Pot Belly's 70 watt HPS grow

[Pot Belly]

By chance do you know how many litres there are in a gallon?

Hey Thorn - for this purpose, it is close enough to say that there are 4 litres in a gallon. Something like 3.8, I think.

 

[Pot Belly]

i was just curious if you could switch the 70 to 150 like mine thanks for the answer i did use the 70 when i had the micro grow going they work great as you can see with yours i want to add mine in with my 400 but I'm worried about the electric bill:shocked: a 400hps and 150hps and eight cfls in the veg room think i would see a hike lol well grow on bro peace

Yessir, if I had my drothers, I would either switch to a 150, or add it cause you can never have too much light when they get to vigorously growing. Heat issues are concern the more light you add, and of course the electric bill, too. But I'm sticking with the 70 because I'm fine tuning my grow to grow exactly the same amount I consume. It also helps with my electric bill.

If I had a choice in your situation, and electrical lighting efficiency was the utmost of concern, I would add up all the lumens you get with your cfl's, and replace them with an equivelant HPS light. You'll see that your wattage for the HPS will be lower, giving you a break on your electrical consumption. You've got a large area to light, so you'll need the lumens, of course creating more of a load on your electic bill.

 

[Timmyjg6]

Lookin, nice.... So why do you wait 4 weeks to top? Cant you top earlier?

 

[Pot Belly]

Lookin, nice.... So why do you wait 4 weeks to top? Cant you top earlier?

Very good question. For several reasons...............

It's always good practice to never remove more than 1/3 of your plant at one time. By the time 4 weeks has passed, my plants are big enough to cut the main stalk leaving 4 to 6 nodes. It gives me a healthy cutting to root, or determine the plant's sex.

If the plant's sex is unknown, I use that cutting to determine it in my flowerbox. I just stick the cutting in some water, and within 1 week, I will find out if I am a proud dad of a female. If I have more than one cutting, it will be important to label each cutting to match with it's plant.

This way I get to keep my plant vegging, while training with the LST, and get it prepped to go into the flowerbox.:aok:

 

[Timmyjg6]

I see, so you just throw it some water, and place it under 12/12? It can survive long enough in the water to determine sex, i thought it took around 7-11 days to determine sex?

 

[Pot Belly]

I see, so you just throw it some water, and place it under 12/12? It can survive long enough in the water to determine sex, i thought it took around 7-11 days to determine sex?

Yes, the cutting goes in the cup of plain water with no nutes, and right into the flowerbox under 12/12. It does survive long enough. It might even start to root within another week, but sometimes the rooting won't take as energy in the cutting is split to making flowers, instead of just rooting.

I most always see flowers within 7 days. The males usually pop their cluster a day earlier than the females. This WW x NB strain produced a pistil visible with an eye loupe at 6 days under 12/12. Day 7 it was visible without magnification.

I'm sure some strains may require a few more days to produce flowers. Another issue with how quickly they show flowers is how well you have your flowerbox sealed from external light sources. A pinhole light leak is very detrimental to flower development during 'night'.

 

[Timmyjg6]

Wow, did-not know how sensitive they were, so pitch black is the best you can get? And when you take your cutting, why don't you just root it and veg it for a week then place into flower and let it finish up in there?

 

[Pot Belly]

Wow, did-not know how sensitive they were, so pitch black is the best you can get? And when you take your cutting, why don't you just root it and veg it for a week then place into flower and let it finish up in there?

You're getting it - pitch black is the best you can get.:aok:

My cutting is really a sacrificial investment to me. I could root it, and send it to flower, but the timing is off for me for that. I get what I need out of the cutting when she reveals her sex.

But you could do any number of scenerios with your cutting. Whatever works out for you.

 

[Timmyjg6]

Thanks bro... How often do you change strains??

 

[Pot Belly]

I wish I could try them all but that will never happen. Since I have one plant in flower at a time, I like to work with it and get to know what it will do-especially if it works for me.

Most of my grows have all been from bagseed - and I have learned from them. I am very satisfied with my Afghani strain that I have now. I have another strain that I'm working with now, and that's it for a long while.

 

[Thorn]

I hear ya buddy... I wish I could try every strain too but thats just never gonna happen! Mind you i'm still young so you never know... But hey, any weed is good weed

 

[Pot Belly]

I hear ya buddy... I wish I could try every strain too but thats just never gonna happen! Mind you i'm still young so you never know... But hey, any weed is good weed

Hey Thorn - You are doing a heck of a job on your grows. Keep it up and grow your own. Nuttin' like smoking your own and knowing it doesn't have any junk in it, and also you know you are not wasting good money on overpriced street weed.

Marijuana needs to be decriminalized as well as de-dollarized. Be a responsible personal grower and you are doing your part.:aok:

 

[MeNtAlPaTiEnT]

How's the plant lookin'?

 

[Thorn]

Hey Thorn - You are doing a heck of a job on your grows. Keep it up and grow your own. Nuttin' like smoking your own and knowing it doesn't have any junk in it, and also you know you are not wasting good money on overpriced street weed.

Marijuana needs to be decriminalized as well as de-dollarized. Be a responsible personal grower and you are doing your part.:aok:

Damn right bro well said! It sure does. And thanks for your kind words..i'm only on my well sort of 3rd grow. 1st i started 3 plants and got 2 females (one sativa, one indica just as i wanted to compare the difference (as back then i knew NOTHING lol)) didn't get much weight but it was damn good weed, second grow my big LST learning curve that turned out male lol and now my lowryders which will hopefully continue for a while, maybe even years, until i have my own place and can build myself a dank little set up and finally get to use my 150 watt hps with the knowledge i have now

Keep it growing my friend

 

[Timmyjg6]

Make a plan and stick to it!

 

[headband]

lets she hows shes looking update soon pleeeeeeasee please pretty pleease

 

[Melissa]

:yeahthat: carnt wait :tokie:

 

[Pot Belly]

lets she hows shes looking update soon pleeeeeeasee please pretty pleease

Alright guys - you'll get an update. I've been waiting till the site is running up to speed. I think it's finally fixed now. Tomorrow is update day. :aok:

 

[smokybear]

We will all be eagerly waiting to take a peek into the grow room my friend. Keep us posted. Take care and be safe.

 

[Pot Belly]

Here are some pic's for this week's update. Everything is doing well, and she's really growing.

We had a setback for 1 week though. I switched the light timer to manually 'on' to do some work when the light turned off, and forgot to set it back to automatic. So she had 24 hr light for one week without me knowing. (I never check on the garden during "night"). So unfortunately, flowering has been set back. That was two weeks ago. I don't think it caused too much of an issue with this plant since she was in week one of flower when it happened.

My Green Giant plant is ruined though. Quit growing pistils, and started to re-veg. It's nothing but a big handful of revegged funk. I let it go past the harvest "window" anyway. Live and learn.