What's new

Wanna Ask The Old Farts A Question?

ericcalif

Member
That chart is a little misleading in that there is nothing indicating at what point the light needs to be air cooled. I don't care what strain you are growing, unless you're growing in a freezer to control temps there is no way you're going to have a 1000W light 10 inches above a plant without damaging the plant unless the light itself is air cooled.

The numbers I gave in an earlier post is based on non air cooled lights by the way.

I couldn't agree more. I passed that along as a guideline and assumed that it was based on light intensity without considering temps and growing environment. (like open air in a room vs a cabinet or tent)

Myself I use a 400 watt hps in a homemade cooltube, with a few cfl's in the corners of the cab. When moving lights around and adjusting distance, I use my hand to judge temps between a light source and the closest vegetation. If my hand gets uncomfortable in a minute, I know the plant will too.
I think the value in that chart is a guideline for intensity, and then tweak distances from there based on cooling, size of area, ambient temps, etc. It's easy to miss but at the top of those charts is a statement that says 'this chart is in reference to the amount of light, not heat. Just noticed that...

Happy growing!
 
20100402-fd82kfma1gna4n77mxrrq6uib7.jpg


These are unsexed as of yet, should I top them now or wait till they are sexed, these are intended to be mothers.
 
I don't see why you couldn't top them. It will just make them bushier come time to take clones off them.

I read somewhere that as a general rule of thumb before doing anything you should wait for 2 things.

A few nodes.
A few set's of true leaves.

Both of which your plant has.

But, you may want to wait for a more experienced user to comment on it before taking any action.

I wouldn't want to get a reputation for giving bad advice.
 

Cindiwaa

Member
How far depends on two things mainly. The most important thing is how strong, the stronger the light the further it needs to be from the plant. The other thing is if it is air cooled or not using something like a cool tube or a air cooled hood (a hood that's closed off and with a fan blowing air thru it to remove the heat). If it is air cooled then you can get closer then the reccommended distance.

The recommended distance to have a HID above your canopy is:

400W = 12"
600W = 18"
1000W = 24"

Now if you have an air cooled light then like I said you can get closer because the heat is less but heat isn't the only consideration. Intensity is another factor and there is a point where the light can be so close the intensity of it at that distance can cause light stress aka bleaching which destroys the chloraphyll in the affected areas damaging the plant's ability to convert light to food. This aspect of things will be more determined by strain. Sativas for example tend to originate from equatorial regions where the sun is much more intense so they could probably handle a light being close better then Indica's that tend to come from regions where the light is less intense.

If a 1000W was just 80 degrees F putting it just inches from the canopy is very doable but you'll still have to worry about the intensity. Alas the only way a 1000W is only going to be 80 degrees is if it's air cooled. Uncooled, at the surface of the bulb they're probably in the ballpark of 500 degrees maybe even more. I'm not sure of the exact temp but just brushing your hand against a hot bulb for a second is enough to cause a 3rd degree burn.

I think you said it best with the intensity. I have a mystery plant gifted named THP(true humbolt purp) shortest squatish fatest leaf i have grown(ok still nopt even a year such a pup I am) and i put it in the middle of the light area and everythinjg around it doing great but it was showing light intensity stress so I moved it to the outside in hopes that is does well. Thanks again for the intensity tip that makes alittle more sense to me. I wish I could run one plant at 12 and one at 13 ect ect and do a comparison but I just need to make some meds for the family no time to mess around.
 

HempKat

Just A Simple Old Dirt Farmer
Veteran
Hello Experts,

Quick question. Does this manicuring look alright? I know there really isn't just one right way, but am I leaving on too much?



Thanks,
Gabs

I would say yes but that's based on my personal preference. You are right about there being no one right way but I could argue that you're wrong on that also. There is one right way it's just a matter of how you define right. That way would be the way that suits the tastes of the people who will be smoking it. There is nothing wrong with leaves per se, especially the ones covered in trichomes. I believe someone pointed out recently that not too long ago (the 60's thru the 70's) when you bought a bag weed, akot of what you got were leaves. If you're like me though and smoked that sort of stuff back then and seen weed on the streets evolve to what it is now, then you can take some of those leaves (with the triches), set them aside and let them dry. Then try smoking them and you should find that it reminds you of the weed of the past in that it has the same taste as that nasty harsh undertaste of the weed of your past.

So what I'm saying is I cut as much of the leaves off as humanly possible because I really don't want that nasty harsh undertaste in my smoke. However what I call a nasty undertaste someone else might find to be a good undertaste that enhances the whole experience. So you decide what you want your bud to be. The only exception should be those who grow for others. Like people who grow for med patients, they should try to work with the patients to find what works best for the patient's needs.

To answer your question though, yeah if you don't mind some leaf in the bud then you're manicuring looks fine. What will become more important after about a month of curing (if you choose to wait for the curing), is how does it smoke?

Anyway overall your harvest is looking good and I got some good news for you, it should only get easier from here on out.
 

HempKat

Just A Simple Old Dirt Farmer
Veteran
I think I follow you there, I think that's how I understand it anyway.
In other words, traits (what I ascribe to phenotype) such as rate of growth, more or less branching, flower size, etc... vary according to the parents used for breeding. But the short answer is species dominance can vary too when both indica and sativa were used in the first (F1) hybrid?
I guess I assumed that he traits would vary, but indica or sativa dominance would stay the same over generations.

None of this is particularly important to me personally as far as my garden, but just curious. And hopefully others gain something from the back and forth.
Thanks again !

Well to be more correct if this variation is showing up alot, then whoever bred the seeds didn't do a very good job stabilizing the cross. If he/she had done better then it should be like you say, the species dominence stays the same but maybe there are some other traits or characteristics that change.

It happens though, someone makes a cross and it produces a smoke that becomes popular and the demand makes it too hard to resist the urge to let it on the market before it's fully developed.
 
Ok so I have a question about the forum kinda... err... rather the avatar I should say.

Someone told me that I can put a picture of my dog up when I have 50 posts.

But I saw someone with 18 posts and they had a picture :( so what gives?

How can I put a picture in my avatar?
 

HempKat

Just A Simple Old Dirt Farmer
Veteran
I couldn't agree more. I passed that along as a guideline and assumed that it was based on light intensity without considering temps and growing environment. (like open air in a room vs a cabinet or tent)

Myself I use a 400 watt hps in a homemade cooltube, with a few cfl's in the corners of the cab. When moving lights around and adjusting distance, I use my hand to judge temps between a light source and the closest vegetation. If my hand gets uncomfortable in a minute, I know the plant will too.
I think the value in that chart is a guideline for intensity, and then tweak distances from there based on cooling, size of area, ambient temps, etc. It's easy to miss but at the top of those charts is a statement that says 'this chart is in reference to the amount of light, not heat. Just noticed that...

Happy growing!

Yeah the hand test is a good one, simple yet effective. :)
 

HempKat

Just A Simple Old Dirt Farmer
Veteran
20100402-fd82kfma1gna4n77mxrrq6uib7.jpg


These are unsexed as of yet, should I top them now or wait till they are sexed, these are intended to be mothers.

You could if you wanted to although I wouldn't do it just yet if it's not a space issue. The reason being that essentially each node represents the potential for two main grow tips. So without any other training a plant topped at the 8th node is going to have twice as many potential grow tips as one topped at the 4th node.
 

HempKat

Just A Simple Old Dirt Farmer
Veteran
I think you said it best with the intensity. I have a mystery plant gifted named THP(true humbolt purp) shortest squatish fatest leaf i have grown(ok still nopt even a year such a pup I am) and i put it in the middle of the light area and everythinjg around it doing great but it was showing light intensity stress so I moved it to the outside in hopes that is does well. Thanks again for the intensity tip that makes alittle more sense to me. I wish I could run one plant at 12 and one at 13 ect ect and do a comparison but I just need to make some meds for the family no time to mess around.

Well that's really a difficult thing to test for one person because for most people it would take a few years to do all the grows necessary to determine which distance is really best. Over time, even if you tried to keep everything the same you would have too many chances for environmental factors to subtly change altering results. Like the impact of changing seasons outside on things like temp and humidity in the grow room inside.
 

HempKat

Just A Simple Old Dirt Farmer
Veteran
Yea this grow I'm planning will have about a 100k budget if all goes according to plan.

Well this is just me but if I had a 100K budget to work with I'd just go find a place in the country where neighbors are so far apart you don't have to worry quite so much about things like noise and odor.
 

HempKat

Just A Simple Old Dirt Farmer
Veteran
Ok so I have a question about the forum kinda... err... rather the avatar I should say.

Someone told me that I can put a picture of my dog up when I have 50 posts.

But I saw someone with 18 posts and they had a picture :( so what gives?

How can I put a picture in my avatar?

Click the thing near the top of the forum screen that says My IC. On the page you go to, on the left hand side you should see "Settings and Options" under that one of the options says, "edit avatar" click on that and follow directions.
 
Well this is just me but if I had a 100K budget to work with I'd just go find a place in the country where neighbors are so far apart you don't have to worry quite so much about things like noise and odor.

Yea we've tossed that idea around as well, but I really don't want to live in the country... :\

That budget, btw, is strictly for the grow itself. Light's, ballast's, hood's and the generator are going to eat up more than half of that right away. The rest is for bills, remodeling the house for our floor plan, and about 25k left over for error.

Buying a house and that property like your talking about would probably cost somewhere around 300k. Which just isn't realistic for us right now. Unless that is, we found a few third parties to invest with us. This would only complicate things and lessen our profit though IMO.

100 is gonna be hard to get by the time we wanna start (Even with as close as we are now) but we have it worked out to where we should have a limitless budget within 5 years from now.

At that point I would be willing to purchase property like that. I agree it would be much safer than growing in one of the most densely populated cities in America, but, sadly, it's just not possible given our current circumstances.

Click the thing near the top of the forum screen that says My IC. On the page you go to, on the left hand side you should see "Settings and Options" under that one of the options says, "edit avatar" click on that and follow directions.

Thanks man

I'm gonna upload a picture of him right now. He will become a recognizable trademark for the PineyDoobey franchise.

-Pine
 
Click the thing near the top of the forum screen that says My IC. On the page you go to, on the left hand side you should see "Settings and Options" under that one of the options says, "edit avatar" click on that and follow directions.

It's only giving me a small list of avatar's to choose from. I want to use the picture of my dog. How can I make a custom avatar like it talks about?
 

albertwigs

New member
Well 3 - 4 hours is not great but then neither is a 150W that's good for 2 - 3 plants max, which may be all that is needed in this case. Here's an idea, why not supplement the indirect light hours with the 150W HPS? I want to know correct results.
 
Top