Fluro to mh/hps - when?

[InterestingPie]

My seedlings are developing their second set of true leaves and a couple of roots on all are developing down in to my dwc buckets - should I switch out my fluro and get the high powered light going?

Feel the answer is yes but keep it nice and high - but still worried about it being too intense and stretching. Thoughts?

 

[Phaeton]

Keeping it too high will cause the stretch, the sweet spot is smaller when the plant is smaller. Easy to stretch and easier to burn.
I consider the second pair of node leaves good enough to light up, but when using 400w HID it starts in the 40" range and is adjusted on a daily or more basis finding that sweet spot as the plant toughens up.
I cannot advise exact specs as my climate, strain, and media are not the same.
Give all the specs on the grow and the grower with the closest match should be able to dial it in pretty well.

 

[Friend]

some people run fluoros all the way through veg and switch to hps when flipping to 12/12

but it's really just up to you what your preference is, there are tradeoffs either way

 

[pinecone]

You use the HID anytime you want. Just keep it a couple feet away.

Pine

 

[InterestingPie]

Thanks - cleared that up.

What about my nute strength? Dutch Master in DWC - They are liking 1/4 strength. Go to 1/2 in another week or 3/4th node or something?

 

[Hydro-Soil]

Personally? (People who haven't done this don't believe it.)

When I'm in a hurry to get seedlings going I sprout them and have them into full strength nutes in about 10 days. heh.


Since you already have roots down into the res... here is what I would do.
First, switch out the lights. Put that HID about 4-5 feet away, depending on what wattage it is. Your hand covering the seedling should be only slightly warm. Over the next 24 hours, SLOWLY bring that light down. The leaves on the seedlings are getting a different spectrum that has more infra-red in it. It takes them a minute to adapt.

2 days after the light is at proper growing height I would bump up the nute strength every 3 days until you're at full strength or they show issues.

If you were running Lucas formula I would have you bump the nutes to full str as soon as they were acclimated to the new light. I don't have much experience with other nutrients though so I can't say what your results would be.

Good luck and....

Stay Safe!

 

[FreezerBoy]

I don't care how big our sad, puny, impotent lamps are. A brand new, baby, 2 second old seedling, spits in their face and walks off with their girl. Seedlings expect the full power of the sun in all it's blazing glory and we've got what... penlights?

However, you mislead them to believe the sun is a cfl. They've built themselves accordingly secure in the knowledge that no stronger light exists. Slip them under an HID now and it's though the sun went nova. Hang lamp double extra high, place seedlings in the cab at "noon" giving them 1/2 day under the big lamp followed by a full nights sleep. Lower lamp a few inches a day.

 

[jolygreensprout]

im running dwc and started on the 400w hps right from the get go they loved every second of it short stubby little chicks just find that proper zone and all should be good i dont know if it was right but foliar spraying really seemed to work also.

 

[InterestingPie]

Hi Guys,

Introduced the 250w for a few hours the last two days and today had it on the entire cycle. Need some feeding help however - pH is too high. Here are the readings for the last few days...

S.Star
6.2pH, 0.69ec
6.4pH, 0.66ec
6.6pH, 0.67ec

Ak48
6.4pH, 0.5ec
6.5pH, 0.55ec
6.5pH, 0.60ec

My problem is at the moment I've got no-eye dropper so trying to get out a 1ml or less bit of pH down is a problem AND the buckets are small - only a handful of litres in each - AND they are both individualy controlled.

What would you recommend? Lower the pH of some water and top up with that? If so what shoud the top up water pH be?

They've been in the dwc roughly... 9 days so I'm thinking of changing the nutes up to half strength soon (emptying and replacing contents completely).

Cheers (should probably start a grow log in a different forum?)

 

[jolygreensprout]

Just a thought but at any pet store you can get a syringe for ear drops I believe they are marked out by ml .. Worth checking out

 

[FreezerBoy]

Any pharmacy will have a baby doser (1.0 ml eye dropper marked in 0.1 increments) I got a 10 ml syringe from the grow shop along with a "shot glass" marked in ML, tsp, TBS and oz.

Just started a mini dwc farm for sexing seeds using six 1 gal containers. All from the same batch of seeds, individuals are as dissimilar as any set of siblings. Trying to maintain them individually is a pain. I mix up 6 gal of nutes in a larger tub and distribute between the containers. After a few days, some are: high, low, flat, dry... I dump all nutes back into the larger tub, adjust the tub as a single unit and redistribute to individual containers. After doing it a few times I dump all nutes and start fresh.

Make sure yours is a quality pH Down. Advanced Nutrients is strong and lasting, General Hydroponics is weak and ephemeral, no better than vinegar.

 

[Hydro-Soil]

Make sure yours is a quality pH Down. Advanced Nutrients is strong and lasting, General Hydroponics is weak and ephemeral, no better than vinegar.

This is a minor reason I use only R/O water. I never use 'down'... only pH 'up' and then only a little. GH's up seems to be great... haven't used their down in almost 5 years.

Stay Safe!