Rookie grower

Hey guys,
I'm new to the community. I am growing strictly for personal usage so as you read this realize that i do not care about 6+ ounces per plant. I want a minimal ounce per plant simply because i will probably smoke an ounce in a month and i will be rotating 4 plants flowering....2 veg...and 2 germ. The 4 Flowering will be a month a part. Currently i was waiting about one week before i transplant. And currently all i have is 4 plants with a batch germinating now. And the plants started as outdoor but now are under light.

The plants are approzimately 6in right now, I have them on a 18hr schedule now with a 18" flourescent 700lumens, 6500k, 15w F15T8....Is this a good bulb or am i just showing off the plants instead of helping them....i also have a flourescent 825 lumens, 2700k, 13w bulb. Are these what i need or am i shooting an arrow in the dark?

Also i have an angled grow space which gives the plants about 30" heighth at its maturity....I've read double and triple size after switching to 12/12. So when should i transplant these into there own individual tubs? And when should i switch to 12/12 to keep these plants under 30"? These are growing at roughly 70 degrees since it it cold where i am at.

Any advice as to what i should do would be helpful...and i'm trying to harvest at least one plant by May 20th....so if that is not enough info let me know and i will give you any more info you need...


Thanks all!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wmfocker

Hey guys,
I'm new to the community. I am growing strictly for personal usage so as you read this realize that i do not care about 6+ ounces per plant. I want a minimal ounce per plant simply because i will probably smoke an ounce in a month and i will be rotating 4 plants flowering....2 veg...and 2 germ. The 4 Flowering will be a month a part. Currently i was waiting about one week before i transplant. And currently all i have is 4 plants with a batch germinating now. And the plants started as outdoor but now are under light.

The plants are approzimately 6in right now, I have them on a 18hr schedule now with a 18" flourescent 700lumens, 6500k, 15w F15T8....Is this a good bulb or am i just showing off the plants instead of helping them....i also have a flourescent 825 lumens, 2700k, 13w bulb. Are these what i need or am i shooting an arrow in the dark?

Also i have an angled grow space which gives the plants about 30" heighth at its maturity....I've read double and triple size after switching to 12/12. So when should i transplant these into there own individual tubs? And when should i switch to 12/12 to keep these plants under 30"? These are growing at roughly 70 degrees since it it cold where i am at.

Any advice as to what i should do would be helpful...and i'm trying to harvest at least one plant by May 20th....so if that is not enough info let me know and i will give you any more info you need...


Thanks all!

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How old are the plants now? You should veg at least 3-4 weeks before flowering. Plus your going to need more light. I used cfl's and was very happy for my first indoor grow. Try 26 watt cfl's and add some 27k cfl's to veg. I used a mixed spectrum for mine, so i had a 26, 23 and a 30 watt cfl's going at once. Hook lights work well if you cant get a better light. I would read the lighting thread, it will help. Also, bigtopsfinn<SP? has a great thread on LST that way you can tie your plants down, so they dont get to high.

In my thread there is pic's of the lights im talking about. I would use the 13 watt for now to boost your watts. Its easy and cheap to put together. I used 11 cfl's with 3 hook lights for 4 plants and got a nice yield.

Any help ya need, just ask:rasta:

The plants are about two weeks old now...starting from when they came up out of the soil... I didn't germinate they were just soil started. They are approximately 6 inches tall right now and the leaves are only about an inch long.

Thanks for the advice i'm going to give LED's a try seeing as they are on the right spectrum requirements and i'm only doing four plants...I'm adding the two 14wt LED panels to the four plants. Ones full spectrum the other is Full red 640nm. So i'm going to get another set of CFL's maybe three more?

Here I am :D

wmfocker, the links in my sig have some examples of how to keep the plants low and bushy. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

Like LSY said, you'll need much more light, even to get to the 1 oz. per plant level, and especially if you need 1 oz. per month. Figure that it's going to take about a minimum of 4 months from seed to finished, dried product. I haven't been sold on the LED's yet, at least not those tiny 14w panels, but I'm sure they won't hurt.

I've seen that you can still get decent buds with cfl's and fluoro's, but it's much slower and you need to have the lights all over the place since they are not really effective more than 4 inches away from the plants. Also take into consideration that while yield is not your biggest concern, how about the quality of the buds?

Personally I'd look into a 250w hps. Sometimes you can find them for pretty cheap if you look around. A taller grow space would help also. Try to do a lot of reading in the next few days, check out some of the grow logs and see how others have failed or succeeded with cfl's, etc.. It's just my opinion that if you want to do something right, do it right the first time. It's cheaper and easier that way in the long run.

Happy growing :jointsmile:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wmfocker

The plants are about two weeks old now...starting from when they came up out of the soil... I didn't germinate they were just soil started. They are approximately 6 inches tall right now and the leaves are only about an inch long.

Thanks for the advice i'm going to give LED's a try seeing as they are on the right spectrum requirements and i'm only doing four plants...I'm adding the two 14wt LED panels to the four plants. Ones full spectrum the other is Full red 640nm. So i'm going to get another set of CFL's maybe three more?

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Wow Finn musta had your antenna's up:thumbsup:

If there 2 weeks now, you will never get bud by May 20th. It takes at least 8-12 weeks to flower, depending on your strain. In Finn's sig you can read his LST Thread, its the best iv seen with lots of questions that are all answered. You can use this to keep your plant short, but get a great yield. You can see this in the thread.

The LED'S will help for sure, but when you flower, which you could do at 3-4 weeks, your going to need 4,000 to 5,000 lumen per square foot to get close to your goal and more if you can get it. It will say the lumen number and the color on the cfl box. I will post a pic of the light i used as well as other growers. Thats why Finn brought up the other optional lighting suggestion. A 250 hps would give you bigger and a better yield for sure. The only issue is the cost, because $50.00 for the light set up will get you a great cfl grow, but a; and this is a guess $250.00-$350 will get that 250 hps and the difference is bigger and better then with the cfl's. Only on here iv seen at least close to 1/3 more of a yield or more, depending on the grower and other factors.

But i used 11 cfl's and was happy, but on my next go around id be pissed at my yield. Grow and learn, while reading as much as possible. So iv learned a bunch with the first, so i should be ale to do better on the next grow. Ya hear me :hippy: Any more questions just ask:jointsmile:


First is the hook lights, which took 3 and get the small ones, because you add the y splitter's in them and they will hold 4 cfl's. For some reason the bigger hook lights hood dosnt come off to get the y splitters in them. You will need 3 and use you LED'S for side lighting, as growing with cfl's side lighting is a problem. Your LED'S will be a plus for side lighting.

Second is some of what i got and it is great:D

:rasta:

Your product looks fantastic LSY. I'm on my way to goodwill to look for fixtures and then off to buy more bulbs. Thanks for the input...I just transplanted the little guys and i hope they make it...The only issue that caught my attention was that the root system was a joke. The plants still only have one little root. I have no root ball yet and i assume that is do to the low amount of light these little guys are getting. Any other advice would be helpful. I think for a first grow i'm going to stick with CFL's I can't afford the HPS setup right now. Next month i will be able to invest. I have a Fifth plant germinating, The stuff i got it from was amazing but so i'm Looking at starting it out in a 16oz dixie cup. When is the right time to transplant these things?

BTF thanks for the info. I will definitely look into those. I've been reading for the past few days....but damn damn damn.....never thought there was so much information on how to grow lol. I have a grow book that is from the seventies....(obviosly outdated)....It doesn't have a great guide for indoor growing...

When i was reading it said that you want to switch to 12/12 when you want it to flower and the plant will double...possibly triple in size during flowering. Though no one explained what the plant should look like when you start flowering period...Any Suggestions or pictures?:smokin:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wmfocker

Your product looks fantastic LSY. I'm on my way to goodwill to look for fixtures and then off to buy more bulbs. Thanks for the input...I just transplanted the little guys and i hope they make it...The only issue that caught my attention was that the root system was a joke. The plants still only have one little root. I have no root ball yet and i assume that is do to the low amount of light these little guys are getting. Any other advice would be helpful. I think for a first grow i'm going to stick with CFL's I can't afford the HPS setup right now. Next month i will be able to invest. I have a Fifth plant germinating, The stuff i got it from was amazing but so i'm Looking at starting it out in a 16oz dixie cup. When is the right time to transplant these things?

BTF thanks for the info. I will definitely look into those. I've been reading for the past few days....but damn damn damn.....never thought there was so much information on how to grow lol. I have a grow book that is from the seventies....(obviosly outdated)....It doesn't have a great guide for indoor growing...

When i was reading it said that you want to switch to 12/12 when you want it to flower and the plant will double...possibly triple in size during flowering. Though no one explained what the plant should look like when you start flowering period...Any Suggestions or pictures?:smokin:

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I would not germ to many seeds at once, or your going to run out of room and light. Keep an eye on your cups and when you see your growth start to slow down re pot. I sometimes let mine go till they start to droop, but dont do this. I re pot a lot, growing bonsai tress is a hobby of mine and fell in luv growing MMJ because its very fast growth. Post pic's and il be around as well as some great growers who helped me get stated for sure:hippy:

:rasta:

It's recommended that your plants show pre-flowers before switching to 12/12, however this can take from 4 to 8+ weeks. You pretty much have to guess according to their size and the room size. When they fill 1/3 of the grow area, switch to 12/12.

Here's a nice guide that has pretty much all you need to know: Cannabis.com Growing Index