Here I go, as my title says, I’ve never grown anything before. My 3 white widow girls are starting week 2 of flowering today! I start growing with the intention of trying to ScrOG the White Widow girls. With so much going on at home, and not getting into a good comfortable routine with the girls, I didn’t get the screen up early enough, for my liking. I had already topped them, and done light pruning, and super cropped the main stems, but that was it. I kept under watering them. Had to put them in 3 gallon pots at 4 days old, heat stress, phosphorus deficiency, and there might be others, I’ve subjected them to. Bottom lines the plants, strain, genetics, getting them from this site, I don’t know. They’re very sturdy ladies. I will buy future seeds from here. Anywho, a few nights ago, I got fed up with one of the girls top two colas always being a couple inches higher than the rest. It was messing up light distance. I used what I had at hand, and LST them to the smart pot. The next night, I decided to do more LSTing, and did probably 75% of the branches. Last night, I spent a further two hours, and went through each cola, and did more LSTing, until I had a nice, even, flat canopy. My 3x4 tent is now cover in green, about 75-80% full! I’m going to try and document more detail, and future work, so please leave feedback for me. This is my first grow, and even if I don’t use a suggestion on this grow, I’m going to be growing crop after crop, and will likely look back at these messages for future help, and use the suggestions, I didn’t use on this grow! Thank you
I’ll try and list a quick outline of my kit.
3x4 tent
6" exhaust with a carbon filter
window fan and clip-on fan
dehumidifier
400w hps/mh ballast
heater
passive intake using two tent flaps on bottom sides of tent
temps 25-26c lights on 21-22c lights off
humidity 48-53% lights on 60-63% lights off
3 gallong smart pots
fox farm ocean forest
3 gallon smart pots
You might need a little more light to keep all three happy in flower. Can you post a picture of your whole canopy? Sounds like they’re doing alright so far.
My tent is able to have 1x1 of the 3d3 walled off for germination area, I didn’t like this setup in the end, and took the wall down. To use the whole 3x4 tent space. I had already bought the 400w ballast, and definitely can’t afford to get a 600w ballast this soon. Only bought this setup around Aug. 11th this year. There is a website, I use most frequently. Growweedeasy.com, and I have found this site the most basic and useful for noobs like myself. Anyhow, it list a 400w ballast can be used for a 3x3 to 3.5x3.5 tent. Mine is 3x4, for so hoping, all will be good. How Far Should Grow Lights be From Cannabis Plants? | Grow Weed Easy
You can see from your pics there is a good bit at the edges that is getting less light. Your girls look great & you’ll grow nice nugs, but once you get just slightly more light, you’ll see denser growth, faster growth, & denser, juicier nugs.
I highly recommend checking out the grow guides & such put out by this site. When I started out, I used both this site & the other site for a lot of info. This site comes with a nice forum, though, so now I mostly stay here, to watch, learn, and grow.
Ur plants r proof of that as they dont exactly look like they’re suffering!
It’s not like they won’t grow with wat uve got jus they cud b doing beta with a beta light but no matter how good ur set up there is always gona b something beta than wat uve got!
Altho u wudnt have to get a new 600w light
U cud jus get a 200w to make up the difference with more Wats n beta coverage?!?
Or u can always upgrade at a later date / next grow especially as this is ur first grow
I spent days if not weeks researching LEDs b4 actually buying the one I got (Viparspectra r900) with price being the main deciding factor
Doesn’t mean Im gona use this light forever!
N as said this my first attempt at helping someone so im prob the last person u shud b listening to!
I know lux readings aren’t an exact measurement for plant needs, and just a measurement as we see light really. However, I found in my short amount time of growing. Checking my canopy lux reading and adjusting lights partly based on that. Has helped with growth immensely, since buying one. I have researched the topic, and it seems a bit controversial, but I’m finding it beneficial, so will continue to use, in my grow setup. Since I have nothing but a flat canopy now. My lux reading is 45-60k lux at canopy around the center, and goes down to 30k at the edges. I’m hoping, it is actually a bit higher than that. When the sides are zipped up, and light is reflecting off the tent door, and when I’m measuring. It’s just me in front and no reflective surface for the light to bounce off of. I absolutely agree, I want a 600w ballast, I’m just been trying to reassure myself. That, I’m going to have a decent grow with the 400w light! Please don’t think I’m being argumentative lol.
No mate, appreciate the input. The only input that ever annoys me. Is when someone is being a blatant and arragont ass. That doesn’t happen often, and hasn’t happened on here yet.
Oh, you’re growing very nice plants with your light. Nobody is denying that.
You, yourself, know you want/need a slightly stronger light. I started out with one weak blurple. The next year, I had 5 blurples. This year, I have a qb & 3 blurples. Over time, you’ll start adding & subtracting things from your grow toolbox.
Thanks much mate. I’m fortunate to have a wife. Who’s understanding g of all this right now. She does t smoke herself, but said, when my crop is done cured, she will try it. She’s high stressed, and only found out this past Saturday, her dad died in his sleep. I think I have 3 or 4 different 600w ballast in my Amazon save for later cart lol. I am going to get one in the future that comes with a extra wide airl cooled hood. I’m looking forward to growing with one of those in the future!!!
So far, I’m finding this as well. I use another site as well, cause it has an app to use for convenience, and it’s a really great community. Wanted to start on here as well. Since I got my seeds and nutrients through this site.
Noticed from ur first post that ur temps n humidity r…
temps 25-26c lights on / 21-22c lights off
humidity 48-53% lights on / 60-63% lights off
Ive put a chart for u below that another member (@Niala deserves the credit for this!) gave to me to help me with my temps and humidity for flowering as going by the chart ur nite temps n humidity are off
Basically you need ur temp and humidity to be in the gold zone on the chart when in flower
i.e for 25c ur humidity shud b 45% - 55% (so u r spot on for ur day temps) for 21c ur humidity shud b 30% - 45% (ur way too high for ur nite temps)
Once again i hope this helps if not on this grow then on the next!
Thanks for the chart mate, I used to keep my lights off temps around the 19 to 20c mark. I couldn’t not control humidity during lights out though. It was staying for 12hrs between 70%-75%, and that worried me to much. I set my temp controller to have the heater come on at 22c, and that was to keep the humidity about 10% lower than when it’s 19 or 20c.
The humidity will almost always register higher overnight, when the temps drop. It doesn’t mean there’s more humidity, just that the cooler air cannot hold as much moisture as warm air.
If daytime humidity is good, a raise of 20% or so on your hygrometer overnight is ok. If that overnight humidity carries over when the lights or on, or if the humidity goes up to to a shockingly high value overnight in bloom, you’ll want to look into what’s causing that.
@JD419WhyWait has it managed with the addition of a heater, when needed.
