[Dankblueberries]

A lot of these little things get underestimated when growing. If you ad them all up you can see, they actually make a big difference. A small change that effects your yield just 5% can mean $1000's of dollars depending on how many lights you are running. If you spend the money, you will make it back tenfold.

Get rid of the lens on your light and buy an air conditioner. The only application that I would use vented hoods was if my ceiling height was too low(below 7') or if there was absolutely now way I could integrate an air conditioner into the system, which is rare. The lens on the vented hoods take out 5% of the light, and that is if they are perfectly clean. What a pain in the ass to clean all those lenses! I have seen some people put filters on the intake, to keep them clean, but I am sure dust still settles on the lens within a week, and all of a sudden you are losing 10% of your light. You will need about 3000 btu's of cooling per 1000 watt, depending on your local climate. Not only will your plants enjoy the consistent temps, the humidity is reduced somewhat also.

Use CO2 and a CO2 controller. Obvious right? A lot of people do not believe the difference it makes. Once you get the air conditioner, you can keep your room a closed system and get the CO2 levels up to 1300-1500 ppm. BOOM!

If your water starts out above 100 ppm from the tap, get a reverse osmosis system with a large storage tank, with a float valve. The R.O. system gets the water down to almost 0 ppm. How much this makes a difference, I can't say for sure, but think about it. If you are limited to raising your fertilizer concentration to 1200-1400 ppm, and you are starting at say 200 ppm from your tap, that means you can only put in 200 ppm less fertilizer than you can with a R.O. setup. That is over 10% less, which theoretically is 10% less medicine. (10% less money for the financially motivated) You will need to add a calcium/magnesium supplement.

Get new bulbs every 2-3 cycles. Once again, spend the money and it will pay you back more in the end. I buy eye hortilux in bulk and get them for 70$ each.

In hydroponics, adjust your ph and tds in your res daily. My theory is, if your ph and tds are up and down too much, your little girls will be spending too much energy and time adjusting to the constantly changing levels, as apposed to no change. Smooth sailing!

I even blow this one off occasionally, but I am always punished. Prune all the lower "sucker" branches near the bottom. You can tell which ones should be cut off by feeling how stiff the stems are compared to the others around it. If it is really weak than it is sucky more than it is beneficial. Clearing all this stuff out, also gets ventilation underneath the plant, which has many advantages.

These all seem like little advantages. They all seem to appeal to our self-inherent laziness, so you blow it off. But like life it self, little advantages are what its all about.

[turbolaser4528]

good info, also go vertical for the best lighting efficiency, dial in your grow and have proper ventilation/temp/rh control. Utilize the bio bucket idea to let nature do the work for you in form of beneficial bacteria that keep your water clean and protect/help grow your plants.


have a good yielding straing and go aero or hydro, and try not to fuck it up lol that always helps


o yeah sog if your not worried about plant numbers

[Livnthadream]

Really great read, thanks for sharing. Keep the dream alive.

[Lazyman]

Mostly good advice there, good post.

I diasagree about air cooling hoods, no offense.

With air-cooled hoods, yes you can lose some lumens, but due to much lower heat you can move your hood closer to the canopy to make up for it, and then some! Brighter light AND less heat, it's much cheaper to run a small fan to cool hoods than it is to power a large AC.

Lower your MH hoods a few inches lower than an HPS and you'll get as good or better yields than HPS lights too.

I doubt there is a direct correlation between lower fertilizer additions and yield loss, but for anecdotal evidence, I did a grow with and without a water filter and got better results without it (480ppm well water.) Still had mag deficiencies but at least it has plenty of calcium. Only had to add Epsom salts to bring up the mag.

Agreed on the frequency of bulb replacements, but Eye bulbs are only good for coil ballasts, never on digitals. Sylvania's are a cheap option for digi users.

I think yield is affected by everything in the room all at once, so as long as you are diligent about fixing the "weakest link" in your garden all the time until there are none, you'll continue to have better and better yields. Happy, fast-growing plants yield more bud than those that aren't.

Having extra plants is best for large yields too, it allows you the freedom to toss small and weak/slow growing plants and swap them for happy ones, keeps a more even canopy.

A lot of guys try to light large canopies without enough light, I'm having better yields and quality with 66wpsf than I did with 50wpsf too.

[Hydro-Soil]

Originally Posted by Lazyman

Mostly good advice there, good post.

I diasagree about air cooling hoods, no offense.

With air-cooled hoods, yes you can lose some lumens, but due to much lower heat you can move your hood closer to the canopy to make up for it, and then some! Brighter light AND less heat, it's much cheaper to run a small fan to cool hoods than it is to power a large AC.

All well and good for a single setup but if you're running large rooms, keeping the lamps higher makes for a larger footprint. Also less complicated if you can ditch all the ducting for the lights.

[cygnus]

Why no hortilux on digi's?

[Dankblueberries]

Originally Posted by cygnus

Why no hortilux on digi's?

Good question, I was wondering the same thing. I have been using hortilux on my 1000 w Lumateks(digital) and they work pretty good. I guess I have had 2 fry, out of 18, in the last 4-5 months, but I figured that was those particular bulbs.

[Dankblueberries]

1

Originally Posted by cygnus

Why no hortilux on digi's?

that

[30years]

CORE AND COILS RUN AT 60HZ, DIGIS RUN IN THE 100,000S. USHIO BULBS ARE BUILT FOR DIGIS. THE EYE IS A GREAT BULB AND WHEN THE DIGI VERSION COMES OUT IT WILL BE AGAIN.
BEST,
30Y