Experimental Micro Grow CFL's - 1st time grower

yeah grow them girls out under the screen .... if you can wait as long as it takes to cover most of the screen ..... so harvest will be way after christmas .... but man it will be soooo much better (sativa would be easyr to scrog i think, but i know nothing and have never tried ....YET)

glad to hear fans are running .... well pleased

you could scrog, i've built a scrog box, still haven't done a scrog grow yet
probably not a hermie risk, but it's a lot to deal with after all the work getting the chamber basics setup
i have done lst, you train the plant to spiral around the edge of the pot, might be a simpler way to start training

Talking about problems getting the basics set up - It's a great job I got my thermometer (it was delivered today), as my temperature is sitting constant at 35.5C with my cellotex door closed. Which would explain why the leaves are a little droopy. I think.
The door itself I've cut into shape to fit into the enclosure with some minor light leakage. I bet that once the leaks have been sealed the temp will go up by as much as 5C - not good...

Is there a temp that I should be aiming for that someone can tell me? I would have thought it to be about 23C-26C ish.

I think sorting out an intake fan might make it better - I'll have to dig out some more PC's LoL - or removing a bulb or two may be another option.
I have 2x100W, 1x110W, 3x75W
Removing two of the smaller 75W bulbs I think is going to be my next experiment. I would be disappointed to lose the light power and the light spread, but it's got to be easier than finding and fitting another fan.

I would say though, that with my cellotex door open, the temp inside the enclosure sits at 24.3C which is a temp that seems a lot more fitting for my little ladies, but I would always be worrying about nasty little spiders and bugs and what nots. Any thoughts about leaving my door open?

As for the LST, growone, yes I believe you are right. I don't have the patience to wait another month or two of vegging to fill a scrog screen, never mind waiting till after crimbo for the harvest!!
Would appreciate some advice on that one, pls.

Cheers guys

dude you got to get more air moving through.... yeah 26 degrees sound.... can go down to 15 min at night... 4" intake passive, and 2 pc fans 1x120mm & 1x 80mm for exhaust has mine at 26-28 all day long

have you seen my pic update yet?

i think get a intake fan at the bottom and air out at the top sorted.... but yeah maybe take out a bulb or two aswell are all the bulbs 6400k spectrum?.... or a mix of 2700k & 6400k?

What do you mean by 'intake passive'?
I have a fan hanging on string (as seen in previous pics) which is directed at the plants. Would it be better to use this for intake?
I do like the idea of having it on the plants but it may be the last one I can find to use so must use it wisely. Plus, adding another fan to my single charger, will reduce power to the other two fans making them a little slower - it's a 12v charger running 2x 12v fans, but they're running faster than they would normally, so I don't get that but I'm not complaining

I did check your pics mate - looking very good so far. I can tell you've done this before! lol
Your seedlings are looking fair at a week old

I just went out to check my box. And I'm not happy about taking any bulbs out. I spent some time organising their position to maximise the light spread and removing any one bulb would disrupt this the last thing I want to do right now is pull out both reflectors and rearrange all the bulbs on them.
My friend has one single CFL at 250W, it's a lot bigger than mine as mine are simply household CFL's, but his seems to be doing a good job of things compared to my six bulbs at roughly 535W. Another thing is that with my bulbs being smaller, any gaps in the spread has my ladies reaching and stretching... :-S
I guess needs must - But I'll think on it a little while more or/and wait to see if anyone has any further suggestions...

troutie said:

i think get a intake fan at the bottom and air out at the top sorted.... but yeah maybe take out a bulb or two aswell are all the bulbs 6400k spectrum?.... or a mix of 2700k & 6400k?

Click to expand...

Mixed.

I've currently got my 'out' at the bottom. Duh - I'm an astro physics student pmsl I should know all about subduction LoL

ok (passive) i only have a hole 5" diameter at the bottom... and two pc fans pushing air out of two holes at the top ..... what the fans push out the top an equal amount of cold air gets sucked through the hole at the bottom (approx)....
now my intake hole has a fan there to push air in, but it has never been wired up as i struggled keeping temps high to start with (i'm using 25mm/ 1" cellotex... guess your 2" has a much better u-value then mine )

but yeah take out 1 or two 2700k bulbs.... then when you flip to 12/12 swap them over and take out 1 maybe 2 6400k

been smoking loads of head-bash today hope that makes sense lol

"I've currently got my 'out' at the bottom. Duh - I'm an astro physics student pmsl I should know all about subduction LoL" .......ding ding ding ding ding ding WE HAVE A WINNER!!!!

troutie said:

been smoking loads of head-bash today hope that makes sense lol

Click to expand...

I've been smoking nothing, so I have no excuse! hahaha

Well, good news. I have an ambient temp inside my chamber of 26.2C and I'm dead chuffed

I've taken my two fans and dug out some holes for them inside the actual cellotex foam, with little tunnels through it, to the outside.
Took bloody ages so it did, but if my temps stay at this steady rate through the day-time tomorrow, then WOOOO!! Happy days!

*ahem* moved the 'out' vent to the top, as subduction laws of physics states - hot air rises. And my intake is now at the bottom and on the other side - I just have to put up with not having any air movement directly on my plants... I guess I could always get an orange desktop fan hehehe apparently they're really good!

I also took the time to do some things that I've been meaning to, like creating a single light holder for all the bulbs - it's already making things so much easier but did kill my supply of cable ties lol. Did some sealing here and there, the only gaps now are in the door and with my temp sitting constant I may just leave those gaps as I have no real issue for stealth - it's in the shed and no one can see in temps are more important. Also tidied up the wiring, the dust and dirt, found some dead spider carcasses lol and even swept the shed out!
Blimey! looks like a different place now!
I am worried about insects getting in and having a good ole munch. But for the now, I'm happy that things are working as they should

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for seeing some significant growth over the next week while I'm testing my heat cables (they've not arrived yet). And I'm still pondering the scrog issue.

Am also pondering the 'topping' issue.
Do I?
If so, then when?
and LST methods I really need to read up on before it gets too late...

Thanks for all your input so far Troutie & growone - I really feel like I've got some positive stuff done today.

And thanks also to the other readers of this thread, you may not say much but I know you're there

yeah bruv its all about the orange desktop fan!...lol....
but i'm well pleased you got you temps sorted, them plants shoud respond quickly and look much better for you..... how much cellotex got stuck to your clothes and dragged in the house?...man my old tit went nucular when i did it hahahaha

Nah mate, I gots skillz with the cellotex diggin' pmsl - was a right mess in there 4 sure but I did manage to contain it in the shed.

Just been out to check the temps. Kinda warm outside compared to 4am this morning, but the chamber says 27.3C Can't believe it!
And I didn't remove any bulbs

Oh and my cables arrived, but am too stoked to go changing things just now haha and yeah you're right Troutie, the plants have responded well already and come photo day (Monday) I reckon they'll be huge lol if I gets bored I may take some more chamber pics before then.

Okay, so I've achieved a steady temperature through night and day with 24/0 light cycle with a 1 degree C difference.

Here's some pics of my upgraded chamber

Pic 1; Show the light leakage through my closed chamber door.
Pics 1+2; Shows my out fan and vent.
Pics 3+4; Shows my intake and vent.
Pics 6+7+8; Shows my newly made lighting rig.
Pic 9; Left two babies.
Pic 10; Middle babs, the one that's lacking/lazy/ill/deformed somewhat.
Pic 11; Right babies.
Pic 12+13; Close ups of the big 'uns.

My current concerns;
The light leak gap around my door is fine for temps, but I'm starting to notice little bastid flies buzzing around my shit. Tiny little fekkers that look like baby moths of some sort. Not sure what to do about them besides to close the gaps and I don't know at this point how to do that, or what effect that may have on internal temps. Any suggestions welcome.

Testing of heating cables for use during flowering 'lights-off' cycle. This needs to be done this week as I want to start flowering either next week or week after.

Pot trays to collect the run-off. I'll maybe go buy some today. They're only a couple of quid so no real hardship for my 'cheap-as-chips' experiment.

I've updated my lights to have more equal spread around the cab; two 100W bulbs in the middle, and two 75W bulbs on either side = 500W total, of CFL energy saving lushness of mixed spectrum.

LST method and timing;
I'm now considering using rubber bands around the pots and string to use to tie branches down with. This I think will work well. However, I'm still unclear as to which direction to train, ie: should I try to train around the pot in a circle or horizontally through the chamber...
Timing... hmmm... I'm thinking that waiting until the base of the stems are long enough to bend 90 degrees, but still sit above the level of the pot rim causing the head node to sit below the others. This could mean waiting another two weeks before flowering. This I guess is a wait and see thing, so I guess I'll wait and see lol


Enjoy the pot porn!

with lst, almost anything goes, bend her anyway you want to, just don't break her
you're well ready to begin lst, i've done it with 3 nodes showing
lst mixes well with cfl's, get a cfl within 2 inches of a bud, and it's going to be a good, fat bud

yeah... myself i would pot on and grow for a few more weeks..... lst i would bend it 90 degrees as you suggest.... and try to spread the remainder to make it as wide as possible ... really let the light get to all of the soon to be bud sites(easier with more plant to work with) should only take a couple of attempts and then let it stretch as much as it wanted as you would have already reduced the hight so loads of room for a big old stretch.....

fans and stuff are wicked mate .... and the reflector is a BEAST now .... good sculking!

growone said:

with lst, almost anything goes, bend her anyway you want to, just don't break her
you're well ready to begin lst, i've done it with 3 nodes showing
lst mixes well with cfl's, get a cfl within 2 inches of a bud, and it's going to be a good, fat bud

Click to expand...

Thanks growone, that's awesome advice. It's hard to know exactly what to do in the case of LST as everyone has different opinions and techniques. i bit like having your first baby - everyone has something to say and you're always doing something wrong lol but what it comes down to is, it's whatever works for you and your ladies
2" away... I will certainly remember that when I have some buds

troutie said:

yeah... myself i would pot on and grow for a few more weeks..... lst i would bend it 90 degrees as you suggest.... and try to spread the remainder to make it as wide as possible ... really let the light get to all of the soon to be bud sites(easier with more plant to work with) should only take a couple of attempts and then let it stretch as much as it wanted as you would have already reduced the hight so loads of room for a big old stretch.....

fans and stuff are wicked mate .... and the reflector is a BEAST now .... good sculking!

Click to expand...

I would love to 'pot on' as you say lol, but I want my harvest before christmas so I'm gonna get things moving as quick as poss. I'll start off with some light training and gradually make it tougher as the plant offers more stem room to utilise over the next couple weeks.
Stretch stretch stretch!!

Thanks on the cab upgrade. I'm dead chuffed about it as it's all worked out rather well, considering what I had to work with and I have to give a MASSIVE shout out to my mate who provided the cellotex and the charger for my fans - proper!

Any tips on filling these gaps to keep these dreaded baby moth things out of my shit?
I thought about some kind of mosquito netting, or maybe a draft excluder around the inside edge... I need ideas!

ah yeah forgot to mention, i too opened my cab last night only to find one of them little feckers flying around my shit... think it a light thing rather then a lets eat his stash setup.... but as they have to work propper hard to get past moving fans or through the grill at the bottomi was most pissed off when i found it .... i soon had it out of there i can tell ya's lol

i thought last night about an hour after the fan error came to light .... thought bet cumbers is up to his neck in electrical tape and cellotex by now hehehehe... as i had the same thing for a couple of nights last week..

your worse then me for being in a rush fella.... well i'm strapped in and ready for the change to 12/12... get them heat cables in and let it rip!

the only way i could sort out my light leaks was to use the bubble foil i bought and have overlaps... the side panels and the door are covered with the same piece of bubble foil so when the door shuts it bends into place and no light escapes at all.... the big leak between both of my doors i fixed with a 2" flap of bubble foil hanging past the edge of the first door to close, so when i shut the second it pushes against the flap and that seals it up..... hard to explain but heres a couple of pictures taken to aid my stupid waffling

this shot shows door overlap piece... when shut the other way that door is closed first the door right door then shuts onto it and bingo no leak



this shot shows the hinge panel leak i had .... the one piece of bubble foil cover both the door and the side of the wardrobe so no light escapes there


but in your case i would do what i did with my green house .... i got one garden leaf tarp (1.5x1.5m)and a roll of that black fabric weed cloth stuff from pound stretcher .. so 2 quid... i laid the tarp on the living room floor then stuck 2 maybe three layers of the anti weed fabric on the back .... used the whole roll ...and most of a roll of tape ... but that tarp was lightproof... you can use old soil bags... plastic... whatever just make it lightproof... then i had to cover my greenhouse every night and take it off every morning ... you can just bungee your in palce and only remove it when you want to have a peek... or a water (i'd make sure you dont cover you vents though)

lol! Yeah good guessing! 5am I got to bed!
Today, I'm mostly using cruise control... My kids won't let me sleep in...

Aye the heat cables... I'll probably leave it a day or two before pulling the plants out again. They've been in, out, in, out... they don't know if they're coming or going pmsl Neither do I! haha
But checking the ambient temp in my shed, it's 19C. So I'm not even sure if I need the cable just yet - but yes it still does need the testing before flowering occurs as I know I'll be needing it when the cold starts biting...