Specs for the New Grow Room

[Fixer]

Getting there now Fixer good things come to those who wait so they say.good job

Hello Darksider, I've been spending a lot of time reading about when to harvest and I'm getting close.Thanks for checking in on me and for the props.

 

[Fixer]

The prognosis is not good. The buds are airy. I'll know more soon. It's drying.

 

[Mars Hydro Led]

Just biding my time.

Looks good. mate. How many days left for flowering?

 

[unnamedmike]

The prognosis is not good. The buds are airy. I'll know more soon. It's drying.

Sorry to hear bro ... do you got any clue whats causing the airy buds ?

 

[Fixer]

Sorry to hear bro ... do you got any clue whats causing the airy buds ?

I don't know if it was the 1000W lights or the Atami B'cuzz bud enhancer but I ended up with foxtailing. The buds are super sticky so we'll see how it smokes when it's dry.

 

[PurplePotion]

High temps, over feeding and too close to the light can all cause those issues. I think you have a little bit of all of it going on. Been there, don’t feel bad. Definitely back off on your 1k DE.. most guys run those at 3-5’ from the canopy.

 

[Fixer]

High temps, over feeding and too close to the light can all cause those issues. I think you have a little bit of all of it going on. Been there, don’t feel bad. Definitely back off on your 1k DE.. most guys run those at 3-5’ from the canopy.

Thanks PurplePotion, I think you're right. I pushed the plants too hard. The ceiling is just over 7', the plants were 28" or more from the lights but they had too much of something. I may have let them flower too long. I'd like to run the light at 750W but from what I've read running the DE bulbs at less than 1000W provides a less than ideal spectrum. IDK I'm backing off a little this time. The bud I trimmed is sticky and frosty but its loose.

 

[Fixer]

I currently have 3 White Ice and 1 each of Mega Jackpot, Critical Cure and Icarus growing. I'm hoping to avoid foxtailing this time around.

 

[Fixer]

Well the foxtailing seems to be happening again. The buds are elongated and some have quite a bit of air space in them. It's not as bad as last time. I'm not using the bud enhancer and turned the lights down to 750W a few days ago. I've become convinced that it's the lights. Next go round I'm keeping the canopy at 40'-42" from the bulbs and running the lights at 750W from the start.

 

[PurplePotion]

Well the foxtailing seems to be happening again. The buds are elongated and some have quite a bit of air space in them. It's not as bad as last time. I'm not using the bud enhancer and turned the lights down to 750W a few days ago. I've become convinced that it's the lights. Next go round I'm keeping the canopy at 40'-42" from the bulbs and running the lights at 750W from the start.

Id try to stick with the light on full blast, but increase distance to plants. I’ve seen many mount their HPS fixtures attached directly to the ceiling and let the plants grow into them. Set up a double screen at the proper height and bingo. Keep in mind, these DE fixtures are designed to be run at 5’+ above the canopy in a large overlapping configuration. Any pics of the most recent grow?

 

[Fixer]

Hi PurplePotion,


Unfortunately I've only got 7' of ceiling height. I am planning on moving my ballasts off the top of the reflectors and lowering my flood tray so I can gain a couple of inches. In any case I'm cropping my next round of plants down to 24" and I'm going to try to maintain 42" between the canopy and the bulbs. I read some of the info on Gavita website and 42" is their recommended minimum.



My long term plan is to add another tray and light it with LEDs so I have more vertical space to grow in.

 

[Fixer]

Bud shots!

 

[Love&Peace]

Just caught up with your build and grows. Great workmanship and setup!

 

[Fixer]

Hello Love&Peace,


Thanks for dropping by. How are you weathering the pandemic?

 

[PurplePotion]

Looks good Fixer. Fingers crossed they’ll be nice and fat for ya this time. It looks like you could do a little more pruning further into flower and get rid of some more small stuff which will help increase density of the bigger guys left. I’ll usually prune pretty heavily through at least week 2 of flower. Week 3 on some strains. The more sativa influence, the further into flower you can typically trim without losing yield. Vice versa with Indicas, the most indica of plants don’t like being pruned in flower at all, and you will end up losing yield.

 

[Fixer]

Hey PurplePotion,


I pruned more heavily last time around. I'm torn between letting light through the canopy and having lots of solar collectors. I still trying to figure it all out. Thanks for the advice.



I've got the next six plants queued up and I'm trying to decide how to prune them. I've topped them and I'm keeping them super short to stay away from the lights. I'm hesitant to remove any of the lower branches because I don't want to loose anymore budding sites. Is there a rule of thumb for how many branches to leave on a plant?

 

[Fixer]

I'm getting ready to add a second 4'x8' table. This one will be lighted with a couple of LED fixtures. Which I was planning on building from HLG quantum boards but they seem to have run low on stock due to the pandemic.


Once the new table is online the plan is to rotate three plants, every two weeks, into the 12 plant system. I found from my first harvest that drying and trimming is the bottleneck of the operation.


The grow takes a hour or more a day but trimming the plants is a huge time suck. Also I don't have a dedicated drying area and the six plants I harvested last time were in the way as they dried hanging from the ceiling. Hopefully three plants every two weeks will be more manageable that having 12 finish at the same time.

 

[Fixer]

Went down a real wormhole on the DIY LEDs. I'm trying to decide if it's worth building vs buying.

 

[Fixer]

I'm expecting two Forever Green Indoors, HT-02 Uniformity Pro 640 lights to be delivered on Tuesday. I went back and fourth on the DIY strip lights vs. the built units and decided that I didn't want to take the time to build the lights and end up with a product that I had to warranty/fix if it failed.


The plan is to run the two new lights over a second table. It should be interesting to see how the "1000W DE Replacement" lights compare to the actual 1000W DE fixtures. At the very least I'll gain almost 2' of vertical grow space.

 

[Fixer]

The Critical Cure and the Mega Jackpot are down and drying. I have to report that they are worst than the last run of Icarus in terms of being loose and airy. The three White Ice and the one Icarus look a lot more promising. They are on the table until Monday and have large, dense buds. The next run is six Icarus and I am going to keep them very low and run them at 750W throughout the entire flower cycle. Hopefully I'll get past my larffy bud issue.