What could my problem be?

My yield has sucked! Like only 400g for 1600w of light. I am using pro-mix soil w/ fox farm nute program. I water eod w/ nutes (liquid karma and cal-mag added when needed). Donors are ppp, ww, nl/bb, HK, AK-47. The plants have been falling over and I try to stake up most of them. Could the 4 weeks in veg have a lot to do with yield? I only use fluro's and the mom's are under the same. They are kind of far from the plants when they are small. I do not have a dehumidifer and I use city water and do not pay a lot of attention to the ph. I don't have a lot of time to spend there and it is hard to make it eod to water. What do you think the thing is that affects my situation the most? I have a meter for soil but it sucks. No matter what I stick it in it barely moves. I want to try one thing at a time but want to see what you think the most important is. Thank you!

1600w of flourescent lighting isn't the same as 1600 w of HID lighting, which is what that formula that you are probably thinking of is based on, the one that tells you you should get 700g per month.
400g under flouros isn't actually anything to scoff at. Could you do better, yes.
When you said you had to stake up your plants that was a HUGE hint right there. Flourescent lighting does not penetrate the canopy the way that HID does and if you must flower under flouros, your goal is to expose as much of the plant as possible to within a few inches of the light. This means in practice that you want a VERY flat canopy. A sea of green with clones flowered IMMEDIATELY after rooting and planted out in quart pots, or a SCROG into a net are ways to accomplish this. You want a continuous canopy nearly touching the lights.
No part of the canopy should be more than about 4" from the lights, with the 2-3" range being desirable. With T12 tube shop lights, you actually can let the plants TOUCH the lights.
With city water if you are not seeing obvious leaf problems you should not have that as the main cause for concern. It's your use of light. Arrange the grow area next time so that you may drop your lights (on chains is good) right down to the canopy and only raise them if you have to. But you should not have to, because you will instead be concentrating on keeping the PLANTS short and flat.
Good luck!

Thanks for the answer! I should have been more clear. I am flowering under hps lighting w/ lights inches from the top. The veg lighting is what's far away. If I go to quart pots straight from clone I believe I will do much better. I do 3 gal. containers right now and they are falling like crazy. So if I switch to sea of green that would eliminate my veg light problem. I have 6" sqare pots I veg in. Would those be ok to put clones in and put straight into flowering? If so, how many should go under a vented 600W light? Thanks stinkyattic, you are the man!

I also like those 6" square pots (quart, I believe, the deep style ones are preferable). They're also NASTY for flowering newly rooted clones, SOG stylee, in a flood-n-drain or modified containerized vertical NFT (see stinky's adventures in noob hydro in the grow log section).
If you are getting that low yield off HPS lighting, then something else is going on. I am going to say that if the lights are inches from the plant tops, you might want to check the temps AT the canopy for a better assessment of where your stresses might be coming from.
If you go to SOG then you are not going to want to veg at all. I have flowered in those pots- you're kind of pushing it, but if you flip the moment the clone is fully rooted then you should be okay. Gallon pots will let you veg a week or so and still maintain a SOG.
The area that should be lit by a 600w light is approximately 4x4 feet. So determine the footprint of the style pot you intend to use and do the math.
Where are the other 800 watts coming from in the 1400 figure?
Remember the formula is:
0.5 grams
Per watt of HID light in the flower room only
Per month of time that your crop spends flowering under this HID light.
Veg time is not counted at ALL in the math.

Edit: I'm a chick... :D

I meant woman! lol I switched a few things around. I had a 1k light ballast quit so I am going to go to 4-600w lights. 4 plants per sq ft. which would mean 64 under ea. 600w. Sound good to you? This is getting too technical but how close should ea. light be to eachother if I put all four together. I am using a Y to vent two rows of two.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bigbud751

My yield has sucked! Like only 400g for 1600w of light.

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http://boards.cannabis.com/growroom-...lbs-light.html

If you're using that 4' square footprint, allow 4 feet between each light so that the light is centered over that group of plants.
If you're flowering directly from new rooted clones, I highly recommend setting up the lights so that you may raise them a little bit for the first week while the plants acclimate to their new situation.
I like the Y duct plan. Sounds good. You're going to want a KILLAH blower to handle that; a 6" high output blower is probably the minimum you'll want for all that light. If you do a sealed room however, things are a little different. I don't know the first thing about those! Although a sealed SYSTEM where your veg and flower rooms are connected and recirculate, with CO2 addition and a cooling system (like a window AC) in the veg area, or 'lung room', is fairly simple to set up.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bigbud751

I water eod w/ nutes (liquid karma and cal-mag added when needed).

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Thought I'd throw these q's out there...
Are you adjusting the strength of the nute solution, so as not to overfert, with 3x/week feedings?
Are you letting the soil dry between waterings?
Any pix?

If anything I am underfeeding, soil is maybe too dry...I am getting pics on here by Monday. Thanks!

Remember that underfeeding and underwatering are different.
Underwatering is simply not enough moisture in the soil.
Underfeeding or overfeeding has to do with the actual amount of chemicals present in the nutrient solution and soil.
For example, if you poured a capful of concentrated fert in the pot, it would still be underwatered, but it would be SUPER overfed.