Switch from HPS to MH during Flowering

I know, but I have a feeling my HPS is too weak or not as bright anymore, my plants keep stretching and I have them 10-12" from the light. is this Normal for flower? I am starting week 3 tomorrow and they just keep getting taller and the spacing between nodes is a little long. Could I switch to my 400 Watt MH without shocking them or just stay with my 250 Hortilux Super HPS?

yes this s normal, the plant can stretch during flower as well as double or triple in height man. your HPS is fine dont switch.

its gotta be too late now. they should stop growing vertically now. it does suck though, you will just have to add light for the next grow. dont get me wrong, they will still love more light but the stretch isnt getting fixed.

rzza said:

its gotta be too late now. they should stop growing vertically now. it does suck though, you will just have to add light for the next grow. dont get me wrong, they will still love more light but the stretch isnt getting fixed.

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Yes, but metal halide for flowering is eh.

I think I'm just overthinking again. Everything looks good, i had some overfert issues again that I only caught after the tips started yellowing, I flushed them all today and then added less then half the recommended doseage and the leaves perked up again. I know one is Big bud fem but the tallest is bagseed, anyone know what kind of plant the tall one is? sativa or indica? I only ask cuz my buddy told me it was a Sativa; and it would take 4 months to be ready 0.o

mane2008 said:

Yes, but metal halide for flowering is eh.

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actually if you delve deep you will find out that the best spectrum for flowering is 3 to 1 hps to mh. in other words in a large grow op its suggested for every fourth light to be mh. theres even diagrams showing the pattern to place the lights.

full life cycle considered, HPS is the best all around spectrum for a cannabis plant. if you look at the spectrum of an HPS bulb you'll notice it actually has a lot more blue in it than a metal halide has orange or red. an HPS is very orange, yes, but many people often overlook the completeness of an HPS's spectrum for that reason.

anyway that wasn't your question was it? if you think your bulb is indeed dying out then i would suggest just getting another bulb. the ballast should be fine. you'll get a lot more bud if you keep the HPS in there, but there are plenty of examples of good bud production using a MH lamp. in my opinion, though, changing the spectrum so drastically after the plant being in one spectrum its whole life is just asking for hermaphrodites. your plants expect that cool blue spectrum in the spring and summer. generally stressing out the plant during flowering in any manner, including this one, is best avoided.

peace,
monkey

oh and another note - i don't know what strain you're growing but a pure sativa or even a lot of sativa dominant strains stretch out like that regardless of available lighting. they're just that sun-hungry, and it's in their genetics to grow 9-12 feet tall outdoors.

but again, that's only relevant if you're growing a haze or something. your plants look pretty sativa-ish to me.

It's tough, because everyone has their idea on what needs to be done, i.e books say one thing, then another book contradicts it, 1 person says this, another that. The more opinions I get, the better off i want to be For example I talked to my buddy who is purely ebb/flow hydro and said i was gonna throw some molasses in my fert sched and he laughed at me and called me an idiot, yet i read a lot about it saying it is a great idea. So he gave me this stuff called Purple maxx to use and some King neptune fish fertilizer 1-3-2 and said it was all i needed. I took it, I'm not one to turn down free nutes (hehe) but I'm not changing my mind on the molasses. But its this whole Light debate that irks me more then anything.

Some people do like to finish with MH bulbs, or add them to their HPS lighting late in flower because of the UVB rays MH bulbs put off and UVB rays increase resin production. I don't do it .... but some people do.

I am doing this !