Hi Chris hope you’re well reached out over twitter I’ve been trying to get some plants to grow in my tent which I have to move between I’m in coco for the fourth time and advanced ph nutrients using five gallon pots only two in my tent which is 160 x 160 x 180, my issue is I’m losing plants about 5 weeks in they are not anything close to where they should be. I’ve grown on and off over 16 years but almost exclusive outside any in door was done under blue hologen never used l any of the new leds and I’m not sure if it’s my lights or my “fresh” air flow with in the room but I need to get a handle on it for my medical reasons as I have five different health issues and ive found this is a necessar much thanks Rich.
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The ppfd chart for that light looks realistic but very bad. They will always show the map with lights at 100%. At 100% you need a light that does around 1000-800ppfd over the entire tent to get good results in flower and half that number for optimal veg growth. That type of light also produces a lot of heat. Heat=wasted electricity.
Can you be more specific on what issue you are having? Are your plants not looking how you want or are they dying completely? How many drivers do you have on your light/lights. What are the wattages listed on the driver's? What type of nutrients do you use?
I can go more into detail on things I can rule out for sure. It's not nutrient deficiency. If this were the case it would look overall discolored toward yellow, specifically at the bottom. It is probably not your light at that size and distance it should be fine. You will run into issues later though. I believe the first person to respond to you said your parameters were good for heat and humidity but I will go back to see those.
Relax man, no one is patronizing you. We are all just trying to help. I am speaking in a way that is analytical because it is easier to read and understand. On the same page, if you have been growing for 16 years and know what you are doing then why are you asking for help? You have to humble yourself to learn. No one who knows everything is willing to learn anything.
Regarding someone telling you your plant looks underwatered, that isn't something you can see unless the plant is wilting. Just because the top of the pot looks dry doesn't mean it's dry underneath. The only reason I said something about watering is because plants that small should still be growing well under the light you have at the distance you stated. Plants under leds also transpire less water because the leaf surface temperature doesn't get as hot as under hid lights.
We are all just trying to deduce information based on what we see. I'm only trying to gather more information based on the variables that you haven't listed that are necessary to understand your specific grow. I would ask you but I can get most of the information from your pics. Like reading your driver specs and extrapolating 5gallon pot size vs the size of your tent.
I'm sorry you are having issues in your grow. The only thing I want is to see your grow improve or I wouldn't spend so much time on these replies.
You don't need this specific light but look for similar specs for your tent.
I'm a bit perplexed by your statement that the pots are not getting dry. You just have to stop watering them so much...with fabric pots you can blow air on the side of the pots to dry them out faster if needed. Yes, that light would also be a waste of money. Unfortunatly, good lights cost money. Stick with major brands if you don't understand lighting because the suppliers are more transparent. That light says 1000w but is probably 100w at most, likely less. You said your tent was 160x160 but it looks much smaller. Just as a reference, the hlg r spec uses 6 288 diode quantum boards for its 600 watt light. That light is for a 5ftx5ft but it is also like 1100USD. The light you sent a picture of has close to the same number of diodes as 1/6 of that light but I guarantee you the diodes are half as efficient on top of that. Based on the Information you have given regarding tent size I'd say you need 300 watts of light for veg and 600 for flowering if that tent was wall to wall filled. If you have your lights within 10 inches of the plants they should still be growing and healthy if you even have 120watts. That's why I think you are watering too much. Let me put it this way, in veg when a plant gets underwatered you can fix it in a couple hours by giving it water. When you overwater it can takes weeks to recover.
I can tell you 100% the blue led thing is irrelevant. You have a light with cool white, warm white, and deep red, which is fairly standard for spectral composition. Royal blue would only retard growth because there is already enough blue in your cool white diodes. I build my own lights so I'm familiar with the components. I can see from the picture of your driver that it is 120watts. It is also an off brand driver so there is a chance that its efficiency is around 60-70%. If you combine this with the fact that the diodes are probably San'an with a lumens per watt of 165, it's likely underpowered for your grow. Is that your only light and/or is there a second driver? You'd need at least 2 of them to get moderate results in a 3x3 once the plants are larger. I suspect that plants that small would be ok at 10 inches away for veg though. The growth wouldn't be explosive by any means but they wouldn't die. Now that distance is ruled out and you have some better pictures I can move on to the next thing I see. It looks like your containers are quite large for your plants so there is a high likelihood you are watering too much. Plants that size need very little water and around 200-300 ppm of fertilizer to survive. In my experience the yellow leaves you have at the bottom and the yellowing edges are a pretty clear sign of too much soil moisture, which is starving the roots of oxygen. Try backing off on the watering a bit and moving the light up to 20 inches and see if there are improvements within a week. If you see improvements then continue a reduced water schedule and then lower the lights back down once the plants have recovered some. Just for reference, I have seen plants that are overwatered take 2 weeks too dry out the pot enough to need more water.
Could you possibly be overestimating that light? It looks like a 120 watt low quality led. If you have that light too far away at that low of a wattage it might be giving off ppfd far too low for your plants by the time they reach week 5. You might want to try and bring the light within 10-12 inches of the leaves. If the plants improve in growth and health then your light might be the issue. If that's the case you might need a more powerful light to pull off any realistic numbers.
Hi, I'm guessing one or more of the following:
- Soil too hot due to over feeding
- High PH
- Light too low
It sounds like your humidity is good and your light looks like it is high now so I would try feeding only plain PH'd water for a few feedings to see if that helped.
You have not mentioned anything about your PH. I cannot stress enough the importance of getting the PH correct. A PH problem might be the cause of your issues. You really need to check the PH and PPM.
So they were/are great for temp at least it sits between 23-26 the humidity was nicely at any where between 50-65 since I put my 5g fabric pots in this is within the last few days they’ve been sat 70 plus and I can’t seem to bring it down but my rhino Ryder never went that high as it was autum in to spring.
Hi, do you mean week 5 after planting or week 5 of Flower?
And we are going to need more information on what is happening to your girls at week 5, pictures showing the issues would be very helpful.
Have you checked the PH of your water? The PPM of your runoff? What strain are are you growing and are they Autos or Photo Periods?
And tell us more about the light you are currently using. A blue halogen sounds like something you would use for Veg only. If you are trying to flower with a blue light, that could be your problem.
I'm not sure if the light is the problem but the first thing you should do is get yourself a full spectrum LED grow light.
I'm going to guess your problem is either your PH levels are way off or your PPM is way off (So feeding too much or too little) or your light is not the right kind. With pictures and more information we might be able to narrow that down.
Good luck!