Turning Bagseed into Gold w/ CFL's (I hope)

So this is my first grow. That being said, I've been researching for more than a year, 90% of which was done on this site so thank you to everyone so far. I have a pretty good idea of what I want to do and how to go about doing it, but I know I'm gonna have some questions and greatly appreciate all the help I can get.

Here's my setup:
4x2x5 wood frame cover with black plastic and jammed in my closet
6 150 watt cfl's
fan from walmart
Happy Frog soil
Fox Farm's nutes
Liquid Ph tester
That's the best I can do until I get a job. I plan on getting mylar and some kind of exhaust set up, but until then, this will have to do. I'm broke as a joke, and by joke I mean I'm in the hole $100 to my brother for Radiohead tickets (way worth it!)
P.s. he is also assisting me (splitting the cost and reward) on this journey.

So far I have been watering with tap water that I set out for a day so the chlorine evaporates. I use a tiny bit of vinegar to lower the Ph then mix my nutes and water away.

We now join our regularly scheduled program already in Progress...

I have 7 plants in 1 gallon buckets that just hit week 5 of veg. My plan was 5 weeks then switch but we'll see, maybe 6. The tallest one is about a foot, the others are ~9 inches so I decided yesterday to do some LST, really LSTTT low stress twisty tie training thanks Opie Yutts. I bent them over and kinda rearranged and tied back some fan leaves and moved bud sites into the light.
My plan now is to switch them to flower when they are ready, kill the males, and move them to 4 gallon buckets where they will live out the rest of their lives in comfort.

So, here we go, wish me luck and we're on our way.

Do any moderators know why I can't attach pics in the Grow Log forum? I can in other forums, just not this one. Oh, and what does registered+ mean?

Here are the pics of yesterday's post. The before and after LST. They are all reaching for the light again a little more than 12 hours later.

you need 50 posts before you can add attachments to your thread, i believe.

yea man, I dont know, it didnt work last night but it worked today so im happy.

hey how do you have your lights fixed like that? hanging? i have a grow box from tubbaware but i plan on building something with 2 compartments, one for veg and 1 for flowering, and i cant figure out away to lower and raise my cfls. and what light spectrum are you 150 watts?

First off lemme ask a few questions, 150 watt cfl's or 150 watt equivalents?

Those look like some 26 watt cool whites from wal-mart or the like. I would use at least 4 per plant for veg then switch them out for 4 47 watt warm white cfl's. Also, get rid of that black lining on the inside. Black is the single worst color for light reflection. Also, I would put some type of fan in there to circulate if not exhaust the air inside. Check out my grow log link to see just how much light it really takes (Check the 2nd page towards then end). The trick to getting the best harvest from bagseed, harvest at the right time. I would invest in a 30x or more microscrope, not more than $30 and harvest when the trichs are 30% or more amber. Harvest early to get a real heavy coughlock effect, later for more of a body high.

what link? and 4 per plant... thats a fire hazard dont do that... i would get another 2 if you can find the money but i defently think you should get some reflective material first.

they are 42 watt warm white 150 eq. It was a bitch trying to get the lights to hang straight. I ended up with hangers with string tied to the ends and then to the lights. I can move them up and down as well as side to side, so it worked out well.

So no ones confused cloudy trichs give a heady, energetic high and amber trichs give a couchlock, body high. But yea, I was thinking somewhere between 35 and 50% amber would be a good time to harvest. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

For any one who cares, when i wake up tomorrow at like 3:00pm, i will post the pics of the lst that i've done so far. Peace

so you used coat hangers and string? and then you just bend the coat hanger up to raise the lights?

Day 30

This morning I tied them down a little further, and moved around some of the new fan leaves. I took some twisty ties, cut'em in half and used them to pull the fan leaves behind the the main stalk, kind of like a ponytail. I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing but a lot more light is getting to the bud sites. I read a Stinkyattic post on someone else's grow that leaving the fan leaves on lets the buds produce more trichs. (im paraphrasing so dont hold her to that)

I was gonna wait til I new the males to transplant them, but it looks like they have stalled a bit. They're in 1 gallon pots now and I think the roots need some more room. I wanted to wait til this sunday to switch to 12/12, that would be 5 weeks veg. Since they look like they are stalling, I need to transplant as soon as possible if they are. I'll wait a couple days and see.

As far as the lights, I still have to untie the string to move em up and down. My problem was that they were getting twisted and with the hangers I can keep them strait and right where I want them. I got these little T things that have a pull chain on them so thats handy too. I put pics up if that helps

The first two pics of the plants kinda show how the light is better used. In the third one you can see how I used the twisty ties to tie back the fan leaves.

The last pic is one that I had to put in a zip lock bag because I'm semi retarded and counted 7 plants but only bought 6 pots so I picked the the smallest one and there it is.

what are your lights plugged into? and are you holding them together with something? your plants are sick. how tall is the biggest one?

I cut the ends off 6' extension cords and twisted the wires with the wires on the T thing, and then the extension cords plug into a power strip, which plugs into the timer and then the wall.

What do you mean by sick. I think they are fine, I watered today and they look even better. If im missing something please tell me. The tallest is prob like 16" without lst.

I think I can help with this one. ya see he ment that they look fucken beautiful.

now Im not quoting Sjapp but here in texas if someone says UR plant looks sick. then usuly it means that ur plant looks really good and healthy.

and I think UR plant looks killer.:thumbsup:

I think they meant sick as in nice. slang. You should look into the spectrum of the bulb. Your prolly using bulbs that would be better off in the flowering stage. 3000k range for flowering and 6000k range for veg. And please put something more reflective than black up. Even tin foil would be better. Have you thought about how your going to deal with the smell when u begin the flowering stage? Good Luck.

Ha ha...yeah. I freaked out like a parent who's kid just brained himself on the coffee table and doesnt know if he should cry or not. I kept looking at the pics and I was like there's nothing wrong with them, what is he talking about? and then I realized... I am semi retarded. So now that I know that, thanks for the props. I'll get pics when they wake up tomorrow. peace

Day 32
Last Day of Veg

I decided to make today the last day of veg. Because I put them in 1 gallon pots I think the faster I move them to 4 gallon the better. Some of the roots are starting to come through the holes in the bottom. So now I know for next time 2 gallon pots is a much better choice, I could veg maybe 6 or 7 weeks if I wanted with 2 gal.

Tonight the lights go off at 10, and im gonna leave it dark for 36 hours until 10am sat. then start 12/12. Im gonna wait to sex them before I transplant to save soil. They wont be happy with me for a week or so with little room to move, but I will pamper the girls who survive. I explained all this to them, so I think understand their destiny and have some incentive to stick it out.

Hope for girls everybody! peace

I would really get some white spray paint or some mylar... really quick.

Other than that, yo gals look beautiful

peace

Mr. Brown.

You have some "SICK" looking plants!!

HAHA Just had to say that after reading thru this.

Ok now to be serious!! You have some nice plants goin there that will benefit greatly with $15.00 worth of mylar on the walls or at least painted flat white. With CFL grows I recommend mylar because you are already one leg down in light intensity and you need to get every bit of available light to the plants not the walls.

BOL JG.

You should consider adding some more lights to the setup too. Sidelighting would help alot. And Remember for CFLs to work properly they need to stay within 5 inches of the leaves. Try for 70 watts of CFL/ Sq Foot of grow space.

Day 43


All right party people heres the news. I finally got some mylar up today, and transplanted the females to 5 gallon pots.

Now the sad news, 4 of 7 plants were male they were shredded up and sacked. So now I got 3 left to pamper. I started with the fox farms tiger bloom and I'm gonna go find some molasses for the next watering. peace

Day 48

I got the days wrong last time. I started putting hydrogen peroxide and molasses in the water along with the tiger bloom and the other stuff i cant think of. They're starting to grow a little more now in the bigger pots, a little more bushy. Heres some pics. peace

Day 25 of Flower

About a week ago I tied them down a little more, I sort of organized the branches and moved everything around to get the most light.

I've been using hydrogen peroxide and molasses with every watering since the start of flower, I guess they like it. I'm using Fox Farms Ocean Forest and with the hydrogen peroxide killing the soil ecology is it killing what makes FFOF beneficial (and expensive). Also, I didn't put any extra perlite into the soil and its holding water like nobody's business. Even though it already had perlite in it would I have been better off adding some. I only water about once a week.

Light intensity of cfl's degrades quickly the more distance they are away from the plants
you should at least consider putting them at most 1 inch away from your girls..
slight burning may occur.. but it will affect yield
not saying you'll get a bad yield without doing this
just saying it will help to maximize results

they look very nice btw!

Hey Brownie,
Your grow log is really going well, man. Looks like you'll have a successful harvest. Good Luck!

Shovelhandle