Thank you for the speedy reply! I’ve been up all night with anxiety trying to do more homework on them.
Yes It all began when I switched to the 600 watt rig (Dimmed to 200w)
As far as the medium, I mixed Fox Farms and Pro Mix with a good bit of perlite for drainage.
I water them very little when I do water them , about 3/4 of a solo cup each. Perhaps I should water more, But less often?
The temperature definitely rose a few degrees I want to say about 8 degrees.
They are on a 18 hour light cycle.
As for humidity I am going to have to buy a meter today if able.
That’s good news, so as long as I watch them, keep them cool and properly watered they should bounce back. The LED was a cheap system and was hoping for more pleasing results with a stronger light.
Thank you again!
No problem!
So yeah I'm sure it's just in shock from the light swap. Those leaves will perk right up in a few hours, maybe a day or two at the very most. Nothing to really worry about.
Once you see them perk back up, give your light another bump up the next day. Try to increase as little at once as you can. Sounds like the next step up is 400w on your ballast. Then wait another day or two. Then go up again.
It's a slow process but in the end your plants will like you for it. If you can, after you get that Metal Halide all the way up to 600, if you have room, I would consider putting the LED back in, next to it. If you can make it work, do it. The more broad the spectrum of light your plant gets, the better off it will be, and usually LEDs have a few UV bulbs in them that you won't get from your metal halide. If you have to put the LED on it's side and hang it on the side that's better than nothing. At least they're versatile like that. Also you can probably have that LED damn near touching the leaves and it won't burn them up.
AS far as watering goes, well like I said show us a couple side-shots of your plants. From what I can tell they look fairly small, what size pot are you using right now? 3/4 of a solo cup of water doesn't sound like enough, and if you're using anything bigger than a 1 gallon pot, it's definitely not enough.
When you water cannabis you generally want to thoroughly saturate the entire pot. Not just dump some in the middle like your mom used to do growing tomatoes in the backyard (my mom did this lol).
First, if you're using hard pots make sure they have plenty of drain holes. I still like to use hard pots and there's nothing wrong with them if you do it right. I like to add a few of my own holes in the sides of these with a 3/8" or 1/2" drill bit. But usually they come with adequate drainage holes as they are.
I'll go into more tips for hard pots later if that's what you're using. But back to watering. So I like to water my plants very slowly and generously to ensure the entire root ball gets a fresh drink and all of the soil is soaked well. Then it's a waiting game. Depending on a lot of factors, you may have to water every other day or not for another 10 days. Light strength, temperature, humidity, air flow, are all factors. One easy tip I can give you is this. Soak the pots completely as I instructed, slowly if you can, and once you think it has taken up all the water it will take up, simply lift the pot. Hold it in your hands for a while. Carry it around the room for a second. Get used to that feel of a well watered pot. It will be probably almost 10 lbs if it's a 1 gallon. As a new part of your daily routine, you go around and pick up each of the pots and see how heavy they are. I know my plants are ready to water when I go to pick them up expecting to be heavy, and then for a second I feel like superman because it's so light. Lol. Another daily routine I like to do is to stick my fingers into the soil a good 3 or 4 inches down and feel the moisture. After a while you'll get used to this and know when it's time to water. I also like to literally stir the top 3 to 4 inches of my soil every day. Some folks may argue against this practice, but having spent years as a nurseryman I can tell you the plants love it. Don't be afraid to get in there and stir it good on top. This will help with a little extra oxygen to the roots, but most importantly, and the single reason I like to do it, is it prevents bugs from settling in your soil.
So, when you notice the pots are about half as heavy as they were when you watered them, or less, then you're ready to water again. I'm betting you could go at least 3 days between watering with your setup if you water them well. But like I said it's best to check every day at least once a day. If you have no life and want to grow perfect plants, check twice a day.
Also another thing I want to throw out there, this is relatively new information I read about in Maximum Yield recently. There's a new light schedule people have been using with some amazing results for Veg. 6 hours on, 2 hours off. I have all my veg plants on this schedule now and I'm loving the results. This gets really advanced but basically after 6 hours your plants get tired and aren't absorbing light energy as well as they could be. So they found that allowing them to rest for 2 hours and have another 6 hours of photoperiod actually stimulates the plant. And it will save you 2 hours of electricity use per day, as well. Win/Win. I can say I see a major difference in overall plant health since switching to this schedule. Faster growth and less stress.
