400w HPS grow, 9 females, please read!!!

Hello everyone and happy 4/20!

I live in Cali and I've got some ladies that are 2 weeks into flowering. They all sprouted from seed and are growing very well. I flowered after 1 month of veg and right now they are between 18 and 26 inches tall. I super cropped them to increase branching and didn't top because I like the big buds even though a scrog grow would surely increase yield. It would just require a longer veg period. My plan is to get this closet under control and switch over to 5 gallon buckets with clones and a mega sick scrog grow. I will attach pictures as soon as I find my camera.

The house I live in has high traffic in the basement and I am unable to grow it down there where the temperature is nice this time of year not to mention where all the Co2 naturally goes.

My ladies are in a tight little closet on the second floor. I have good ventilation, my 400w light has a glass plate and exhaust vents with a nice inline fan to vent it out of a stove pipe (since its summer no one is using the stove). During the day it gets pretty hot upstairs and it seems like my average temperature during the light cycle is around 81-82 F. One plant might be showing signs of heat stress, although it was a gangly plant since it started, more branches than its sisters just a small stem and looser.

My light is 2-2 1/2 feet from the plants and the room is a little less than 3x4 surrounded in mylar. When the weather is nice outside I turn on 2 40ish watt CFLs to help the lower parts of the plants. It is definately bright enough in there, just wondering if a constant 81F during flowering could be a good enough reason to add 8 hours to a dark cycle and reset the cycle to 9pm/on - 9am/off from 1pm/on 1am/off so that the hot part of the day is the night shift, and the cooler nights would better accommodate the heat my lamp puts off. I just don't know if 2 weeks into flowering if changing the cycle by 8 hours will effect the growth or slow it down at all.

Nine females in all, started 20, 12 were healthy, 3 were male. Five of the plants I started where feminized seeds I made the last time I grew. They were some dank weed that turns purple, but much harder to grow than the amazing seeds that I happened to grow along side of those. The seeds I feminized where from my buddy's dad. He grows them outdoors in the mountains so heat stress could be a factor since mountain weed has colder flowering climates. One of the other plants naturally turned into alternate nodes in vegging and as soon as I flowered it it made a double head. The other mega plant is flowering so fast its incredible. The feminized plants are showing hairs but this plant is showing BUDS. Tight buds. Delicious. I just hope these fem seeds I made pull out and bust out some dankness already. Would adding that 8 hour dark period help with the hormones that start the flowering cycle? Even 2 weeks into flowering?

I will include pictures of the room, the gangster plants, and the wierd one that makes me want to figure out why it is growing soo odd.( but not really that odd).

Any response is appreciated and welcome. Thank you for taking the time to check out this post.

OoWaTeRoO

9 plants is a lot to grow under 400 watts - from my experience yield is more dependent on wattage rather than number of plants.

Change your light cycle to night. 8 more hours of dark will not hurt, if it were light then we know it would screw things up. The extra dark is like a cloudy rainy day. You could have one huge plant or 20 small ones as long as your light will cover the footprint. I think your fine and sounds like you got it toghether. Waitng to see pic's. That's awsome growth for a month of veg.

If you are living with others that don't grow, (assuming this is why you can't grow in the basement) how are you going to remain stealthy and not worry about being ripped-off or busted?

If this is your home, why isn't it your decision to convert the basement anyway? If it's not your home, don't grow. You are risking having everyone in the house take the fall just for being there.

Are you going to need the exhaust fan running all night, and will that noise create curiosity from the neighbors?

No, the extra darkness is not like a rainy or cloudy day. Light still get's through on rainy days, or it would be totally dark. The extra darkness is...extra darkness. If uninterrupted, it will kill the lady. But only being a single-event stressor, unlikely any permenant damage would result. I'd switch without a worry.

6 - five gallon plants max under a 400w, and only if the plants are placed twords the side of the pots, so all 6 plants can be 'bunched-up' directly under the light.

I would give my left nut to have my summertime temps in the 80's. Even with the a/c on, my outdoor flowering shed (I live in the desert SW) stays in the ballpark of 100 or so. Yes, I have a few techniques to deal with the heat, but it is possible you are fretting too much about 81 degrees. (which is still lower than my night-time temps)

Learn to grow, then learn to maximize your grow. In that order. :jointsmile:

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Learn to grow, then learn to maximize your grow. In that order.

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That's damn good advice.

Hey again,

I will get the pictures on today, I just need to find my USB cord. I switched it over, yesterday it was 86 degrees in there, I know most of the plants can take the heat but I don't want to mess anything up. As you can tell I'm still figuring things out. Good thing is I don't over fert or water, which is a big problem for most newb growers.

My roommate is a very long time friend, its in a place where no visitors ever go. No one but us know about it and its under lock and key. I can only hope for the best like always in life, but yeah that factor is definately not overseen. Switching the lights on at night now will also help hide it during the day but its still light-tight regardless. I also have a make-shift ONA bucket which im sure you guys have heard of. Cant smell the dank unless you are up close.

I wasnt fretting much about the 81 degrees as much as each days getting hotter and hotter. The sooner I get things in order the better.

This is my first time growing under this light. I used to be a CFL junkie. I keep a good rotation under the light and they really seem happy. The room is a little big for the size of light but with all that mylar and extra CFL light I turn on helps the plants that aren't directly under it. Otherwise they look better than any plants I've ever grown, and my last grows where great.

I'm just rocking bag seeds, those feminized are good, but not as big of performers as these others. I want to eventually switch to better genetics and really redefine my whole way of going about this. My best work was scrogs under CFL, and I know if I duplicate that under this light i can be doing great. I just need clones so I don't waste time on any males. The reason I went with other seeds with the fem ones was because I wanted to compare the genetics. I still have more that I can scrog later.

I will find my cord and get some pictures on here you you guys can see my ladies :thumbsup:

Here's late into flower in the grow room. Four plants already chopped. These strains need a little more time. The little plants on the left are clones. The heat effected a couple plants, the rest where fine. Some days it was 90 degrees in there. Otherwise bomb smoke, tastes like the peat moss I grew em in, delicious! :rasta:

wow, looks like you learnt to grow and how to maximize your harvests.. thats amazing for 400Watts, well done!


Peace,
Denial

Growing under the lights in the tropics can be quite a challenge with high temps. Are there any small compact a/c systems tropical indoor growers can use to keep temps in range?

try looking at a store, i think they sell air conditioners there.:thumbsup: