First Grow using CFL's

Well for some reason I decide to use t8 compact cfl 4' strips. I have 2 of them.
After reading I have decided to go with individual bulbs (100 watt).
My first grow is Afghan special, planted seeds 10/28/
One seed has sprouted and is several inches tall already. It has grown up to touch the light above it so I am thinking it is not getting enough light.
No other seed have sprouted, maybe they are duds. I will replant in a day or 2
I am using plain potting soil, not cheap stuff but not the high dollar stuff wither. It has a mild fertilizer in it. It seems a little coarse to me, but we will see as plants grow.
I have some commercial 20-20-20 fertilizer which I have in a spray bottle very dilute which I mist plants with.
More later and pics as this evolves.

good luck to ya bro ... if your plants are stretching from seed your light may have been a little too far away at first, but more lights is better too .. i try to keep my lights about 3" or so above my seedlings
i wouldnt use any ferts for at least a couple of weeks, i just spray them with a mix of superthrive and water .. ph'd of course. and keep the medium moist but not wet your growing in


happy growin

Thanks man. I started out with bulbs within an inch or 2. I had to raise them and the plant just grew up to them again, that's why I am thinking not enough light. I'll get some 150 watt cfl's today.

best of luck on your grow ..

Okay I got curious as to why mother other seed hadn't sprouted. It has been 6 days since planted. I dug wround and seed was doing nothing. May have been a bad seed because it looked irregular in shape. I planted another. Hopefully have another plant in a few days last spout took 3 days to come up.

do you just stick them in th epot .. or do you use a different method to crack them? just wondering

happy growin

just tsick them in the potting soil and water

Okay Finally found some 64watt/150 watt 2700K cfl bulbs at WalMart and have placed them over my seedling plant. Now we'll see if it still tries to grow tall fast or not. Eventually I will make it so my 4'strips light the sides of the plant.

cant help you with that one .. i use the paper towel method .. i've honestly never just put the seed in the soil ..

happy growin

Added another starter seed today, don;t want to get caught short... I want at least 2 plants to start with...
Plant under 150w Halogen light is looking stronger. I think it is about to take off. No real fertilizer yet other than occasional mist with diluted 20-20-20. Potting soil has a light fertilizer in it. Will start to get serious with bone/blood meal etc. when I transplant in a few weeks.

Thought I should add a pic...
Here's my baby after 6 days....
Notice unique starter cups....<G> (Rant... Several weeks ago I had a computer crash and have just mostly recovered. When I tried to upload pictures I discovered I didn't have the driver for the card reader.... I looked on the web and found it, but forst sight installed a bunch of needless trash ad software and some kind of toolbar in my firefox, no driver... I spent an hour looking for a site that looked like it didn;t install all this adware and finally found one... I hate those bastards that claim you are gonna get what you want and add a bunch of trash to your computer....end of rant)

Okay, Finally made me a light rack... I have 2 150w CFLs. suspended from a 1x4 and 2 4's 32wattx2 cfl strips as side lights. Picture below should give you a rough idea. Eventually I will have 3 150w cfl's. And I now realize that the 4' strips will need to be lower... Since we are still in the seedling stage I don't think this will be a problem. You'll notice some lettuce in the pic., hey why waste the light. I plan on having some tomato plants as well unless I get carried away with growing pot! You can see my single seedling in the background on the righ poking its head up.
Next I am thinking of getting a table so everything isn;t on the floor and I will be adding reflective sheeting, fans and a way to monitor humidity.

Well overnight my light time crapped out. I noticed it was pretty warm with the additional 150w cfl, but I didn't think I exceeded its capacity. I have had issues with fluorescent lighting and timers before, but those were electronic timers and this was a mechanical one. This one was the cheapest one WalMart had so I'll go to Lowes now and try and get a better one.
No other changes overnight. Plant is putting on new leaves just about everyday it seems. Another week and there should be really noticeable changes. I have collected rain water and will star using it for watering. Nothing grows like rain water! I read somewhere once that rain water was one of 3 methods for plants to het Nitrogen and it contains a lot of other nutrients... Makes it a no brainer.

Day 10:

lookin good man, make sure not to overwater the youngins, wait for the soil to be dry on top,, but nice nd healthy lookin

Well I made an interesting discovery tonight. I had originally started 2 seeds and only 1 came up. About a week later I put in another seed and started another new one as well. Tonight while looking at them good I see seeds on top of the soil. One of them had germinated and still looked alive so I replanted it. The other one had 2 seeds in it, one was just cracked open with no shoot, the other had a shoot, but not sure it is alive. Should know in a couple of days. I guess the lesson here is that if you are going to directly seed in potting soil be careful when watering because they apparently can float up!
At least the mystery of no germination is solved now! I had just placed 2 new seeds in a wet paper napkin yesterday too. I have removed them now, doesn't look like they have done anything. Hopefully they are okay.. I'd germinate em all but I don;t have the room for all those plants yet.

Sure seems dead here today, is everyone stoned or at work. Maybe both?

when you germinate them put them in a wet paper towel like u said, but then put them in a ziplock baggie in a dark drawer for like 24 hrs, ths what ive always done, nd like 90% of the time theyve germed, but be careful when planting them not ta put um upsidedown

Wow, just had a brain fart and realized that my 2 or 3 plants might not get me enough of a yield to carry me through till my next grow is mature.... I'll be starting more seeds now! Probably about 6 plants total.... Glad I caught that, it would be a bummer to only have enough smoke for a month or so, then have to wait months to get more.....

Just got my new PH meter. Soil tests at exactly 7.
Good thing I caught rain water to use the other day, that should help lower this a bit over time. Will be interesting to see.

I noticed something interesting. I don;t see much mention of soil tests in posts and the few I did find in a search seem to reference using those home test kits. I've used those before and they aren't very accurate. It may be worthwhile to invest in having a professional lab analyze the soil. I need to look into that. I could get the Texas A&M to do it, but last time I had some soil analyzed with them they told me to use some ridiculous amount of Nitrogen like I was growing hay. I want something more specific from the test results.
I found this recommendation on the local Organic guys web site:
http://www.texasplantandsoillab.com/soil-testing.asp

thats a waste of time and money dude. get a premix like foxfarm black gold... get some worm castings perlight i use chunky coco coir and peatmoss mix em all together

pre50% worm5% perlight20% coco/peatmoss 25% can get all from ebay for cheap i got the perlight and peat from walmart

nitrogen is awsome for plants but you should be getting that in rain water you should check into getting rain barrels