new grower. need some help

[dankleader420]

this is my first grow and was hoping for some advice along. i only have the camera on my phone but i will take the best pictures i can. the setup that i have right now in my closet. it's on a shelf thats about 1' x 2.5' and about 3' high. the walls are painted white and its closed off with a blanket. nothing special, i dont have a lot of money right now so i am trying to keep it on a low budget, but still be seuccesful. I have a 2 ft. fluorescent light right now, but might add more? dont know what lights to get, but keep in mind the cheaper lights.



that is my setup as of right now. any advice will help. thanks guys

dankleader420 Reviewed by dankleader420 on 02-12-2008. new grower. need some help this is my first grow and was hoping for some advice along. i only have the camera on my phone but i will take the best pictures i can. the setup that i have right now in my closet. it's on a shelf thats about 1' x 2.5' and about 3' high. the walls are painted white and its closed off with a blanket. nothing special, i dont have a lot of money right now so i am trying to keep it on a low budget, but still be seuccesful. I have a 2 ft. fluorescent light right now, but might add more? dont know Rating: 5

[Backpacker420]

For veg you will want some CFLs with a kelvin of 5700 or so, and for flowering you will want CFLs with a kelvin of say 2700.

That's the low-budget way, though. Obviously there are other routes.

PS - For just those two plants I would get maybe 2 or 3 CFLs and hang them right over the plant, a couple inches above your cups.

[dankleader420]

yeah i am stickin with the low budget, atleast for this grow. does it tell the kelvin on the package when you buy it or am i going to have to like reasearch it to find the right one? lol. i was thinking about getting 2 CFLs along with the flou. and see how that works. it has only been a few days and i havent given them any kind of nutes yet. should i do that? or wait for a while longer before i do that?

[Backpacker420]

I think you should wait a little longer, 'cause the nutes are typically too strong for seedlings.

Lights: Just look on the package, the higher kelvin # is usually called "warm" or "daylight" whereas the lower kelvin like 2700k is usually "cool" or "blue". But like I said, it is usually right on the package itself.

PS - I found an example of a typical package:



You can see on the left it says "6500k".

[dankleader420]

oh alright. thanks.
whats the difference between the kinds of lights? why do the higher kelvin ones work better? and so when i start to flower then should i buy the lower kelvin lights? what does it do thats different?

[dankleader420]

shitty picture i will try to aquire a dig. cam but thats one of them.
i will update every few days or so. if you know anything that will help me please let me know.

[Backpacker420]

I can't get all scientific on you like some of the other members, but I just know that it's the type of light that is most preferred by the plant in her two different stages (vegging and flowering). Remember that you are trying to replicate the natural growth of a plant outdoors, except indoors.

As for you cup, make sure you either raise your soil level or trim the cup down so air can circulate better. With those high sides you're going to have a lot of stale air and possible mold growth.

[dankleader420]

oh alright. will do.
some one else told me that the space was too big and to close it off. i had just hung a blanket up to block it off. but im not sure that really does anything.

[Backpacker420]

What space is too big?

[Opie Yutts]

Backpacker is right about the different colors of light for different stages of growth. Unfortunately he got them backwards. For vegatative growth you want a bluish or cool color light. This makes the plants bushier with more nodes (branches). When you switch the light schedule to flowering you'll want a more reddish light. This will make the plants stretch a little, but it is more condusive to making buds. Unless the package says something about the light being cool or daylight, or it has the proper K listed, it is most likely 2700K which is fine for an all around bulb. Check out the graph I modified a bit. You can see that the absolute best color (K) for vegatative growth is 5700, and 2450 for budding. Good luck finding exactly those colors, so we just try to get close. Ultimately we want a mix of about 85% blue and 15% red during veg, and visa versa for budding.

I suggest you read this thread: http://boards.cannabis.com/basic-gro...hing-mean.html. Toward the end I give more info about lighting, plus there's lots of good info for begginers.

I think you said in SnS's thread that you have a 75 watt light. That's more than enough to get seedlings going. They don't want much light. After a couple weeks, the more the better. For good lighting on a budget use Fluorescent tubes or CFLs. They make CFLs from 13 watts up to 250 watts I think, which is equivilant to something like 600 watts incandescent. Do not give your plants any nutrients, except perhaps a slight bit of B1, until they are at least 2 weeks old. Then start at about 1/4 strength. I woud do like Backpacker recommends and fill your cups more close to the top, while still leaving a little lip to hold water. You'll also need a fan for gently blowing your plants in a breeze, which helps the plants get strong so they won't break when they get heavy with buds. This will also help get fresh air to the plants, which they require.

I don't see a need to block off your space, and I don't think you need to make your pictures smaller. I post mine bigger than that. Most peoples' browsers are set to shrink the picture if it is bigger than the screen anyway. Then you also have the opportunity to enlarge to full size if you want to.

Hope that helps a little. Good luck.

PS. Don't over water. You should wait until the soil is almost completely dry between waterings.