Another CFL 1st grow/ KC Brains NL Special + Seedsman WW

**DISCLAIMER** I am fully aware that CFL's will not get maximum yield compared to HID's. I am doing this as a first run as a hobbyist. If and when i decide to step it up a notch and have the 300 bucks to get a proper cooltube with a light and fan, then I will do so. Do not come in my journal suggesting HID's, other than that all suggestions and comments are welcome.

Ok, now that that's done lets get down to business. First a little background....I stumbled upon RIU a few months ago after getting a wild hair up my ass to grow a little ganja in my closet. After pricing some HPS's and seeing what can be done with CFLs if done properly, i decided to try a rubbermaid cab with some CFL's. I was able to build the cab for under a hundred bucks. As it became obvious that the plants were going to outgrow the cab because of the long veg time, i decided to cut the bottom of it out and hang the rubbermaid on chains that i could raise as the plants got taller.

I have a total of 240 watts of CFLs. I live in a very hot part of the country, so i have had to deal with a few heat issues, but with plenty of ventilation, my plants have thrived in temps from 82-86 F. I also stuck a ghetto yeast CO2 generator to help with the extra heat. Here are some pics of the main flowering chamber, and also the veg tent that has seedlings/clones/future mothers. The tent was bought at Lowes for $30, as a portable closet. Eventually if and when i am able to afford a proper HID lamp with an appropriate cooltube and fan, then i will flower in the tent and veg in the rubbermaid. I will continue with more pics in the next post. Thanks.

I bought the cheapest seeds i could find from the Attitude....KC Brains NL Special. I have been very pleasantly surprised at the quality of the plants. I was 5 of 5 on getting seeds germed. They are being grown in Ocean Forest potting soil, watered with RO water from Wal Mart, and no fertilizer until flowering. They were all sprouted in the last week of July.

After about 3 weeks of veg 4 of the 5 were switched to flower. The other one was a real runt and was left in veg. Clones were taken from the 2 most vigorous and robust plants. After about a week of flowers the males starting showing, it happens that the 3 biggest/most vigorous plants that i took cuttings from, were all males, lol. About 3 days after the males showed, the final plant of the four in flower, showed female.

I decided that because the plants were growing so well and seemed to display very similar phenos that the genetics were good enough to get some seeds out of. I might as well have a hundred or so seeds of some good old Norther Lights right? So i chopped the 2 smallest males and let the fem and male grow out for a couple weeks. Once the male balls started opening i chopped it and collected a few tops to save the pollen. Over the next few days as the collected balls popped, i used a paintbrush and liberally dusted my fem, which i from here on out call NL #4.

It turns out that the runt that was left in veg, after an extra week of veg, popped preflowers on the 5th internode while still in veg. Hooray! I could now get some clones since all the ones i had were male and the one female already beginning to flower. It will be called NL#2. I LST'd NL#4 without topping so i could a big nice main cola. Since i was getting clones from NL#2 I FIMMed it and eventually LST'd the subsequent tops in order to get an even canopy and maximum light penetration.

Pic #1 - NL#2 at 2 weeks from sprout
Pic #2 - NL#4 at 2 weeks from sprout
Pic #3 - NL#4 at day 20
Pic #4 - NL#2 at day 18
Pic #5 - NL#4 at day 28

For nutes i bought Oregonism XL to keep the soil alive and thriving, Earth Juice Bloom, and some molasses. I make certain that the soil is completely dry before watering. I transferred them into 2 gal. square pots when they went into flower.

Pics 1-3 NL#2 first day of flower
Pics 4-7 NL#4 11 days into flower

I also ordered a 5 pack of Seedsman White Widow fems after getting the NL seeds. It was so easy i just couldn't help myself lol. So I sprouted 2 of those and they popped on Sep. 1 and Sep fifth, and will be refered to as WW#1 and WW#2 respectively.

I vegged WW#1 about 12 days then put into flower chamber. I wont be topping or LSTing this one due to size constraints. WW#2 will be in the veg chamber long enough to get a couple decent clones, then it's goin in as well. I also have 4 NL#2 clones in the veg, all of which are rooted, but I took one out of its mini humidome too early and it probly wont make it.

Pics1-2 best clone and its roots
Pics 3-7- NL#4 at day 17 of flower i had to tie down the main cola, it was really getting too tall
Pics 8-11- NL#2 at day 6 of flower
Pic 12- all the girls in their clubhouse

The two white widows, 16 and 13 days old, respectively. Thanks for checking me out. I hope to show that it is possible to grow some reasonable buds with a minimal investment for first time growers.

guess i shoulda put this in the CFL forum!

*edit* and now it is, thanks FDD

nice grow.i cant wait to see ur turn out.i also doin my first grow and if mine turn out like that i would be really happy my days of smokin mid will be over.where u order ur seeds. check my grow. https://www.rollitup.org/newbie-central/243335-first-grow-will-work.html i cant believe i just found this site.thanks for sharing

i ordered from Attitude, they came in less than 7 days. I figured i would get the cheapest they had since this is my first grow and wasn't anticipating much success, have been very pleased with the results. I have since done some research and have found out that their NL Special was bred from a Sensi NL crossed with a haze female, so it has a pretty decent pedigree. I think the next go round I'm gonna try KC's Mango. Good luck on your grow, I will definitely check it out.

Hey bro... nice job. I too hope my first soil grow turns out like yours... your plants are so beautiful. I can't wait to see how things turn out.

It's awesome how well it all looks for how little you spent. Nice.

Hey, thanks Jig, I really appreciate the kind words. The use of metallic tape to line the inside of the rubbermaid was inspired by your first scrog grow, I really love that stuff, I think it's much better than regular duct tape.

I think the key to micro CFl grows is keeping those lights 2-4 inches from the plants, while also maintaining enough air flow to keep em from gettin to hot. Those CFl's really put out a little bit of heat, and when you shove half a dozen or more in a tight space they can really build up some heat. With the cab mounted on chains and the power strips being easily movable with plastic ties, I can keep the lights right on top of the plant wherever it needs it.

Looks so damn tasty. Good job!

Also, good luck with the WW.

Thanks Bliz!

Nice buddy! I gotta try out Cfls.

Everything looks great! Gotta love the CFLs!

thanks for the kind words guys. Small update today. Transplanted my best clone to a bigger pot, will probably use it for a mother. Added some soil to another clone that popped some nice roots. The other two clones are looking pretty bad, but the roots are still growing, and i suspect in a day or two they will perk up once they are able to start getting some nutes from the soil.

I flushed the 2 big NL's today, the runoff PH'd at 6.4 which is fine, I just need to make sure I'm ph'n the feeds when i do bloom nutes.

Pics 1-2 the best clone getting moved to a bigger pot
pics 3-4 clone from rapid rooter to soil
pic 5 veggin chamber

Love this thread, my CFL grow is on Day 18 of 12/12 , I'll stay tuned

Ok, so I watered both the big NL plants each with one quart of RO water mixed with a strong dose of EJ Bloom(2 tbls/gal.)

NL#4 was successfully pollinated and has tons of seeds. I think I will just chop buds as soon as the seeds are nice and ripe, which will start to begin in a couple weeks i suspect. I want to get her out of there to make room for clones and the other WW.

I top dressed the WW#1 thats in the flower chamber with a light dusting of bone meal which gives it a nice supply of N through the first few weeks of flower, while also giving it a base of P to use throughout the flower. Since this is a total organic grow, i can get away with keeping the leaves green a little longer than a chemical grow, since i won't have to worry about flushing as much. Although i will still flush the last week.

I temporarily tied down WW#2 to stimulate growth on the bottom internodes. I will untie it in a few days, let it straighten back up, then FIM it. By then i should be able to cut the lower branches for clones and have 4-6 colas for budding.

2 of the 4 NL clones are rooted and growing, 1 has lots of roots but hasn't started getting healthy new leaves yet. The fourth one has 5 or 6 small roots that were put into soil today, yet the leaves look terrible.

Pic 1 - WW#1 20 days old, 8 days in flower cab
Pic 2-4 - NL#4 21st day of flower
Pic 5-6 - NL#2 10th day of flower
Pic 7-10 - clones

Impressive CFL grow. I have never gotten results like that with CFLs. I gave up quickly and went to HID. Looking awesome and keep up the good work.

Thanks Wonder, every pic up to this point was taken while the plants were 100% under CFL's. However, a couple days ago I was able to pick up a 70watt HPS for $35 at Lowes and added it to the cab. So from here on out the the flower cab will be 70 watts of HPS + about 90 watts of CFL's. Here's a couple pics of the cab/rubbermaid, whatever you wanna call it.

I was actually able to lower the temps in there from 86-88 to 81-84, a 70watt HPS bulb with a ballast outside the grow space actually runs cooler than 5 or 6 CFL's inside the grow space. Especially when it's in such a confined area.

Great setup.