First grow-- CFL's

HI guys, my friend and i started our first grow with two unknown seeds ( if you know the strain or have ideas let me know ).
we are getting to about 3 weeks into vegging, using 1 5000k 100W CFl and 1 3500k 60w CFL Per plant.
Are we gunna need more lights ?
Soil we used pro mix bx, and have transplanted once so far.
We just started using our nutes, Plant-Prod all purpose 20-20-20, How good is this stuff ? ( ill post a picture of the amount i used per 750ml of water, probably about .8 Ml. )
Here our some pictures of our plants, ( the light coloring on the smaller plant is just due to lighting )
I will be keeping this thread updated with pics and info every day or two
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In my experience Pro-Mix alone isn't the greatest cannabis medium. I used to mix it 50/50 or 70/30 with black dirt, depending on the application. I also amended with a LOT of perlite, a little vermiculite, horticultural sand, and pulverised lime. What you're doing will work fine, no worries, but you can make it better in the future with experience.

Your ferts are OK for veg, but you'll need something with a higher middle number and lower first number for flowering. Those are NPK ratings, and they help determine when you use which fertilizer.

Good luck.

160 watts each will be fine. if you can add a couple of 2700k cfl's for flower that would be better.
use very little of that fertilizer. try 1/4 of what they recommend, imo.

Alright cool! thanks a lot guys, i will keep this updated with pics and info!

Heres the grow box/closet. Yes i know the light is too far away from the bushier plant, im getting a seperate extension cord.
How come the one plant isn't growing any taller, more becoming bushier. Do i need to trim?

good luck man they look alright

The one plant on the left isnt getting any taller, the leaves are just getting huge and growing more outwards.

The one on the left looks way healthier than the one on the right (which seems to have some discoloration in its leaves). I wouldn't worry about it's slow growth too much at this point, so long as it looks healthy. It's probably just putting energy into root development for a little while. You might want to switch to 12/12 soon unless you're getting an HPS or something, since they are mystery seeds. If they are a strain that stretches a lot or flowers for a long time, it could get too big for your lights if you wait too long.

My only suggestion is to make sure you're not over-watering, that could slow root growth and that might slow down growth a bit (as well as eventually killing your plant). Water slowly until it's completely soaked and water is coming out the holes at the bottom, then let it get super-bone-dry all the way through to the bottom of the soil (takes at least 4-5 days, probably closer to a week or more). You're definitely better off under-watering rather than over-watering. It will recover way faster once it shows symptoms of underwatering as opposed to overwatering, which can cause more serious damage to the plant.

Also I think you will need more lights. Those look like 100w "equivalent" and 60w "equivalent" bulbs, which are really more like 26w and 13w each. Right now I have over 300w ACTUAL (probably more like 1000w "equivalent") and that's on a single plant ScrOG.

Ourkansaw thanks so much for the info, that definetely helped a lot, i think we have been watering them a bit too much after reading what you have said. we will be switching to 12-12 tomorrow or the next day once we get a timer. Flowering its better to use 3000k right? as well as what is a good way to set up the lights? as in fixtures for them to plug into?

HarHar17 said:

Ourkansaw thanks so much for the info, that definetely helped a lot, i think we have been watering them a bit too much after reading what you have said. we will be switching to 12-12 tomorrow or the next day once we get a timer. Flowering its better to use 3000k right? as well as what is a good way to set up the lights? as in fixtures for them to plug into?

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No worries! I know overwatering is probably one of the #1 newbie errors, so I usually try to point it out.

2700k is usually what's recommended for flowering, though I prefer to mix up a lot of different bulbs. Right now (flowering) I have about 7 bulbs that are 2700k and 2 that are 5000k, and one that is 6500k. Two of mine are 42w (that's actual, they're 200w "equivalent"), two are 32w, and the rest are a mix of 26w and 23w.

As far as fixtures, I like the 8.5" or 10.5" clamp light fixtures you can get at hardware stores or Home Depot because they are utility lights, and therefore able to handle a little more juice than your average fixture. Here's the type of fixture I'm talking about:

http://www.homedepot.com/buy/lighting-fans/work-lights/designers-edge/8-5-in-incandescent-clamp-light-52188.html

You can either use those with the reflectors or remove the reflectors and add Y-sockets to do 2 bulbs per fixture.

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Again thanks for the info man! its really helping us out! Heres some recent pictures of our plants, my plant ( the bushy one ) still hasnt been growing, but should start up soon as he is still looking healthy. We are now flowering, whats a good timer to get? as well as how long till we can determine the sex?
If you can keep an eye on my thread that would be greatly appreciated!
thanks a ton!

HarHar17 said:

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Again thanks for the info man! its really helping us out! Heres some recent pictures of our plants, my plant ( the bushy one ) still hasnt been growing, but should start up soon as he is still looking healthy. We are now flowering, whats a good timer to get? as well as how long till we can determine the sex?
If you can keep an eye on my thread that would be greatly appreciated!
thanks a ton!

Click to expand...

Got some bad news for you, man... those closeups (3rd and 4th pic) are already showing sex, and it ain't a lady. That's a pair of pollen sacs (also known around here as "nanners" for their banana-like appearance).

Got any closeups of the other plant? It might be showing sex, too.

Oh, and as far as a timer, pretty much any timer will do for a CFL grow, but you might want to go slightly overkill with the timer in case you decide to buy more serious lights further down the road. The key is you want a timer that can handle 15-20 amps, or more. Anything less than 15 amps and you might burn it out, even with a dozen or so higher-wattage CFLs. I'm using an Intermatic DT620, and no complaints so far. I used the predecessor model for 12 years (most of that time for my aquarium lights) and it held up very well, but I've only had this one a few weeks now, so can't give much of a review. You'll need to read the manual carefully, as it's not very intuitive to program.

Alright, got a timer, with more 3000k lights. Is the one taller plant a male? are those pollen sacs that i posted a picture of?
thanks!

yeah, afraid so

Alright, tossed the one taller plant since it was a male. The one plant still isnt growing up!

HarHar17 said:

Alright, tossed the one taller plant since it was a male. The one plant still isnt growing up!

Click to expand...

Any new pics? Trust me, you will regret ever wishing it taller once you switch to 12/12. With CFLs, plant height is our enemy. Shorter & stockier the better, unless you're doing a ScrOG like I am right now.

Theres some recent pics, he was root bound in in his earlier stages though before transplanted into this pot.
There is some browing on the tips of the leaves and the leaves are really dry and brittle.

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Heres some more pictures, how come the leaves are browning ?
Are those buds forming?