I like the vipars as well. I bought 2 of the 300s and didn’t like them at all. My 450s were far better. I also had a 600 and the 450s were better than that one as well. my opinion on what worked best for me is all. Any ways. here is the one thing I would really be watching out for. I have 2 2x4 6’ tents. The vipars always needed to be at least 18" off the plant or more. Or it burnt the tops of my plants. I use scrogs my self. For the small tents. I use my hard bamboo scrogs. That way. I can use clips to hold the branches down. I use a bungee style in my big tent. I do 2 plants in the 2x4 tent as well. Heat control in mine was a pain to deal with, having so little area to work with. I will not be using mine in summer again to grow because of that. You may find you need to mount your fan and filter out side the tent using vipars since they need to stay so far away. With QBS, I can have my lights 8" off the plants.
I am not trying to be negative. But if you figure your tent at 5 1/2 feet tall. Your fan/filter take up about a foot. Your pot will take another foot. The light needs to be about 28" from the plant and room for the hangers, so another 2 feet there. it only leaves you about 1 1/2 feet for the plant. I run my fan on the out side of my tent and vent it into a bigger one to give me room to grow.
I am just pointing out what I see. It also will leave you little to no room for a fan for the plants in there.
The only gain from potting up is to do it when the drip line (canopy diameter) closely matches the pot diameter. Looking at the difference between a 3, 5 and 7 gallon pot there is not much difference: you still have a large volume of soil for the roots to migrate into. One interruption is, in my opinion less risky to the plant. I do pot up from a Solo cup into 1 gallon plastic pots (I can remove the plant easily) then when the plant is ready I go into it’s forever home.
@Myfriendis410 what do you think about maximizing nutrition? Wouldn’t the plant get more out of every feed if applied to a smaller volume? Then once roots have outgrown the pot to transfer to a bigger pot?
@Not2SureYet I completely understand what you’re saying. I had a space issue with my summer grow and it was driving me a little nuts… some colas reached as close as 4-5 inches from my lights. Thankfully no bleaching but airflow was nowhere near where it should have been. Before my girls get too big I will purchase a charcoal filter that can be installed outside of the tent and run things in the same method you recommend to. Thanks for the advice👌 I need all the space saving tips I can get!
Happy anniversary @TDubWilly Some thing else to think about would be building or coming up with some thing similar to a tent to house the fan and filter in. I was going to do this for my big tent. use a 2x4 tent to house the fan and filter in to give me room to move my lights around a little more. Then no need to buy a different filter
@Missiles well I’m glad to have you along for the ride!
@Not2SureYet space is ridiculously tight in my basement. I have to do a massive dump run and get rid of everything down there… I am due for a new charcoal filter anyway and mounting outside the tent to my ceiling then running the exit line out a window is very doable for me though. I’m kicking myself for not thinking about this for my last grow! Airflow and high humidity alone almost ruined my girls in the summer…
If you are in good soil there won’t be any additional nutrition. FFOF should just get PH’d water until flower, for instance. Being rootbound is a bigger worry.
@Myfriendis410
I get you. Root bound is definitely something I would worry about doing several transfers in small increments. I will skip the 3 gallon pots and go straight to the 5 gallons. If I feel it is necessary I will transfer into 7 gallons later. Thank you!
My thought it 3 to 5 is not a big enough jump to justify potting up. I usually shoot for double the size or more when potting up. Why? Because, I don’t have any other reason.
@Daves.not.here The Viparspectra PAR600has a blue, red and white light on them. They do put out some heat.
Sorry I smoked a nice bowl of my Blue Dream and she knocked me out. I just got up.
I like the QB’s better. I can take them to the very top of the tent. My two Vipar’s also weigh a lot more so less stress on the tent frame with the QB. Plus the heat is a lot easier to keep cooler.
I have 2 kits of the 260xl rspec. My plants have gone ballistic since upgrading to them. Even my GSC was still getting bigger. I had to bend her over she is so tall.
I have been checking ppm, ph in and ph out. The last two feeds were very similar to this one so I found it a little redundant to make posts about them.
You read my mind sir! I finish up my shift work tomorrow then Sunday is transfer day! A couple days after that they should be ready for the first topping.
I couldn’t make it out to a store to find any but the promix hp has some mycorrhizae which I believe should help!
Update: day 21 Transfer day!
I found some time today to transfer the girls into their new homes! They are going straight into 5 gallon fabric pots. I probably won’t go any bigger unless I absolutely have to.
Prepping: very straight forward stuff. I take the same type of solo cups and create the hole so that it’s the exact depth I want and as centre as possible.
As you can see in the last picture posted I then gently cradle the exposed part in my hand and remove the solo cup.
After that it’s a simple transfer into the hole, cover and a very light water ph’d at 5.8.
It also will leave you little to no room for a fan for the plants in there.
