Newbie Grow Advice Needed

[tacman7]

So this is my first grow. I bought 4 clones and put them outside then put them under a couple of CFL's regular ones, for extra hours, it was going good but then the weather turned cold and I bought a 4' 4 bulb hydrofarm t5 light and they've been going strong.
http://tacman7.com/grow/vine.jpg

I also started some seeds found in pot.
http://tacman7.com/grow/seedling.jpg

Other pics, hard to show what a deep color they are with the camera
http://tacman7.com/grow/Clone1.jpg
http://tacman7.com/grow/girls2.jpg

Anyway they're in a 2' deep 4' wide 54" tall box of reflective radiant barrier wafer board. Box works good, maybe too good? Some lower leaves are turned upside down to get the reflected light.


I'm going to build another box for flowering and I am shopping for a light.

I'm liking the sound of the T5 badboy 8 light which would cover the top of a similar box.
Costs a little more but it looks like good quality but I could still go with hydrofarm depending on the deal.
Most all come with veg lights, having a hard time finding a good deal on a fixture with flowering lights.

Question?
Some lights come with red, some with blue, and some half and half. Would it be better to go with the half and half instead of all red? Any buying advice appreciated.

I've been on 24hours a day but I'm starting a 6 hour night today. (from my reading here)

I was going to wait until the 3 remaining clones get maybe 3 feet tall or so then move to flowering, but I don't know if they could fit into a 2x4 box then...
I guess when they start pushing all the new plants out of the way move them over to flowering.

Anyway, any help appreciated, nice forum.

[KHAN]

Personly i find it better to use metal halide (mh) for veg and high pressure sodium(hps) for flower stage,, but some duel spectrum lights are good enough for a small grow room...
I would keep your seedlings on 24hr light for a few weeks into veg some people say it dont make no diffrence giving them a few hours dark every night but I find its better to keep them 24hr in the veg stage,,
If that 1st pic is of 1 of your clones i would start flowering them now, there is no need to veg a clone for weeks becouse it takes the age of the mother, clone it, root it, veg for 2 weeks then flower to maturity,,
If you Veg a clone for to long it will stretch and have a impact on the end result,, Hope this helps,, happy growing!!

[tacman7]

Thanks

That's what I've been wondering about, when to flower...

I guess I need to get going on the light buying...

Does anyone know about the bad boy lights?

There's one on ebay that's a green color:

T-5 4 ft 8 Lamp Grow Light Fixture 432w Bad Boy Quantum | eBay (http://www.ebay.com/itm/T-5-4-ft-8-Lamp-Grow-Light-Fixture-432w-Bad-Boy-Quantum-/160611420559?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item25652fc98f)

I'm going to ask them if I can get half and half or all red with it...

$220 with bulbs, but it's green, not the orange one with decals.
Also it's 26 1/2" wide where the orange ones say they're 24" wide.

Anyone know if this is just the older model or something?

Thanks

[bigsby]

Read up on light penetration with T5s before you make that your decision. See the stickies in the lighting section. Also keep in mind that the plants will double in size (roughly) once they go into flower. I would go with a ceramic metal halide (which fires in an HPS magnetic ballast). Your grow area is pretty small so you could get away with 250w although a 400w would rock the box and leave room for expansion. Whatever route you go you have to consider heat extraction.

Point of clarification (for those who remember Roberts Rules of Order...): You can veg a clone as long as you like. It won't impact the end result. The fact that the clone is the same age as the mother demonstrates this. You can keep a mother plant for years and still get buds from flowered clones that are as good as the first run of the mother. Otherwise clones would become less potent the older the mother gets. But that is not the case. That said, a clone will tend to branch more than a seedling, which may or may not be a good thing.

[tacman7]

Haven't did any cloning or pruning. I know my neighbor has a plant that I'd like to clone but it's late stage flowering.
It's such a dark and rich looking plant.

I went with an 8 tube with bloom lights, found the deal I wanted.

T5 really works in my situation and it has done a good job with veg so I'll try to flower with it.

[painretreat]

Love the pictures. Please keep up the post and do a grow-log. Or are you?

[tacman7]

Thanks. I have no records other than pictures.


This is the one called vine in the first post:
http://tacman7.com/grow/11-19-02.jpg

This is a $10 clone I bought about two weeks ago, it two leaves on it.
http://tacman7.com/grow/11-19-03.jpg

The seedlings keep coming along:
http://tacman7.com/grow/11-19-01.jpg

This is my biggest plant, I have to get a picture looking down on it out of the box, looks nice.
Also there's a double seedling on the left, roots are grown together.
http://tacman7.com/grow/11-19-04.jpg

When do I need to check the seedlings for gender?

I'm changing the box every day just about this was a few days ago.
http://tacman7.com/grow/11-19-06.jpg

New light gets here on Monday so I'll move the big 3 to flower then.

[tacman7]

Seedlings coming along:
http://tacman7.com/grow/11-23-02.jpg
http://tacman7.com/grow/11-23-05.jpg
Very wide leaves symmetrical.

The clone I bought a few weeks back is not symmetrical but grows like a weed.
http://tacman7.com/grow/11-23-01.jpg

The 3 largest girls which go into flowering next week continue to thicken but not getting too much taller.
http://tacman7.com/grow/11-23-07.jpg
http://tacman7.com/grow/11-23-03.jpg
http://tacman7.com/grow/11-23-04.jpg
http://tacman7.com/grow/11-23-06.jpg

[tacman7]

I moved most everyone to a bigger pot yesterday, they seem ok still.

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There's a lot less room though, one plant has to stay in her milk carton until Monday or so.

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The three biggest ones get moved to flower box so there will be a lot more room for a while.
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[tacman7]

A few more.

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[tacman7]

Yesterday I put the big girls into the bloom box! There's not as much room in there as I thought!

Could get interesting...

And crowded!
http://tacman7.com/grow/11-27-04.jpg

These are my seedlings, strange how they stay low and get really wide...
http://tacman7.com/grow/11-27-02.jpg
Might be a good thing.

This is the clone I bought a few weeks ago, it's really taking off and has quite a spread.
http://tacman7.com/grow/11-27-01.jpg
http://tacman7.com/grow/11-27-03.jpg

Mikee gave me these on Thanksgiving, they've started to grow some since putting their troubled childhood behind them.
http://tacman7.com/grow/11-27-05.jpg
http://tacman7.com/grow/11-27-06.jpg

[tacman7]

Things are coming along.

I changed my bloom box and put the bottom on wheels so I can roll it out and work on the back side of the box.


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The glow box is going to be a temporary bloom box, almost have it on 12/12 now, waiting for the bloom box to be empty. I had to put 3 plants outside. We've been having 70degree weather here but it will get cold again.

I have them in a structure that I cover at night and it has shade cloth covering it during the day.


The buds in the bloom box are looking pretty good, at least the ones on top. I'm going to have to harvest in layers. All T5 grow might have something to do with that.

[tacman7]

The 3 clones show here on November 18:
http://tacman7.com/grow/girls2.jpg


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[tacman7]

More tricomb pictures, I like seeing them.

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