to the other end of one of the lights and pull the air with this 10 inch fan which pulls 1480m³ per hour would this be sufficient or a 12 inch one which pulls 2380m³ per hour?

I think the 1480 will do all that you need. You may have to put a speed controller on it so that you can turn it down some or it may implode the tent. As I said above, you can get away with 4 600w lights in that space. If you move the them into a U shape so that you can walk into the center of the tent from the door and then adjust the position of the lights to account for that, and then keep them about 30cm off the top of the canopy, you should do just fine.

There is also inline filters so you can keep filter out of tent. You can run goods straight to y then to inline then fan. May be cheaper. I wish I had gotten an inline filter myself... I have a 4+? Ft long filter for my 5x5 tent it's huge. Lol. Tent was last minute fix for not moving.

wasson said:

Thanks for the reply again Hush, i may have been slightly ill informed with the size of tent i required by the sounds of it, but that's no problem i can always cut a bit off the tent with some white sheeting if worse comes to worse.

I would love to stick 4 1000 Watt bulbs in there hush but i'm a bit worried about the sudden jump in my electricity bill, i was still even worried about sticking 4 600 watts in there. I'm not sure if it's propaganda used by the police to scare growers off though?

I think i will go with 4 600 watt lamps and maybe cut off 2 or 3 foot of the tent so all the plants are closer together and the lamps are closer together also for better penetration?

If i get air cooled hoods and attach the carbon filter to the other end of one of the lights and pull the air with this 10 inch fan which pulls 1480m³ per hour would this be sufficient or a 12 inch one which pulls 2380m³ per hour?

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YES--it is propaganda used by LEOs. They cannot get access to your electrical records unless they have a warrant. They do not secure a warrant unless they are fairly sure you have a grow set up. Pay your bills on time and cut down on other electrical usage where you can. Use CFLs for home lighting. Turn your thermostat down in the winter and up in the summer, take shorter showers, turn off things you are not using, put computers and like electronics on a sleep mode when not in use, etc, etc.

Things are looking good in here, nice job wasson. I see someone is having fun with the ever changing set up for efficiency. I too am setting up a new space, so fun

flood and drain in growrocks is my method of choice for growing, it is IMO the best way to grow, so congrats on choosing this method. that said, i notice one thing, that your flooding table is exposed and wet, so i guess that there will be algae growing there especially in flowering under HID. some people put a lid, i figured, instead of paying for the lid, pay the money for more growrocks, fill the whole tray, and get done with it, LOL I did just that, and I never looked back.

Thanks for input guys it's been a busy few days and haven't managed to get back too you all.

@zem Hi zem, this tent is just a veg tent and they will be transplanted to a different room soon but i am keeping an eye on any algae ect and if i spot any it will be cleaned and then covered over.

Just out of interested how many times a day do you flood your table? I've just upped mine to twice a day but they seem to be drinking more water than nutes my PPM gets slightly higher each day but the plants still seem to be growing fine and look healthy?!

@lyfespan Thanks for your words lyfespan i'm certainly learning stuff every day but that's part of the fun

@THG Thanks for putting my mind at ease THG, i've changed all lighting fittings in the house and keeping usage down to a minimum, hopefully all will go unnoticed if i just pay the bills on time and not go too crazy with the wattage.

@Huck Thanks again Huck you're a massive help.

Happy Christmas and New Year!!

i flood no less than 6x/day and thats in cold weather, in summer i up it to 8-10

Is that in veg stage as well Zem? How long do you flood the table for as well?

This is my first grow so it's all new to me, the only reason that stops me flooding it more is because i don't want the rockwool to stay saturated all day which will cause root rot i was told?

Just thought i would post some more pics as everyone likes looking at pics :banana:

They are really starting to take off now and i think they are enjoying the environment, they are a bit behind of where i thought they would be but i got a feeling i was underfeeding them or not flooding them enough.

I've started assembling the flower room ready for them in a couple weeks i hope.

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Looking good, ya got to be excited about the bloom room. I'm so stoked to set up my new space, just ordered 4 T-5 HO 12lamp fixtures for my veg room

wasson said:

Is that in veg stage as well Zem? How long do you flood the table for as well?

This is my first grow so it's all new to me, the only reason that stops me flooding it more is because i don't want the rockwool to stay saturated all day which will cause root rot i was told?

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in veg it would depend on light and heat, i guess you can flood 2x in veg. the rockwool cube is small and whatever water that is held in it after flooding will be quickly sucked by the plant with big roots. it would only be a concern if the plant is a baby in the cube and the cube is being saturated. i have tried flooding my table for different schedules, normally i would do it for 6-7 minutes which is what my table requires to flood + 2 mins or so for some circulation.

Yes lyfespan I can't wait too put them in the bloom room it seems the bigger they get the more exited i get. Although this is my first grow and first time using T5's they really do seem the best option, you can get them real close without any heat issues which was one of my worries keeping temperatures under control.

Thanks zem i've now upped it too 3 times a day and a 15 min flood each time, they seem to be enjoying it. It's all about trial and error i suppose.

Just a couple of questions i wanted to ask, when do you think will be the best time to take some clones off of these? (il take some closer pics if needed)

Also do you have to wait for the growth to fully recover before putting them into flower?

I was planning on taking 2 cuttings off each plant.

I can't see where your going to take clones yet. Unless you top them..but clones are usually taken much lower then the top. Have you considered topping? Then you would have bushy plants with lots of tops on them.

Hi Rosebud i did consider topping them but as it's my first grow i didn't want to over complicate things. After looking into it after your post i think i will go ahead with topping them.

Have you got any tips or guides i should read before going ahead with it?