2 year break now ready for action...

Hey all..
Some of you will remember me, some of you wont..
I ran a 440w cfl setup and got some mint results. following that.. got busy with life and just didn't have the proper time to spend with the ladies

I started this lot from bagseed, but one of the reasons i've started again is that i pulled about 2 dozen seeds from that bag, all perfectly formed, near black in colour.. and it was some of the best smoke of my life!!
I HAVE to give this a go.. :stoned:
As you will read below.. the room aint the biggest for 11 little ladies, here's how the setup is atm.. i could have sworn i put 12 seeds in the paper towel to germinate but when i opened the folded paper i only had 11.
Cool thing is all 11 are female ;)

400W MH 4000K
All plants in 4 litre planter bags (just under a gallon for you yanks) :thumbsup:
Room is a std sized closet, 3ft x 1.5ft, 4.5 square ft, painted matt white
I'm using a combo of Earth Juice Grow, Superthrive, and a very small ammount of Fish Emulsion for veg. For flower, Earth Juice Bloom, Superthrive, High Potassium Orchid mix and bat guano
The medium is a 85% sterilised potting soil, 10% Perlite, 5% Vermiculite. It also has a small ammount of dolomite lime to keep the ph in check
I have a 6" inline fan intaking fresh air, and a passive outlet (a hole in the top of the closets ceiling) for the hot air to rise out of and into the (too small to grow in) attic.
The pics will show 1 week after the 12/12 chage taken today
there are 11 seed plants in there, only vegged to the first set of alternating nodes and then topped under a 400W MH High Bay 4000K industrial light.. this light and fixture i have used before with mixed results, however i knew it would suffice for a short veg for one last round.
Now arriving in 2 days is my newest trial.. as i have never experimented with low kelvin MH before, and didn't want to buy another ballast, i thought i'd try the following

400w SolarMax Gold Metal Halide - rated at 36,000 lumens

It's an 'All Phase' lamp, red enhanced and rated near 3000K
Should be a hell of alot better than the 4000K eliptical MH it's running now
I'll be purchasing a proper blue halide for the next grow so i can swap out lamps as i go from veg to flower
At any rate, with only 4.5 sq ft, and 36,000lm, that's 8000lm/sq ft

Enough rambling.. great to be back after nearly 2 years.. see you all around.. cheers
JJ

As always your thoughts and idea are always welcome :jointsmile:

Welcome back! I know I wasn't here when you left, but still.

Lovely set-up you've got, and that's pretty cool all eleven were girls. Maybe you get feminized? Haha.

Why not throw in some molasses to the nute mix? Worm castings?

How much was your MH lamp? I'm looking to step up to something just like that.

The MH ballast and original 400w 4000K eliptical lamp cost me all of $45NZD.. thats about $30-35USD
It's a used industrial light
The SolarMax 400w 3000K MH cost me $150NZD, again thats around $100-110USD
Molasses are coming.. waiting another week until the 2nd week of flowering.. they only took a week to show sex

btw.. i fully removed the lower half of this lot, fan leaves gone as well, thats why they look a little thin
however the ladies have given me 34 lovely clones when she was clipped
After they take root, and i have never lost one to date, they'll only be veg'd for a week or two and straight to flower as with the CFL log in my sig
cheers fella

Oh mate, what I wouldn't do to get a clone from your garden :) Looking good! Definitely going to keep an eye on your 440.

omg a kiwi here :) I just had to stop and say gidday. Beautiful photos you took there and the girls and little ones look wonderful. Hope you'll keep up the log, it looks to be a good one to follow :thumbsup:

Day 12 today lads and ladies..
going OK.. not overly huge gains but something :)
I'm wondering if i have a couple sativa heavy strains going.. slow to flower.. but looking real good for 12 days
Just tonight I've changed both rooms AND light source.
I was up until 10 mins ago using a stock std 4000k high bay metal halide in a 3x2ft growspace(6sq/ft), and now the sunmaster in a 4x 1.5 spave(6sq/ft).. same floor space.. alternate shape.
The SolarMax Gold red enhanced halide bulb I mentioned earlier fell through.. then I found the SunMaster Warm Deluxe 400 watter @ 3000 kel' for the same $$.. and looks to be an even better lamp.
38k lumens compared to 36k on the solarmax..? 130 PAR..? same redish kelvin rating (colour) and for a MH setup?? schaweeet!!
any thoughts guys.. should perk things up a fair bit considering the change from 4000k to under 3000k for flowering, but apparently these lamps have a mint overall spectrum output.. great for veg and therefore a mint grow from start to finish :thumbsup:

apologies for the double post but i thought i had better illustrate the difference between light sources.. the following pic shows the std 400k on the right and 3000k left .. and 5 days apart :smokin:
Thanks all.. if not for you.. why would i bother posting?? no show ponies round these parts :cool:

The girls look to be saying that they like their new lamp :) How are your young clones doing now a few days down the track?

They're only just starting to root.. i haven't kept up temps very well so they're not as quick as the last lot

just noticed i put a bit of incorrect info for the sunmaster warm lamp.. its 159 Par watts, not 130 like i said

Well there's apparently more posting than reading going on 'round here these days..
sharing anyway :stoned:
2 weeks 2 days 12/12, i'm pretty happy so far.. we shall see
I'll be posting weekly updates from here on out

If things are chugging along nicely you may find that alot of people just read and enjoy.
Are you ever tempted to veg a bit longer and play around with some of the training techniques? I've been practising a bit this last round with topping and LST-ing after having done 2 quick sog grows for my first grows. It's alot of fun and likely will be well worth my time - hopefully lol.

now I know I said I'd be making weekly updates, but whatever.. :jointsmile:
these ladies aren't looking too bad at all

The girls are looking nice up close.. so much for weekly :stoned:

yum nice buds

:thumbsup: Growing very nicely. You'll be half way-ish along now :cool:

Just before I hacked these ladies out.. I figured why not take a few pics
Not a lot of interest in this log to begin with, so I gave up and figured I'd share the final stages

I'll post again once dried and cured to show final product..
cheers