How to get my light closer to my plants?

Ingski

Active member

• May 31, 2015

• #1

So up until my last transplant my plants had been on a bench which allowed the light to get plenty close. Yesterday did my final transplant before flower and now the plants are too big for the bench...

Are there adjustable stands that you guys use or should I get more 6" duct and just let my light drop lower until they start growing up?. I was under the impression that the more bends in the duct the less air movement. I have a ~420CFM fan hooked up to an air cooled 600w for my 4x4x7 grow tent so it may not even matter at all because the fans so large... What do you guys think?

 

JamieShoes

Father, Carer, Toker, Sharer

Veteran

• May 31, 2015

• #2

I use upside down plant pots for "adjustable stands" more pots, more height ...

 

ChaosCatalunya

5.2 club is now 8.1 club...

Veteran

• May 31, 2015

• #3

Yes, like Jamie says, improvise. 2"/cm polystyrene boards can be chopped into pot sized squares easily and it is usually a productive idea to keep the plants around the edges higher up than the middle ones, so you grow a stadium of buds, not a hill. If you plant a flat, even canopy, you usually grow a "hill" but fuck up your total yield by giving the outer plants less light. By raising them, they take nothing from the middle, but get plenty of side light.

Scrog grows are another simple way to do this, force the bud growing sites into the perfect Stadium shape for max yield.

 

Ingski

Active member

• May 31, 2015

• #4

I would love to do a scrog grow, but this time around I have males and I'm around ten days from flowering. I've heard it's hard to do if you have to sex the plants.. I've just been topping them.

 

JamieShoes

Father, Carer, Toker, Sharer

Veteran

• May 31, 2015

• #5

it's defintely advisable to use clones or fem seeds when scrogging mate

 

Ingski

Active member

• May 31, 2015

• #6

I'm going to take some clones so I can do it next time around. It is a bit extra work through the regular seed route, but it's not all in vain!

 

ChaosCatalunya

5.2 club is now 8.1 club...

Veteran

• Jun 1, 2015

• #7

Ingski said:

I would love to do a scrog grow, but this time around I have males and I'm around ten days from flowering. I've heard it's hard to do if you have to sex the plants.. I've just been topping them.

Click to expand...

You can do a scrog without a screen..

Simply train the tops of the plants over using weights and bits of string, etc. etc.
Force them into 4 heads, trim the rest off, flower.

Like this, you have 4 heads of each plant in the "magic production zone", not one.

Once you have identified females and seen which is stretching like mad, order your garden and then, if you want, put a screen (or 6" bean net) over them. Often best stretching the net between poles/bamboo, not fixing to a specific point. If you fix the net hard, it can cut into the plants as they stretch, pinged between poles, it is easy to shift the net/screen up to accommodate.

 

V

vostok

Active member

Veteran

• Jun 1, 2015

• #8

Porno magazines, vhs box, bluray ..dvd case ...even books to prop that plant closer, bricks are best

 

Ingski

Active member

• Jun 7, 2015

• #9

I actually haven't needed any stands after all. They were a bit far from my 600W initially, but they have EXPLODED in the last week. Gone from about 14" to 24" in the last 8 days, and boy have they bushed out. I'm actually having to switch them into flower today, earlier than I expected by 3-4 days, I'm worried they will get too big for my tent.

I am very surprised at how fast they grew this last week in their new soil... This is my first serious grow, but I haven't experienced any transplant shock... Each time these guys switched pots they have loved it and not looked back. Must be doing something right.

 

X

Xephier

• Jun 16, 2015

• #10

I'm surprised that no one else has mentioned this but why worry about adjusting the hight of the plants, it's much easier to adjust your light.
There's adjustable hooks that you can get but if you don't trust those then you can always hang your light from a length of chain then just adjust the chain as needed.

 

DoubleTripleOG

Chemdog & Kush Lover Extraordinaire

ICMag Donor

• Jun 16, 2015

• #11

Xephier said:

I'm surprised that no one else has mentioned this but why worry about adjusting the hight of the plants, it's much easier to adjust your light.
There's adjustable hooks that you can get but if you don't trust those then you can always hang your light from a length of chain then just adjust the chain as needed.

Click to expand...

That works. But when you adjust the individual plants, you can have a nice even canopy with multiple strains. With moving the light, if some grow tall real quick, the other shorter ones aren't gonna get the intensity of the light that they need.

 

Hammerhead

Disabled Farmer

ICMag Donor

Veteran

• Jun 16, 2015

• #12

I do the same as JS does. Different sized pots will raise them until they start there stretch then removed when needed. Can't lower the lights when other plants are 7' tall.

 

X

Xephier

• Jun 16, 2015

• #13

DoubleTripleOG said:

That works. But when you adjust the individual plants, you can have a nice even canopy with multiple strains. With moving the light, if some grow tall real quick, the other shorter ones aren't gonna get the intensity of the light that they need.

Click to expand...

I actually ended up raising my light up a bit so that it would cover more area. Granted it may not be the most efficient way of doing things, I could look for ways of putting my smaller plants in between my larger ones then lowering the light but I didn't wanna headache around with it, all the plants are still getting light so this works for now. Ideally on my future grows I'd prefer to have different grow spaces for my different sized plants.

 

Ingski

Active member

• Jun 16, 2015

• #14

Xephier said:

I'm surprised that no one else has mentioned this but why worry about adjusting the hight of the plants, it's much easier to adjust your light.
There's adjustable hooks that you can get but if you don't trust those then you can always hang your light from a length of chain then just adjust the chain as needed.

Click to expand...

I just had too much of a bridge to gap initially with it tied into my ventilation. The pplants shot up quickly though. It was really only too far away by a bit for a day or three.

 

OldGuyInOregon

Member

• Jun 16, 2015

• #15

I use scrap pieces of 2x4", and then scrap pieces of 1/2" plywood. To grow scrog style without a net, water as usual, mist heavily, then just bend the branches where you want them to go. If the branches are wet enough, they will not snap, but once you get good at it they will stay (mostly) in that position, and if you repeat tomorrow they will likely remain in place. I have buds growing sideways and in one case upside down this way. The plants love it.


The most overlooked feature in a small grow is the ability to adjust the lamp height. For example, if you are running HPS and should be 8" off the canopy, but you are actually 12", you are missing more than half your light intensity. That is when you are just 4" off! Getting your lamp the right height is more important than reflective surfaces, better bulbs, etc. combined.

 

Ingski

Active member

• Jun 17, 2015

• #16

It's hard to get optimal light distance when they're growing 1"+ a day. I burnt a few leaf tips once.