Time to flower?

[Kefner]

Long time lurker, first grow...

I have 6 plants with about 6 nodes or so at 10-12" tall. From what I've been reading on this forum is they are stretched. I've been using 4 of the 100w daylight CLF's and a 64w Coralife 6500k blub. I know I'm under the lumens. I have a 1000w HPS for flowering that I just picked up. (Next run will be 1000w MH)

Question is, should I switch to flowering now? I also plan on doing this as a scrog and was thinking of fimming the top and then lst those shoots on the screen. My grow space is 48" x 32" x 84". I know they will continue to grow while in flowering, but I don't want to jump the gun if I need to wait a bit more.

More about my setup
DIY Ebb & flow in 5 gallon buckets.
Luca formula for nut schedule

Thoughts?

-Kef

 

[7greeneyes]

EDIT: Have they expressed their preflowers/gender yet? Why not use all those cfl's for cloning and very small younglings, and put the six u got ready under the 1kwhps (set to veg) to fill out a bit b4 flipping?

eace:,

7greeneyes

 

[Kefner]

Whoops, forgot to mention they are clones.

My plan is to take those CFL's and make a mum/cloning cabinet. The lumens aren't that high on them though. My thought is to use a 1k MH when the clones graduate to the grow cabinet, then use the 1k HPS to flower when the time comes.

Will the 1kHPS be ok for veg still? I would prefer to have just 1 blub if I can get away with it and use the money for other things as they come up. But I'm not opposed to spending the money when I need to for the right product.

I'll take some pics tonight and post them up.

 

[7greeneyes]

oh yeah, 1kwhps will be SCHWEEEETNESS. More lumens = greater production, no matter what stage of growth they're in. Preferably MH for veggin' and hps for bloom...

I know a few growers that use stricly hps for veg and grow but then personally, I've noticed more lush compact internodal growth w/ the blues of the mh. To each their own and whatnot...

 

[The Hemp Goddess]

If you have a digital or convertible ballast, I would recommend buying a 1000W MH bulb and vegging with a MH. If you are running a magnetic ballast, just go with the HPS bulb, at least for the time being. Down the road, you may find you want to set up separate vegging and flowering spaces and need another light. I recommend T5s over MH for vegging if you buy another light system for vegging.

You are also going to have to decided on a growing style....are you going to scrog....or fim....or lst? All these things should be done in veg. If doing a scrog, you need a screen and a whole lot more veg time. If you are going to fim, do it before they go into 12/12. If you are going to lst, start it now and let them veg several more weeks.

Pictures would really help. Do you have ventilation set up in your space yet? Do you have an air cooled reflector? A 1000W HPS puts out some heat.

 

[Locked]

Some pics wld be sweet....

 

[Kefner]

Thank you all for replying.

THG- I was thinking of doing a combo of fimming and scrog. I figured the extra shoots from the fimming could be used to fill the screen faster. If that isn't a good idea, I'll just ditch the screen as I fimmed them last night.

Right now I'm using the 26w 5000k CLF's and the 65w CFL 6500k. The lumens on the 26wers is 1500 per blub. Not sure on the 65w.

I purchased a 1000w switchable ballast, 1000w HPS blub, and hood with 6" vents on either side. I don't have a fan unit right now (for cooling), but the nights are still cold here (40-50) and was thinking of using that to my advantage and running the HPS for flowering during the coolest parts of the night. The days are 75-80. Figure the residual heat from flower would ride into the day thus keeping the temps the same roughly.

I also built my own cabinet (i'm not a woodworker by any means and it's a little rough). But I sketched it out in Google's Sketchup. Been using that to plan my growing space. After this grow, I'm planning on a mum/cloning/veg cabinet, and using this one just for flowering. I too was thinking T5's in the mum/cloning/veg one instead of the CLF's I have now, or rather in addtion to...

I agree pics are nice...I'll start a grow journal this weekend and link back to this post with it.

-Kefner

 

[Hushpuppy]

I would recommend that you keep the screen for the scrog but don't do a scrog. Instead, since you fimmed them, let them grow another week and then set the screen over them so that they can grow up through it. Use the screen to spread out the branches that are going to come shooting up. Give them a good dose of nitrogen right away as they will need a boost for the FIM growth that they are going to kick out.

before you fire up that HPS light you need to get an inline fan and hose so that you can remove the heat that the light will generate. You have to get the heat out of the enclosed hood and grow space or it will shorten the life of the bulb and build serious heat in your grow cabinet real fast. You have 2 weeks max to get that straight before the plants get too big to manage.

 

[The Hemp Goddess]

You are absolutely going to need some kind of ventilation (exhaust) fan. You need a continual supply of fresh air all the time the lights are on for proper photosynthesis. I would recommend a 6" centrifuge type and a speed controller to go with it.