3rd grow, CFL, Bagseed

So, i've been slow to try and grow again after moving to a new place after graduation. I have a great little room off the side of my garage that I realized was a pretty sweet place to grow, just need to get the motivation and supplies. Anyway, I started some seeds about three weeks ago and have three plants vegging at the moment. I've got 3 200w bulbs and 4 60w? bulbs set up on a power strip with socket adapters and y splitters. Using a littler box lid left behind by previous residents with the inside sprayed silver as a makeshift hood for lights. 10" fan and windshield reflector around it all. As with my other grows, i like to keep things fairly simple and cheap.

Right now the lights are on 24/7, but i'm planning to switch to 18/6 soon for another week or two and then switch to flowering. hoping for at least one girl and then I can take some clones.

19 days from seed meets dirt. They are approximately 3 in high. Last one is the slowest growing and has some leaf structure deformities. not sure why.

switched my lights from 24/0 to 18/6 three days ago. they've grown a lot since then. I think i'll let them veg till the weekend and then switch to flowering. I don't want them getting too big. Uh, last picture is of my boys

I decided to switch my lights a little earlier than I planned since the kids are growing a lot and i'm trying to keep the size manageable. I switched to out my bulbs and unfortunately one of the new 200w ones only lasted about 5 minutes before it popped and then fizzled out. I'm gonna see about replacing it tomorrow, but in the meantime I put back in the old one. I also reset the timer for 12/12. I have the lights come one at night in order to help keep the temps under control and also thats when i'm home to tend to them. pictures in a couple days probably.

Lookin' pretty good to me. I started a CFL grow from bagseed and I happen to have one runt similar to yours as well, quite behind the rest of them... Had those wide round leaves... I threw it in with my other 2 females flowering since it's managed to grow to a decent size at least, maybe it will start to shape up with the better lighting. I know it fell over a few times as a seedling O.O
Your leaves do look slightly droopy though, have you maybe been watering them too much? Can't be nutrient deficiencies this early I don't think... Might wanna try and space watering out more, though I'm still a noobie I can't be 100% sure on that advice, just taken from all my tons of research I've done Also, if your worried about size, look in to topping! Now is the right time. Let them grow out rather than up and you can light them much easier since you have only CFLs. I topped mine a few days before flowering, and I now wish I'd have done it sooner though they're coming along just fine still. It is no lie they will stretch out so fast after you go 12/12. I started flowering mine small as well, fortunately, but they definitely still doubled within a week and a half I'd say.

got a replacement bulb today for the one that crapped out after 5 minutes. Decided to top one of the taller ones and fimmed the other. The third one is still short so I left it alone. first day on 12/12.

have a question, in one of the pictures there's a air scrubber or something of that nature. Does it work very well? have you used it before? What model and how much did it cost? thanks man

Its actually a sort of dehumidifier. It seems to work ok (its meant for small spaces), but if humidity was a bigger issue it might not be worth it. Supposedly it can help absorb odor too, however, that hasn't been much of a problem yet, so I can't really say whether it helps for that or not. Its called Eva-Dry and its filled with silica crystals that absorb the moisture and when its reached its capacity you plug it in to an outlet and it dries them out to be used again. I got it online for about $23.

http://www.google.com/products/catalog?client=safari&rls=en&q=eva+dry&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=15761192813777479685&sa=X&ei=ND8GTrn-JbPr0QGyrZ3KCw&ved=0CGoQ8gIwBQ

ok well thanks for the info keep up the good work

Just a quick picture. I'm tired after going to see Les Savy Fav last night. It was awesome. smelled like weed off an on through the whole show. lol. Anyway, plants are looking good. No signs of sex yet, but its only 3rd day on flowering cycle.

spiralstaircase13 said:

Just a quick picture. I'm tired after going to see Les Savy Fav last night. It was awesome. smelled like weed off an on through the whole show. lol. Anyway, plants are looking good. No signs of sex yet, but its only 3rd day on flowering cycle.

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Well i ran across this yesterday, and i must say, beautiful. One question i do have since you have experience with cfls and im on my first grow period(with cfls i might), what are the pros and cons to flowering so early? I have two young plants about the same size that i have been lst'ing and i what wonder whether or not to switch them over. What should i expect if i switch them over this soon? Thanks!
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full size plants need about 75 to 85 days of flowering light cycles so most people do 3 wekks to 4 weeks of veg then switch the cycle to show sex and start flowering. the pro to cfls are the cost is lower with the right 2700k and 6500k bulbs u can grow just as dense buds as hps or mg bulb with less heat and less cost.

The reason people flower early is usually because of space/lighting limitations. Your plant will almost double in size in just the first two weeks of flowering due to having 8-12 hours less lighting. Eventually it will switch to flowering mode though and focus its energy on the buds instead of vegetation.

Your both right. Size is a definite consideration since you have to think more about what the final size of your plant is going to be than just what it is right now and plan for what you can handle. If your strapped for resources or are limited on space, flowering before knowing the sex is a good choice. CFL's are definitely great for saving on electricity and very versatile. With a small fan, you can control the temps pretty easily as well. My very first attempt at growing was disastrous, but I knew nothing about growing a pot plant. So the best advice I can give you is the more you know, the better your grow. If you think you wanna go with CFL's read up on whats available and look at lots of setups and figure out what works for you. And, of course, you will learn a lot a long the way! Happy growing

i literally had to take a second look after reading the first few posts as this is almost exactly like my cfl grow. its looking great. im at day 13 and will make a youtube vid and blog post tomorrow. ill def stay glued to yr grow as i would love to see the outcome. im on my 1st its also bag seed and my plants are coming along 1 very strong 1 a little slower and a runt i cant bring myself to get rid of. check out my grow and tell me what you think. keep the info coming. subbed and +rep

moved the lights up about an inch this morning before lights went off. some preflowers showing on the tallest of the three (one in front) this afternoon. raised up the little one so now its top is about even with the other two.

spiralstaircase13 said:

moved the lights up about an inch this morning before lights went off. some preflowers showing on the tallest of the three (one in front) this afternoon. raised up the little one so now its top is about even with the other two.

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Very excited!

Ended up topping the other tall plant (3rd pic) since my attempt at fimming failed. I am also about 80% sure that one is also a girl The preflowers look like they could have really tiny hairs coming out, but without a way to magnify them its hard to tell. Watered them and raised the lights again since a couple leaves were blowing into the lights. Been giving them some weak nutes about every 3rd watering. I'm really anxious for them to show sex since I would like to transplant, but my current setup doesn't really allow for larger pots. If I had 2 females I could get them in bigger pots without having to change things around.

Really I would be happy if I only had one female too. I would be interested to know what I could do concentrating my efforts into creating the best single plant I can produce.

Just went down to check on the plants. The plant that had preflowers I am pretty sure is a male definitely looked like some tiny clusters forming so I went ahead and pulled it out. I'm only sad because it was a good looking plant, but its nice to free up some space for the other two. The taller of the two left is showing some preflowers now too, so hopefully within the next few days i'll know the sex of that one as well. I'll definitely be considering a transplant in the next week or so.

Sorry about the male! I remember during my first and current grow when I had to remove the males, two of em. One was the best I had, and the other was tied for second! They were the only ones that smelled at the time too. It was tragic having to rip them out. But I made sure to save some BEEAUTIFUL looking leaves from them