Light at flowering

[Token LaRoche]

First grow here and things are looking pretty good. Two plants in coco/perlite using FF hydro food. Plants are 12 and 14 inches now (pretty bushy -- from seed -- feminized white rhino; seeds from Herbie's). FIM'd 9 days ago and I'm still not sure I did that right, but everything still looks pretty healthy.

Lighting is two T5 fluorescent light panels; each has four 6500K HO bulbs (2 ft, not 4 ft). This is in a 3x3x6' grow tent, so not much room.

I want to switch the light cycle to 12/12 when the plants hit 18 inches or so, and that will be pretty soon, the way things are going.

Question... Should I also switch the lights to 3500K tubes at the same time? Howzzat work? I've ordered enough 3500K tubes to change everything out and the plan is to swap the tubes at the same time I drop the timer to 12 hours. Does this seem right?

[Dutch Pimp]

I have a 2ft. 4 bulb HO T5 I use for seedlings.

I recommend keeping them short as possible; with a light directly over each plant, within 3-5 inches.

(trim, FIM, LST, supercrop)290902

[Shovelhandle]

I agree^^^ I am trying to do a T-5 run now, if I can keep them short enough. They are in their 4th week and have been topped twice. I'll flip them early, probably after week 6. If they shot up to 18" I'd use HPS to flower. I have new T-5 lamps, both colors. I use the warm white for flowering.

[polishpollack]

Shovel, what ferts do you use?

[Shovelhandle]

Soil is reused from last grow. Added all organic amendments. Dolomite lime, dehydrated granulated manure, earth worm castings, high P bat guano, bone meal, Maxicrop, Excelerite, Plant Success, a small amount of compost and molasses.

Now I'm feeding a tea of 2 gallons water to a handful of Espoma Plant-Tone, Earth Worm Castings (EWC), compost and 1 Tbs molasses. The mix is pH adjusted for 6.0 - 6.5 and bubbled with air stones of one or two days. Then the pH is checked and adjusted to 6.3 +/-. I add Plant Success maybe once, twice a month. Plants get feed-water-water.

[polishpollack]

Cool, way to recycle. Is it chicken manure?

[Esteban1]

Same "shiite" here, reusing soil from last years vegetable crop. T5's here as well. No nutes to date since they are all seedlings. Need to update my equipment. Very pathetic to be honest!



Sic Semper Tyranus

:s4:

[tlranger]

[quote=Shovelhandle]Soil is reused from last grow.

Do you do anything to treat, or sterilize the used soil?

[tlranger]

Sorry Token, I use hps for bloom, but do love a good grow!!

[Esteban1]

No, not yet. Will look into it when I t-plant. They're less than a week in the dirt. Will enhance the soil before I re pot.

Sic Semper Tyranus

:thumbsup:

[Shovelhandle]

[quote=Shovelhandle]Soil is reused from last grow.

Do you do anything to treat, or sterilize the used soil?

I explained what I use to amend (treat?) the soil. As it's indoors and I've had no issues there's no need to worry about insects and I don't want to kill the pro-biotics in the soil.

Farmer's don't throw out their dirt after a crop, right? Eventually, I end up with too much soil indoors and I have to haul some out to the garden though. I have a Rapitest NPK test kit to see what is left in the soil but I have zero faith in it as well as the pH kit and any meters I tried from Rapitest.

Yes, the granulated composted manure is chicken shit based, Espoma, a very good line of organic stuff.

[Token LaRoche]

That's an amazing plant, DP. Hat's off!

The 3500K tubes arrived today and I'm still thinking of starting the flowering in the next week or so. Haven't seen much vertical growth in the last few days, but the plants are give-or-take a foot and a half tall and looking reasonably healthy. 3 gallon pots and it takes a gallon of water now to get any runoff at all after 3 days.

Not really seeing any problems with the T5 approach, but again, first grow in a very long time. Wish I had more room and can't believe people do this in PC cabinets. Here's an aerial shot from today:

290972

Did I fuckup the FIM? You can also see the color of the runoff water in the bottom of the pan. Is this bad? Goes in clear, comes out looking like maple syrup. I didn't flush the coco coir before I used it - maybe should have?

[tlranger]

Watch humidity in small grow tent. Looking good.

[Token LaRoche]

Never did get a humidity monitor, and I'm in a "dry" part of the country, so should probably watch that. I'm running a 114 CFM fan/filter combo, so should be getting a complete air exchange 2-3 times a minute (webcam indicates it's a little windy in the tent). Also have a circulation fan in there (probably don't need it).

I'm right at 2 months on these plants now. Started germination on 2/27.

[Esteban1]

Love the smell of "Espoma" in the morning, it smells like VICTORY!

Sic Semper Tyranus & a big sianora for now!


:abduct:

[Token LaRoche]

A victory garden you say? :rastabanna:

Flipped the lights and the timer today. It's time to see.