Well i'm growing this little lady out a while now so i figure i should post a journal.
My growbox is an old wardrobe that i'm not using, it's about 2 foot wide, 1.5 foot deep and the light is about 5 foot high at it's highest point.
I decided to go cfl because of a few important reasons.
1. Space & heat. While a 200w cfl may not be significantly colder than a hps, in the space i am growing in it could make all the difference.
2. Expense. I am relatively poor, had enough money to get a reflector and bulb after saving up a bit, no way would i have been able to afford ballasts etc.
3. Safety. I sometimes have to leave my space, i want to be sure that even if plants ended up touching the light nothing majorly wrong would happen. If anything, i would at least THINK it was safer, thus not worry so much when away from my space.
Anyway the context:
I'm growing in an all mix type soil, in fact i think it is plagron all mix or one of those. Lots of worm castings, vermiculite etc.
I am using Plagron Alga-Gro and Alga-Bloom, used alga gro for two weeks or so after the cotyledons died, and have been using bloom since starting flowering.
I generally just brita filter my water and let it sit for a while. Sometimes i don't have time to let it sit though, but i haven't noticed any major problems
I germinated 2 seeds in the soil, in paper coffee cups. Didn't bother germinating outside the soil, figured the early strenghtening of breaking through the soil would be good for the taproot. Anyway both germ'd like a charm and i had 2 lovely little fellas on my hands. (Unfortunately 1, named Ricky, died in transplant.
It was a hard blow
)
Transplanted from the coffee cups to 11 litre pots at about 3 weeks or so
At first i veg'd for about 2 weeks under a purple 220w bulb. This blew and i got it replaced free of charge with a purple 200w bulb. This also blew. at about 20 days i read up on the kelvins and reports and figured i could start using a warm spectrum bulb. It worked a treat, but was a few degrees warmer.
I made the mistake of leaving the plants too near this new bulb when i replaced it (near enough that they would have been fine under the purple bulb) and some of the leaves burned. Shit i thought, i've just killed one in transplant and now im burning this to death.
Anyway, i left the plant veg away under the warm spectrum light until day 35. I lst'd a week or so after the transplant to the bigger pots, and the growth astounded me. I had heard that warm spectrum bulbs would slow growth, but it certainly didn't seem to. They became quite bushy Multiple tops started appearing all over the place, it was really amazing, waking up one morning and a new growth that you hadn't noticed suddenly being incredibly apparent.
I switched over to 12/12 around June 3rd. There were already preflowers evident before the switch so it bulked up the hair pretty quickly.
Now i attach the pics, here's the ladies at 2 weeks of flowering, i'll make another reply immediately and show the growth.
Sorry if my pics aren't great, i'm using a phone camera or webcam!
Feel free to comment anyone, and ask any questions i'll do my level best to answer!
My growbox is an old wardrobe that i'm not using, it's about 2 foot wide, 1.5 foot deep and the light is about 5 foot high at it's highest point.
I decided to go cfl because of a few important reasons.
1. Space & heat. While a 200w cfl may not be significantly colder than a hps, in the space i am growing in it could make all the difference.
2. Expense. I am relatively poor, had enough money to get a reflector and bulb after saving up a bit, no way would i have been able to afford ballasts etc.
3. Safety. I sometimes have to leave my space, i want to be sure that even if plants ended up touching the light nothing majorly wrong would happen. If anything, i would at least THINK it was safer, thus not worry so much when away from my space.
Anyway the context:
I'm growing in an all mix type soil, in fact i think it is plagron all mix or one of those. Lots of worm castings, vermiculite etc.
I am using Plagron Alga-Gro and Alga-Bloom, used alga gro for two weeks or so after the cotyledons died, and have been using bloom since starting flowering.
I generally just brita filter my water and let it sit for a while. Sometimes i don't have time to let it sit though, but i haven't noticed any major problems
I germinated 2 seeds in the soil, in paper coffee cups. Didn't bother germinating outside the soil, figured the early strenghtening of breaking through the soil would be good for the taproot. Anyway both germ'd like a charm and i had 2 lovely little fellas on my hands. (Unfortunately 1, named Ricky, died in transplant.
It was a hard blow
)
Transplanted from the coffee cups to 11 litre pots at about 3 weeks or so
At first i veg'd for about 2 weeks under a purple 220w bulb. This blew and i got it replaced free of charge with a purple 200w bulb. This also blew. at about 20 days i read up on the kelvins and reports and figured i could start using a warm spectrum bulb. It worked a treat, but was a few degrees warmer.
I made the mistake of leaving the plants too near this new bulb when i replaced it (near enough that they would have been fine under the purple bulb) and some of the leaves burned. Shit i thought, i've just killed one in transplant and now im burning this to death.
Anyway, i left the plant veg away under the warm spectrum light until day 35. I lst'd a week or so after the transplant to the bigger pots, and the growth astounded me. I had heard that warm spectrum bulbs would slow growth, but it certainly didn't seem to. They became quite bushy
Multiple tops started appearing all over the place, it was really amazing, waking up one morning and a new growth that you hadn't noticed suddenly being incredibly apparent.I switched over to 12/12 around June 3rd. There were already preflowers evident before the switch so it bulked up the hair pretty quickly.
Now i attach the pics, here's the ladies at 2 weeks of flowering, i'll make another reply immediately and show the growth.
Sorry if my pics aren't great, i'm using a phone camera or webcam!
Feel free to comment anyone, and ask any questions i'll do my level best to answer!
