Found my answer - Thanks All
Very nice little setup. If you can use a dryer vent type venting hose, maybe even insulate by wrapping in a blanket, to pull cooler air from the basement maybe, that would help. I have two options like this. I have a hole in the floor behind my pellet stove and I can pull from the concrete basement during the hot summer. My grow room is air tight, so I pull air through my filter and push that air through my lighting and out of the room. Then I have a hole for return air with the option of where this air is coming from.
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I run my light cycles at night time to keep the tent warm without using a heater. Day time it warms up outside quite a bit so I just pull air from my front room during the day. This lets me hold a stable 77f lights on and 70 lights off
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Hi, thx for the kind words. No basement here - that would be a great solution. What about Temps hitting 80F+, though?
The cabinet came together pretty well but isn’t as big as I’d like, and I didn’t anticipate the hps would be that warm – i’m thinking of a redesign to a deeper cabinet.
JTheH, yeah I kinda tried that today. Moved the 6 hrs back to 2 pm-8pm, and it’s not as warm now - the other thing I did last night was to open the cabinet etc doors and drape a towel over opening to filter light. Seems to have worked, so now I need to figure out how to simplify.
Thx for the guidance.
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See if you can separate the ballast on your hps light and move it out and away from your cabinet. Overall you are running too hot for a closed system and a lot of that heat comes from the ballast.
Otherwise, power vent and add a fan to get the heat out and cool the leaf temps which run even higher than the air temps.
Gees, I wonder if you could maybe keep a container of ice near your air inlet to cool returning air. All Hail McGyver ! 
Week Six…
Okay, first of all, thanks to all, especially to Sir_Charles, for the advice. I did make some changes to the grow box, moved the light to be atop the box, thereby eliminating the ballast from the equation. That was about 2 1/2 weeks ago, just in time for my transfer and growth spurt…
Fast forward… I have created a little monster in here - the plant has outgrown its box (actually is reaching through the hole I put in the top and wants to be very close (too close) to the light. I keep waiting for the growth to slow, considering the life cycle of autos, but the daggum thing has grown 3 inches in the last two days!
Feeding includes Ocean Forest environment, with big Bloom/Grow big every 6-67 days, about 3/8 strength. Lighting is 20/4 right now. I think it wants to bloom, I see about 20-23 bud sites (probably more) forming and wanting to begin to grow…
Questions:
- How do I manage the light (again) without just delaying the inevitable (building another box)?
- Should I begin different lighting (16/8 to 14/10 to 12/12), plus go to my bloom nute (Tiger Bloom)? NOTE: I had originally set up my schedule to try to influence vegetative growth until at least the end of the 7th week, but I think he wants to move ahead now…
- Should I put the plant outside at this stage, then inside in the total dark for the dark cycle?
- Is the outside sunlight gonna be too different for the plant than its current digs?
- Should I thin out lower fan leaves or non-bud branches yet? If not, when? Or at all?
- Anything else anyone has as suggestions?
The plant is happy and healthy, and I want to keep it that way - no light burns, etc…hoping to extend the bud phase to 11-12 weeks before harvest - that says 6 more weeks of management…
Enjoy pics, and … HELP!!
There is nothing you can gain from changing your lighting schedule with an autobloom strain. They flower by elapsed grow time, not day length.
You could remove the top of your box and raise the lights but I would just top the plant. Cut the main stem back to a comfortable height and leave the side branches carry the bud load.
If it was a regular or just feminized strain, that top shoot could be cloned but cloning doesn’t work with autos either. The shoot knows it’s age and will act as genetically programmed.
As for lower branches, there is little reason to thin them out unless they look weak and sickly. They still add to the reputation of the plant and produce carbohydrates as long as the light is still reaching them.
Finally, as for moving the plant outside, yes it can be done but you seem to be doing well so why risk new conditions?
Thanks.
“nothing you can gain from changing your lighting schedule …”. Yes, I know this from reading, but I’ve also come across folks who say keeping an aggressive lighting schedule on autos is most beneficial (seems contradictory).
“…just top the plant. Cut the main stem back…” I’ve read that autos don’t have enough programmed lifespan to recover from topping injuries - I was going to do it last week until I read that. I was gonna do a scrog approach, but read i several places that scrogs aren’t really effective with autos, since recovery from the injuries from topping/scrogging takes longer than the lifespan for these plants. Thoughts/experiences?
“… lower branches, there is little reason to thin them out unless they look weak and sickly.” Thanks. I read that cutting / thinning the lower branches allows the nutrients and development go more to the upper, flowering branches later in the cycle. I’ll leave them alone (for now).
“… as for moving the plant outside, yes it can be done but you seem to be doing well so why risk new conditions?” I agree - I have been fortunate with my setup so far – just looking for some silver bullet here. I know the real answer. I’m gonna need a bigger boat. (Er, box. Sorry for the “Jaws” ripoff)… already sketching some ideas.
Thanks again for your guidance. I think I will increase darkness (even though it’s not supposed to matter) to 12 hours. And start my flowering nutrients on Monday (day 46). That’ll help with heat and hopefully slow vertical growth. I really don’t want to remove the apical meristem by topping - afraid of effects. Maybe next grow, after I’m confident I can bring this little guy to harvest.
Thanks again. Any other comments, please let me know. I’ll check back in a few!
There are alot of different opinions I’ve found so I just take the advice that sounda like the most logical and run with it. I have learned that experimenting is a great teacher. Good Luck My Friend.
The few time that I grew autos under lights, I just kept them on an 18/6 light to dark ratio. They seemed to produce well but this was before high intensity LED lights.
You can remove the lower leaves and branches IF the light isn’t penetrating to reach them. At that point they are an energy drain rather than a boost. SOG grows often strip the lower foliage for this reason but you only have one plant.
Topping was only suggested because your initial issue was the leaves touching the lights. You’ll lose the main cola but I think side growth would make up for it in my experience. Always remember that every cut injures a plant so do it sparingly and carefully.
And I apologize. I’m getting used to the new Google Board keyboard on my iPhone and it seems to change and auto correct a lot of words that it doesn’t recognize. So if I sound stupid at times, blame faulty technology. Lol.
Could you lay her down ? If you could gently bend the entire plant to one side then place a clothlike mesh to hold her down and scrog her. She’ll love it. All sides will become tops.
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Week 9. Still a happy plant, even with environment changes. Pics next week. Later.