New grower here. Hoping for some feedback. >=)

[BriNger]

Hello all. Im a newbie grower and i would like some feedback from some more experienced members or people who have some nice advice and knowledge to share. So here i go.

I've attached 2 pics of my plant at about, 3 weeks old.(veg). She seems to be looking good... her leaves are a little droopy?maybe? but there is some nice undergrowth.

Im running 2 4ft Flo Tube 32w 6500k(color temp)
2 4ft 40w Flo Tube 4200K
1-2 CFL 60-90w output which ive been switching around because of a heat problem, but i always keep atleast 1 on.

For Bloom im planning on some 3000K CFLs and i have 4 3000K 4ft Flo Tubes. Does that seem legit? I can't go for HPS or anything "fancy" quite yet.

It's in a 5ft tall, 21in wide, 15in deep Stealth closet which i built for the occasion.

I've run into a "Odor" problem, which ive ordered 2 of those AirFiltering CFLs that other members on this board were talking about and i hope that will fix it. If not, ill make the bucket with fan on the top and the water/febreeze/polymer crystal mixture on the bottom thing.

I'm only caring for 1 plant... so do you think the air filtering CFLs will take care of business?

So thats all my info and my situation. Any and all comments are appreciated. Thanks.
-BriNger

[BigBudDaddy08]

Hey ''BriNger'' nice to see some eles growing the fluorsecents around here.Your plant is looking great .Also since your gonna flower with fluorescents i would flower soon due to fluorescents seem to make your plants stretch more unless you got the space to let it grow.As in the past with me i had 1foot plant grow into a 4foot monster.And for your lights it should be enough if your grow keeps goin as good as it looks

[Garden Knowm]

nice plant... yes a bit droopy , probably from overwatering... she is very short and you will be best off surrounding her with 2-4 cfls (150 watts)...

and then flower her in 5-10 days...

iloveyou

[BriNger]

Awesome. Thank you for that heads up Big Bud. I dont think i could handle a 4 ft beast just yet hah.
The plant is at 4 inch tall right now. so ill start bloom cycle/lighting at 5-6 inches i suppose.
I'm a little suprised by the power of the odor. It isnt even in bloom stage yet and its very strong.
Garden Knowm, did you mean 2-4 CFLS totaling 150 watts? or 150 watts each?
Oh, and my 4ft tube flo lights are verticle.
Thank you for the comments.

I've included some more pics. Any additional info/comments would be great.

She looks very female to me, and hopefully she'll stay that way.:thumbsup:
thx
-BriNger

[smokesalot]

i'm pretty sure he ment 150 watts total ...
nice lookin plant keep up the good work
good luck

[bob bobbinson]

:D :thumbsup:

[Garden Knowm]

sorry for the lack of clarity in my last post

150 watts each....... for a total of 300 to 600 watts... they don not give off very much heat.. and if/when they touch your leaves they only burn the very small area they have touched... you can harvest 3 ounces from 1 very small plant using this bulbs.... : ) There are pictures in this "basic grow section"


They are actaually 42 watt bulbs but they give off "150 watt" of light...

They sell them at Homedepot and wall mart for 5-12 dollars depending on where you live...

Wall mart sells a work light fixture for 5.47 that holds these lights perfectly..

congrats on yur lady...
and you are smart to flower her when she is small..


iloveyou

[horror business]

BriNger, you're plants look very nice, and ready to flower. Hopefully soon you'll be the proud parent of a little girl. Anyway, they look really good, but just a bit overwatered. With flourecent lights, they don't get as hot, etc... and you will need to water less, because not alot of water gets evaporated. Only water when the first 3-4 inches are more dry than moist. Good luck!
Peace,
horror business :rasta:

[mobay]

bringer the leaves on your plants could be drooping because of the reflective foil you have under them. the plants could be shoots for light in the wrong direction. try and remove the foil and see what happens in a couple of days. hope that will help you.

[BriNger]

Nice. Ok. so for the CFLs i should be shooting for a color temp of 2700-3000K for bloom right? Cuz thats the temp i was planning on.

Also i have an important Light question.... im about to switch to 12 - 12 , but i want it to be DARK cycle during the day, and DAYcycle at night, so parents dont pay attention to it and its just outta the way, etc.... however the only way i can set this up is by keeping it on for like... 25 hours then setting it to the right times.
Because as of now.. its DARK = 1:00am DAY= (+/-) 7:30am and on for the rest of the day...
and i want to set it to DARK @ 10:00am til (DAY) @ 10:00pm

anywho... i just want to know if extending the DAY CYCLE will stress the plant or mess with its mind in some way,shape,or form. Thus, screwing me over.

Again thanks for the support and feedback.
-bringer

[BigBudDaddy08]

It shouldnt.When i switch my hours to 12/12 i just dial it in to my timer and leave it be .I do this just because its 1 day of screwed up lighting and shouldnt hurt the plant.But other people feel that you should switch 12/12 when your lights shut off if your running 18/6.

[BriNger]

Yeaaaah! Ok cool. I was thinking the exact same thing... i mean yeah, in theory, a nice and easy, smooooth transition from 18/6 into 12/12 would be ideal... but screw that :D it can handle 1 day of change.

[BriNger]

Hi all. I've entered bloom stage successfully. My plant is 8in Tall. It's Day 2 of bloom cycle. I started her at about 6in. I get my air purifier CFLs tommrow...hopefully... and that should solve all my problems. I also plan on picking up some bloom fertilizer. Anyways, here she is.....i hope its a she :D


-Bringer

[Opie Yutts]

I can't go for HPS or anything "fancy" quite yet

Sounds like one small switchable HPS ballast and some ventalation might be less fancy than all the stuff you are trying to figure out with these flouros.

Some people here are probably familiar with my opinion about this and I don't want to start any arguments, but please, I'm begging you, for the love of God and the sake of your harvest, consider doing it right next grow.

Good luck.

[Chaos]

dude move those lights closer....its drooping...maybe to much water? only water once a day....remember move lights closer...

[latewood]

is there a fan in there...no fan...heat+droops...plus overwatering causes extra humidity+ droops
even underwatering can lead to...droops.

and yes, it would be best to get all light within a couple inches of plant.

lw

[horror business]

I'll be following this thread to hopefully a nice harvest for you. How are the leaves doing? Are they still drooping? Your plant is growing very fast for being, what, almost a month old?

I'm growing a plant under flouros as well so it will be interesting to watch your plants growth, as it's about one week older than mine. Actually, I shouldn't say I'm only using flouros. During the day, as long as I'm home, I've been putting my plants outside to get some direct sunlight, and they seem to be LOVING it. My plant is 21 days old today (3 weeks) and I'm going to induce flowering tomorow. I'll be adding a few more CFLs for when my plants are indoors. This is my first grow, so I'm not that experienced, but if you can, I'd reccomend letting your plants get some sun. Ever since I've put them outside during the day (a week ago) they've been developing a new node each day, and also are developing more leaves on the internodes. They weren't growing that fast before I put them outside, so I'm thinking they are just liking the sun.

Best of luck with your girl! I do have to agree with others that it LOOKS as if you may be over-watering. The soil looks very moist, so make sure you let it dry out before you water next. Also, like others have said, move those CFL's within a few inches of the plant. They will thank you!

Again, best of luck and Peace!
horror business :rasta:

[mand]

Hello BriNger :) Yes like Latewood says overwatering and humidity causes drooping leaves. I had a problem with it a grow or two back, due to the humid weather conditions and being to keen with the watering I just couldn't stop them drooping.

Although BriNger, it looks a really healthy plant you have there, if you can try and let her dry out a bit and get plenty of light, then you'll do fine ;)


love mand xxx :)

[latewood]

Mand made a good point...You know that when watering, you should allow medium to dry out almost completely before you water...this allows the plant to breath having more oxygen available to roots, and the roots in turn seek the moisture available deep in the pot. goodluck

[BriNger]

Nice. A truckload of comments. Thank you for them all. I suppose i have been a tad bit over zealous with the watering... the pictures are usually taken after i give her a little shot of water... i usually stick a finger into the soil about 1-2 inchs deep and determine if its moist or dry... i think its dry... but i guess ill just chill.

Yes, the humidity may be a problem... where i live is humid. I will try to get more fans to her in a attempt to dry her a bit.

Yes. I do have a fan. 2 actually. 1 is mounted to the top of the box. and sometimes i open the door and have a fan chill right outside blowing fresh air on it.

As for HPS... its not that i cant afford it...and not that i REALLY dont want one... it's that as of right now, there are more CONS to having it than PROS... and its that i really dont feel like wasting money on buying it at this point in my life. I have VERY little space...there is virtually no place to mount it... id much rather wait to buy a 400w HPS or higher instead of buying a few 150w or 200w... and i really can not deal with the heat output. Yes i have fans... but they are so quiet... and they kind of arent THAT powerful, but they do a good enough job. Also, i need them to be quiet so that no one suspects anything. I had a bigger fan , and the vibration/fan noise was too loud.

AS of right now, i have about 204w of electricity running with all my lights on... witha temp color or about 3000K... for my 6 lights...giving her a total of 14,400 lumens... im satisfied.

The pictures are misleading i believe... the CFLs are 4.5 inches away, and the 4ft verticle Flos are about 5-6in from the center stalk. I'll attempt to make them closer.

Thanks horror, yeah my plant is about 4 weeks. You should post some pics of yours. I'd be interested in seein'em.

When i have a little home of my own... yes i will do things right... but for the moment things are they way they are.

Thanks for all the feedback
-Bringer

[latewood]

nothing wrong with cfl's if that is what fits your lifestyle...

[Opie Yutts]

They weren't growing that fast before I put them outside
That's because you're using flouros, which basically put your plants into hybernation unless you use a shitload of them, or some big expensive ones which require ventalation.

you should allow medium to dry out almost completely before you water...this allows the plant to breath having more oxygen available to roots, and the roots in turn seek the moisture available deep in the pot.
Many people believe, myself included, that if you allow the roots to dry out as much as possible without harming the plant, they will grow bigger, faster and stronger because they are forced to grow to search for someplace that has moisture.

the CFLs are 4.5 inches away
They should be touching, if you can do so without burning the leaves. This is one of the main advantages of flouros. You should at least try. Find out at what distance the leaves start to be adversly affected (don't worry - they can take it) then move them back just a little, and keep them that far away. This will give you the greatest yield.

nothing wrong with cfl's if that is what fits your lifestyle
I agree. I didn't mean to come down on you for using flouros. I did it myself once. Also I didn't realize that stealth was such an issue. High intensity light can be noisy, at least the fans that are needed. It's just that when I swithced to HID I more than doubled my yield for the same effort.

[BriNger]

Hello again. a little update. I'm about 1 week into bloom cycle. Im concerned for the bottom leaves... they seem to be dying? I think this is natural tho? Like she's sheding unneccessary leaves? They are the very bottom leaves. All the others seem fine. I've also been giving some Schultz 19-34-17 nutrients/plant food mixed into water every other feeding. Could the leaves be dying because of this? Have i made a mistake? Am i doing anything wrong?
Everything else seems to be running smoothly. Just a matter of time. Thanks for any advice/comments offered.

-bringer

[GaGrown]

The reason the leaves are like that is because of the foil around the base.it's growing toward the light.Lights above plant is reflecting,and therefore no need for them to even get perky.Take that foil away from the stem. That way the leaves will turn towards the light and cover the pot.So no need for it then.Just a tidbit.

Ga Grown

[BriNger]

To Gagrown ... uhh yeah, no. i removed the foil from the base of the stem about 2 weeks ago. So i really doubt it's the problem for my bottom leaves turning yellow, curling a bit, and looking strange. But thanks anyway?

[Garden Knowm]

hi bri...

the leaves on the bottom should not being dying this early... not sure what the problem is... I can not see you pictures at this time...

surround you plant with the cfls ... not just from the top... keep them very very close...


I can out grow any 150 watt hps using cfls...

anything HPS under 400 watts hps is really just a heat monster without the pay off for flowering...
considering the heat it gives off
... plus cfls produce larer yields when used properly....

iloveyou

there are pictures in this forum to prove it... word...

[AmazingBlazing]

I've used the 42 watt compact floros that Garden Knowm mentioned before and they are awesome. People talk shit on floros all the time, but you can be very successful with the 42 watters. I used 8 of them with a home-made aluminum reflector and just kept the lights about 3 to 4 inches away from the top of the plants and the growth was excellent. There was no absurd amount of stretching as many people witness with floros; my plants were bushy as hell. of course i had to raise the lights just about every day since the floros have to be close but not too close to the plants. But anywho, i got a little over 8 ounces off 4 little bushy plants using the 42 watters. I could have gotten quite a bit more too if i had done a scrog. I also didn't need any ventilation. anybody not wanting to deal with heat issues should just go to home depot and pick up a few of these 42 watt CFL, they'll work wonders and inspire you to grow for life.

[GaGrown]

Well............Hmmmmm? I coulda' swore,I saw foil around some of the tops of the pots? Not the case? Then truely sorry for such a foil!lol

Ga Grown

[BriNger]

hmm. more light eh? possibly. i suspect it may be a nutrient problem ... but im not sure. it seems to be only affecting the lowest leaves. i dunno. with my luck this will probably end up being a boy... ha. 1 more week to go before i know for sure.

ill try to get more pics up later.

[BriNger]

damn... i really have no clue. its gotta be a nutrient problem... maybe too much? maybe not enough..... gaaah... it's spreading... :(
was the shit i gave it too much for it to handle?



-bringer


the pics are of the bottom leaves. 2 pics each per leaf.

[BriNger]

YAY!!! It's a boy.....*sarcasm*... It has little ball sacs droppin down at a little under 2 weeks... it may still be a HERM... but thats still pretty much useless. Oh well! Good experience. maybe ill practice drying the sucker just to get the general idea.

[BriNger]

YAY!!! It's a boy.....*sarcasm*... It has little ball sacs droppin down at a little under 2 weeks... it may still be a HERM... but thats still pretty much useless. Oh well! Good experience. maybe ill practice drying the sucker just to get the general idea.

-bringer

[BriNger]

oops