First Time CFL Grow

[EvilCowboy420]

Alright I decided to grow in my closet. Due to low resources I ended up not having a lot of stuff I needed and killing a few seedlings. This is mainly due to me getting over zealous and thinking I could grow with water a pot and a light. Boy was I wrong.

After spending a lot of time trying to master keeping the plant alive I think I finally got one that is pretty decent. Now I warn that the plant did stretch a bit due to having the wrong lights and other problems that I corrected one at a time. All that said I am starting my little grow log for this little experiment.

The experiment:
I wanted to see how well I could grow cannabis under all natural materials. (Except for lights and wind.) Meaning I didn't want to add anything to my soild mix and anted to make my own compost. So I did some reading about various plants and came up with a compost mixture that I later added to the soil to try to give it a good amount of nutrients.

Ingredients:
My Compost:
1/4 cup coffee grounds (used)
3 crushed and dried egg shells
a nice potting soild with perlite in it I bought from the store(I forgot the brand) I used this stuff on a christmas cactus that was almost dead and on an almost dead african violet. Both now bloom indoors almost all year round.
1/2 cup peat moss.
And I topped the entire mixture after the plant started to grow with some nice fertilized wood chips. The kind used around plants at the bank and walmart and places like that. (Not sure what effect this will have on the plant.
An I finally added worms.

I came up with this mixture due to reading gardening techniques around google about this plant and others. I wanted to see if this mix had a more positive effect or negative on the plant as opposed to one just buried in potting soil.

Well now so far I have 2 plants one is barely out of the dirt and was started 2 days later than the one in the picture below. I couldn't get a picture of that on cause it is too small and not doing so hot (it was the one buried in just dirt.) So both are fairly close in age about 2 1/2 weeks old. I started the LST technique on the one below to help strenghten the stem (mainly because both like I mentioned before are stretched a bit)

I have stopped the stretching completely by making sure the lights are always only 2 inches from the plants at all times. So The are continuing to grow out and not up. (Big thanks to a lot of searches here on getting started.)

Anyhow have a look tell me what you think and if I am missing something here. Oh yeah this is an entirely CFL growgot the 3 pack at walmart for 6 bucks and started the plants with 1 light per plant and the older they get the more lights I am adding I have 4 in total of 40 watts (not the cool whites but the other more orange color ones.)

The LST training was started today and you may be able to see the top already starting to bend back up. I didn't want to stress it too much so I did a very small bend. Like I said to mainly strengthen the stem. I also have a fan on low in there now ocilating. (yet another rookie mistake)

Again any input is appreciated. Thanks again to all the posts on this board.

Again the plant is 2 1/2 weeks old.

Oh yeah my PH tester still hasn't arrived in the mail so I am using water from the tap but aging it 2 days before pouring it on plants. Right now the plants are on an 18/6 light cycle as well.

Also the picture makes the plant look a little lighter than it really is due to the lights being on it hence the glow on the plant.

EvilCowboy420 Reviewed by EvilCowboy420 on 10-13-2007. First Time CFL Grow Alright I decided to grow in my closet. Due to low resources I ended up not having a lot of stuff I needed and killing a few seedlings. This is mainly due to me getting over zealous and thinking I could grow with water a pot and a light. Boy was I wrong. After spending a lot of time trying to master keeping the plant alive I think I finally got one that is pretty decent. Now I warn that the plant did stretch a bit due to having the wrong lights and other problems that I corrected one at a Rating: 5

[EvilCowboy420]

Ok 3rd day into LST and finally got the plant tied down at a 90 degree angle so plenty of light is getting to the stem.

I still have it on 18/6 light cycle and will probably leave it that way for a while. I am looking into getting more lights in the closet. But I just got to wait until I get to lowe's or home depot to get the sockets and plug to wire up.

The top cola is bent all the way back up however there are no signs of new branching. However that is probably due to the little bit of stress it was under over the past few days. It seems to have slowed the growth of the plant.

I was a bit disappointed about the size of it so far so I went and got some plant food for it. The food is said to be good for vegging a plant it contains like 12 % nitrogen and 0.38 % Chlorine (not sure why I would want that) and something else I forgot but I will read the package later and post it.

Later tonight I will be posting pics of the plant after the full bend. I got the lights off right now and they don't get turned back on until 10:30 my time tonight. I just dont want to bother it during its night cycle.

Also any thoughts on changing the light cycle back up to 20/4 ? I thought about doing this to make it veg better but wasn't sure if it would have an adverse effect on it.

I also made a mistake in my last post I thing today makes 2 1/2 weeks old I believe wednesday will make it 3 weeks old.

Like I said will post pics later.

Thanks for any help.

[EvilCowboy420]

Ok as I mentioned above here is the pic. Sorry about the quality camera was on last bar. You can tell by the bottom set of leaves how close to the dirt it actually is . The stem is almost flush with it.

I am hoping to see some good results from this.

I have started another seed and I am going to let that one just grow normal Christmas tree shape so I can see the difference between the two.

So here is the pic

Again sorry about the crappy quality.

[EvilCowboy420]

Day 4 of LST a few small branch notches or whatever you call them. But they are too small to take a picture of.

Here is a picture of it though at day 4 of LST.

[EvilCowboy420]

Day 5 of LST and my plant is looking pretty good.

Seems to now have bounced back from the stress of the initial bending and is now growing at its normal rate.

The leaves are filling out more now.

Will post pics later tonight.

[Legalizdahurb]

Looking good keep up the good work. It can be surprising what the plants can take and come back stronger than ever.

[EvilCowboy420]

Thanks Legalizdaherb. I am definately trying hard here lol. I feel like when its about 5 weeks old maybe I can relax a little bit. But for now I check it at about 4 times daily and at night. Trying to cover all the basis.

Anyhow here are some more pics from today I just took. The one from the side is a bit blurry but it is just to show how the top cola bent back up. As I mentioned before this is day 5 of LST. I am starting to see some growth around the stem that looks like it maybe starting branching.

The stem still looks a little thin and I am hoping with the LST to start to see some thickening up of it. I really dont want to have to stake it up during flowing and disrupt the root system by sticking something in the dirt.

Oh yeah the stem isn't really that white its just from the camera flash.

The plant seems to be reponding well to the plant food I put in it. I am hoping it will veg out to a nice size bush.

Anyhow thanks again to all who are reading and following my grow log.

[EvilCowboy420]

Alright 3 weeks and 2 days old I think. The pics below show what the plant looks like now. The las pic is of the stem to show new growth starting but it may be hard to make it out in that pic.

I believe this is day 8 of LST and I have been atching the stem closely to make sure it isn't growing around the tie sites. Seems like everything is going well.

Here are the pics.

Oh yeah added some earth worms to the dirt to help loosen up the soil.

[BUDZOOR]

How many CFL's are u using?

[EvilCowboy420]

4
1 40 watt
3 26 watts

1750 lumens each