800w in a 4x3 one plants turning hermi. help

[mdk ktm]

Hey guys and girls. I gotta ask for your opinion on what to do. Alright so heres my set up. 2 aircooled 400w hps in a 4x3 area. temps at night reach 69 as a low and 86 as a high during daytime. 2 oscillating fans going 24/7 and a 4" vortex running when lights on and on for fifteen minutes every four hours during lights off.

I started with 15 seedlings and now im down to 4 females and one im pretty sure turned hermi. I decided to run bagseed this first run until i get the cab dialed in a little bit. But god damnit this sucks. I should have just bought some cheap seeds. Oh well enough bitching. I have some nirvana northern lights, some big buddah blue cheese, and some freebies off attitude on their way.

Anyway what do you think about the set up, and i have a few shots of the balls on the plant in question. Theyre not in alot of places, but theres a few. Should i kill it, or let it go and see what happens. Will running 3 plants under 800w even be worth the time or should i just scrap them all and run my new seeds when they get here

thank you in advance for any replies

 

[MasterGrower]

Personally I'd cull it.

Your temps are too hot aswell imo. Maybe why she hermied. Low temps sound fine but 86 consistantly is not fine.

Good luck with your fix

 

[mdk ktm]

hmmmm yeah im probably going to have to give the tranny the axe. 4oz of some poopy nugs is better than 6 oz of some seedy buds. And im working on the temps, im in the process of drilling holes in the plywood bench they're on to let some cool air get pulled up through, if that doesnt work i will just get the smallest little dayton blower for intake, that will drop temps a good amount. Anybody have experience with the small dayton? I looked at them, and dont get how to hook the ducting up to it. Also is the noise comparable to the 4" vortex?

 

[MasterGrower]

Do you run extraction from the actual room itself aswell as the lights??

 

[mdk ktm]

Just the 4" vortex that cools the lights. for the small size of the closet i thought it would be enough, i think my problem is that i dont have enough intake and the platform i built is blocking too much cold air from getting pulled up. The air temps from ground level have to be in the low 60s and will most likely get colder as the frigid weather is approaching fast.

 

[MasterGrower]

IMO opinion.....extract extract extract. Your room is filled with stank mouldy air. You need regular extraction and intake. And almost as important is internal circulation which i see you've got covered.

Running your vortex through the lights during lights off is pointless. Get a "y" section for your fan and run a duct into the room itself aswell as the lights.

 

[mdk ktm]

the light on the left has the open air cooled fitting on it, and when i put my hand near i can feel alot of air getting pulled through. I figured that would pull any air around it through the lights and exhaust it through my filter in the ceiling above the closet. Im confused by where to run the ducting if i put a y on my vortex.

Thanks for the advice man, i need to weigh the options and decide what to do. Im almost positive i need to hook a small dayton below the platform and push the cold air up on the opposite side of where the vortex sucks through the lights. I run the exhaust fan when lights are off to suck some the stinky air out and push it through the carbon filter so the smells dont seep through the cracks and what not. Would you like a picture of the bottom side of the set up to see what im working with?

 

[mdk ktm]

first pic shows how i made the platform on top of the water pump
second pic is the back corner of the right side, where i would probably run the intake ducting through.
third picture is the fan shows where it exhausts too
fourth pic is the exhaust right before the carbon filter which is sitting above the ceiling.

 

[MasterGrower]

On picture three you would put a y to the left of your fan. One duct directly into the room and one duct to your lights.

IMO because you have a smaller cab it is more important to clear the air properly.

Are you running air through your lights from an external source or are you just sucking air into the lights from the room and out? Cant see form your pics.

 

[mdk ktm]

just sucking the air through the lights, im getting extremely limited on space. and wouldnt running another duct off the vortex just suck the cool air straight out of the room. i want the cool air to constantly be coming up into the grow area and then get pulled through the lights to cool them additionally. I guess im just not understanding the whole two duct exhaust system, do you possibly have a link or something that shows it lowering temps effectively. I just dont think my small vortex, which is already sucking through 2 lights and a carbon filter, has enough cfm to divide it in half and still effectively cool the lights. I could be wrong though, as this is my first run with these sun system hoods.

 

[MasterGrower]

You should run air from outside your cab through your lights and then out again.

Your effectively heating the cab and then sucking the warm air through the lights not actually cooling them. hence your high temps.

Do this and I think it will sort your temps out.....

apologies for the pic i knocked it up quick.

The red is ducting the yellow light the blue your y section the green your fan. hope you get the picture!!!

 

[mdk ktm]

the way my room is im not sure if i could really do that as i cant put a bunch of holes in the dry wall. I did a horrible sketch of the room. to show how it is, and my idea of bringing in cold air. Sorry if im asking too many questions about the idea, i just havnt seen it in action, and the extra space another duct would take up would make the room even more cluttered. Hopefully a couple more people might chime in with ideas i want to solve the problem first try and not have to experiment a few times.

 

[Mr. Greengenes]

Ok, but some of my advice will be unconventional. First, though I vent my room, I haven't blown fans on my plants in more than 25 years. I don't think it does anything other than make plants more sensitive to high temperatures by forcing excess transpiration. I don't agree with the theory that it strengthens stems. It also makes the likelyhood of a room full of seeds from a stray male flower MUCH more likely, an important consideration for someone like me who only grows to support his breeding habit.

Secondly, it's important to remember that though there is certainly a strong genetic influence in the creation of hermies, there is also an environmental one, and it's nearly impossible to seperate the two even in the most controlled grows. We often blame light leaks, but they're just the tip of the iceberg. In my experience, overly intense light towards end of flowering is a big influence. Also, excess N can cause it. The list of variables is probably, like most natural systems, endless.

What I would do is; get the room well vented, ditch the direct fans, pluck of those hermie flowers by hand and keep a sharp eye out for more on the same plant.

 

[mdk ktm]

i just added a 130 cfm dayton for intake a few minutes ago and i already culled the plant in question, a little bit of regret,but ohwell. I will take your advice and ditch the oscillating fans as 25 years of growing is alot longer than ive been alive haha. Im thinking the bad mexi brick genetics are part to blame. the bud could have came off a hermi so you never know, the hermi might not even be my fault. Next run will be northern lights and big buddha blue cheese,

I might just scrap these plants when i get my seeds. Why waste another 7 weeks on this shit. Im only growing these now to get the set up dialed in a little bit, so when i get seeds i dont fry them. So this run is pretty much all in fun nothing serious. Now next run, i want to make it the best possible.

What crosses are you going for at the moment Mr. greengenes. Lastnight i had a dream hoping one of my fem seeds is a male so i can make northern lights x blue cheese havnt seen anyone do it and thought it might be a good one.

 

[medmaker420]

are more balls showing all the time?

have you tried pulling what is there and to see if MORE pop up?

Sometimes it could be a one time hermie due to stress and it doesn't come back. If it gets worse then pull them.

Either way you odds are will have SOME seeds in that cab whether you see it yet or not. Either way it will be good smoke and bagseed can be a bitch because usually they are from hermie seeds and not simply stressed hermies.

If they are quality strains though breed the hermie out of em.

 

[mdk ktm]

over the past week i ripped balls off several spots, so the balls pictured werent alone. The plant got taken out back and chopped lastnight. I think i pulled it out before it busted a load in the cab. I figured it wasnt really worth it. i just tied one of the plants down a little to take up more space, and give all the branches some light to hopefully make up for losing a plant. 3 plants under 800w is pretty sad haha. I would like to scrog next run but i have alot of research to do first. Getting a full even canopy in this space is going to be key to getting the most out of the small space.

 

[BigPhil]

i reccon u should be able to fit 4 plants pritty easy under each of your 400w lamps, somthing like 7.5 liter pots, in the future im planning a 12 plant grow with some critical mass in 7.5 liter pots under 1 600W

 

[mdk ktm]

yeah the closet isnt full enough with the 3 plants, when i flipped to 12/12 i was expecting 7 females and then cull if any were too small. but i ended up with 3 females out of 15 seeds, pretty shitty. Waste of time, space, dirt, light. im thinking next run is going to be 3 northern lights fems, 2 blue cheese fems, and either a lemon skunk or a power kush, not too sure yet.

oh and i hooked up a small dayton blower for intake, and temps dropped down to 77-79

just a quick question, where do you guys keep your thermometers? i put mine about 8 inches under the light so im not sure if im getting the right temps.

 

[mdk ktm]

just snapped a couple quick pics before lights turned off. umm i cant find my notepad, fuck. well its probably about day 10 since first budsites.

does anybody know how to just put the pics into the post instead of linking them like this?

 

[BigPhil]

i have one hanging at hight of top of the plants, and one at base of pots.

i have 2 lemon skunks going now, i started 12-12 when they was 13inch, now one is 43 inches and the others 39inch in 3 gallon pots, these ladys are tall and thin very satvia looking, if hight is an isue id go with a more short bushy plant