hows this going now? grow box/first grow advice welcome

so i got some scrap wood and built a little box, picked up a long tube light with 2 40 wt plant lights, and 4 100w equivalent (uses 27 w) and 1300 lumens each. Brand is n:Viion and they are the daylight brightness ones. for soil i went with earthgro topsoil , and osmocote indoor outdoor plant food.wich i mixed up with the soil before planting the sead, the plant food had this on it
10.0%ammoniacal nitrogen
9.0% nitrate nitrogen
6% avalable phosphate
12% soluble poash


also the tempeture stays at 70-72 , how long should i leave the lights on 24hrs, also how much watering is to much, thanks they are about 2 weeks old

any advice tips or anything wrong with what im using please let me know

Move the plants close to the lights, like an inch or so away. Since those are flouros it won't burn the plant, but if you leave it too far away it will start stretching. Just keep moving it away from the lights as it grow so it doesn't ever touch the lights.

ok cool , i moved the plants closer to the lights.

The temp is arround 80 degrees in there and 70 % humidity, also when can i put the lights on a differnt cycle than 24hr;s? how often should i water them , thanks

after about 1.5 to 2 weeks, i switch to 18/6 so that the root growth can set in. I keep it 18/6 until i switch to 12/12. I mean 24 hours doenst give the plant time to rest or grow roots.

nice box... ;p im using a similar setup...nd post pikz as soon as u can i wanna see ur babiis..mine got hurt a light fell on {hopefully} her...

24/0 is fine for vegging. it's up to you.
water when the pots feel light.
those tubes- are they 'aquarium and plant' tubes from the hardware store? if i were you i would switch to 'cool white' or 'kitchen and bath' type tubes for early vegging. you really want a lot of light i the blue range to help influence the babies towards femaleness.

kitchen and bath lamps are warm white, isn't that right, Stinky?

I use the 3000K warm whites for flowering and the daylights (4200-5000K) for veg.

Sho

Huh I thought those were also a cool white. I hope I am not full of beans on this one. Those are the ones the BOG recommends, but I'm using 'cool white' in my spankin' new veg cloest that I built Wednesday!

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Originally Posted by stinkyattic

24/0 is fine for vegging. it's up to you.
water when the pots feel light.
those tubes- are they 'aquarium and plant' tubes from the hardware store? if i were you i would switch to 'cool white' or 'kitchen and bath' type tubes for early vegging. you really want a lot of light i the blue range to help influence the babies towards femaleness.

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yea they are the aquarium and plant lights, so i should swich to the cool white or kitchen now to promote early budding?? is vegging when they bud or when they are babys? what do you mean by blue range light? the 4 cfls im using are the daylight brightness ones "brightes that they sold they have "soft white, bright white and daylight"

Veg is right before flowering. After you germinate, you get seedlings, then you veg those and let them grow. At some point you'll switch to flowering, that's where you find out their sex. Hopefully, they're female, and that's when they'll start budding.

Light colors, the spectrum, and another graph of the spectrum.

cool, thanks for the link, is it true your only supposed to water once a week?

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Originally Posted by AR15

Veg is right before flowering. After you germinate, you get seedlings, then you veg those and let them grow. At some point you'll switch to flowering, that's where you find out their sex. Hopefully, they're female, and that's when they'll start budding.

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how many weeks untill they flower?

Thats up to you cole, it depends on how big you want your plants to be. The rule of thumb is generally to let them veg until they are half or a little more than half the size you want them to be when they finish, before you switch to flower. That can vary depending on genetics, and how they were bred. I know at least a strain or 2 from "Mandala seeds" claims to go antywhere from double to triple the size when you switch to flower.
peace

yup i had a strain like that in my back yard it got crazy tall and i tied it down...but nice setup again...

Well, that's really up to you. When you think they've been vegging long enough and want to put them into the flowering stage, then you switch the light cycle to say 12/12. It's really more dependant upon whether you're satisfied with their size. Keep in mind when you do put them into flowering, they can shoot up to twice their size and even more, so make sure that you can handle it if they get that tall (LST can help with that too as a precaution, easier when they're young, before flowering)

My advice? Poke around the forums and grow faqs and do some reading. Grow logs are good to follow to give you the feel. :D

if your gona go with lst [low stress training] i think i have a good method...i use it and it works great...just before you flower start tiein ur plant down around the pot soo tie it over then around the pot like a circle and it will keep it short with maximum light penetration...worked for me everytime i used it...it may not be the best but is good and keeps ur plant really short...

ar15 from the charts u posted above do i want to have lights in the darker blue range because they were the highest on the chart and what type of light would they be..???

Well what types of lights are you currently going with, CFL's right? And in what stage are you in, veg or flower (veg right?)?

Taken from the growfaq:

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Now, for vegetative growth you should choose the 'cool white' light. This is also acceptable for flowering, but a 'warm white' light will be better as it is stronger in the red end of the light spectrum which is more suitable for flowering.

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That pretty much sums it up right there I think.
Veg- you want blue
Flower - you want red
If you're using CFL's, buy the ones said in the quote depending upon what stage you're in.

Below is a good explanation by khronik from this thread:

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You don't need nearly as much light during vegetation as you do during flowering, so having less lumens with the MH light will not be a problem. Besides, lumens aren't an accurate measure of how much energy the plant can derive from the light, especially if the color is different.

The spectrum number is given as a temperature, ie, 7200K or 2100K. This is the temperature in Kelvin that an incandescent filament would have to be in order to give off that spectrum of light. You don't really need to know that though, just remember that a higher number means a bluer light, and a lower number means a yellower light. A number like 4500K would be more neutral. Sodium lamps and metal halide lamps release a bunch of discrete wavelengths of light, which makes them not so good at rendering colors, but great for things where efficiency is paramount, like for grow lights and street lights.

But the main thing it comes down to is what it'll do for your plants. Blue light stimulates chlorophyll production more, making your plants better at absorbing light. Your plants think they are seeing the blue sky and so they grow bushier to take advantage of all the direct sunlight they think they're getting. If the light is orange, on the other hand, the plants think they're getting mostly reflected light, so they stretch up, hoping they will eventually be able to see the sky. You want your plants to store up their energy for flowering, not to keep stretching toward some sky that isn't there. Once you start flowering though, the orange light will lengthen your plant's stems so it can fit more buds on there.

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Hope that helps you out :thumbsup:

...oh and saw daves post, lol, beaten to the punch