What's the best CHEAPEST lighting for flowering??

[BUZz UK]

Anything but hid is a waste of time imo.. do what ever u have to do to come up with the $200 or your wasting your time imo

CFL's have their uses, especially in veg...

[DarkHairedSativa]

nice grow not to say urs is bad or anything cause there not but i have a dwc/aero setup and i was on day 20 of bud and mine were double that size well the flowers are i mean but i also let mine grow 3ft tall b4 switching to 12/12 and i am also using just about every nute u could get alot of stuff like bigbud budblood silca boost calmag+ f1 stuff like that but u have sum nice plants there too + i was using about 1400w worth of light too so..

We have alot of nutes and Bud blaster in there on top of it,but it was the first time around and I thought they turned out pretty good.Considering most of what you see in the foreground are shoots from one big plant.We had to top it due to space problems and it was a good 12 inches taller than everything else so they weren't getting any light.But there are at least 3 kolas in the back and they are even fatter now.We got a 150 HPS from Creesab and put it in there with the 70w HPS we already had.I would've preferred to keep them all on them but didn't have the room.We had alot of trial and errors as this is a first for either of us and we had absolutely NO IDEA what the hell we were doing!! LOL Never done hydro anything so it wasn't bad...could've been better sure,but could've been way worse too. It was just bagseeds for the first tim,but we have nigerian growing too...one in a LST screen,one in ebb n flow (we'll be switching to DWC for flower)He just cracked some Hashberry and Kalimist x White widow or Trainwreck (they weren't sure of the cross strain). 4 hashberry (thanks Creesab )and 4 of the other.Plus he cloned the Nigerian which has been a fun little experiment...NOT!! I think he finallly got the cloning thing this last time 'round....Anyhow once we get moved to a house and can set up a shed it will be alot easier with alot more room.This is just in 2 little closets.We were also gonna try a couple outdoor plants once we're in a house as well....but I like the hydro. Less chance of bugs that way....I'll post pics of the d results soon.It's gonna be harvested at least 2 weeks sooner than originally anticipated.The pistols are already browning....When do you all harvest??

[DarkHairedSativa]

Oh and we're gonna hash the rest of the plant.....we got that down...

[Creesab]

you're doing a good job - It's a lot of work!

[psteve]

The pistols are already browning....When do you all harvest??

Pistils are not a good indicator of when to harvest. They may turn color for many reasons, not all indicating finished buds.
I harvest when the trichomes start to turn amber.

[Opie Yutts]

Pistils are not a good indicator of when to harvest. They may turn color for many reasons, not all indicating finished buds.
I harvest when the trichomes start to turn amber.

I was going to say the same thing. Trichomes, not hairs are the way to really tell. In the vast array of weed varieties, some hairs are way brown at the proper harvest time, and for other varieties hairs may have just started to turn brown. Also harvest time is subjective. It's up to you. Like all of the grow, it's an art. If you want a clearer, able to think high, then you harvest when trichomes are clear, but starting to turn cloudy. Normal is cloudy. If you want an extreme stoned high, then harvest when trichomes are amber. More amber means more THC degridation however. You really need an $8 pocket microscope from radio shack.

And I too harvest when amber is setting in, but if I can, I like to have both clear and amber weed around.

[Opie Yutts]

And don't worry if your beggining harvests are not HUGE. The idea is to just get weed a few times, then start worring about increasing yield. If THC hits your brain you did a good job.