FIRST GROW using fluorescents NEED INFO

ok well i planted germinated seeds into soil a mix of 50/50 MG potting soil and monure i waited till week three to start nutes which is juss MG all purpose 24-8-16.at first i had them under a 3 foot grow light and several cfl's but i switched them to a 4 foot flourescent light which has 4 tubes all are 40watt coolwhites at 4100k and 3000 lumens each i usually water 2x weekly once with distilled water that sat in the sun for 48 hrs then once a week with same water and nutes i got a ph/ water tester to help keep track my ph is sitting at about 7 for most maybe one or two drop to around 6 i had them on 24/0 for the first three weeks and now im slowly transitioning them to 12/12 1 hour a day. the plants were slow growing at first then when i switched to the fluoros they are growin alot better but only in foliage not really any height growth except a few millimetter. i always have a habbit of over doing things and thus i have an exstensive journal i keep about the plants including a growth chart. can anyone offer any advise? I do not want to switch to HID lighting honestly im a single father and i work in a kitchen money is pretty tight these days thanks for the help, also all pictures were takin today 10/20/10

also can anyone tell me wether this is indica or sativa

the shorter the better that means ur lights are close enough but when u start to flower they will stretch

Ok im working with a pretty confined sspace and was wanting to attempt the SoG method should i switch them over to 12/12 now to prevent them from getting to big or shoulld i wait a little bit longer they are in 6" pots and i do not want to have to transplant

...dude, sounds like your pretty stuck on the cfl's. I can understand growing your veg with cfl's....but, flower? I'm sure someone will come along and disagree, but....sounds like a waste of time for the very small yield you'll produce. Practice is something else, w/ maybe a single plant, but...if your going to risk your ass going to jail, you should atleast make it worth the while....just my .02...a 600w HPS only cost a couple hundred....cost about 30 bucks to run in electric per/month for me.

...anywho, if your that desperate, keep those cfl's about 2 inches away from them plants... good luck.

get some books...and put them under the plants.

I used Flouros for veg for a couple years before I bought my MH. They will do fine and I used to veg mine at 18-24" before going into flower. I have never tried to flower with them though. I used 6500k for veg. If you never vegged with HID lights, you wouldn't know what you are missing. The growth is slower and less vigorous. In the end, it takes a little longer with flouros. There are some great threads on here with people claiming to get great results with cfls. Keep them close!

thanks for the responces everyone I no i need the HIDS for flowering i juss cant beleive how much they cost lol. i will continue to take everyones advise into consideration and i am goin to do some seriouse lookin at HID i hear that the HPS are best for flowering and MH are best for vegg? with is being a 4x2 closet what sizes should i go with as far a wattages?

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You are going to have heat issues with HID lighting in a closet that size. I have seen some 150 & 250 watt hps lights in closet grows, even some 600s but then you have the ventilation to worry about. In for a penny, in for a pound. It is all relative and you have some time to think about this. It is an expensive proposition. The only eq. I bought new was my 400 watt MH and a PH meter. Everything else I bought used and as I needed it.

i flowered both my previous grows with cfls, I got about 4oz the first time off 3 plants of some bagseed and prolly 2.5oz off 2 plants on another grow with some uknown kali strain they were not airy like some people say the buds were nice and dense and both times i only used 6 24w cfls and three cheapy grow tubes. I would like to step up to HID just so i dont have to raise the lights so often but wonderful things can be done with cfls it just takes a little more time and effort to get the setup right so your plants are bathed in light and just gotta keep em like 2 in away

OK im not sure if i made it clear or not i am NOT using cfl's anymore i have one not sure of the specs on it but it is only in there to help a little with the stem growth but all main light source is 4 4foot flourescents that are 40watts at 4100k and 3000 lumens each i planed on switching to 4x4foot 40 warm whites for flowering im not lookin to make money juss save a little from creating my own supply with this be a sufficient setup for now??

You need to SCROG your plants, that is the best way to utilize flouro tubes. Those are not the best lights, But you can get some decent smoke off them no matter what anybody tells you.
https://www.rollitup.org/advanced-marijuana-cultivation/282177-enter-scrog-scroggers-united-post.html
check out that thread, it's big but explains the technique well.

Hey man check out the grow in my journal. I had more plants but they maled out on me but they are around like 4 1/2 weeks into flower in the last pictures you can see what t5 high output fluorescents have done for me so far. Hope this helps

well here is an update for anyone that cares the plants have been moved into a self made box and have been in for about 1 week

I started just like you ...4 foot 4 bulb florescent then added 4 foot 2 bulb t8 then added cfls ..then i bought 2 150 hps ballast kits and i built them myself i think around 80 bucks for both..now i have a 400 hps...so what im saying is work with what you got and add to it ...and your plants look good..happy growing

more better pictures 1 week into flowering

trichlone fiend said:

...dude, sounds like your pretty stuck on the cfl's. I can understand growing your veg with cfl's....but, flower? I'm sure someone will come along and disagree, but....sounds like a waste of time for the very small yield you'll produce. Practice is something else, w/ maybe a single plant, but...if your going to risk your ass going to jail, you should atleast make it worth the while....just my .02...a 600w HPS only cost a couple hundred....cost about 30 bucks to run in electric per/month for me.

...anywho, if your that desperate, keep those cfl's about 2 inches away from them plants... good luck.

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Very true that HPS is BEST for flowering. I became prescribed after I lost a kushy gov. job from suffering panic attacks from that. I had NO money yet I had 5 old garage shop lights. (THIS IS ALL I HAD TO START WITH) and this setup grew very nice buds. Not nearly the way others will but with careful planning this grow could go GREAT! CFL's do estonishing work. The old guys will tell you stories of regular incondesant grows. Its just techniques.

Ok so heres a quik update for anyone who cares plants seem to be doin well there only about a week and a half into flowering so so far so good i think but always lookin for good feedback thanks in advance ***** since apperantly this part didnt want to show up with the pictures