400watt hps Budbox grow!

[bigsby]

You might consider adding some safety equipment. I have an auto shut down / hot strike protection that covers the lights and fan. If temps go over 100 degrees it shuts everything down. If you have a fire you don't want the fan running... and if your room over heats for other reasons you don't want to kill your plants. Other items to consider - a smoke detector and a flame defender fire extinguisher.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

400watt hps lighting kit & Reflector
Extraction system & Carbon filter
4x15litre pots
1 bag of Plagron light mix
Digital Thermometer & Humidifier
Ph kit with ph up + down

The Nutes + addatives ill be using are:
FHD nutrients
Carbo Blast
Super B+
Micro-Grow-Bloom 3 part
Bud Start
The Heavies - Bud bloom
Ton O Bud

bigsby Reviewed by bigsby on 02-01-2012. 400watt hps Budbox grow! Im starting off my budbox grow next week when i get some clones from a friend. The budbox is 1.2m x 1.2m square with: 400watt hps lighting kit & Reflector Extraction system & Carbon filter 4x15litre pots 1 bag of Plagron light mix Digital Thermometer & Humidifier Ph kit with ph up + down The Nutes + addatives ill be using are: Rating: 5

[cairnzy]

Hey,
Thanks for your advice guys, Bigsby i was already wondering about safety measures i needed to take, how much roughly will it cost to setup this system?
About the nutes, the first feed on tuesday i mixed the nutes closely following the manufacturers diretions, only i added an extra 1 Litre of water to the Gallon to weaken the solution. As you know i'm pretty much new to growing except a couple previous autoflower CFL closet grows using no nutrients, this is my first HPS photoperiod grow using nutes and addatives so any tips or advice with feeding is greatly appreciated, Ive been a member of this forum quite a while now and ive learned alot from hours of reading through threads and stickys but haven't seemed to find much on feeding. The ladys should be due a feed tomorrow so ill give them some plain water until the next feed and maybe mix a whole new solution with half the reccomended doses.

Also since there are 4 plants in a 1.2m2 space would you reccomend i look into using the sea of green method, i have been following grow logs using this method and the results look great. Or maybe im better off keeping things simple until ive gained more experience.

Here is the only picture i have of the four plants this was taken before the feed on tuesday, ill take a new one later today as they seem to be very healthy.

At the back, on the right is the White Widow by Dinafem and the other 3 are Critical Haze by Resin Seeds (the white widow is less developed as the 3 critical haze possibly due to transplant stress)

Thanks for your time :thumbsup:

[cairnzy]

Quick updatte (pictures later) the plants are looking good, nice and bright lime green in colour and plenty of new budsites and new growth. Ill get some pictures laater tonight. Bigsby I've been looking into the auto shutdown systems and such and I think its a vital must have which I hadn't thaught about untill you mentioned. Ill be sure to buy everything needed. Also, as for the nutes and feeding after the first feed some of the leaves got slightly burned as you predicted, I took on board everythinng you said and used 1/4 of the reccomended doses for the last feed and they seemed to react much bettter than the first time.

[cairnzy]

I have searched for people growing critical haze and can't seem to find any useful info on how much they stretch after the flip, all I know is they grow tall The plants have been in veg for 3 weeks now. They are roughly 12" tall. I was going to flip to 12/12 a week today. As for the scrog method I think ill wait until next time to try out simply because I have more researching to do and wouldn't like to take any risks. Would you reccomend trimming lower growth before flipping to flower even if scrog isn't being used? Only I've read mixed reviews on doing so. Thanks for your time ill get some pics uploaded asap

[bigsby]

Go ahead and scrog. It's easy. You'll do fine. I ran a scrog from my first grow. Just go with it. You won't be sorry. As for trimming, it depends on your light. If you are running 400w or less then yes. If more, then no need.

[cairnzy]

Right, ill go for it. I've been looking on Grow FAQ's and can't find any posts on sog so do I start by LST'ing the ladies or is this not needed? Tonight when I get home ill find as much info as possible on the topic and see how I get on as I'd rather know what im doing so I don't feel as though I'm being carried along the way. I know sog is used to keep the canopy even meaning light can penetrate evenly throughout. With the plants being so short still how heigh would you reccomend I fix the netting? And when should I do so? As I mentioned in the last post the plants are all roughly 12" tall and I plan to flip in a weeks time. I've tried keeping the light as low as possible to reduc eany stretching, I read on a thread that some strains can double in size after switching to flower so in a week I could fix the netting roughly double the size they are at the time maybe lowe rand raise the light so all growth reaches the netting. Does this sound ok to you? And again thanks for your time and concern, much appreciated

[cairnzy]

The Critical haze plants are really filling out! only at 3 weeks old and theyre already on their 8th alternating nodes, The Cheese not as developed on only its 5th or 6th alt nodes. Heres a couple of pictures of all 4 of the plants sorry for the poor quality i didnt have much of a chance to take them out of the tent to snap some pics. 3 x Critical Haze (square pots) and 1 x UK Cheese (round pot)
the UK cheese was given to me by a dumb ass friend who was convinced he could grow 6 full size plants in a 1m2 growtent! it is only days away from being the same age as the 3x critical haze.
Temps on averge are between 72 and 78 and humidity is ranging from 25-50 percent.
Today im going out to look for some netting for the SOG, im not sure on weather to buy netting with 2" holes or 4", maybe ill buy a legnth of each.

[bigsby]

Just keep reading. You're on the right track. Self educate rather than relying heavily on the advice of others... That said, I'll give you my input. Decide if you are going to sog or scrog and then read all you can. You want to have your screen in place in time for the flip or shortly there after. You can start training in veg by LST the main stem after 5 weeks or so and then put them under a screen before they get to flower. That's an option which helps manage growth in the right direction. It is certainly not a requirement. Don't do any LST, topping, etc. for a week before you flip. They will start growing 3 - 4 days after the flip and they won't stop for 20 - 30 days. Stavia's stretch more than indicas. Plan for at 3x stretch so you can accommodate any strain. A popular technique to build a scrog screen is to constructed a frame out of 3/4" PVC. Then zip tie a screen in place made from 2" x 3" plastic coated rabbit fencing. Other sized will do but best not smaller than 2". Do not be tempted to use chicken wire. It can rip up the plant stems. The screen can be fitted to the wall by sitting the frame on a few bits of 2x4 screwed into the wall. I don't have experience implementing sog but the concepts are similar - spread the plant to achieve an even canopy and better light penetration. Scrog will be shorter by definition.

I took a look at the album you posted under your profile and left you a message. Have a look!

[cairnzy]

ok bigsby thanks for your advice and ill go for the SOG and get the screen fitted sometime this week, as im growing in a tent im thinking i could ziptie each corner of the screen to a pole in each corner of the tent keeping it in place. The critical haze is a cross between barneys amnesia haze and a vigirous Critical mass male and is mostly sativa 60/40 meaning its likely to grow tall, so i planned on flipping tuesday (week 4) to avoid plants stretching too tall, what do you think? Ill check out your message now

[bigsby]

You can also build a frame from PVC piping but 3/4" will be too flimsy. Better to go with 1 1/2" if you go that route. 1' tall is a good size plant. Let us know how it goes!