Indoor Hi Guys

[peargrow]

Hi guys I come seeking wisdom and advise I was pointed in the direction of this forum by a good friend as im desperate to improve my grows. I'm pretty inexperienced but have a few grows under my belt so not a complete newbi, I upgrade my set up recently from a home made box in the loft to a much nicer set up in the garage.
SETUP
My current set up is 2.4x2.4 Grow Qube with 4, 600 hps and 8 inch mix flow fan in auto pots with paragon medium and a 200 litre tank. However despite the upgrade in setup the last grow was crap I only got 36oz of 20 ladies.

PREVIOUS GROW
I was hoping to get in region of 60 and was told with the setup that was achieveable the locals who have been growning for years in my area say about 3oz ladies on 12 week cycle is pretty standard going 4 weeks veg 8 weeks flower. After coming on the forum i been blown away seeing you guys growing 10oz mosters off 10 week autos and really want to achieve the type of results you guys are.

CURRENT GROW
Im currently about 3 weeks into my ladies whic are clones bubblegum, after seeing everything here im tempted to scrap them go out and buy the auto flower seeds and start all over again. My questions are with my current setup can I achieve 6-10 oz autos ? . One issue that wasnt around in the last grow was increasing temp i was on 12/12 in flower all 4 light were on and i was getting a steady temp of 28 the odd day it did reach 30-31 however my issue then was on 12 off period the temp was dropping to 12-16 Im pretty sure that played big part in killing my yeild. At the moment i only have 3 of my lights on in veg 24/7 cycle and the temp is constantly around 30 one day it hit 33. I wasnt to worried because when i go to flower and Im in 12/12 cycle Im confident i can have all 4 lights around the 28-29 temp mark however if i decided to scrap the current grow and go to 20/4 or 24/7 depending on the advice i recieve i dont know if im going to be able to control the temp.

Pfffffttttt HELP !

 

[peargrow]

Included some pics of the current ladies and set up .

 

[blue]

Hey Peargrow! Welcome to AFN!
That's quite a setup you're rocking! nearly 6meter2 and and 2400 watts of HPS ... woah!

So i'm a lot smaller scale - 1 or 2 plants in a 0.6 x 0.6 setup, but i can try to give you some general advice.
I'll just go through your points and put my take on it if that's ok!

2400w of HPS is gonna be tricky to cool in most spaces.
31C is a bit hot - I use F but keep a range of 75-85f. At the higher temps you can supplent C02, but its a pain in the arse to do properly.

So you usually do Photos, but have seen TaNgs and some other of the big growers Autos and want to give it a go. The light shedule will be important and for yeild you will not want to drop to 12/12. Keep a 20.4 schedule, but also be mindfull of the temps.

I should probably point out that you're more likely to get a bigger yield with Photos than with Autos - you'll have more control of their growth and they're less fussy and often more nute tollerant.

Nutes - feeding the plant is important. I'd follow TaNgs feeding guide (as he's the guy that get's 10 ounce autos in soil).

I'm an experienced, but lazy grower (and dont really measure wieghts at harvest) - but my large jars probably hold a few ouces and i would hope to fill at least one jar per plant. and maybe two - so three to six ounces isn't unreasonable. (i'd say 10 would be a super extraordinary harvest for most people)

Are your lights cool tubed?? It would really help if they were.

Next step i guess would be gradually replaceing some HPS with LED - It runs a lot cooler. In a garage, you'll probably want a mix and don't dump the HPS becuase when winter comes, you can pop em back in for heat - and we know canna likes HPS .. we also know it loves LED ... we also know they both needs the right environment to properly rock!

So - yeah you can get big numbers from autos if you have the right environment, feeding schedule and strain.

I would look at some of the newer bigger strains - Think Different, Auto Ultimate types that a big yeilders to start with. and then work on your environment and feeding routine!

hope this helps

Blue

 

[blue]

They look nice and healthy! Nice leaves!

 

[peargrow]

thanks very much for the reply blue they do look healthy at the minute but they were exactly the same last time round and returning only 360z of 20 is lets face it terrible and i dont want to repeat this time around I think maybe scrapping them and going with the best strain of autos is the 1st step then I need a good blueprint to follow getting the light, temp, and nutes bang on exactly like you suggested. just trying to do some reading here educating myself clearly i got a lot to learn its not easy thats for sure!

The lights arent cooled tubed at the moment if i go out and by 4 how much can i expect the temp to drop by reasonably ?

I done a search on the forum for Tang feeding guide but cant seem to nail it down can you point me in the right direction

Kind Regards
Pear

 

[blue]

4 how much can i expect the temp to drop by reasonably ?

Massively if you can vent the hot air outside! I can touch the glass on his hoods with my hands. (Not recommended if you don't KNOW they're running cool lol)

LED gives of no heat (not enough to combat the cold of a winter garage... but in the summer time! Handy!)

My friend had 4 400s in a smaller space in cooled hoods. They "could" get within inches of the canopy if he wanted.

You have plently of light - and your right, 1.5 oz from a photo is not what you want. It can either be feeding related or strain related.

(and its probably feeding)

Do you have a good feeding method - are you checking the EC and PH when you water.

Some modern photo periods can suckup as much as 2.8 - 3.0 EC in full late flower (my girl scout cookies did)

Autoflowers I would err on the side of caution and feed them at about 1.8ec in full late flower to start (unless you've already be testing for tnute tollerance and have gone past that already)

There's quite a bit to growing - but it's the same every time, so once you got the environment sorted and bits of info and you're putting it into practice, the end result is determenind by how lazy (or not) you are ... and how good the genetics were in the first place.

Hope this helps!
Blue

 

[TaNg]

Autos yield more than photoperiods in my experience.

 

[blue]

Autos yield more than photoperiods in my experience.

Oooh - the boxing gloves are on!! lol

TaNg .. I think you have a different experience to the bulk of growers, but i know this is down to grower skill and as above mentioned down to you being super meticlous and knowing exactly what your doing with a reliable and carefully monitored environment!

I agree that with your method and results - over time (say six months) your auto yeild will out perform what you could have obtained from a photo yeild.

Maybe i should re-phrase the above to "The average grower will find it easier PER plant, to pull a bigger yeild with a photoperiod than an auto ... not necessarily in the same time frame ... an auto will finish quicker .. "

But there's also the small advantage with a photo period that if you balls up early on - you can recover it and sitll pull a really good harvest ... with autos .. not so much in my experience.

So .. how could i argue with you TaNg lol - you're right! But so am i lol

 

[blue]

Edit: Hang on ... why are we even in GN section - he's got HPS's .. I'd certainly recommend he looks into GN - but for now, i think this thread needs moving some where more appropriate lol

Moving to new growers forum!

And TaNg .. he'll definately get better results if he follows your guides than if he were to follow mine! lol We know this!

 

[peargrow]

Previous grow - Veg was just warter I was told the plagron lightmix i use as my medium would provided enough nutes in veg and to be fair in veg they looked great and look similar this time around however im aware due to my inexperience my idea of great looking plant may not acurately match what is really a great looking plant in veg ( more experience and info needed )

Previous grow - feeding schedule in flower was to add Terra Flores I followed the intstuction on the back putting the necessary amount to 100 litre tank this was big mistake as it wasnt until the last two weeks i twigged on i was sitting with 200L tank (MASSIVE HEAD SHAKE)

This time around I purchased blue lab truenchon and been advised i simply add the terra flores until it reads EC 2 on on the truenchon. but im now noting that you said last few weeks weeks some strains can take 2.8! I also purchased canna boost accelerator and Big Bud that i been advised i start adding to the mix around week 2/3 of flower of the current grow with the Terra flores . does this sound right ?

* I add the nutes to my warter tank and let the auto pot system do the rest ... is this advised ?