JaJoJo's First Grow (Help Appreciated)

Hello all im JaJoJo ive been lurkin for awhile absorbing knowledge from the expertise of other growers so i now feel its time to start my grow log. So if you enjoy CFL grows "Turn On Tune In An Drop Out". Ok so im starting with 4 23watt (100watt equivelant) CFLs MG potting soil all pots contain 30% perlite 70% soil. Temps stay steady at 75F and humidity stays steady at 60 i just transplanted today. In the pics you'll see the best plant in the back, the next best to the right, and the last three are in the seedling starter pot until i can find bigger ones. The last pic is of the top of my best growing plant. It already is smelling of skunk :jointsmile: Im not using any nutes yet until it has reached at least the third node then IMO i think its ready but thats wat im here for is advice all will be greatly appreciated. Ill be posting till the end so kick back pull out your favorite water piece and enjoy. :rastasmoke:

Oh and by the way the 3 plants together have been going for three days now and the other bigger two in their own pots have been growing 1 week today. Just givin ya a timeline lol

Looks like a good start. Are you going to move them under hps lights in a month or so?

thanks killerweed420 if work seriously pics up or i come into some cash then yes i would love to add a 600 watt hps but for right now im usin CFLs because of the low cost ha ha ya im very broke right now

try using half-strength nutes at first, since you are using the pre-nuted MG soil ... also, watch out for over-watering, she needs to go thru wet-and-dry cycles ... good growing ! :smokin:

thanks for the advice reaper i have a question. Would not using nutes start causing yellow spots? im not using nutes of any kind and the soil had sat out about a month or so. So i was hopin it would tune down the pre-mixed nutes in the soil. Below is a pic of wat i woke up to and im gettin really worried because just yesterday they were doing very well and now im getting yellow spots anyone out there with advice will help

I think it could be the MG soil, the nutes mixed with the soil may be the problem. test your ph. and i'd say you should flush them... anyone else agree?

thanks for the advice adam. The MG soil could be the issue as it did have pre-mixed nutes added. So today at Wal-Mart i picked up MG brand organic choice with no nutes pre-mixed (my walmart is small MG is all they have) and some MG bloom booster it says 15-30-15 does anybody know if thats good for flowering?. And a bag of perlite to help with the drainage i think that other MG soil was holding way to much water. any advice would be great as im still very much a noob thanks.

Update pics. Transplanted all plants into the organic soil with no pre-mixed nutes. Seperated the other three that were so crowded into there own pots. Was gonna pick up some 6500k CFLs but ran out of money. Does anyone think using 6500k and 2700k together during veg and flower will give the plants a better spectrum of light to work with? or is their little difference? thanks in advance for the advice :stoned:

hey jojo I'm just starting a CFL grow log myself! Hope things go well for you dude!
I forgot to mention I'm using 2x125W - 6.4k and 2.7k cfl (125watt each) 5U's with success!

Pictures coming when i reach 10 posts or whatever it is :D



Peace
Denial

In fact, Heres a picture of my setup and 2 whitewidow plants on the combo, :) hope this helps ya man! :thumbsup:

Peace,
denial

Just wanted to add I had exactly the same problems with my allmix bioizz soil. at about hmm 4 weeks actually, sound familiar? Be careful how much water you're giving them it seems to activate nutes in the soil and take them to the roots.. Flush might work but if you dont do it thoroughly or have a lot of nutes it could make matters worse :)

Peace,
Denial

hey denial thanks for all the advice your plants are lookin awesome bro as for that soil im pretty sure that was the problem i flushed twice then re-potted with extra perlite and organic soil no pre-mixed nutes and they all are now perkin back up and their skunky smell has come back to im very happy im only using four 26 watt (100watt equivelant) 2700k CFLs but before i induce flowering i will be getting four more 6500k CFLs for a wider spectrum and more lumens im hoping 8 CFLs will be sufficient enough for possibly all 5 plants IF their all female but i dont get my hopes up i hear the ratio is about 50/50 so 2-3 out of 5 is kool with me lol

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Originally Posted by jajojo

hey denial thanks for all the advice your plants are lookin awesome bro as for that soil im pretty sure that was the problem i flushed twice then re-potted with extra perlite and organic soil no pre-mixed nutes and they all are now perkin back up and their skunky smell has come back to im very happy im only using four 26 watt (100watt equivelant) 2700k CFLs but before i induce flowering i will be getting four more 6500k CFLs for a wider spectrum and more lumens im hoping 8 CFLs will be sufficient enough for possibly all 5 plants IF their all female but i dont get my hopes up i hear the ratio is about 50/50 so 2-3 out of 5 is kool with me lol

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hey well, 10k CFL lumens should be enough for 4 plants, not sure about 5 though hehe. you're probably close to 10k so :D looking good man.. I've been thinking about buying 100 20W CFLs between 2k - 4k - 7k ..

I hate HIDS because they are hot to control temp due to the low surface area.. if you have any thoughts on that im all ears hehe

Peace,
Denial

IMO HIDs lights are good to grow with if a have a decent are to grow in. A friend of mine was using something similar to a HID i believe it was a metal halide and it brought temps in his grow room up to 110F. I prefer CFLs just for the low heat factor and it allowing you to grow in a very small area

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Originally Posted by jajojo

IMO HIDs lights are good to grow with if a have a decent are to grow in. A friend of mine was using something similar to a HID i believe it was a metal halide and it brought temps in his grow room up to 110F. I prefer CFLs just for the low heat factor and it allowing you to grow in a very small area

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I couldn't agree with this synopsis any more.. Really 1000Watts of CFL would be more managable to cool than 1000Watts of HID ANY DAY? Someone want to disagree? hit me up 'yo :D

yah thinking about this a minute and i've decided 100x the surface area @ 1000Watt will always have a way better thermal co-efficient for heat dissipation heh... i.e. steady and slowly , not rapid and low surface.. definately. I'm all CFL so... yeah.. maybe a 100W HPS would be an idea for small boxes for flowering, other than that i think CFL is fine, I'd be inclined to say in fact 500W CFL + 100W HID could produce equal harvests to a 600 HID, i'm sure theres research that disproves that, but i know theres also research that the plants need a broad spectrum of wavelengths but not too much or too little of just one... So one would hope the HID spectrum would add enough for flowering to make CFL the one and truly _best_ way to grow heh. Truly think this is possible sooner than we think!



Peace,
Denial

My space is pretty small, 22.5" x 22.5" base, and 67.5" tall, and I can run a 400w hps. However, I need a cooltube and a tube fan to do it. I've been thinking about even adding a couple supplemental cfl's, but they are pretty expensive here... Don't be afraid of the hps, you just need the proper ventilation!

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Originally Posted by bigtopsfinn

My space is pretty small, 22.5" x 22.5" base, and 67.5" tall, and I can run a 400w hps. However, I need a cooltube and a tube fan to do it. I've been thinking about even adding a couple supplemental cfl's, but they are pretty expensive here... Don't be afraid of the hps, you just need the proper ventilation!

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*money* for proper ventilation and a airtight enclosure. and yes cooltube lol all the things i need/want :(


peace,
Denial

Yea true, little different situation for me i guess, cuz i can get a setup like mine for â?¬270 (light, cooltube w/reflector, 129 cfm fan and carbon filter), which is like $350... but 23w cfls are like â?¬12, while a full hps kit is 69â?¬. It's a good investment though, even if you end up paying like $500, you can get that back 2-fold when you harvest (at least pays itself)

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Originally Posted by bigtopsfinn

Yea true, little different situation for me i guess, cuz i can get a setup like mine for â?¬270 (light, cooltube w/reflector, 129 cfm fan and carbon filter), which is like $350... but 23w cfls are like â?¬12, while a full hps kit is 69â?¬. It's a good investment though, even if you end up paying like $500, you can get that back 2-fold when you harvest (at least pays itself)

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absolutely I got a 400W HID HPS Grolux lamp but its just too damn hot to cool with my 129cfm to be honest.. I need to invest better money/time in an enclosure for that and get a 220cfm or so, downgrade to 200W which im considering strongly. AND/OR cooltube..sigh.. stick with CFL i tell myself. My grow is going pretty good so far...

In CFL's defense my 1 month old plants are doing great... attatch a picture ,
using 1 x 125W 2400k 1x 125W 7200k and 1x23W 4000k,

Peace,
Denial

update. down to three plants it seems i do not have the funds for extra lighting so im knockin it down to three plants. One is still a seedling just now bearing its second node and one has vey thin leaves anybody with advice on that one will be greatly appreciated (will post pics tonight) and the best one is doing fantastic bright green leaves and dark purple stems growing like well...weed lol. My closet is smelling already lol

as i said heres the updated pics the first is of the plant i was asking about a couple posts ago any idea why the leaves are so skinny? the second is the seedling i decided to keep and the third is of the new setup with 2 2700k and 2 6500k on my best plant and the other two plants have their own 2700k CFL untill i come into more cash

The coil cfl's should be layed horizontally for maximum lumens.

thanks for the advice. The Y splitters i have in use with the CFLs keep them angled so their slightly horizontal and if 4 are used together your plant fits nicely between all four CFLs. Check out the pics above and you'll see what im talking about.

I'm in the midst of a first time cfl grow myself, and I find myself constantly wanting more light. As for vertical versus horizontal placement, you will find supporters of both methods. After witnessing the weakness of cfl's - the lack of penetrating power, the cogs are now turning, so perhaps there will be an HPS system in my not so distant future. Check out the link in my sig, its a small cab cfl grow with about 176 actual watts per plant

Update. Moved best two plants into rubbermaid tub. Painted the inside with flat white paint. A total of 9800 lumens on two plants does this sound sufficient? The best plant (which i call charlotte) I believe is a sativa/indica hybrid and the other smaller plant i believe is pure sativa because of the fat leaves. Below are some pics. Any feedback on the health of my plants will be greatly appreciated.

Peace,
JaJoJo

By the way just in case anybody was wondering what plants those are in the small pot its Tasmanian opium poppy

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Originally Posted by jajojo

Update. Moved best two plants into rubbermaid tub. Painted the inside with flat white paint. A total of 9800 lumens on two plants does this sound sufficient? The best plant (which i call charlotte) I believe is a sativa/indica hybrid and the other smaller plant i believe is pure sativa because of the fat leaves. Below are some pics. Any feedback on the health of my plants will be greatly appreciated.

Peace,
JaJoJo

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hey JaJoJo, keep up the good work yo!

your plants are looking OK, worked out a solution/reason for your yellowing?

I read a 400W puts out about 50k lumens, 10k should be enough for two plants, just make sure you're using all the light you can I got like 1x125W, 1x125W+ 23W and its fine for probably 3 or 4 about 10k lumens that too :D

Peace,
denial

Hey denial ya i have seemed to have solved the problem. It was the MG soil with pre-mixed nutes that was causing the nute burn on the tips of the leaves. But I switched to all organic soil. None of that pre-mixed crap in it lol. And now their up and vibrant green and growing like crazy. I've been having to raise the light every day lol and just those two little plants are smelling up my entire room. Question, Do leaves having ridges mean there's a problem? or are they caused by just the gene setup of the plant? Thanks in advance
Peace,
JaJoJo

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Originally Posted by jajojo

Hey denial ya i have seemed to have solved the problem. It was the MG soil with pre-mixed nutes that was causing the nute burn on the tips of the leaves. But I switched to all organic soil. None of that pre-mixed crap in it lol. And now their up and vibrant green and growing like crazy. I've been having to raise the light every day lol and just those two little plants are smelling up my entire room. Question, Do leaves having ridges mean there's a problem? or are they caused by just the gene setup of the plant? Thanks in advance
Peace,
JaJoJo

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hey dude I'm glad everything is back on track. When you say ridges do you mean like the natural pattern 'bulges' from some of the leaves? If so that is normal in a vegetating/flowering plant.

Yeah genes will vary each plants leaf formation :) course, but i think you knew that at the back of your head already! :D


peace,
Denial