McToker's 1st Grow with CFL

This is our, the wife and I, first serious attempt at growing. We started out by using some basic info we found on the net. After we had started and found this site, we realized that the info we were using was incomplete, very dated or a bit of both.

The first sprout showed up on July 8. This is the one that we call the freak of nature due to the huge leaves. The rest sprouted within 10 days of the first one. All are bagseed donated by an old freind.

The cabinet, if I can actually call it that, is just an angle iron frame and sheets of cardboard painted flat white.

We started off using two 4 foot flouros but switched to CFL's after finding this site.

The 4-lamp fixture is just a shop light with some "Y" adapters. The 8-lamp unit is a 4- light bath vanity fixture with "Y"'s.

Bulbs are 26/100 watt "Daylight" CFL's rated at 6500k. For flowering we'll switch to 26/100 CFL's rated at 2700k.

Soil is Miracle Grow. With the the exception of molasses being added to one plant, starting yesterday, no nutes have been used, yet.

We also topped the front center plant yesterday.

This grow is definitely a learning experience for us. I only wish we had found this site earlier.

Water runs first through a water softener and then an R/O machine.

We'll be moving everything into a Homebox S later today. The "Brown's" site says it will be here today. We can't wait. The aroma, while wonderful, is getting a bit strong. We already built a carbon scrubber for the new digs.

Well, I thought I was going to be able to add some photos but, I guess, not yet. I'll add them when I'm able to.

McT

Sounds like a nice first time grow to me!!!

The only thing I'm curious about is the miracle grow you're using for those babies...I've read in a couple threads here that miracle grow is just a bit strong for babies...have you had any problems??? If not then that should be a good sign that you can bump up the heavy nutes in flower!! YAAAAAY

I could be wrong though...wait til an expert stops by

Hope everything works out!
Stay Sunny

P.S. - I'm subscribing to this one :thumbsup:

I read the same thing about the MG............. after we started using it.:(

But, they are all looking good (knock wood).:D

They were all germinated using Jiffy Greenhouse pellets that were later transplanted into beer cups (the red plastic kind) with MG.

We're just hoping that the freak turns out to be female. We started LST on her (being optomistic) about a week ago.

Sounds goood. =D

Are you using any perlite? Because I started 4 beans in MG seed starter and perlite and they did just fine until they outgrew the beer cups.

On to recycled 3 litre Dr. Pepper bottles! wooo

tip: try rounding up some pictures and making a photobucket log for us to check out until you hit that 50 post mark so you can attach images. I'm sure a few of us noobs on our first grow would like to check it out. *nudge nudge*


Be Safe:jointsmile:

I'd forgotten all about my photobucket account. Let's see if this works.

Group photo
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...r/group1-1.jpg

The freak:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...cer/freak1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...cer/freak2.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...cer/freak3.jpg

Here's a better shot of the lights. The 4 ft. flouro will disappear later today.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...cer/lights.jpg

and a shot of the scrubber. It's an adaptation of Treetops' filter which was based on one by Bodom Children Of . I could only find 6 inch caps and such so........... I went with that. The filter material is an activated charcoal pre-filter for Honeywell air purifier ($9 at HD).

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...r/scrubber.jpg

BeFree ~ No perlite. Just MG.

Nice keep pinch-bending them to keep them low if that's what you're going for, they look puuuurdy as of right now! Way to go!

Thanks Sunny D. We think they're purdy, too.:)

As for topping and LST, it's not so much that we're trying to keep them low as just experimenting and trying to learn a new craft. We're also playing with different heights for the lights, too.

The new tent will be 63 inches tall so I'm not sure how much height will be an issue.

Right now I'm sitting in the kitchen waiting for the tent to be delivered.:D

Nutes are on their way. Should be here in a couple days.

The Homebox showed up. YEAH!!!

We got it set up and the babies are tucked in.

They say that one person can set one of these up but, I'm sure glad the wife was here to help, especially when it came to working inside. She's only 5' tall and could stand up where I had to stoop.

It turned out that our DIY scrubber was too long to fit inside the tent by the time we connected to the ducting. So, we just cut it down, shorter. It is still 6 inch diameter but the canister was cut down from 16 inches long to 8 inches. With the large diameter, I think it will still leave plenty of surface area. And now, I've got enough filter material left over to replace it when needed. By tomorrow, I'll have a pretty good idea how well it is scrubbing.

Congrats on your new adventure. I'll be stopping back by. CFL's are pretty cooooooool :thumbsup:

and:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by McToker

The Homebox showed up. YEAH!!!

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hahaha... seriously one of the best things about growing. GETTING NEW SHIT!!!!!!!

Here's a better pic of the DIY scrubber. This was after we made it shorter.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1.../scrubber2.jpg

and.............. everyone in their place in their new digs.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...racer/tent.jpg

PURDY!

Lookin fine

Nice Clean Set-up you have their!!! Very Happy plants you have the color is wonderful beautiful tight Nodes!!!What is the way you added those PICS it reminds me of another site? I like the way you have those CFL's Set Up Were did you pick up the 8 unit one HD? That is a nice piece how much was that? Great for Supp and side light... Good Luck GL1

The pics are hosted on Photobucket and linked to the post.

Yup, the 8-light unit is a 4-socket vanity light from HD for $8. I just added 4 "Y" sockets ($1.59 at Wally World) to it to double the bulbs. Each socket was originally set to handle 60 watts so, with 2 26-watt CFL bulbs in each socket, I'm still at only 52 watts per socket.

Had some heat/ventilation issues to deal with. The 2 biggest plants were showing signs of heat stress. Apparently 90 CFM on the exhaust fan was just not enough. We ditched the 4 inch tubing in favor of 6 inch and put on a bigger fan. The only thing I could find was a 500 CFM unit. We just finished getting everything changed out. Yesterday, the temps were ranging from 86 to 89.7 F and I had to move the lights a good 8 inches above the plants to get that. We even unscrewed every other bulb on the 8-bulb unit.

So far.......... knock wood........... temp is holding at 81.0 with 47% humidity.

We have central A/C and keep the house at 78 degrees. I'll be happy if we can keep the tent in the area of 81 with all the lights on.

The 2 biggest plants have been in MG for a month now, so I figured the nutes were about used up. Since we are still waiting for our new nutes to arrive, I gave them a 1/4 dose of Fish emulsion to hold them over.

Moving the lights up last night did cause some stem stretch on the biggest plant. It gained 6 inches since yesterday.

Well, when something is too good to be true........... it probably is.

One of us inadvertantly left the thermometer set on the temp for "outside" the box.

Right now it's sitting at 85 degrees. We can still live with that but I cranked the A/C down a bit anyway.

Looking Good!

Thanks Anbesol.

They seem to have started recovering from the higher temps. The yellowing on the newer growth of the larger plants seems to be receeding.

Temp is holding about 84 degrees even after the wife bumped the A/C back up to 78.

There was just a trace of smell making it through the filter. Picked up some dryer sheets (Bounce with Febreeze). I threw a sheet on the filter and the problem was taken care of within 30 minutes. The wife is happy now. And........ when the wife is happy, I'm happy.;):);)

Temps are holding at 84 to 86 with humidity at 40 to 42%.

Nice setup. you did your homework for sure.

Thanks grow........ and I'm still doing homework.:)

Now, I'm trying to find a different mix to use on the next transplant. I started out with MG because it was easy to find and I didn't know any better at the time.

I've searched all over town for an unfertilized potting soil with no luck. I'm figuring that the ferts, especially in the big pots are about used up and, based on Stinkyattic's recommendations, we'll be going to Pure Blend Pro Grow and Pure Blend Pro Bloom for Soil. UPS says they'll be here tomorrow.

But, I know I'll be needing to transplant to bigger pots soon and am at a loss finding anything unfertilized.

Anyone have a recommendation on something I can mix up or, as a last resort, order online?

mctoker mctoker. UR shit looks great my brotha.:thumbsup:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by hydrocannabis

mctoker mctoker. UR shit looks great my brotha.:thumbsup:

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Thank you.......... Thank you very much.

Nutes got here today. Feels like we're rollin' now.

Been checking for preflowers. Nothing yet. I know it's a bit early, still vegging, but I can't help looking anyway.:D The babies range from 3 to 4 1/2 weeks since sprouting. Starting to get some alternating nodes on the freak.

hey nice first frow bro. good luck with your flowers!:hippy:

Hey MC. Can I make a Slight Suggestion? You should really add about 6-10 more cfl's for your grow. If you can. Pick up the book Buds For Less. you will probably have small fluffy buds from just that small amount of light. Good Luck!

joedirt ~ Thanks man.

anbesol ~ 6 to 10 more? I don't know that I could fit too many more in there. There are 12 bulbs in there now. Even if I replaced the 4-light unit with a second 8-light one, that would only add 4 bulbs. Buds for Less, I'll check into it. Thanks.

The wife and I never imagined that there would be so much to learn when we started this adventure. We really have to tip our caps to the wonderful folks that this site has pulled together. It makes for quite a pool of knowledge to draw from.:):):)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by anbesol

Hey MC. Can I make a Slight Suggestion? You should really add about 6-10 more cfl's for your grow. If you can. Pick up the book Buds For Less. you will probably have small fluffy buds from just that small amount of light. Good Luck!

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Does the homework ever end?

Been reading......... a lot. Cervantes' book has been a great help.

I'm still trying to keep this "relatively" inexpensive. With that in mind, I calculate that I need to shoot for about 27,560 Lumens, or more, to get a respectable volume at harvest. My Homebox is 6.89 sq. feet.

I found a good deal on a 150 watt HPS putting out 16,000 Lumens. If I run that along side my 8-bulb fixture (12,800 lumens) it would give me 28,800 lumens.

I'm just wondering if the heat will still be manageable. I looked at running a couple 125 watt CFL's but the cost is double the price of the HPS with less output. Just seems like the HPS is more bang for the buck.

Any input would be appreciated.

Thanks,

McT

Well........ even though I found a good deal on an HPS light, I was still concerned about the extra heat it might generate so, I looked at vented hoods and cooltubes. That basically doubled the price of the light.

While digging for info on hoods and cooltubes, I stumbled across a photo that Opie Yutts had posted of his setup. Then, it struck me. I could add enough CFL's to reach my goal of 4,000 to 5,000 lumens per square foot for flowering.

The result is Frankenlight. Since the babies are still vegging, I'm only running 20 6500k bulbs. For flowering it will hold 22 2700k bulbs for a total of 35,200 lumens or roughly 5100 lumens per square foot.

Anbesol ~ Thanks for pointing out the lighting deficiency. I wasn't able to find the book you mentioned but I did pick up Cervantes' book. The stickies in the lighting section were a big help, too.

Opie Yutts ~ Thanks for the idea I needed to gain enough bulbs. Our original plan was to do this with all CFL's and, now, we're staying on course.

In the photos we haven't put all the bulbs in yet, but y'all should get the idea.

you know, a little box fan can cool a pretty good size hps. I used that for 400w in a meter² area. The ambient was generally 65-70ºF. At the canopy the temp would be 80º-85º. Just an observation. good luck with the CFLs though. They can do the trick too. You know the math now.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Shovelhandle

you know, a little box fan can cool a pretty good size hps. I used that for 400w in a meter² area. The ambient was generally 65-70ºF. At the canopy the temp would be 80º-85º. Just an observation. good luck with the CFLs though. They can do the trick too. You know the math now.

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We won't see that kind of ambient temp until December or so. We bumped the house A/C down to 76 F and run a 7 inch clip fan inside the box and have a regular box fan about 8 feet away directing more air toward the box. Right now, canopy temp is hovering around 85. We also have a 500 CFM duct fan hauling the warm air out of the top of the box.

We'll see what kind of results we get from this grow and plan to start a second grow after Xmas when we have cooler ambient temps.

I sure hope we can switch to flower soon and start culling out any males. We're running out of room in there!

The one plant that we topped is showing alternating nodes as are a couple branches on the freak (not on the main cola). Many of the plants show very tiny specs that could be the beginnings of preflowers but, even with a jeweler's loupe, I still can't tell, yet.

The oldest plant is 6 weeks old, today. The others range from 1 day to 1 1/2 weeks younger.

With the new light, the temp peaked at 88 during the night but the babies seem to love it.

I culled out two plants today. One was showing both male and female flowers. I don't know if it's a hermie or intrasexual. The other was showing wierd light brown sections on the leaf surface. I thought this might be because it was the first plant directly in front of a fixed fan.

Both plants were moved outdoors. We'll continue to give them nutes and see what happens. Actually, I hope they do well. We could use more seeds, at the very least.

Now that we have a bit more room, we removed the fixed clip-fan and replaced it with a desktop tower oscillating fan (the kind with two squirrel cage fans in it).

A couple of the remaining plants have little nubs at the nodes but still too early to tell if male or female.

Wow, looking really good.:thumbsup:

and 'Frankenlight' clicked my inspiration light on. Really appreciate that as well.:hippy:

I've got a indoor growing log with my trinode plant and my little FIM/LST monster if you wanna check it out.:cool:

Have a good one and Be Safe, bud.:jointsmile:

The first pic is the one with the brown spots. The second is the bi. Not a great pic but the best I could get. On a couple nodes, male and female preflowers are clustered together.

Thanks BeFree.

Glad to be of help.

I'll be checking out your log.

looks better than my other flowering plant.but its still flowering ok. so will have to wate and see.

and the ones in the pic all of em they look great.

Thanks hydro. I think the one was just getting beat up by the constant breeze on it. Anyway, needed the room to be able to put the oscillating fan in the box.

We'll probably have to move a few more outside, as well. I figure we'll only have room to flower 3 to 4 in the box, at best.

Very good 1st grow!! You give me hope, as I plan on growing for the first time and with the use of cfl's. Only questions i have right now is what are all of the nutes you are using and are you even checkin the ph of your water and soil??

I went with what stinkyattic recommended in her basic "stickie", Botanicare Pure Blend Pro Grow and Pro Bloom with an occasional dallop of Sweet and Molasses.

http://boards.cannabis.com/basic-gro...-dankness.html

Water is from our R/O machine so it's a neutral 7.0 to start. Soil Ph has been holding about 6.5 to 7. Although, I haven't checked it in a while.

Good luck with your grow. I'm sure you'll learn a lot. Seems like I learn something new every day. Usually it's what mistakes I've made.;)