New grower using hlg 288 v1 boards

First time growing anything. Ever. Lol
I’ve done enough research to be dangerous, and now I’ve started my first crop.
I have a 4x8 Vivosun tent, a cloudline t6 fan, and settled on 8 qb288 v1 boards on slate 2 heatsinks, because they were on sale…
Using 4 HLG-240H-2100a drivers.
Using ffhf soil layered on top of ffof.
Started some auto flowers and some photoperiod plants together. Figure I’ll run the lights 18/6 for the first 8-10 wks and veg the photos until the autos are finished, and then switch the lights to 12/12.
Lowered the lights today, because I felt like they needed it. Have the drivers turned all the way down for now. And added some 6500k fluorescent tubes, thinking that will help with veg.
But idk. Probably need to raise them again…
Just looking for some input from the masters.
@drnb32

image|375x500

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I suppose I should add, that I don’t plan on finishing all these plants in this tent. Some are going to a fellow grower, once their crop is finished.
And a couple of the photoperiods, may even go outdoors.
Which brings up a question.
Is there a certain age that’s best, when taking an indoor plant outdoors?

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Welcome to the community. You are going to be a busy bee. :+1::+1::+1:

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Set to watch. Good Luck.

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Welcome to the forum! How close are the lights? They look closer than I would suggest for now.

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Yaaaaah. I lowered them to about 12 inches yesterday. Just raised them up to around 24 inches, this morning. I didn’t feel like these boards were really putting out very much. Impatience…

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Plants are just small. If you feel the need to, turn them up a smidge. Otherwise you should be in pretty good shape.

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Do you use a phone for light meter?
I thought about getting a handheld lux meter but read on here about the conversion for smartphone light meters? What do you recommend @dbrn32?
The app I downloaded only reads like 564 lux at plant level when the lights are at 28”.
Which is why I had lowered them…

I don’t recommend any of them really. There are no exact lines where not enough light meet perfect, or too much. Having a meter to test won’t change that.

Ok. So I guess the proof is in the pudding.
Or the nugs. Lol.
It’s my first time. And I’ve read so many of your replies to others about these boards being the way to go. I just wanted my lux meter to read soooo
much higher than it does. Especially when using hlg’s own ppfd calculator for smartphones.
But thank you for your reply. And for dealing with all of our dumbass questions that you get tagged in

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Day 21 since they broke dirt. Got a few bushing out

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Some pretty exciting signs, for a first time grower

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Could these leaves look like this from the lights being too close? Or over/under watering?

Having an issue on this one plant. Weird orange/brown spots on the leaves. Anybody have any idea what it is?

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Could be a few things. Some of them look like water was spilled on leaves and left. But looks like a nutrient or ph issue too. Have you been adjusting/monitoring ph and ppm recently? What does it look like?

Watering with 6.5 ph water. He did just say that he may have got some water with nutrients on the leaves. But we do not check runoff. Never actually water until there’s a significant amount of runoff. And do not own a meter for the tds. I suppose that may be more necessary than I thought.
Should I be watering them until there’s runoff every time, with fox farms ocean forest soil?

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Not necessarily, but if you’re having an issue it’s one of easiest ways to collect some data.

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2 GSC autos on the left. A blue dream’matic at the right rear. And a young Jack Herer photo plant just soaking up the sun.

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Here’s a little of what’s been going on in my tent.
The Blue Dream’matic is definitely a ways ahead of the GSC autos. And seems like the buds are forming better. But maybe the GSCs will catch up.
Still having some leaf discoloring and dying on the blue dream after I fed her some fox farm nutes. So I’m just going back to plain water for awhile. Hopefully it doesn’t affect her too much.
The little feminized jack herer is really filling out.
Huge fan leaves.

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