not producing big buds

Heres my setup:

My vegetative stage is lit by 4x250 watt 1250 lumen florescent bulbs per shelf. Roughly 32 plants are stored per shelf. My vegetative stage is ready every 2 weeks roughly.

I have 3 mammas producing roughly 50 clones every two weeks. The clones are cut, placed in a B1 solution, and then stuck into ph-balanced root cubes under 2 of the aforementioned bulbs. My clones seem to root efficiently. Every 2 weeks the clones can be transplanted into 5 1/4 pots for another 2-3 weeks in the vegatative stage. Here is where each row is 4 x florescent bulbs mentioned above. They are fertilized with a high nitrogren, low phosphate fertilizer once per week. They are watered 2x a week on top of. Every day moisture is checked with a moisture meter. The room stays approximately 75-85 degrees, depending on the weather. It is also well insulated and highly reflective.

After the 2 weeks, although recently ive left them grow approx 5 weeks, they go under a 1,000 watt HPS on 12/12. They are now fertilized a high phosphate fertilizer once to twice per week. Watered 2x per week. They are transplanted upon arrival into 3 gallon pots.

My recent harvest consisted of 21 – 3 foot tall (roughly) plants. Each had been cut once for sexing so produced two nice top buds. However, the top buds were small and my yield was embarrassing. Out of 21 plants I got 7 ounces! My biggest bud weighed maybe 4 grams. That was far from common, most were 1/2 - 2 inches. I need some guidance.

vermin33 said:

My vegetative stage is lit by 4x250 watt 1250 lumen florescent bulbs per shelf. Roughly 32 plants are stored per shelf.

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My 27w fluorescents put out 1660 lumens each.. I have never heard of a 250w fluorescent that puts out only 1250 lumens.. that has to be a typo...

vermin33 said:

My recent harvest consisted of 21 – 3 foot tall (roughly) plants. Each had been cut once for sexing so produced two nice top buds. However, the top buds were small and my yield was embarrassing. Out of 21 plants I got 7 ounces! My biggest bud weighed maybe 4 grams. That was far from common, most were 1/2 - 2 inches. I need some guidance.

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Were you using a brand new bulb or one that has been used before? How close to the plant tops was the light?

The florescent ballasts are adjustable (for height) and are kept between 2 and 1/2 inch away depending on how fast the plants grow. Never more than 2 inches. I was mistaken on my bulbs, they are 40w 1200 lumen bulbs, 4 per shelf, approximately 8 months old (buthave not been on consistently for the last 8 months, turned off when not in use). Unless its a rooting issue or im not letting their base get tall enough, those are the only two things i can see possibly flawed in my vegatitive growth. Other than that my young ladies grow nicely.

In the flowering room the 1000w HPS bulb is roughly 3 months old. When the plants were 3 feet tall it was within 2 foot (maybe 18" from the tallest), but when first moved in its more like 3'-3 1/2 foot. too far away?

1 1000 watt hps is not enough light for that many plants.2 would be sparse 3 would be ideal.You may want to sell the 100 watt light and get 4 400 watt lights or 3 600 watt lights.The coverage would be better as you will need to cover a wide space to accomadate 21 plus plants.The 100 watt light will penetrate further down in a smaller area but no cover the space needed for these amounts of plants.2 plants should have gotten you 7 ozs.Are you using a good quality seed and not just some bag seed as quality seeds make a huge difference as street bag seed is usually from plants grown outside where they can be grown to 7 or more feet in acres of field so they are not as refined or picky whne planting them.Did you monitor your ph levels and ppms when feeding to make sure your levels are in the safe zones? Good soil?Watering seems light.I use 5 gallon buckets and water every 2 days feeding evey watering with the correctly diluted daily feed measuremnet on my fet bottles.You have to make sure you have room for the plants 2 unless your doing a straight sea of green.to max yeild a plant give it at least 2 square meters of room per plant.Do you have good air movement fans down low allowing good fresh air flow so the air is not stale? Did you use any kind of co2 injection or producer as thye can increase yeilds 45-75%.

My electricity bill right now is roughly 200 a month. Its manageable. How much will it change, by your estimations, if i throw 2 or 3 600's up versus the 1 1,000? Are there places where barely used equipment can be sold for a decent price? Would the 1,000 watt on a track, and lowered a bit, significantly increase my yield or must i switch to more lights? Right now im not doing a true sea of green, my plants are too large. originally that was my thought though, i have the most information on that specific style of growing. If i switched to a true sea of green, which i define as never-cut plants, roughly one foot tall, budding in trays - maybe in 5 1/4's or possibly smaller - but the only concern is that top bud. please correct me if im wrong.

Ill stop now and say thank you for your help, im truly grateful and in dire need!

Second, im using a generic fertilizer and although consistent i would say its applied diluted. What is the correct PPM as you say? How do i test that?

I have a PH tester, but i do not frequently test it. The PH was neutral last time i checked. How frequently does this need to occur?

Should I have a stadium style set up to distribute the light better to the new ladies sent in to bud?

How long should mammas be kept for?

I have them in 3 gal tubs now, can i bud them in 2 gallon tubs but still get a decent yield?

Thanks again for any help.

I missed an answer to your post Fletch: I have bubblicious seeds purchased online. Because this was soo slow to get up and running, and after i lost a significant portion of my purchased seeds, i used one male to pollinate 8 females and collected seeds - got well over a 100! Clones from the second batch make up most of my stock now.

Also im using Bacto for my soil. And they get roughly 6-8 gallons divided by all plants 2x a week (so 12-16 gallons throughout my whole room per week) and are checked daily with a moisture meter.

FilthyFletch said:

1 1000 watt hps is not enough light for that many plants.2 would be sparse 3 would be ideal.You may want to sell the 100 watt light and get 4 400 watt lights or 3 600 watt lights.The coverage would be better as you will need to cover a wide space to accomadate 21 plus plants.The 100 watt light will penetrate further down in a smaller area but no cover the space needed for these amounts of plants.2 plants should have gotten you 7 ozs.Are you using a good quality seed and not just some bag seed as quality seeds make a huge difference as street bag seed is usually from plants grown outside where they can be grown to 7 or more feet in acres of field so they are not as refined or picky whne planting them.Did you monitor your ph levels and ppms when feeding to make sure your levels are in the safe zones? Good soil?Watering seems light.I use 5 gallon buckets and water every 2 days feeding evey watering with the correctly diluted daily feed measuremnet on my fet bottles.You have to make sure you have room for the plants 2 unless your doing a straight sea of green.to max yeild a plant give it at least 2 square meters of room per plant.Do you have good air movement fans down low allowing good fresh air flow so the air is not stale? Did you use any kind of co2 injection or producer as thye can increase yeilds 45-75%.

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if he used his 1 - 1000watt on a 4foot Motorized track, it would do the same job... if i were you i would use 2 - 1000watt on a 4-6 foot motorized track, then u could grow 20-30 maybe 40 plants well if you placed them right.

and all you need is a 3 gallon pot, 5 Gallon pots are more for mothers.

My bloom room is 6'x7' - with the plants lined up down the 7' wall 4 deep with 1/3 of the room left for walking water, etc.

If i bought a 6' motorized track would i get enough lumens per plant to do 21 plants?

According to Filthy Fletch i should use 2 cub meters per plant - since im using 3 gal instead of 5 is it fair to say 1 cub meter per plant - if so thats 14 plants, roughly, for my area.

If i put my 1,000 watt light on a 6 foot track can i effectively grow 14 plants producing, as fleth said, 7 ounces per plant? I got 7 ounces out of 21 plants last time and its not worth the electricity bill to do that.

when you top a plant to close to flower it cant recover properly. you will see nice yeild from 1k lighting but you need to understand 1 cola will be more large but 3 med colas about balance it out.

keep in mind its all about how much energy you put in. small cfls are no way to develope vigerous root systems if you cant get the food to your girl how can she produce more. so when you got to flower your plant is now getting its share of 150k lumens but you get more than 2 feet from that and your talking 75% less. cloning 50 plant a week is like flowering 400 in full cycle. slow up and check genetics too. dont over crowd flowering @ 20 inches will make some tall trees i found a balance between yeild and quality. you dont want 5 foot plants with 10 small buds and 3 foot of stem.

A Bud Smoker: cloning 50 plant a week is like flowering 400 in full cycle.

Can you explain this??

Currently my 1k light is not adjustable for height. That is on my to do list somewhere at the top. To save on the $1,000 investment of buying 2-4 other lights (400w or 600w) Im gonna purchase a motorized track, and make the 1k adjustable on that track. Under a 1k light, in a 6x7' room, on a motorized track, what seems to be a safe # of plants to max yield? Id rather put fewer plants in and get premium results than overload and get the results i encountered last time.

Thank you again, any and all information is highly appreciated!

Hey vermin, I agree, a light mover would be of help to you. a 2nd light surely wouldnt hurt either.
Get a decent ph tester, and get some sort of quality nutes, like foxfarm or earth juice, most of the people I know around here use foxfarm with great results.
What you want to do is add your nutes to your water, than test the water for ph and adjust as necessary.
You should also test your runoff too for ph.
3 gallon pots are fine, thats what I use.
You dont mention temps or humidity? For flowering you dont want your humidity over 50 or 60% max.
I've got 4 plants growing and I bet I'll equal your yeild, using a 400 watt light.
I dont know where you shop, but where I shop a 1k light is only about $250.00 and a 400 is $119.00
complete with hood and all.

dude ive fully grown a big plant on a meer 70 watt hps

The temp is steady around 75-80. The humidity i do not know offhand, but i know its under 50% - is there a point when its too low? the setup has thermometers and humidity gauges throughout. If i have the light on a track can i keep it 18", roughly, away from the plants. I think this is my number one problem, the light is too far away when they are in the early stages of 12/12 so they grow too tall. Im working on solving that problem as quickly as possible. unfortunatly, im afraid the second batch probably is already experiencing some of the first batches same mistakes. Should i implement a version of the Low Stress Training to try and combat the height issue while they are still fairly flexible? Or no?

LST will sure help with your height issues, but as you said it only works if you do it now if they still flexible. you cant do it after they stiffened up.
humidity can be a big factor on the plants since high as well as low humidity will stress the plants really badly. as far as i know is the range between 40 to 60% about the optima. also it slows the grow of mole.

remember you need the light track to stop 1' away from the end of your space on both ends. If your going to have it moving over 6' of plants you will need one you can stop form going the full 6'.

is it possible to buy tracks that also are capable of adjusting the lights height?