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 vforvern
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Registered: 02/27/18
Posts: 14
Last seen: 5 years, 11 months
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Is this a slow rate of growth? And more questions regarding my first grow. 
#832219 - 03/18/18 10:27 PM (6 years, 9 months ago) |
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Hello.
I am currently growing 8 plants as my first grow from 4 pairs of different strains.
This Wednesday will be the beginning of my 5th week of veg ( day 1 was Valentine's day).
Watching videos online and comparing to my grow I just feel like my plants are taking FOREVER to grow they are getting bushy and not growing in height... so I'm sharing these pictures with you to see if something is wrong with my setup/feeding. Or is this all normal and I'm tripping? I have two lights installed in the room. One is a 600W LED and the other is a 60W CLF which illuminates as a 250W. the lights are about 3 ft away from the plants. I feed them with about like every 3-4 days with the flora series ( Per G of water: 7ml of gro 5 ml of micro 2.5 ml of bloom and 1/4 tspn of Epson salt 1 ml of CalMag)I water till I see the smart pots leaking and I stop. temp is around 75 humidity is around 65%.
Here are a few of my questions:
1) Does this seem to be slower than usual grow to you keeping in mind we are in week5 in 2 days?
2) anything wrong with my setup and feeding?
3) which is a dumb question. When you train them with trellis how do you take them out to water them somewhere so they can drain?
Thanks so much guys in advance. Help a brother out.
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 phychotron
Medicated
Registered: 02/17/11
Posts: 1,995
Loc: Earth (mostly) 
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 Re: Is this a slow rate of growth? And more questions regarding my first grow. [Re: vforvern]
#832221 - 03/19/18 08:21 AM (6 years, 9 months ago) |
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adding epsom salt might not be necessary, as your adding ca/mg (epsom is mg).
If your in veg you probably don't need the bloom nutrients yet (though some brands might)
Your THREE HUNDRED WATT LED is going to be a bit underpowered for that many plants. As soon as you flip to 12/12 the plants will grow and stretch. LED's usually lie about actual wattage for marketing. Your probably drawing around 280-320w from the wall.
With lower wattage fixtues you need to put them closer to the plants. My lights recommend 18-24" away but they're often closer than that. Just got to watch for bleaching.
The 60w CFL isn't 250w of illumination. Its just how many watts of an incandescent bulb it compares to for marketing.
netting locks your plants in. Tomato cages will allow you to move your plants around while providing structure. Best to have a way to drain your runoff without moving them anyway. Having to transport heavy plants with buds on them for any reason is asking for trouble. You can have them drain into a larger tray and use a pump to suck the runoff away if you cant add a drain hose to the tray. I used to move my plants to the bathroom to flush them in the tub and would only water to saturation not runoff. It was a lot of work.
Watering with a bit of runoff is good for keeping the root zone clean.
Plant growth is exponential. It starts out slow and works its way up. You'd have better growth if you had more light. Expect them to get about 2-3x as tall and wide.
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Any help given is for educational purposes only. Its your responsibility not to break any applicable laws
 Bamboo Bongs I make | Perfect Dry and Cure | Grapegod under LED
“Human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust, we all dance to a mysterious tune intoned in the distance by an invisible player.” ~ Albert Einstein
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vforvern
Stranger
Registered: 02/27/18
Posts: 14
Last seen: 5 years, 11 months
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Re: Is this a slow rate of growth? And more questions regarding my first grow. [Re: phychotron]
#832224 - 03/19/18 10:18 AM (6 years, 9 months ago) |
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Thank you very much for the tips. I have done a lot of reading prior to starting but as I’m sure you know you really don’t know what you’re doing until the 2nd or 3rd grow. All this is new to me.
The LED is advertised as 600W but true Wattage is 125W. I guess 125+60 isn’t enough and that causes the delay in growth ? I’m going to go ahead and turn the other LED on and try to get them closer to the plants and see what happens.
Again thank you so much for your help.
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Rider420
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Registered: 06/21/17
Posts: 518
Last seen: 3 months, 21 days
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Re: Is this a slow rate of growth? And more questions regarding my first grow. [Re: vforvern]
#832241 - 03/20/18 04:30 PM (6 years, 9 months ago) |
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Phychotron is right on. 
If you really want a good yield from eight plants you need at lest 600 more watts and I mean real wattage of LED or better yet HPS light system. FYI HPS light produce more bud per watt then LED that is why all the commercial medical grow operation use HPS.
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phychotron
Medicated
Registered: 02/17/11
Posts: 1,995
Loc: Earth (mostly)
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Re: Is this a slow rate of growth? And more questions regarding my first grow. [Re: vforvern]
#832244 - 03/20/18 07:30 PM (6 years, 9 months ago) |
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125w, that's really sad. I'd flip them soon so they don't get overgrown with an under powered light. They'll stretch to about 2-3x the height naturally, but probably more from lack of intense light.
Light is what the plant uses as an energy source. The brighter the source the faster it can work, to a certain point. Check out the inverse square law for an idea of how light intensity is affected by distance from the fixture(Intensity = 1/X^2; where X is distance in feet).
Those low wattage fixtures could probably touch the plant and still be fine, maybe some mild yellowing (from heat, usually not light bleaching the buds white).
You'll probably need at least one fixture per plant given the size of them. LED's have a limited footprint and point mostly downward. You'll know what I mean when you get it 4-12" away from the plant. Basically you only have straight down with LED's and a little bit off to the side that will overlap with the fixture next to it.
Rethink your lights before you spend a bunch of money on them. Pre-fab are not always the best solution, building your own can be cheaper and spread the light out a bit more.
Take a bunch of clones and practice your technique on some extras. Keep a few around that you plan to abuse with neglect, over feeding, underfeeding, close lights, etc and see how it responds. You'll find the plants sweet spots eventually.
People are getting 2+ gpw with the right LEDs. Its a pricey investment and goes up dramatically when you scale past a few fixtures. Its especially hard when you know the next best technology is right around the corner... LED tech doubles every 18 months.
People are also getting more terpenes with LED when compared to HPS as well.
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Any help given is for educational purposes only. Its your responsibility not to break any applicable laws
Bamboo Bongs I make | Perfect Dry and Cure | Grapegod under LED
“Human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust, we all dance to a mysterious tune intoned in the distance by an invisible player.” ~ Albert Einstein
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Rider420
Stranger
Registered: 06/21/17
Posts: 518
Last seen: 3 months, 21 days
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Re: Is this a slow rate of growth? And more questions regarding my first grow. [Re: phychotron]
#832259 - 03/21/18 10:27 AM (6 years, 9 months ago) |
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Quote:
phychotron said:
People are getting 2+ gpw with the right LEDs. Its a pricey investment and goes up dramatically when you scale past a few fixtures. Its especially hard when you know the next best technology is right around the corner... LED tech doubles every 18 months.
People are also getting more terpenes with LED when compared to HPS as well.
I've been growing since 1988 under HID lights and I did buy the 90watt LED ufo back in late 1990s or early 2000's they claimed it would outproduce a 400 MH sadly it could not keep up with 70 watt mercury vapor grow lamp. Perhaps I should give LED a second try twenty years later. But after touring two new commercial grow operations here in Canada I discovered none of them are using LED lights as of yet but they spend millions per month on power. When I asked the guy he said they had done comparison test and as of now HPS was more cost effective.
So until I do see LED lights being used commercially to grow I will wait. After all I do believe that LED lights will someday produce more bud at lower wattages it just has not happened yet.
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vforvern
Stranger
Registered: 02/27/18
Posts: 14
Last seen: 5 years, 11 months
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Re: Is this a slow rate of growth? And more questions regarding my first grow. [Re: phychotron]
#832290 - 03/23/18 09:33 PM (6 years, 8 months ago) |
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Phychotron your information guided me to the right path.
I thought the advertised 600W could be counted as the Watts plants get. So I was happy with that. The research I did after your posts helped a lot. So I added the other 2 LEDs I had and I see some improvement although I’m still short on wattage (125 x3= 375Watts) the plants are growing especially the lower branches since I’m doing some low stress training and tide them downtown expose lower branches. Here is a picture of the current situation:
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vforvern
Stranger
Registered: 02/27/18
Posts: 14
Last seen: 5 years, 11 months
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Re: Is this a slow rate of growth? And more questions regarding my first grow. [Re: vforvern]
#832330 - 03/27/18 09:47 PM (6 years, 8 months ago) |
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For who ever that is facing the same problem and has read this thread I like to tell you that it was the wattage as phychotron said. I have upgraded to a 1000W HPS light and in 3 days they look so much better, stronger, happier and bushier. Here is a pic you be the judge.
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phychotron
Medicated
Registered: 02/17/11
Posts: 1,995
Loc: Earth (mostly)
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Re: Is this a slow rate of growth? And more questions regarding my first grow. [Re: vforvern]
#832337 - 03/28/18 11:12 PM (6 years, 8 months ago) |
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Good to know. Its really sad the LED market and the misrepresentation of what they are and can do.
--------------------
Any help given is for educational purposes only. Its your responsibility not to break any applicable laws
Bamboo Bongs I make | Perfect Dry and Cure | Grapegod under LED
“Human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust, we all dance to a mysterious tune intoned in the distance by an invisible player.” ~ Albert Einstein
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shroomerite
Stranger
Registered: 04/03/18
Posts: 20
Last seen: 6 years, 5 months
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Re: Is this a slow rate of growth? And more questions regarding my first grow. [Re: phychotron]
#832979 - 05/06/18 08:31 AM (6 years, 7 months ago) |
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LED's far outproduce HID's in bud quality.(Check out Fluence LED's) Maybe not so much in quantity tho but it is still comparable. The reason a lot of growers up north like in Canada and the PNW use HID lights, is because it produces heat and therefor saves money when trying to heat the building.
1500 for a nice indoor grow light is not that expensive these days, especially when that light will last for 10-15 years before it needs replaced.
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