(first timer) Indica Grow With Tube Lights..

[nick19882003]

ok please no hate mail lol calling me ignorant or anything, im just uninformed =D and yes i have done some research on it but the budget didn't allow for more than 50$..ok anyways i hear ALOT of bad things about tubes and trying to put a plant through flowering...is it pretty much hopeless..i'll make another thread soon when i can get ahold of a camera they look really healthy other than not alot of light getting the more bottom leaves and they're starting to get alot of new growths making nodes or w/e it's considered before pre flowering but basically i'm asking if i should expect nething at all out of it in the end or should i not get my hopes up

nick19882003 Reviewed by nick19882003 on 09-11-2008. (first timer) Indica Grow With Tube Lights.. ok please no hate mail lol calling me ignorant or anything, im just uninformed =D and yes i have done some research on it but the budget didn't allow for more than 50$..ok anyways i hear ALOT of bad things about tubes and trying to put a plant through flowering...is it pretty much hopeless..i'll make another thread soon when i can get ahold of a camera they look really healthy other than not alot of light getting the more bottom leaves and they're starting to get alot of new growths making Rating: 5

[stinkyattic]

Don't count your chickens before they hatch, but don't think you'll fail.
There's nothing inherently wrong with shop lights that would make flowering IMPOSSIBLE, but you will have some challenges.

Start training your plants to lie fairly flat and low right away, and keep the canopy very even and CLOSE to the lights- like 2" away. T12s will not burn a properly watered plant, and T8s should be fine too.

Use 'daylight' bulbs in flower, and 'daylight' or 'cool white' or a mix in veg.

The more lights the better!!! I'm glad you are running indica, because they take to flouros pretty well.

[IndyMed]

Another way to do it is to train your plants to grow flat vertically. Tie your branches so that the plant ends up a few inches deep, but wide. Sort of like a cereal box. Then you make two banks of flourescents and pancake the plant. That's the way I did my first few grows using minimal money. I made one bank of flouros up against the wall, starting a few inches from the top of the pots and going up about four lights tall. Then put your plants up against the lights. Then take the next bank of lights and press them to the plants. Like a lite, pot, lite sandwich. A generous fan blowing up through the foliage helps to keep the temps down. When done like this I actually had plant touching lights and no ill effects. No lost lumens either and the result was phenom.

[nick19882003]

well...they're a good way through veg and looking really healthy like they're not far off from flowering, lots of new very healthy growths and the "nodes" i believe they're called where a branch grows from the stem and another branch and i keep a small fan in there all day not directly on them but right beside and also i use a big box fan everyday to recirculate the air but all i have at this moment is a 4' fixture with bulbs that i picked up at the local menards/home depot w/e it's called around ur area but thanx for the input wish i would have known some of that when i started but everything is looking good 'as of right now' and i'm currently working on another fixture with 2 more bulbs the only problem i ran into was the top leaves spread out towards the light and hog it all so i have some more tube bulbs on the wall trying to help out the fan leaves and lower brances, all in all it's not doing bad for a less than 50$ setup =\