Plantin' crops and takin' names. Nicely done. I'm still pushing for an additional 100w bulb in there. Or a pair of 100w LED bulbs.
I think I got confused at some point. When you mentioned adding a bulb, I had asked if I should flip both switches on to give them the full spectrum since I was only giving them "veg" at the moment, and you replied with "sorry, just went back up to read it again," and then didn't mention the lights anymore, and went on to comment on airflow/drainage. I took this to mean that there was a misunderstanding about how much light I had, and that you decided I was doing ok in that respect. I can definitely flip both switches on today and give them the full spectrum if you think the "veg" switch is inadequate for this stage of growth. As it was, I was only going to flip both on when I went 12/12 to start flowering.
I had been considering a third identical light, not so much for now, but for future grows. I was thinking maybe I should have one by the time I start my springtime, indoor-to-outdoor grow, as I want to put a dozen into the tent, and I figured I could arrange them to take up the width of the tent, rather than the length, if that makes any sense. So right now, my 4x2 tent has two lights, with the longer side of the lights running parallel to the long side of the tent, as pictured at the beginning of this thread. My thinking was that if I want to grow 12 small ones in there, the bulk of which I'd eventually transfer outside, I could have 3 of these lights in there, but running so the long side of the light is parallel to the short side of the tent, with each light covering 4 small plants, not just proportionally, but spatially. I'd then transfer 9 of those outside and leave 3 in the tent, each with their own 600w light above them.
My concern with that though, is that I'm not giving the plants an even amount of space each. The tent being 4x2, each plant would have 2ft of space in one direction, but only 1.3ft in the other. I was wondering if I should try to keep it to 2 plants per indoor grow, so as to ensure that each one has 2x2ft of space to itself. I was going to see how the current plants grew and try to figure it out before my second grow. If I do only keep 2 in the tent though (whether in my second, fall-to-winter grow, or when I move the plants outside during my springtime grow, which would mean I'd transfer 10 of them to outdoors), I wonder if I should just keep two lights, give 12 babies the full spectrum, and then have 1 light per plant again when I keep two inside.
There is just so much to consider. I guess the first thing I need to determine is whether this tent can adequately accommodate 3 plants, which I suppose is partially dependent on how long I plan to grow them at a time. Like, if I wanted to go for the quickest grows possible, it's conceivable that I could do 8 at a time, each with 1x1ft of space, and just repeat that way. If it turns out that the height isn't prohibitive though, I may want to opt for keeping it to 2-3 plants per indoor grow.
What's sort of annoying, and what further complicates things is that
I found a cheaper light than the one I'm using, and that is a 1000w unit. I'm concerned about a couple of things though. For one, the lopsided light output in the tent if I have one light that is more powerful than the other two. Another concern is whether a single outlet can handle the 2 600w lights daisy-chained with a 1000w light. I could theoretically return the two lights I have and exchange them for even 3 of the 1000w lights and break even cash-wise, but I'm not sure at which point I'd be running risks power/outlet-wise.
I've clearly got a lot to think about haha. Sorry for the wall of text.
As for a general update:
10/3: Day 13 without water, and the soil is finally approaching dry territory. #1 gave me a reading of 3/10 on the moisture meter today, and #2 gave me a 2/10. I'd like to get them both completely dry before I water again. I'll probably be watering in the next few days though, considering the progress.
I'm wondering if I should even start a nutrient regiment as things are going, as I'm clearly going to be watering these plants so infrequently that I'm not going to be able to feed them many nutrients. I might just let this grow take its course and save the nutrients I bought for my next grow, where I'll be using less problematic soil.
Gnat-wise, I found some more dead ones on the plant floor, which is encouraging. Not nearly as many as in days past, which is also encouraging. Oddly, where I usually see a few crawling around in the soil after looking carefully enough, the only live gnats I observed today were buzzing around. Maybe 3-4 of them. It seems pretty clear they're being dried out though, which is a relief. Hopefully another day or two of the dry treatment will be enough to push the population to 0.
Growth-wise, it's a super exciting day! #1 is continuing to grow steadily, with the two new leaves that had been threatening to sprout over the last week growing substantially over the past 24 hours, and beginning to take shape. What's even more exciting is that I'm seeing new pistils in every node of plant #2!. If there are no new complications (which may well arise next time I water these), I'm thinking that within a week or two, #2 should look like quite the bush, and I'll be connecting one my nets to the inside of the tent to begin LST.