First grow almost complete cfl's/soil with pics. Need advise

So this is my first grow I have ever done and decided for money sake to use CFL and potting soil. Basically I just wanted to see if I could actually grow anything and in last 5 months I have fell in love with growing. I have 2 plants total. 1 NLxSkunk and 1 WWxBig Bud. Honestly these plants have been through quite a journey and surprised at all they have made it to the end and without becoming hermie on me. (including the nl cross being uprooted by one jealous PO girlfriend about 3 months ago which explains why one side of plant is taller with fuller buds then the other side of the plant where the which is other side of the know where I topped it . And among other things such as lack of knowing what the heck I was even doing. Anyway I have spent hundreds of hours pouring over thread after thread to learn different techniques I could use etc etc. I have them in a 6 gallon and 5 gallon buckets. I started them as seedling outdoors in July and moved them inside under 4 foot shop fluoro tubes and started adding CFL lights as I went. Far cry from the CFL setup I have on them now. I started flowering them back in mid October so I'm at about 9 weeks of flowering, The NLxSkunk plant is bushy and absolutely amazing despite being uprooted few weeks before flowering. Anyway I always took lots of pics so I wanted to get some constructive critisicm (other than to not piss the ole lady off anymore. I dont think the WWxBB cross is doing as well as it should. I tried FIMing that plant and got 5 nice tops but at week 9 I dont think the buds are as thick as they should be. I have two more WWxBB plants I just switched to flower after 2 months of veg and tried some LST on those and they are coming out way better then the mother plant did as far as looks. Anyway if you have any questions to how I did the grow that I left out please feel free to ask. I do plant on switching to hydro on my newest girls which I am starting right after I harvest these first two girls. Thanks for looking Newer pics


these taken 5 days ago. Does this look close to harvest time?

these were taken 3rd week november

my cfl setup 25 23 wat/100w equiv.

I would say that you need more side lighting, and that your bulbs need to be like 2 or 3 inches closer to the buds. I would take the downward pointing bulb out of those round metal reflector shop light fixtures you have rigged up there, keep the rest where they are, and lower them to 1 inch off the tops. my first grow was all CFL too, I had really dense nugs as a result of keeping all my bulbs around 1 to 1 1/2 inches from the tops of my plants. It helps a lot to train your plant into an even topped bush early in veg.

everything looks pretty healthy to me, but I fear your buds might not be as dense as you want after drying. have you used any nutrients?

i used miracle grow at first which I know now i shouldnt use but i used foxfarm bloom for last few weeks. I'm going to move the lights closer now. thanks

as far as when they will be done, the most accurate way is to get yourself a pocket microscope, something like 60 to 100x zoom. look at the trichromes on the buds and the general consensus is that you are looking for about 80-90% cloudy/milky trichromes with maybe 5-10% clear and 5-10% amber. that is the optimal time to harvest.

yeah I got a jewelers loop and about half are cl0oudy right now. I think im going to give it another two days (New Years bud) Now since I allowed it to bush out I was thinking about cutting the buds on the top half of the plant and then renute and move the lights right down on the smaller lower half buds to try and get them little bigger and denser. Right now all the pistil on the lower half are still white while upper half of plant are about 40% orange throughout the bud. Is this something that seems like a good idea or should I just go with the popcorn buds?

Looking real nice. Great job.

Smoke able healthy buds are all I see. Good job from it being cfl's.

not bad! cfls will get you experience without breaking the bank and they grow buds just fine if done right. you need to work on some space and lighting issues , instead of 2 huge plants, why not 8 smaller ones with a little training on them, that way you get more light to more bud sites. but with what you got i would harvest the ones that are ready and let the bottoms go alittle more till there ready. check out mine its the link signature down below. look how i made my hood and closet, might give you a few ideas! good luck