Audrey 1 (my first grow log - comments/help welcome)

This is my first time growing and I will try to include as much information as possible (including my embarrassing mistakes). Please feel free to give comments or advice. Im naming the plants Audrey (a tribute to little shop of horrors).

I have wanted to grow for a long time but never had a secure spot. Now I have a new apartment with a perfect closet- Im pretty sure the last tenants used it for growing as well. I got about 20 seeds of some nice purple bud from a friend. I started germinating the seeds in a damp paper towel. I put it on a plate with saran wrap on it in side an empty cereal box. All went well until my roommate/grow partner put the box on top of a lamp to keep it warm and essentially baked the seeds. Ill have to keep him away from the hands on work from now on.

I re-germinated 15 seeds and planted them in organic miracle grow. I know miracle grow is not the best, so I plan on getting some Fox Farm when I transfer them into a bigger pot. For lights I got 2 hanging ballasts with 2 40 watt bulbs in each (160 watts total), and 2 100 watt CFL lights (360 watts grand total). I have a fan going and it seems well ventilated. After looking at grow guides and journals on here I think I need more lights. Until I can buy more I've moved the plants right up to the light. The plants have been up for 3/4 days now..

*EDIT* More specific light detail - the 2 23 watt (100 watt equivalent) put out 1600 lumens each.. I have 2 40 watt daylight fluorescent that put out 2,325 lumens each. I also have 2 plant and aquarium wide spectrum four foot fluorescent lights.. but Im not sure how many lumens those put out (does anyone know?). I plan on having four plants, and so far I have 7,850 lumens (not counting the aquarium bulbs).

I've attached pictures of my progress so far.. what do you think? (the last 2 photos are how it is now) Any suggestions on what kind of lights to get?

I would suggest a HPS (high pressure sodium) system, my plants have been doubling in size every day sense i starting using it.

Ive herd MH ( metal halide) bulbs work better for veg growing and hps are best for budding. I got a switchable ballest so i can use both types of lights with a flip of a switch. $200 total for a good light system.
if you dont have the cash, i used Cfls for the longest time and they work, just never got the yields i wanted.

whats your light schedule? are the lights on 24 hours a day? or 18/6?

I grow hydro so i dont know much about the soil. but I would think miracle grow is fine.
can you touch your lights with out them being to hot on your hand? if so the light spacing if good.

and what is the PH of your soil, I dont know if thats a big issue for soil but with hydro Ph is one of the main keys to growing. Ph of 5.8-6.2 is best i believe.

Hope ive been a help.
happy smokes

Im thinking of getting some y adapters to hold more CFLs..

I keep the lights on 24 hours a day.. and I can touch the lights.. not hot at all. Im not sure of the PH of the soil.. Im using organic miracle grow if that tells you anything. Is it worth PH testing the soil? Also, my tap water tastes like chlorine or something but Ive been putting through a brita filter... never PH tested it... is that ok?? thanks

With that many lumens the plants will grow, but thats just the tip of there potential. And lumens don't add up like you would hope, so the two that put out 1600 each, together will only put out 1600, its the intensity that matters, not the number. so if you brightest light puts out 2325, thats the most lumens you'll have. theres, a thread on here that show the proof behind it.
so i hate to say it but you probably only have 2325 lumens in there. but thats doesn't mean pull the others out, they help spread the intensity, not increase it.

Umm, I dont know if the brita filter will adjust the PH, my water tastes the same and its PH is really high around (7.5-8.0) I would get a cheap Ph test kit for pools, maybe $10, and test the water before you water them, if its high, use a lemon or lime to bring it down until the tester reads out good. PH needs to be in the right range, if its to high (9.0+) they could die or stop growing same with too low (5.0-) (5.8-6.2 is ideal)

I would get the Y adapters if you cant invest in the HPS or MH bulbs.

How do I get more lumens? Can I do it by getting more CFLs? Probably not..

thanks for your help so far.

Oh, and welcome to the World of growing! lol once you start it's hard to stop. just keep at it and you'll get what your looking for in the end!

If you add CFL's it will add lumens (which will allow you to get your low number lumens all over the plant), but not the intensity of the lumens which is what the plants really need to grow fast! the intensity will only increase if the bulb its self has the intensity. no number of bulbs will do that. but a large number of bulbs will allow you to spread out your low lumen intensity.

For veg you want a minimum of about 25w per square foot, whichever lights you use. For flower you'll want 50w/sq ft or more ideally. Lumens only account for the light humans can see, they mean nothing to a plant.

Hubert said:

For veg you want a minimum of about 25w per square foot, whichever lights you use. For flower you'll want 50w/sq ft or more ideally. Lumens only account for the light humans can see, they mean nothing to a plant.

Click to expand...

From what I've read outta my grow book, thats not right. Lumens is what matters to plants, man. Watts don't mean anything to plants, I'm a physics major, watts is just a measure of power consumption, the more watts, the more power you use from the grid. The lumens (another measurement of foot-candles) is what plants absorb.

Im going to get another two of the 100 watt equivalent bulbs within the next few days. I just gave them some water and they look like they are doing pretty good. I've been thinking about getting a white shower curtain to block off half of the closet.. I posted some pictures to try to show the size of the closet. Should I hang a shower curtain? Would it still be ventilated? Also.. do I need to check the humidity? I keep purified water in the closet so it will be at room temp. and it feels quite humid.

Thanks everyone for your help!

Shopping List
*Y converters
*100 watt bulbs
*white shower curtain(?)
*PH testers

I personally don't think humidity isn't a huge concern, just make sure its not super dry, the shopping list sounds good. I'm not sure what you want the shower curtain for? But your plants are looking good! So just keep up the good work and you'll do good!
Laters

yeah, i'm using some farma somthin or other i stole out of the green house at school....and i don't know much about ph or light either, but anyways, good luck... my first time too...

I went to Home Depot today and got some more lights and toys. I got 2 y connectors and 2 more 23 watt CFL bulbs. I'm pretty happy with how it looks now.. Im just going to tie the lights up better to make them more secure. Also, Home Depot was out of PH testers.. maybe Ill get those tomorrow. I got a thermometer/humidity gauge but I still need a battery.. and I got a moisture meter. There is one plant that does not look to happy.. but 14 out of 15 is pretty good I think. (Ill get a picture of the sad plant up soon)

Check out the pics!
Thanks for your comments and advice!

*EDIT* Am I using the right bulbs for vegging? I just want to be sure..

Hey man just saw ya comment on my grow journal so i figure ill subscribe to yours as well, give me a hand and ill try to follow yours as well

rep +, man

im using cfls myself, 2 t8 tubes, and 6 26watt cfls all 6500k daylight spectrum. if you dont have the daylight bulbs, they would be better for veg, they make more blue light that plants like in veg state. the regular red/yellow bulbs are better for flowering. you will surely need more lights too, looks like you have quite a few plants. shoot for at least 3k lumens per plant/per square foot of grow area. if you can get it the Buds for Less book is a great investment for like 15$ you can watch an entire cfl grow done by one of this sited admins. he got like half pound from 2 clones and one plant using nothing but cfls. and a nice little combo humidity/temp guage wouldnt hurt to add to the shoppin list too.

hope i helped

ery

Thanks but I already got some of the stuff you were talking about. I'm going to cut it down to 3-4 plants. Soon I am going to get another two 23 watt CFLs going.. I'm going to buy a ten pack of bulbs for flowering at some point too. I still need a battery for the thermometer/humidity gauge but I can get that tomorrow.


Heres a picture of the plant I was worried about.. I think its fine now, but will probably be one of the plants that gets cut. When should I start cutting out plants?

Thanks!

DONT WORRY ABOUT YOUR PLANTS,THEY LOOK VERY HEALTHY YOUR DOING GREAT,AND IT DOESENT SOUND LIKE MONEY IS A FACTOR,SO YOUR PLANTS WILL HAVE WAT THEY NEED PIMP

Jackbobjoe98 said:

From what I've read outta my grow book, thats not right. Lumens is what matters to plants, man. Watts don't mean anything to plants, I'm a physics major, watts is just a measure of power consumption, the more watts, the more power you use from the grid. The lumens (another measurement of foot-candles) is what plants absorb.

Click to expand...

You're right watts don't mean anything to plants, but neither do lumens. People use them as a way of loosely guaging how much light they have, without a meter watts seems the easiest. Most bulbs (of similar type) have comparable outputs/per watt, so watts, although irrelevent to the plant do provide a way to guage. That being said lumens can be used equally, neither really gives any usable information...but we need something to use