Changing lights during flowering?

[Gobwats]

I have been growing under CFL's with T5's up till now with fair results, but grew tired of seeing all those beautiful buds down lower on the plant that never get the chance to grow to their full potential, so I am upgrading to an air cooled 400w HPS for flowering. Seems no matter how many fan leaves I keep pruned back, the fluorescents just don't have the penetration power; great top buds but everything below the canopy stays small.

My current grow is in week 6 of flowering and all I am waiting on as far as the light goes is the exhaust flanges for my grow tent. If I go ahead and make the switch over to the HPS setup next week, during week 7 of flowering, how should this affect my grow? I damn sure don't want to ruin a crop this close to harvest, but I would really love to see those lower flowers gain some mass. I can make the change out without disturbing the grow setup or the plants, just curious if the change in the type of light will have a positive or negative effect on the girls.

Many thanks in advance for the wise wisdom always gleaned from the more advanced growers on here, you guys rock.

 

[Hydro Cabbage]

more light will always have a positive effect, but not sure if you will notice a difference this time since you are so close to harvest.

 

[Sky-King]

............

 

[dj.scotfree]

more light will always have a positive effect, but not sure if you will notice a difference this time since you are so close to harvest.

I would have to agree... I don't know if it will make a huge difference this late...but... I happen to use the switchable ballasts...so I just switch from metal halide to high pressure sodium about week one of flowering. I would still try switching it though...It can't hurt anything...you didn't post if you know the flowering time...so It could be sativa dom. and you would still have 3-6 more weeks... I would try it bro!


OOOOOPS I thought you meant MH => HPS, not CFL => HPS..... I would wait until your next grow bro!!! Good luck & happy harvests!

 

[yamaha_1fan]

I agree with the other posts. You probably wont see any difference this late into flowering, but it wont hurt.

 

[tejashidrow]

CFL's rock with the proper growing techs.
Yah mun, yah proble wont be seeing mucha diff.
But who know mun?? Do try and den tell us, NO LIE!!! pax

 

[junior_grower]

Switch and keep the CFL's lower down to get some extra light on those lower sites.

 

[Gobwats]

Appreciate all the replies, looks like the light will go in next week once I have the exhaust flanges for it. I was not so much concerned with drastically improving this crop, although I do hope those lower flowers get a bit more light and grow a bit larger and denser like the upper canopy; I was more concerned with causing any damage this close to finish. Not sure of the strain as these started as bag seed, then one of those got pollinated by a hermie, and you grow what you have that you think will do the best (I do have some killer strains to try out with the future grows thanks to a friend who is also a breeder.) These start off very Indica dominant, but they flower more like a Sativa (I know they have some WW in them, but what percentage and what else I have no clue.) Based on how the mother plant did, I'm looking at harvesting somewhere between 10-12weeks (based on how they look right now they have a good 3 weeks left in them.)

Wish I could rig the 125CFL's down lower, but it's a bit cr7sc\v for space in there.

 

[george j warner]

week 7 will make the indvidual buds tighter but not a collection of buds , because it has already stretched ... it will probally add to the weight a bit and if i were you id push the plants 1 more week than normal too push the extra trichs with the higher light .

but your next grow your'll see a massive difference : )

 

[Gobwats]

week 7 will make the indvidual buds tighter but not a collection of buds , because it has already stretched ... it will probally add to the weight a bit and if i were you id push the plants 1 more week than normal too push the extra trichs with the higher light .

but your next grow your'll see a massive difference : )

Thanks George. I wanted to give these a bit more time than the last crop, as those later buds taken from the mother were actually better than the harvested tops. That first grow was from seed that was not stabilized (had a lot of variation between plants) but every plant grown from this batch has grown and looked just like its sister (and I achieved 100% germination and they all turned out female, talk about blind luck!) I'll probably start thinking about flushing somewhere along week 10 or 11 for these girls. I just want these harvested and smokable so I can get the next grow going; planning on some Blueberry, God Bud, and Purple Train Wreck...my first venture with anything other than bag seed in over 30 years of growing, lol, it is really great to make friends in the seed business

Took some pics last night to show where they are right now, but they are all too large to upload; I'll try resizing and upload them later.