# Continuous cycle 6 week grow lighting questions



## Nukem66 (Mar 26, 2015)

So im in the pre stages of planning a new grow room (or rooms) and I want to do a continuous cycle grow and try to harvest every 6 weeks so I plan on haveing three rooms or more so one room but sectioned off into three so light won't affect other rooms..to just kinda explain my question further I first need to say I plan on having a clone/mother space with prob a few t8 posably even t5 halogens to keep 2-4 mothers in constant veg state to make clones from (during week 3 of flowering to insure all my rooms are always being used)  in my flowering room (will be the biggest with 12 pot hydroponic bubbler buckets system) I'll be using 2 1000w hids (air cooled) I kinda want to run 3 of them but being you should only really hook two togeather for air cooling and cost on electricity and the light itself im going to stck with two for now unless I add 4 or so more pots down the line and test to see if another light could just be overkill....in my bf room is where I'm running into lighting questions..I know t5s seem to cause the plants to be fuller while young in veg and hps seem to make them grow taller but less full (most of the time anyway) but to acheave a 6 week cycle grow I need to have my veg room do 2 weeks of (pre)flowering and I plan to top them ether in week one or week 2 when I move them into the main flower room..anyway before I end up on more of a tangent..

My main question is what kind (wattage) light should I use for my veg room? I'm thinking use t5s or 8ts posably for the first couple weeks or maybe even till its time to start flowering them..or (im told once they get to a certain hight 18" or so the t5s and 8s don't really penetrate enough to get the bottom layers) so I might switch them over to mh bulb but I'm not sure if I could get away with one 600w or if I should use two or if I could even get away with using a 1000w demmable ballest with a wider shade and once I hit the 4 week Mark switch it to an hps bulb..so my question is is guess would it be ok to start them on the flower schedule with just a 600w hps or should I get a 1000w hps that's ddemmable down to 600w during flowering orrr if I should just use a 1000w during the veg and flowering..my main concern is starting them into flowering with less light than they will have in the main flowering room after 2 weeks of getting use to the new light cycle and prepair in them to bud..but I feel like 2 1000w hps for veg and prefliwering (two weeks) is kinda oberkill what would you sujest if anyone has there own continues 6week cycle set up or knows if I should be able to get away with just one 1000w demable ballest and a 600w mh bulb (or even maybe just a 1000w mh) after they get 18" or bigger and swap over to a 1000w hps for the two weeks preflowring and later move them into my flower room with two 1000w hps ballests...also note in my veg/preflower room I plan on using a closer togeather hydroponic method of growin the (so one light should be able to cover all of them)than when I transfer them to the man flower room they will each be in there own pot and more spreed out (the main reasion im swirling to two lights...


Also off topic has anyone used virtualsun lights or there fan/carbon filter setups..im mostly curious how well there carbon filters work for smell reduction and how loud there fans are..thank you in advance with any advise


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## Hushpuppy (Mar 27, 2015)

I haven't used the virtualsun stuff but let me give you my opinion on the veg/flower question. First, I would go with T5 6500k lights for the veg space. I would get enough light fixtures to achieve 4000 lumens per square foot of lighted space. This will give you great veg growth (especially if you are going to use hydro) and the plants will grow more compact.

Don't bother with trying to do a preflower lighting setup as that is not necessary and only complicates things. Depending on the size plants you will be growing and whether you will be doing SOG or what I call BOG (bushes of green), or scrog, will decide when you move them to flower. I generally will move hybrid plants that are sexually mature when they are 15-25" tall (depending on a few variables). if they are very Indica and you will be doing SOG, then you can let them grow to 25-30" tall before flipping (but that also depends on if the strain is a squat growing indica or tall growing indica). If they are more sativa type of plants that tend to grow larger and stretch more in flower, then you will want to flip them when they are only 15-20" tall.

You can move your plants to a flower space under the HPS and allow them to veg a little longer if they haven't quite reached the height you need but you are running out of room in the veg space. But remember with most strains, they will stretch when the flower phase begins and they could stretch from half as much again to 3x the height depending on the strain.

Keeping mother plants is a bit space consuming but sometimes necessary. I found the easiest way to do that is to hold out a "mother" plant for a couple of cutting runs then place her in flower at the next opening, and then start a new "mother" plant with the new clones. This keeps you from using up too much valuable space for keeping ever growing mother plants.

I would also try to have a separate veg space and a clone/young veg space so that you don't have very small plants vegging with larger plants that take up more room and could cause the little ones to stretch. I did this when I had 3 flower tents going on a continuous 3 week cycle. I recommend that you don't do less than a 4 week cycle as harvesting a pound of bud, cleaning the space and setting up for the next run every 3 weeks, while trying to take care of cloning and vegging plants was a grueling schedule to keep. At that pace, your whole life will revolve around the grow with little time for anything else.


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## The Hemp Goddess (Mar 27, 2015)

Lighting needs are figured by lumens per sq ft.  So what you will need for lighting will depend on the size you make your spaces.  For vegging, you want 3000 lumens per sq ft.  For flowering you want a minimum of 5000 lumens per sq ft.  Do not know where you heard that you cannot hook up more than 2 lights to one fan and filter, but that is not true.  Just make sure you buy a large enough fan and filter.  So the lighting you need for your vegging space will depend on how large your space is.  Ditto with the flowering space.  It does not matter how many plants you have in there--what matters is the sq footage of your space.  

I am a little confused by your plan?  You are going to start flowering in your vegging space and then moving to the flowering space later?  I don't quite understand this or is this the "preflowering" you are talking about?  Like Hush, I recommend forgetting that.  Veg in your veg space--flower in your flowering space.  When they are ready to flower, move to the flowering tent.  You will not have a harvest every 6 weeks, but, maybe I don't fully understand it, but I see problems with your plan.  Flowering plants generally take 8-10 weeks or more.  All the plants in the hydro system are going to need to be the same age and either be the same strain or have very similar growing characteristics, unless they are separate DWC buckets and not recirculating.  But I am thinking that you are talking about a recirculating system?  Can you give us more info on the hydro setup you plan on using and your plans to go from veg to the 12 bucket system?   

T5s are not halogens--they are fluorescent tube lighting.   You mention T5s and T8s like they are equal, but there is a huge amount of difference in efficiency and penetrating power between the 2.  I would forget about T8s altogether.   T5s actually have pretty good penetrating power.  And because the light (and heat) is spread over a larger area than a single bulb, you can get the lights very close to the canopy--2" or so.  T5 lighting is the preferred vegging lighting for many of us.

You do not want to use HPS to veg--it is wrong spectrum of light for good vegetative growth.  Red light encourages flowering or fruiting, blue light encourages good vegetative growth.       

I just worry that this may be a bit overcomplicated for a new grower and you may want to start slower.  Hydro can be kind of tricky.  And if you have a recirculating system, all your plants are at risk if you make one little mistake.  Getting a perpetual harvest going takes time and experience.  Even after years and years it is hard to maintain. 

Also, please forgive me, but I am an old lady and had a really hard time reading your post.  If you would make more sentence and paragraph breaks it would make it so much easier for us old folks to read.


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## DankColas (Mar 27, 2015)

Nukem66

Welcome to the group. I can't wait to see your grow set up. Sounds perfect. 

Green grow waves your way!


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## Nukem66 (Mar 28, 2015)

Thanks everyone this helped me out extremely..you both have a good point as well..maybe I'll just end up using the 5ts and veg for as long as they need..being ill have the three sep rooms I'll prob just set up two of them for flowering and get some t5s I'll just use them in whatever room is going to be in veg at that time and switch over to the 1000w hps..I keep changing  my mind constantly on what to get for my set up tho lol..im starting to really narrow things down tho with your extremely helpful advise..im tryin to not rush into it (but I'm so antsy lol) and try to really think it all out before I end up rushing and forgetting or not thinking something oht fully..due to space constrictions in my curent address I may just go with a 2 6 bucket hydro systems (one in each tent) and put a 1000w hps in each one and have 2 or three 4 bulb t5s that I can easily swap to ether tent (witch ever is in veg at the time) and when I want to flower I can just take out the t5s and switch on the 1000w hps..your both so right tho it could end up being to complicated trying to time everythg to harvest every 6 weeks if I forget one thing I could wind up with a shitty batch lol..so I'll play it by ear in veg and tweet the timing by how they are growing sence I'll have the two main tents I'll still be able to stager them and prob harvest every 8 weeks depending on how fast they grow..at fist I was planning a SOG but now I'm more leaning twords just waiting a bit longer for them to get nice and plump lol..in my clone/mother room i plan on haveing sep t5s for clones and mothers but being they will be in the same light cycle im now worring about keeping them in sep rooms but I plan on having a t5 and room for just the clones so I can get it nice and close to them..and having another one higher up in the other side of the tent for the mothers and have prob 4 mothers in permaveg lol..thanks again about the advise one the lighting too..I read on one form someone saying that not hooking up more then 2 lights and having your filter in a sep fan as well..it said you need to have the carbon filter sep Cuz you want the air to be sucked and in the hps lughts you want the air to be blowing through them..mostly becuse most inline fans can't handle having the heat from the lights being pulled through them it also said once you get more then two lights being cooled if you hook up a third one there's is too much heat being passed along to really cool a third..but that's kinda why I brought it up becuse it looks like most people don't really fallow those guide lines and seem to be working just fine..I was actually kinda thinking of doing two inline fans outside the two main tents and having each on split so I have one fan pulling air out from the carbon filter in each tent and one fan pushing  air through the two 1000w hps lights but I won't need to be a split line I can just run one line through both tents..that way I can have the carbon fan always running and curclating air and the fan hooked to the lights can be set on a timer with the lights and as long as I have the same light cycle for each tent (in the event that both tents are flowering but kinda unlucky so I can just keep one hps unpluged) I should be ok..but like I said I'm just trying to think out everythin I can..in the past I have jumped the gun a few times thinking I can just kinda get things as I grow and always ran Into problems lol so this time im trying to use all those failed attempts as a lesson on doing things right from the start lol..but some of it will still be kinda playing it by ear as to how long I'll let them veg and stuff like that..but I figured might as well start with 6 plants and stagger the grows in each tent so I'm not too overwhelmed at the start and I can always add to them in the future once I get everything down to a science


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## The Hemp Goddess (Mar 29, 2015)

I truly truly tried to read your post, but with no sentence and paragraph breaks, these old eyes just found it too hard to follow along.....


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## Baddestruffest (Mar 29, 2015)

Oh it isn't just you THG reading all that seriously made my head spin.


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## HighBrixMMJ (Mar 30, 2015)

He's all over the map, lol. I'm sure in his head it makes sense, but I'm really confused on this one! Can someone suggest him a good strain for ADD! Lmao.:rofl:


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## blondlebanese (Apr 3, 2015)

at least put a period at the end of it all.


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