Seems like this is purely HPS, but given I’m hoping to only be vegging for another 3 weeks, would it work to just use two of these all the way through? Only concern with this one in particular is reviews saying non-discreet packaging, which it hopefully would be (discrete).
diy LED could be an option, do you have a ballpark estimate of how much it’d cost and how much wattage I’d be going for? I’ve seen mention of diy LED being easier than it seems, and a few things like Quantum boards and stuff. The quantum board kits seem a bit pricier than I was hoping, but I’m guessing there’s a boatload of options out there that I don’t know about?
I’m absolutely sure I have a few cards up my sleeve that you’re not aware about haha!
I guess you tell me what’s most important. You could probably buy two hlg-65 for $99 each that would do just about everything two 150 watt hps lights would’ve done, and they would veg better too. And you just hang and plug those in. If we can find a couple of qb 120’s without having to buy 4 pack we could probably build same light for under $150.
About $1 per watt is about as cheap as I can generally get them. Depending on how much work your willing to do, usually decides how good of a light you get for that kind of money.
hlg stuff looks cool! Saw the QB 304 quantum board, which apparently can be run up to 150W. Two of those at $65 a pop seems like it could be just right, or am I forgetting about something?
Well, it’s been a while! Moving caught me off-guard and I had a bit longer of a house projects phase than I’d anticipated, but am getting caught back up to speed now!
Plant updates include some hard decisions - after leaving the plants with a friend for around 10 days, I returned to find some of the leaves died off and they’d gotten very stretched. Stealth has also become a key factor, so when I did get my plants back they weren’t terribly happy, only getting sunlight through the window for two weeks. I think it slowed their growth drastically, getting caught up on the contest page I’m seeing a lot happier plants. But, good with the bad - my friend who “plant-sat” for me wound up giving me their plant! It’s got a good three weeks on my oldest plant, and had extremely yellow leaves before I took it in. It’s still on the mend but getting better quickly, and I just saw some white pistils poking out!
So with stealth being key, I purchased a 2x3x6ft cabinet and the Viparspectra 300W led just to kick things off. The youngest two plants were deemed worthy to grow outdoors. I picked up some fox farms ocean forest potting soil and 5 gallon pots (3 gallons for the indoor plants) and transplanted three days ago, then hardened off the two going outdoors and put the two older ones back in the cabinet.
Now I’m running into a slight issue of possibly over-watering? The plants outdoors seemed to have bounced back and I’ll try to get some pics of them tomorrow, but here’s a few pics of my adopted and first plants:
This is the adopted plant, still looking a touch yellow but coming back strong! Some of the nodes underneath have started producing leaves again where they’d died and fallen off.
This is my first plant, named Ethel for the contest, and chugging right along despite some initial unhappiness due to the low light circumstances. The leaves look droopy and almost hooked - is that just a result of the transplanting watering? It was quite a bit, maybe a quarter to a third of a gallon of water on a local growing friend’s suggestion. The first half inch of soil is dry on top but beneath that it’s still quite damp and compact and the buckets feel heavy.
Ethel and adoptee showing great growth, though Ethel seems a bit stressed from the heat. Got a micro fan for the cabinet, so hopefully we’ll see signs of change and happier looking fan leaves!
Another exciting development is the adopted plant showing what I think are signs of being female!
In this picture you can see some amber colored pistil / hairs, although I don’t know why it’s starting so early, especially considering I haven’t been giving them 12/12 light, much closer to 16/8. Got a timer on the light now though so it can finish strong and got to flower in a week or two!
I’ve got some of the Alaska fertilizer mixed for two tbsp with one gallon of h2o, and have been feeding 12oz of that about once a week. What do you recommend for feeding? I’m well aware I may have been lacking in this area… Hoping they just trooper through the learning curve with me😄
Both. Water til you get 20% runoff and then let her dry out until next watering. She’s hungry so feed her a full amount per manufacturer recommendations
