I’m all for adding more SolStrips, but with an HLG-185H-24 you probably are already pulling around 200w, or 25w/sf. That’s close to the 30-40w/sf range that is ideal for bloom spaces, and great for veg. You likely already have all the light you need to harvest very nice product over 80% of your space. Only the corners will likely fall out of optimum intensity range.
Don’t rip up your light. Augment it. If you really want to add 5 more strips, you should be able to fit 2 SolSheet X’s side by side. The X’s are 26" x 19". So two should fit fine, with a little bulge, positioned with the 26" sides running along the 2 ft width of the tent.
Better I think would be to get a SolSheet Original. 150w (what you need to get you into the 30-40w/sf range), and half the size of the X - 18"x13". Turned on its side next to your X, that’s 26" + 13"= 39 inches long x 19" wide for both lights. Nice fit and room left to have ventilation space around all sides of each light.
@Baudelaire: Yeah I’ve been talking to a few people about it… I think I’m leaning towards not breaking it down. Doing a 3 strip half pan may not be a bad idea, a little cheaper anyways. Can’t let myself get caught up on the cool looking ladder design too much!
Nah… I couldnt Stand the idea that I Have two Lights next to each other and they are not the same power. I would feel like part of my plants are not getting so much Light
As long as they are, as a unit together, centered over the canopy in a reflective-walled space, the light intensity will be relatively uniform across the field. -b420
So… the Headband are indeed a tough nut to crack. I soaked them for 24 hours - none showed any hydrolyzing but I went ahead and put them in solo cups in the RGT. That was 4 days ago… still no sign of life from them.
Show me the GREEN
So, because I am impatient to see some green I decided to germinate the 5 Tangie F2’s I had as backup. This time I opted for paper towel instead of soaking. After ~30 hours the first of the 5 Tangie popped its tap root. A few hours later (now), 2 more have popped. I think my paper towel was a little to dry at first or they may have popped sooner. I expect the other 2 to pop before the day is out.
The Dilemma & Moving forward
So my goal is to have 4 females to take in to flower. As I mentioned before, I would prefer to keep my total number of plants at any one time < 5 (as >= 5 is when more severe legal penalties occur). One of the reasons I chose to attempt the Headband first was because those seeds were feminized. The Tangie F2 seeds are regular. So I have to decide whether I want to grow more than 4 out until sexed and only keep the best 4 girls or whether I should just take the first 4 to make it above ground or what.
I wouldn’t up the number of plants if security is a risk. There are lots of options, but I would pack them in tight until they show pre-flowers and then pull the males and train the females to fill the space. I did send you two feminized Blueberry seeds. You should get them Monday if not sooner.
amelech also makes wireless dimmable driver controllers so you can turn on/off or adjust wattage from anywhere in the world
@KingGhidora i wouldn’t worry about plant count just for little guys… easy enough to throw them in a garbage can if you hear a knock at the door plant 10 and pick the most vigorous 4 females is what i’d do (actually i’d grow all the females)
another option is to run a perpetual 12/12 cycle.
when one is ready plant a seed, pull a male plant a seed.
then you will normally have some starting and some almost finished.
Shoot, I did make a tutorial for germinating those Headband, but I guess I was a little too late. My bad.
I’ll send you more if you want to try again, just PM me . They are easy, once you get the hang of it.
I’m starting to lean towards growing out all of them until sexed. Keep the 4 best looking girls in the tent. Cull any males and then if there are any girls left over, find them a home outside.
I really would like to do this… How would you set up an optimal cycle with 4 plants?
So I started this off with 4 hard to germ Headband. Well they lived up to their reputation. After seeing nothing from them in a week I excavated them carefully for signs of germination. One looked like it had popped so I carefully reburied it just to see if it would do anything. Nothing yet.
In the meantime I also started 5 Tangie F2’s using paper-towel method, of which 3 germinated and were placed into Solo cups with RGT. Alas, on of the little ones couldn’t get its helmet off and died. The remaining two are working on their first set of leaves now.
The problem with that is I need 4 plants… so I went ahead and germinated two Dinafem Blueberry seeds in a paper towel, but popped and I put into the Solo Cups. That was yesterday, today I can already see the first of the Blueberry just beneath the surface, it should be up before long!
I’m letting the one Headband tag along for now. We’ll see if it ends up doing anything.
I am currently watering with straight water (pH adjusted) until they get a second set of leaves then I will start with a 1g MegaCrop/gallon nute solution.
Ok, one other bit of information… after consulting with @Jellypowered starting tomorrow or the next (which is when I expect the Blueberry to break the surface) I will be lowering the light (5x SolStrip 3500K driven at ~200W) by 1 inch daily from the current ~24 inches down to 12 inches above the plants.
which I mentioned 
I Have a plan of my own to build 480w solstrip Light to my little 2,5x2,5x7 box 
GREEN 
(actually i’d grow all the females)
. They are easy, once you get the hang of it.
