I went back and tried to find the Potcast, I know he talks about which Kiona plants he had, but I can’t find the Potcast, maybe it got pulled? 
That’s really surprising, I just kind of assumed these were all gonna be “forever flowering” haha. Not that it’s a bad thing, I’m all about getting my weed faster lol
Edited because tunnel vision haha
When I was looking it up I remember running into “Hibiscus” as well, which is a totally unrelated Humbolt Seed Co offering… wouldn’t be surprised if things got confused as they went through the stoner web haha
Oh snap! Idk if I’m gonna keep them, because plant count, but I’m stoked it worked! Maybe drop them into a Folgers bucket and run em hempy next to the others, which are gonna stay in dirt… that’d be my whole plant count though, and I got some autos burning a hole in my seed pile… could just buy the last two tags I am allowed… decisions decisions…
Yeah, I l actually listened to that one a while back, pretty sure that’s where he mentioned it. But I also just assume that everybody’s using the same Viet Black haha.
I mean, there’ll probably be plants that finish faster. And some’ll take longer. Or maybe not haha. Who knows? The one Bandaid Haze/A5T that didn’t look close to done on the day I chopped looked like she wanted to go another 30 days, if not longer. But aphids, so… I’m sure there’ll be a whole spectrum. Interestingly, that super-early-chopped BAH/A5T really hasn’t smoked all that differently than the ones that were pretty much finished, either. She actually has a heavier comedown than the others, which I think is kinda weird haha. I’m thinking she may have had a lot more Cuban Black Haze in her than the others; according to Doc (and everything else I’ve read), CBH has a very heavy comedown. I dunno why I bought seeds of that cross haha…
I also usually start flowering at 11.5/12.5, decrease to 11:15/12:45 after a month, then 11/13 after three weeks of 11:15. I dunno if that has anything to do with it.
This round, I’ve been topdressing with MBP every two weeks (kind of haha), as well, so that may have something to do with it. I really don’t know haha! I don’t question the plants too much, just kinda try to go with the flow. If shit finishes quickly, cool, I’ll take it haha.
If I have learned anything through all the plants and gardens Ive grown (and killed haha),listen to the plants and go with the flow is most valuable thing I have taken away from it. I just try to remember, “they’re seeds, they want to be plants, they want to grow up and make flowers/fruit, just like what I want them to do”
Well, tomorrow we lose the t8s.
I also have another 80watt Chinese light I can hang between these if it isnt enough.
T8’s!
That’s vintage… now.
It doesn’t seem that long ago that they were The Way…
Cheers
G
They are led conversion bulbs to be fair.
But, if you want vintage, these fixtures are all overdriven 2x! 
Idk how that plays out with the leds, but I’m gonna talk more about that tomorrow! Or later tonight, we’ll see.
Ok, so about the t8s.
These fixtures are normal 4 ft shop lights, but they have all been overdriven, meaning a ballast meant to run 4 bulbs, is supplying that much power to only 2 bulbs. With standard flouro bulbs you end up having around 1.5x light output compared to a normally powered t8 bulb, while using twice the power. When I first put these together I was growing in a bureau, and they fit perfectly, so it was worth the loss of efficiency. I already owned the fixtures, just had to replace the ballasts. They worked fucking boss. I made a little scrog net for the bureau, if you kept the lamps nice and close you got a bunch of gorgeous little tight buds from it.
I grew a coupla few times in the bureau, first run was clones of nirvanas papaya, and possibly thc bomb? I worked with the guy I got the clones from, he handed me a cardboard box of clones in the work parking lot lol. After that a couple bag seed runs. Then I got “serious” and “upgraded” to 600watt in a diy tent in the closet. This set of lights got relegated to seedling duty, again, kick ass for it. I had bought a case of bulbs, and had no intention of stopping using it. Then I managed to smash like 6 or 8 u shaped t12 on a face level shelf, and after reading the procedure to clean up broken fluorescents, realizing there was bad shit in them (mercury) and not wanting to be exposed to any more , I recycled the bulbs I had left, and these started gathering dust.
Flash forward to earlier this year(post 24) when I saw these t8 led conversion lamps. I had planned to pull the leds, and make an array using the ballasts from the old t8 fixtures, enough to run 12 of these bulbs, 180 watts total. But, I assumed the the tubes would be plastic, and I could just pop the strips out easily. Wrong! The tubes are glass, and the strips are secured to the inside with a continuous, heavy bead of adhesive. I popped one to see what was inside, and that was enough to know I wasn’t doing the array like that. Breaking a bunch of glass in the basement just felt too wrong haha. And I never would have gotten all the glass shards out of the adhesive, not worth putting in a bunch of work to get slashed up. I feel the bulbs have worked pretty well, but not enough oomph that I feel comfortable flowering with them. I will say the light is really nice diffused because of the frosted glass also.
This spring my wife started getting into succulents and is already worried about putting a light over them for the winters to come, so I’m going to set at least one of these up in a little open cabinet, not unlike the bureau I used them in a bunch of years ago.
I am curious if the bulbs are any brighter, and if they draw more because of the overdriven ballast. Some day I’ll find time to open one up, wire it the “right way” and compare it to the other. I don’t want to buy anything to check the draw. Then, any my wife doesn’t take will go back to seedling duty. I have considered making an array that just holds them by the outside of the end caps and soldering the wires to the pins, I know it’ll kick ass for seedlings and young veg plants.
I realize this was more a trip down memory lane than a post about how the lights worked.
Am I the only person who feels sentimental about my old light fixtures? Can’t be, not around here anyway haha
I’d been wanting to get this all up here before, but was too lazy to type it all out. 
Thanks for reading if you made it this far
I mean, I’ve always used Apaches, so nothing to get sentimental about haha. Before I got the two smaller AT200’s to veg with, I did try fluorescents for vegging for like one day. It was one of those 2x2 Sunsystem thngs, I think that’s the name, just because I kinda wanted to save money on my power bill and not be running the AT600 all the time. But the fluorescents got hot as SHIT, like 92 degrees. Your fluorescents don’t get super hot? Especially being overdriven like that, I’d think they’d get pretty hot.
I’m sure you know this, but a Kill-A-Watt’s only like 20 bucks. I have one, although I’ve only used it one time haha, when I first set up my grow like seven years ago. I was actually straightening up my grow room closet in between grows a few months ago and came across it. Took me a minute to even remember what the fuck it was haha…
You know, for some reason I had it in my mind that that they cost way more than that, so I never even considered dropping the coin on one haha. When I actually get to screwing around outside of the purpose made fixtures I’ll prolly pick one up, just to have a better idea of what is going on.
With the real flouro bulbs, yeah, they got pretty warm. Had to keep a fan running across the fixtures or it’d get warmer than I wanted it to. With the leds it’s quite a bit cooler. That, along with the fact that it isn’t blindingly bright makes me think that the ballast is not over driving the leds the same way it did the flouros.
Nah, it’s cheap. I actually just googled it, because I wasn’t sure if I was remembering correctly, but it’s like 20 bucks. I’d offer to just give you mine, but I have a bad habit of either giving away or throwing away stuff that, like, a year or two later (or five years later) I forgot I threw out and I go crazy trying to find and finally ask my girl,”Where’d those tan seven-gallon airpots go?” or whatever and she’s like,”You threw them in the garbage like a year ago, I tried to talk you out of it,” haha. I’m trying to make a point of not getting rid of anything that I may need in the future from now on haha.
Yeah, I remember that with that fluorescent fixture I hung for a day. I even had like three oscillating fans blowing pretty much directly on the plants/fixture and it didn’t make a difference haha. It was super-hot. Freaked me out haha.
Yeah , I also don’t give stuff like that away usually. Not because I might want it again some day, but because I don’t want to give something used to someone, and have them be like”oh wtf is used and free, and it’s not perfect?!” Haha. Seeds and plants and stuff I’m loose with though.
Also checked the temps on the lights before I pulled them, the hottest part of the housing, right over the ballast was 107, the bulb itself was 87.
Swapped the lights. Damn, this is bright now haha. The new lights are maybe a foot higher than the old, from 90 watts to 200. I two pics of the same piece of perlite with my camera with the aperture and iso fixed, and these are the results. 1/2 the shutter time for the new lights. Meaning around twice the light? Not the mot accurate way to do this I’m sure. Notice the extra bit of spectrum too.
Up potted the bigger Purple Satellite into a 1.5 gal pot with Roots yesterday.
Also put the best of the PCB x NWHP clones, from plant #2, into a Folgers bucket. Tossed all the rest. I actually just cut the root ball out of the Galaxy Brain bucket, dropped the clone in, and filled around it with fresh Roots. Put my finger over the drain, filled the bucket up with plain tap water, waited a couple mins, and drained it all out, including tipping it on the side to empty the res portion. Had wanted to do that before I put the plant in, but forgot. I felt I had messed with the clone enough, and decided to just go for it. We’ll see if I fucked myself soon enough I bet haha.
Watering the other plants has become an everyday thing. Gonna give them a few days to observe how they react to the new lights, then, if they have spread their roots to the edges of the pot, will up pot.
Also, changed to 12/12 today. Will give a week, then to 11/13.
Curious when I will cross the stress threshold and the plants will bug out.
Did a big cleanup today, give them some room to breath. Crushed and twirled and cracked some tops down. With any plant I try to not to take more than 1/3 the plant in a go, but some of these were closer to 1/2.
Plan to repot tomorrow, assuming they don’t die in the night.
In the solo is my first OG seed! More details if it starts lol.
The smaller purple satellite is foxtailing, if you can even call this foxtailing.
Gonna up pot this coming weekend. Had planned for today, but, life happened haha. I don’t imagine the pause in the stress olympics is gonna kill me, but we’ll see.
Do you do that often when the plants are flowering? Seems like it might do more harm than good to me. I’ve never done it, though (except with those autoflowering plants for the current grow).
I don’t think the Purple Satellite looks bad. You’ve still got a while to go, don’t you? I’m sure she’ll fill out.
While I have not had to up pot during flowering recently, it is something I have done in the past. Normally way further into flower, and as a last resort, just to get to the end. I’m planning to do it now to avoid having to do it in desperation when I can’t keep up with their water needs, and the plants are covered in sticky buds, which is a suck time to be moving plants around, let alone repotting. I would just let them go, but I know I won’t be able to keep up with watering them in flower. I do expect them to slow down a bit, but I’m ok with that, as they’re gonna over run the space I have anyway.
Honestly I’m not sure what to expect with the PS. I guess I was hoping that since the small one started flowering as hard as it did, it would just keep going at that rate, but the change in bud structure threw me a bit. The bigger one pretty much stalled, hoping it continues/ starts flowering again with less hours of light.
Let’s be clear that I’m basically winging this haha.
Also, thank you for asking good questions, and I mean that. This is all stuff I thought about, but to just throw it all out there ahead of time would make me seem like even more of a rambling spaz that I am haha.
So the new arrival is Durban Sunrise I was given by @Hydro921. Thanks again, I really appreciate it!
Will end up in its own cabinet were it will never leave this solo cup. It’s a solo hempy btw, maxibloom etc as I’ve been using.
