a few quick, simple questions

to start out...this is my first grow. i have a few questions as of now

since ive never done this, i put in ~20 seeds for germinatin, and have 10 planted so far that cracked out of the shells and began growing the root tip. so far, 3 of them have sprouted. i only plan on growing 2, maybe 3 plants max.

question 1: once the sprouts break through the soil, is this when the vegetative stage begins? i already have the lights on 24/7, and plan to continue to do so for several more weeks. this lighting stays on for ~3-4 weeks correct? then switch to 18/6 and eventually 12/12?

question 2: is 4 23w daylight (6500k, 1600 lumens each) sufficient for growing 2-3 plants for at least a week or 2 until i can get some stronger bulbs? i plan on getting some much higher watt cfls this week

question 3: since i planted 10 seeds, and only have enough space/lighting to grow 2-3 plants, am i going to have to just throw some of the sprouts out and hope that the ones i kept are females?

question 4: i know i need to upgrade my lighting situation, but 23w was the highest cfls lowes had. would a bulb like this be much more suitable?

thanks for any help guys, i look forward to growing!

here's a picture of my setup as of now.. i have 10 cups under the lights, and i have positioned the 3 that have sprouted so far so they are receiving the most light out of any cup. each light is a 23w daylight bulb as mentioned above. any critiques so far?

1) Using 24hr light is known to produce more males. Your best bet is 18/6.

2) Your lights are fine for a week or two but get some bigger cfl's and more of them as soon as possible. Try buying 6 42w cfl's for now. When they get bigger and you want to flower get a couple large 125w cfl's to add to your setup.

3) The space you currently are using is large enough to keep all your plants until you find out what sex they are. This way you don't have to toss possible females.

4) try walmart or home depot or a local hardware store and you'll be able to find higher wattage cfl bulbs

i read that the sex malfunction issue is actually attributed to heat stress... my cfls don't put off much heat, so i don't think ill have to worry about that... as long as the heat is what causes it, but maybe not.

everywhere i've looked around my area (lowes, kmart, sears hardware) didn't have anything about 23w cfls. looks like i'm going to have to order some online

as far as the lighting schedule goes, most of the stuff i've read while researching said to use 24/0 as opposed to 18/6

maybe i should use 24/0 for a week or two, then 18/6 for a week or 2, then eventually 12/12 for flowering. would this be alright?

I guarantee you will have less males with 18/6 lighting ... do I seriously need to prove this to my eleventh non-believer? look it up all over rollitup or if you really want to just go through my past posts, and you will find out that I am right. Out of twenty some grows, I believe I have only had 10 males. Every grow I've had ranged from 5 plants to 60 plants. All together I have grown over a couple hundred plants and still only 10 males. Seriously try it ... here i'll even add some data to back it up ... again ... for the eleventh time this month ...

This is an excerpt from Dutch Passions:

From literature and our own findings it appears that the growth of a male or female plant from seed, except for the predisposition in the gender chromosomes, also depends on various environmental factors. The environmental factors that influence gender are:

• a higher nitrogen concentration will give more females.
• a higher potassium concentration will give more males.
• a higher humidity will give more females.
• a lower temperature will give more females.
• more blue light will give more females.
• Fewer hours of light will give more females.

PS I wasn't trying to be rude its just a repost of something I had to type earlier.

24/0 lighting is mainly used for feminised seeds. I'm surprised that you can't get bigger bulbs. Most walmart's even carry the 42w CFL.

alright thanks... i guess i'll switch it to 18/6 as soon as i get a light timer rigged up.. i'll probably go and get one right now.

mal_crane said:

24/0 lighting is mainly used for feminised seeds. I'm surprised that you can't get bigger bulbs. Most walmart's even carry the 42w CFL.

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yeah i've called everywhere around here. just called home depot and the highest they have is 42w but they arent 6500k daylight bulbs that i need for vegging.. i'm gona order some online tonight i think, and just return all my 23ws

on second thought, would i be able to use the 42w 2700k cfls throughout both vegging and flowering?

is it just the light schedule change that causes a plant to start flowering? i know that 6500k is ideal for vegging and 2700 for flowering, but 42w 2700s are all i can find around here. would these still grow fine?

IMO opinion I think they would work fine. I've used just 6500k and just 2700k and a mixture of both and didn't seem to notice huge differences, but some people on here swear that the different bulbs for veg and flower are better. I guess it's up to you on that one.