TDubs tiny tent

[CrashMagnet]

I'll all about overkill when it comes to lights. I have 2 450W TS3000s in a 3'X4' grow room. Only time I dim them is when I can't control the heat. I'll do the same in the 4x4 tent as well when I get it. The plants grow a lot lower and denser than when I was using the one TS1000.

 

[T_Dub]

I'll all about overkill when it comes to lights. I have 2 450W TS3000s in a 3'X4' grow room. Only time I dim them is when I can't control the heat. I'll do the same in the 4x4 tent as well when I get it. The plants grow a lot lower and denser than when I was using the one TS1000.

Thanks CrashMagnet. Wow…That’s a lot of light!! I’ll follow your lead and try increasing intensity over the next few days. I’m afraid of burning them up with too much intensity. I’m running about 84 degrees with lights dimmed in the tent…this could get interesting.

 

[CrashMagnet]

Thanks CrashMagnet. Wow…That’s a lot of light!! I’ll follow your lead and try increasing intensity over the next few days. I’m afraid of burning them up with too much intensity. I’m running about 84 degrees with lights dimmed in the tent…this could get interesting.

I have the same problems with heat. I think the Girl Scout Cookies infested with spider mites I grew over the summer were damaged more by the heat than the mites : ) Now I have AC in the grow room, so they are maxed all the time.

 

[T_Dub]

Welcome to Day 1 of Flower for my Purple Ghost Candy. The other two have a few more weeks of veg.

My recent experience discovering that my 2x4 tent’s lighting was severely underpowered drove me to look more closely at my small 2x2 tent with the new 130 watt AC Infinity T22 Iongrid LED. This was always intended to be my “veg” tent, but I’ve decided to try a full grow here with my extra plant. In looking at the lighting, I wonder if this light actually has enough power to flower effectively.

I’m trying to follow the manufacturer’s instructions regarding lamp height. I have been running at close to recommended height (18”) and intensity (70%) during veg. They propose the same height and 100% intensity during flower! Here’s the map….that is severely underpowered for flowering! I tested with a lux meter and I was only seeing 30,000 lux when I want to see 60,000+. So I lowered the lamp to 9 inches above the canopy at 100% intensity. My phone is showing a DLI (Daily Light Integral) of 32 (25-40 is ideal in flower supposedly) at 9 inches and 12 hours of light.

I believe I am correct to use the light measurement tools (my lux meter and my Photon iPhone app) to dial in the appropriate amount of light….but how can the manufacturer recommendations be so far off? I must be missing something.

A look at the Purple Ghost Candy filling the SCROG…..and the lower light setting. She’s stretching a lot under the weak light. I tucked a few branches….and I’ll let her go for the day.

 

[SubmarineGirl]

I turn up my LEDs to full power as soon as the plants get a little meat on them during early to mid veg then leave them there till harvest. I’ve never tested my lights like you but do go over the recommended manufacture requirements. 18” space is great for me as long as I don’t start running out of room up top but my LEDs are cool running and my flowers have been 4” from the lights without a problem.

I am running both the Spider Farmer 2000 and the Maars Hydro2000

 

[oldfogey8]

.but how can the manufacturer recommendations be so far off?

You can flower under lower light levels. Bud development is just retarded(if I can use that word) if the level is lower(probably the main reason for your buds not being as dense as you want). As I am sure you found with your light meter, the lower the light fixture, the less homogeneous the light levels are especially as you get further from the ‘hot spot’ directly under the fixture. I run some ****** blurple LEDs in my tent. I have 3 of them in a 3x3 tent. That way the light from each fixture overlaps to (hopefully) give better uniformity at the canopy level.

 

[T_Dub]

I turn up my LEDs to full power as soon as the plants get a little meat on them during early to mid veg then leave them there till harvest. I’ve never tested my lights like you but do go over the recommended manufacture requirements. 18” space is great for me as long as I don’t start running out of room up top but my LEDs are cool running and my flowers have been 4” from the lights without a problem.

I am running both the Spider Farmer 2000 and the Maars Hydro2000

Thank you Submarine Girl. If you’ve been OK at 4 inches, then I’ll try the 9 inch spread at 100 percent and see if they start to show any stress. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen heat/light stress under my LEDs. You seem to get stellar results at whatever distances you are using, but it appears your lamps are more powerful too. If I could duplicate your results, I’d be thrilled. Thanks again.

 

[SubmarineGirl]

I would use the fact that they re stretching to not enough light or at least wanting more. I can’t afford a lot of stretch in my tents… thank you so much for you kind comments and good luck to you. Merry Christmas

 

[T_Dub]

You can flower under lower light levels. Bud development is just retarded(if I can use that word) if the level is lower(probably the main reason for your buds not being as dense as you want). As I am sure you found with your light meter, the lower the light fixture, the less homogeneous the light levels are especially as you get further from the ‘hot spot’ directly under the fixture. I run some ****** blurple LEDs in my tent. I have 3 of them in a 3x3 tent. That way the light from each fixture overlaps to (hopefully) give better uniformity at the canopy level.

That’s a good point OldFogey…..my corners are probably very dim with the lamp only being 9 inches away from the canopy. I thought i did well by upgrading from their 100 watt LED for 2x2 tents to their 130 watt…..it’s still not enough. Never enough power, is there? I hope it works out since this small tent could become my summer grow tent since it puts out a lot less heat. I have some side lights (25 watt) installed in the corners of the larger tent. I’ll move those over to the small tent to cover the dim sides.



Merry Christmas Eve to you Old Fogey!

I would use the fact that they re stretching to not enough light or at least wanting more. I can’t afford a lot of stretch in my tents… thank you so much for you kind comments and good luck to you. Merry Christmas

Yes, I thought this was my “healthiest” plant because of how fast she grew. Turns out, I think she was just hungrier for light than the other two.

Merry Christmas to you too!

 

[WeedHopper]

I'll stick to my HOT5s. Especially the new ones. Maybe spread a few Led tubes in the fixture.
I want mine down on the canopy. I get good tight buds that way.

 

[SubmarineGirl]

That’s a good point OldFogey…..my corners are probably very dim with the lamp only being 9 inches away from the canopy. I thought i did well by upgrading from their 100 watt LED for 2x2 tents to their 130 watt…..it’s still not enough. Never enough power, is there? I hope it works out since this small tent could become my summer grow tent since it puts out a lot less heat. I have some side lights (25 watt) installed in the corners of the larger tent. I’ll move those over to the small tent to cover the dim sides.

View attachment 315922

Merry Christmas Eve to you Old Fogey!



Yes, I thought this was my “healthiest” plant because of how fast she grew. Turns out, I think she was just hungrier for light than the other two.

Merry Christmas to you too!

May still be your healthiest plant. Looks like she wants to grow

 

[T_Dub]

Merry Christmas!

Today’s update is on the DNA Crew Godfather OG at week 8 since popping the soil. Im making a concerted effort to defoliate more often based on reading experiences from some people on this site. I don’t have it in me to do an extreme defoliation. Here she is before defoliation….



And after defoliation…..felt like I removed a lot of leaves, but she’s still bushy, but more bud sites are exposed.



These plants are trained to stay short with the quadline training, so I think I can squeeze another 2-3 weeks of veg out of them. If this Quadline training works as it should, my canopy should remain relatively flat under the lights after stretch. If it doesn’t work as planned, I guess I’ll be learning how to supercrop.



One last observation today. I am using a self-watering wick system. When combined with fiber pots, it maintains a moist growing environment in the bottom 1/3 of the pot. So far….I’ve been impressed with their simplicity and effectiveness. One risk with these wick systems is that the roots can grow into the wicks, but I have not experienced it yet.

Roots are already trying to grow out of the inexpensive fiber pot, while the more expensive AC Infinity is 3-4x thicker and not showing any roots yet. If you’re looking for a thicker fiber pots, the ACI are a nice option. They also have grommets for plant training. I’ll decide whether it’s worth the extra money during this grow.



Again, Merry Christmas!

 

[WeedHopper]

I use AC Infinity bags and they are awesome.
The handles don't last long out in the heat but not a big deal to me. Inside the handles would probably be fine but I was growing outside in Texas heat.

 

[T_Dub]

Training day today. The Godfather OG was defoliated yesterday and my final product looked nothing like the Quadlining threads. I determined that I need to stake down more branches or defoliate more, so I removed a few more fan leaves and staked down the smaller branches. Now it’s starting to look less bushy and ready for more vegetative growth for a while. I do like the built in grommets on the AC Infinity bags for low stress training.

Godfather OG after low stress training



Godfather OG maybe showing a little light stress? I reduced the lighting from 63,000 lux to 55,000 lux. Temps are averaging 77 degrees and humidity is averaging 66. My COB lights are 15 inches above the canopy and dimmed. I’m seeing no consistency using the Photone app to read par or DLI using my old iPhone 6s, so I’ll have to use my lux meter for measuring LED intensity.



LA Peyote Kush
Gave her a quick haircut, topped two branches and started Low Stress Training using short landscape spikes.



Still following the Lucas Formula and I’m currently at 5ml/g of Micro and 10ml/ g of Bloom. I’m in FFOF soil, so I’m hesitant to bump that number until I move to flower for fear of burning the plants. Less is more, right?

 

[T_Dub]

Today I’m in the middle of week 8 of veg, and I’m realizing that i should flip soon to maintain moderately-sized plants. I don’t want to overwhelm my tent, So, today will be the start of 12/12 lighting. Hopefully using this quadline training will keep a nice flat canopy after the growth stretch.

I don’t own a par meter, but my lux meter is specially calibrated for white LEDs. I increased the light intensity from 54,000 lux to 72,000 lux. I also reduced hours from 19 hours to 12 hours. That should provide a good DLI. I plan to increase to 77,000 lux if I don’t see any light stress. I’m still 15 inches away from the canopy. Today I’m monitoring for light/ heat stress every few hours.

 

[T_Dub]

This Purple Ghost Candy has been under 12/12 lighting for the past week. I’ve never attempted to grow a Sativa-oriented strain. Pretty amazing growth, and very easy to bend with my 90 degree plant clips. Loves the SCROG net, and seems to lack structure otherwise. It’s been fun to watch her grow, and the smoke reports for this strain are great as well. I would say this is like training a vine….whereas I’m accustomed to growing bushes. SCROG seems to be key with this strain, especially in my short 48” tent.

9 days ago vs today. I don’t even know where to start with defoliation, so I’m leaving her alone for now. There’s probably a lot of work needed here that I don’t see. I’m going to let her grow vertically for two weeks and clean up at that point. Perhaps I can find some small branches that should be removed before wasting energy on growth.




Still working to get more light around the perimeter of the grow tent. I have some cheap LED grow light strips on order from Amazon that will add 40 watts to the tent. Total tent LED wattage will be 130 main fixture, 25 watts for AC Infinity Side lights and 40 watts for cheap lights…..195 watts over 4 square feet of grow space. I’ll do more lux readings once installed.

Current tent setup with lights……at feeding time.



Full dose of GH Flora using Lucas Formula (8ml micro, 16ml Bloom) plus silica, CalMag and humic acid and EM-1. I’m not sure if the EM-1 soil conditioner does much with my wick feeding system, so I did a small top feed today. I REALLY like this Lucas formula that BigSur recommended…..simple and effective through veg. If this works through flower as expected, I believe I’ve found my new “go to” recipe, which I’m posting in my grow journal for future reference.

In summary, I used Lucas recipe in FFOF soil in 5 gallon containers. Always 2:1 ratio of Bloom to Micro.
Early Veg. 2 Micro / 4 Bloom
Late Veg. 5 Micro / 10 Bloom increased to 7 Micro / 14 Bloom
Flower 8 Micro / 16 Bloom
Notes:
Included 2ml/g of CalMag, Micro for Hardwater, humic acid, Seaweed Extract in veg, Silica in veg and stretch, homemade Terpinator in flower.

 

[T_Dub]

My next grow is under development and I’m excited to try some new growing technology. ( only new to me….old technique I’m sure)

I’ve been researching Sub Irrigated Planters (SIPs) for my next grow. They are supposed to provide growth rates closer to hydro without the hydro headaches that I can’t manage here. (leaks, high ppm tap water and warm reservoir temperatures).



I narrowed it down to two units, and I will probably buy both. The first is the Octopot, which holds 6 gallons of nutrients in the reservoir and 6 gallons of soil. I purchased two of these for the 2x4 grow tent. Based on my reading, I can run coco or soil using this system, so I may try my hand at coco again. They are 18” x 18”, so two will fill my 2x4 tent. These seem relatively rare, but the reported results from those users are all fantastic. So it will be a fun experiment, and I can ignore the plants for several days if needed.



I’m going to buy the 3-pack of these GroBucket inserts as well. These are much more common and are called GroBucket inserts by GroTech. They are added to a modified 5 gallon bucket. Each 5 gallon bucket uses one gallon of water and 4 gallons of soil.

One might be used in the 2x2 tent and the other two I plan to use to grow tomatoes on my deck.



One of my favorite parts of growing is doing it differently every time….just to see what happens. So far, three of the biggest changes I made for this grow are working out great! Quadlining training has been great for reducing height, the Lucas Formula has given me three very healthy plants, and the AC Infinity self-watering pots are working out great for two days of feeding (I wouldn’t go more than two days with these).

So the SIP test will start in March Im guessing as soon as the flower tent opens up.

 

[joeb631a]

My next grow is under development and I’m excited to try some new growing technology. ( only new to me….old technique I’m sure)

I’ve been researching Sub Irrigated Planters (SIPs) for my next grow. They are supposed to provide growth rates closer to hydro without the hydro headaches that I can’t manage here. (leaks, high ppm tap water and warm reservoir temperatures).

View attachment 316294

I narrowed it down to two units, and I will probably buy both. The first is the Octopot, which holds 6 gallons of nutrients in the reservoir and 6 gallons of soil. I purchased two of these for the 2x4 grow tent. Based on my reading, I can run coco or soil using this system, so I may try my hand at coco again. They are 18” x 18”, so two will fill my 2x4 tent. These seem relatively rare, but the reported results from those users are all fantastic. So it will be a fun experiment, and I can ignore the plants for several days if needed.

View attachment 316291View attachment 316293View attachment 316295

I’m going to buy the 3-pack of these GroBucket inserts as well. These are much more common and are called GroBucket inserts by GroTech. They are added to a modified 5 gallon bucket. Each 5 gallon bucket uses one gallon of water and 4 gallons of soil.

One might be used in the 2x2 tent and the other two I plan to use to grow tomatoes on my deck.

View attachment 316298View attachment 316292View attachment 316296View attachment 316297

One of my favorite parts of growing is doing it differently every time….just to see what happens. So far, three of the biggest changes I made for this grow are working out great! Quadlining training has been great for reducing height, the Lucas Formula has given me three very healthy plants, and the AC Infinity self-watering pots are working out great for two days of feeding (I wouldn’t go more than two days with these).

So the SIP test will start in March Im guessing as soon as the flower tent opens up.

very exciting! I use earthboxs and my first run (1 plant) did really well
these SIps's look great and looking forward to it !

 

[T_Dub]

very exciting! I use earthboxs and my first run (1 plant) did really well
these SIps's look great and looking forward to it !

I’ve read great things about Earthboxes too. Did you use soil or coco as your medium?

I’ve only grown in coco once and the amount of watering and waste turned me off. This might make it worth trying coco again.

 

[joeb631a]

I’ve read great things about Earthboxes too. Did you use soil or coco as your medium?

I’ve only grown in coco once and the amount of watering and waste turned me off. This might make it worth trying coco again.

I have only used soil . I use Coast of Maine
I am organic and getting my act together..( said that for 50 years so far )