Glowing Tungsten supplement light

[Phaeton]

I grow sativa, last year I grew sativa, in 2007 I had nothing but sativa, etc. to 1999. The particular bagseed plant I grow wants to be tall, I let one have it's head a few years back and had to cut a hole in my ceiling, 7'11". Most of my efforts have been keeping it short, I have almost $500 worth of various wavelength discharge bulbs in storage. 6 months of testing combo's to make short, good yield sativa. It works, was a pain but I have regular harvests of sativa.

I recently received a Northern Lights clone still going strong from the 90's. I have 8 rooted clones, green and healthy looking in the veg room with the sativa's. I had to bump the timing to 18/6 as the indica kept growing hairs at 14/10.
The clones are healthy and green as mentioned, but most are growing their 4th set of branches. Most are less than 2" tall.
The sativa's are all 4" to 5" tall, 3rd set of branches just coming in now. I suspect the lighting, which is perfect for shortening a sativa, is killing all the stretch in the indica.

The clone mother is in bud and these are it for my indica grow. I have a clamp light with a 50 watt halogen spotting just the indica tray. I'm hoping for stretch, is this feasible or am I in a panic over nothing. Never grown an indica.
I had to change the light combo in the budroom around the indica also, did not care for as much sodium as the sativa likes.

Too much info is better than not enough, 3 banks of 5000K T8 sidelights (128w each), 400w of 450nm blue/full spectrum aquarium HID, 3 x 42w 6500K CFL, and now that 50w halogen spotting the indica.

Would a 42w CFL at 2700K stretch the plant more than 50w incandescent? I do not know the "make it stretch" frequency for Northern Lights. I went from top of the red through infrared, too far down? I have little sodiums, too much yellow?

Conflicting opinions will be weighed, I am pretty much completely in the dark here. :kitty:

 

[Phaeton]

I sorted through 200 seeds to get the sativa I grow, the goal was the most robust clone possible. I'm thinking the indica's may be normal (?) as I am used to the growth rate of the sativa. In the 2 days since the first post the sativa grew another inch to the indica's 1/2 inch. All are healthy.

The indica tray has a 50w halogen spot at one end, 6500K in the middle, and a 42 watt 2700K CFL spot at the other. The sativa has 6500K spots both ends. The sativa is twice as close (8" vs. 16") to the blue/full HID also. Bare bulb HID, reflectors dry out the clones. Sativa still outgrows the indica.

In the budroom the indica clone mom (dirt) has greened back up really well but the buds are fat and round vs. the sativa, which has buds up to a foot long. These new indica's in rockwool are noding so tight I may end up with one of those single cola plants I have seen pictures of.
Hmmm....more red or take a chance and treat them like sativa and see how short and fat the plant can become.

Anybody done indica with 6500K full spectrum veg, plus an equal amount of pure blue also? It cuts my sativa node spacing in half, but this indica is not responding in ways I can predict.

This is my first indica grow, I will be able to put folks to sleep, so I am excited. I'm retired and 'go to work' pot is no longer what I really want full time anymore.

I'm doing searches and lotsa lurking while this thread is working. Updating regular as I get answers so I don't waste a helpful grower's time with duplicate stuff.
:kitty:

 

[messn'n'gommin']

What with the blurring of indica and sativa hybrids anymore, this is mostly a rough idea of the differences between indica's and sativa's.


If possible, use more red light on your indica's to use the stretch to your advantage as best you can and it will help a bit to keep a canopy of mix.

hth

 

[Phaeton]

Indeed the indica's do like going towards red, the redder the better it seems. I put bare 100w halogens at both ends, bare makes it a lot easier to make consistant coverage at close ranges, I do not mind a little waste. Wow, one day turned their heads, I had to shade the sativa from the glow.
The 42w 2700K CFL did not do the job, the plants seemed to notice it was there, but really didn't care enough to move.

Hey, this is a side by side sativa dominate vs. indica dominate, even cloned on the same day in the same tray. Other than optimizing the lights everything is same same. Time and yield we shall see. :kitty:

 

[messn'n'gommin']

Ya! As much blue for the sativa's and as much as red for the indica's as possible...lol...within reason.

Just to take it off the path for a sec; I think it has more to do with how plants, in general, respond to wavelengths with a more or less pattern of morphology. Sativa's will respond to red better than blue, just like indica's. Red, by and large, encourages stretch and increases yield in most plants, while blue will help to keep nodes short and ,arguably, increase in quality. Under the sun, sativa's shoot up quickly, but in a cab you can use more blue and less red to help to control the stretch. The same technique does the same thing for indicas, as well. But, in this case, by all means, use as much blue for the sat's and as much red for your indie's (among other techniques) for as even a canopy as possible.

peace

 

[Greenheart]

I put bare 100w halogens at both ends, bare makes it a lot easier to make consistant coverage at close ranges, I do not mind a little waste. Wow, one day turned their heads, I had to shade the sativa from the glow.

Having been obsessed with lightbulbs and a dyi spectrometer for a couple years now I don't doubt this for a moment.

I know these seem like a simple solutions but perhaps raising the bulbs above the indi's a bit higher during veg and giving the shorter ladies a pedestal during the bloom could also help.

Not that I'm a rocket botanist or anything but I really have had an obsession with lights since getting my card and if you browse my lighting album you may find some helpful info.

https://www.icmag.com/ic/album.php?albumid=26225

 

[Phaeton]

Sativa's got thrown into the budroom on veg day 9, I hate propping up old plants with sticks and string.

Except this, the new clone mother.
This indica is getting lots of red.
This sativa not so much.
These budding sativa's are getting red green and blue, but mostly orange.
This shows the red a little better on the indica.


The indica's have the aquarium HID on them as well now. The HID output is full spectrum for half, the other half is entirely 450nm blue for saltwater penetration, corals use blue chlorophyll as all the other wavelengths are absorbed by the water. The lights give a good red signal for growth but are overwhelmingly blue so the red/blue ratio gives reduced stretch.
At least with sativa's. I still have the halogen supplements at each end of the indica tray, too short is not good either. :kitty:

 

[Phaeton]

:kitty: Whoa, double post.
I'll be back on purpose when the indica goes into the budroom.

 

[Phaeton]

Well, it took 3 weeks for the indica to recover, but it has been a week in the budroom now. I see why they call it sea of green, the indica canopy is a smooth 4' x 3' flattened dome over the tray. The sativa is a bunch of individual spikes sticking straight up. Same spacing in same size trays. No place for the sidelights to reach into the indica, but no need either with that flat canopy.

The beater plant the clones came from got harvested. Heavy stinking buds, a little over a quarter pound of them. Still like sativa better, but I am a minority among those testing this first crop.