Lighting:
Lighting is another of the very important aspects of a grow.
Bottom line is, the more lumens you have, the bigger & tighter the colas are going to be.
Anything less than 2,500 lumen per square foot & you'll have very fluffy buds. Personally, I feel you should have at least 5,000 lumen per square foot to get decent density. The closer you can keep the lights to the top of the plants, without heat becoming a problem, the better off the plants will be.
I use 4, 95 watt Envirolights. I have 2 of the red spectrum & 2 of the full spectrum. I run my lights 24/0 during the veg cycle & 12/12 during the flowering cycle.
This will be the 6th grow with the same bulbs. I have the bulbs mounted in a reflector that was made for 2 bulbs. I modified it to fit all 4. I keep the bulbs within 12" & 2" of the top of the plants. The only reason I use Envirolights, they don't give off nearly as much heat as HID's do. The Envirolights put out 8950 lumen each. So that gives me a total of 35,800 lumen. Divide that by my square footage & you'll see I have 8,136 lumen per square foot. I know Envirolights don't have the penetration that HID's do, but I can keep the envirolights within 2" of the top of the plants without harming the plants. So they "can" get pretty decent penetration, especially if you keep your plants on the short side.
Growing Style:
Low Stress Training in Bubblers:
I am using 3 home made 5-gallon bubblers. I'm training the plants because of the height of the buckets & the lack of height in my cab. From the top of the buckets to 2" below the light at it's highest point, is only 35”.
The reason I chose to use individual buckets instead of a storage tote, is I'm growing from seed. Trying to separate the males from the females in a storage tote is next to impossible without seriously damaging the roots. Damaging the roots causes the plant to go into shock & can delay growth for up to two weeks. Not a good thing.
I used 5 gallon paint buckets & wrapped them in reflectix insulation & covered the lids with reflectix tape. The reflectix insulation keeps the nutes from getting warmed up by the lights. I have no problem keeping my nutes in the low 70's.
Here's a quick side note about nute temps.
The lower the temp, the more dissolved oxygen the solution can hold. Higher temps hold less oxygen. More oxygen is better.
Temps below 68f can slow the growth of the plants & temps above 80f can cause them to stretch.
I try to keep mine between 70f & 75f.
Okay, back to the buckets. Next I drilled a small hole for the air hose fitting, into the side of each bucket, about 1/2" from the bottom. Be sure to use a small amount of waterproof sealant on the inside of the bucket around the whole. Then push the fitting through from the inside. This way the pressure of the water on the flange of the fitting will help to keep it from leaking. I've never had a leak.
I taped my air pumps to the sides of the buckets with the outlets pointing to the top of the bucket. I mounted them high enough for the air hose to be above the water level. This will keep any water from getting into the air pumps. I also use check valves for added safety.
My air pumps are the dual outlet, 20 to 60 gallon pumps they sell at WalMart for $9.95. I use one for each bucket.
I use black 1/4" drip irrigation hose for my airlines. For each pump I cut two, 5" pieces of airline & attach them to each outlet on the pump. I then attach the 2 on each pump to a t fitting. Next, I cut a piece of air line long enough to reach from the single side of the t fitting to the fitting on the side of the bucket & attach both ends to the fittings. Doing this puts the air from both outlets into one hose.
For air stones, I found 3" air discs, mounted to a weighted base at my local fish store. These things put out a ton of bubbles & stay in place. To mount these, I simply cut a piece of air hose the right length to keep the disc centered in the bottom of the bucket & attach it to the air disc & then to the fitting on the inside of the bucket. Be sure to give the sealant enough time to dry before attaching the airlines. |