First time grower, first time cfl grow
- Thread starter dafoe23
- Start date
Tatan
Well-Known Member
Good job on your grow so far, and dont wory about the plant that got burned, it seems to be recovering nicely. I don´t know the cause of the burn but I can tell you that one of the nice things about CFL is that you can get the lights a lot closer to the plants copared something like HPS. I also have a CFL grow and I keep my bulbs about 2 inches away from the plants.
Will keep on following your thread, nice going.
Will keep on following your thread, nice going.
dafoe23
Well-Known Member
Hey Meen Green - Cheers for the comment. First time grow for me as well so best of luck to both of us!!! If you are keeping a grow journal send me the link as would be interested to see how you're doing. The brown balls around the plants are Hydroleca. I bought them from the local garden centre (B&Q for you Brits!). Basically they help retain moisture (within the balls themselves) but also cover the soils surface and if I'm right that should help keep any mold at bay from. Also help to insulate the soil. I dropped a load in the bottom of the pot before I added the soil as well to help drainage for the roots and keep to keep the roots aerated lower down. I may be wrong to be using them but seems to be doing the trick and have seen them used in a few other peoples pics. Seen them used as part of a grow media in hydroponics as well. This is the description I just googled to give you a run down of the properties:
"Hydroleca - Hard smooth pebbles with honeycomb centre produced by expanding clay granules at over 1200 degrees. The main benefit is it absorbs water and releases it slowly insulates plants due to its cellular structure"
Think the brand I used were J Arthur Bowers - about £5 a bag.
"Hydroleca - Hard smooth pebbles with honeycomb centre produced by expanding clay granules at over 1200 degrees. The main benefit is it absorbs water and releases it slowly insulates plants due to its cellular structure"
Think the brand I used were J Arthur Bowers - about £5 a bag.
dafoe23
Well-Known Member
Hi Tatan - Nice one for looking in. Yeah the burn doesn't seem to have affected the plant too much and recovery seems ok. Today's pics (which I'll post in a sec) show a bit more growth. I'm loving the CFL's so far as well but plan to use them to flower if I make it that far and am a bit unsure as to what results I'm going to get - only one way to find out though. Let me know how your's gets on and if you have a journal drop me the link.
Tatan
Well-Known Member
Yeah... I´m going CFL all the way, I have a journal here as well... It´s the link at the bottom of the signature.
dafoe23
Well-Known Member
Day 12 (11 in soil)
Ok have a confession to make. Had totally got the wrong CFM rating on my exhaust fan. Luckily my babies don't smell in the slightest yet (even luckier as my active carbon for my exhaust hasn't arrived yet). So whilst I had 5 mins I thought I would rectify the situation. I had two active intake fans kicking in 54CFM each and what I thought to be a 120CFM (all pc fans) kicking out heat and smells. Turns out when I re read the fan spec its only 74CFM so I guess that would have been creating positive pressure within my grow box. Way around it I decided was to take out one of the active intake fans and seal the whole by screwing in a new piece of sterling board across it and plugging any gaps. I then grabbed an old 12v transformer and used it to power the fan I'd taken out but taped it to one of the pots inside the box to keep my babies swaying in the wind and strengthening the stems. This new fan up close nearly blew my plants across the room so banged the transformer down to 9volts and this slowed the fan down (clever stuff I know lol). This leaves me with one active intake fan to provide CO2 at 54CFM and an exhaust fan at 74CFM that will hopefully give me negative pressure within the box (fingers crossed) and with the help of the yet to be built carbon filter, should clear the smell of skunk piss once these little bleeders start ponging up the place - any comments or suggestions, or if I'm making a total cock up here - please let me know. Will let you know how the filter goes once its built and I can start smelling something without having to stick my nose in my lil ones leafs.
Good growth today/over night and the start of the third set of leafs is just visable. Hopefully a nice surprise for me when I check in tomorrow morning! Even though the Power Africa strain is supposed to be mainly satvia, these two seem to be staying short and bushy but to be honest if they grow as much as I've read about during flowering then I'm happy to veg short as long as the stems are strong enough. Hoping to do some Low Stress Training with these to maximise the CFL during flowering but after some disasters with bonzai trees a few years ago I'm still not sure if this is a good idea?
PICS!!!!
Plant A
Plant B
Ok have a confession to make. Had totally got the wrong CFM rating on my exhaust fan. Luckily my babies don't smell in the slightest yet (even luckier as my active carbon for my exhaust hasn't arrived yet). So whilst I had 5 mins I thought I would rectify the situation. I had two active intake fans kicking in 54CFM each and what I thought to be a 120CFM (all pc fans) kicking out heat and smells. Turns out when I re read the fan spec its only 74CFM so I guess that would have been creating positive pressure within my grow box. Way around it I decided was to take out one of the active intake fans and seal the whole by screwing in a new piece of sterling board across it and plugging any gaps. I then grabbed an old 12v transformer and used it to power the fan I'd taken out but taped it to one of the pots inside the box to keep my babies swaying in the wind and strengthening the stems. This new fan up close nearly blew my plants across the room so banged the transformer down to 9volts and this slowed the fan down (clever stuff I know lol). This leaves me with one active intake fan to provide CO2 at 54CFM and an exhaust fan at 74CFM that will hopefully give me negative pressure within the box (fingers crossed) and with the help of the yet to be built carbon filter, should clear the smell of skunk piss once these little bleeders start ponging up the place - any comments or suggestions, or if I'm making a total cock up here - please let me know. Will let you know how the filter goes once its built and I can start smelling something without having to stick my nose in my lil ones leafs.
Good growth today/over night and the start of the third set of leafs is just visable. Hopefully a nice surprise for me when I check in tomorrow morning! Even though the Power Africa strain is supposed to be mainly satvia, these two seem to be staying short and bushy but to be honest if they grow as much as I've read about during flowering then I'm happy to veg short as long as the stems are strong enough. Hoping to do some Low Stress Training with these to maximise the CFL during flowering but after some disasters with bonzai trees a few years ago I'm still not sure if this is a good idea?
PICS!!!!
Plant A
Plant B
Mr. Bitti
Well-Known Member
very nice man but i would def go with a hps for that area. the cfl's work pretty good but with all that height the bottom of the plants wont make much. I f you plan on keeping the cfls i would start to lst and train early to get a nice even canopy, if you dont have to move your girls you can go for a scrog. But yea you will def be happier with the hps, a 250w hps will put out more light than your 250 cfl's and also hps has more penetration power so the lower leaves and branches get to grow better. Anyway the grow looks real nice and the strain sounds yummy durban poison yummm plus skunk/haze!! cant wait to find out how these girls grow!!
Latin Weed Grower!
Active Member
Day 12 (11 in soil)
Ok have a confession to make. Had totally got the wrong CFM rating on my exhaust fan. Luckily my babies don't smell in the slightest yet (even luckier as my active carbon for my exhaust hasn't arrived yet). So whilst I had 5 mins I thought I would rectify the situation. I had two active intake fans kicking in 54CFM each and what I thought to be a 120CFM (all pc fans) kicking out heat and smells. Turns out when I re read the fan spec its only 74CFM so I guess that would have been creating positive pressure within my grow box. Way around it I decided was to take out one of the active intake fans and seal the whole by screwing in a new piece of sterling board across it and plugging any gaps. I then grabbed an old 12v transformer and used it to power the fan I'd taken out but taped it to one of the pots inside the box to keep my babies swaying in the wind and strengthening the stems. This new fan up close nearly blew my plants across the room so banged the transformer down to 9volts and this slowed the fan down (clever stuff I know lol). This leaves me with one active intake fan to provide CO2 at 54CFM and an exhaust fan at 74CFM that will hopefully give me negative pressure within the box (fingers crossed) and with the help of the yet to be built carbon filter, should clear the smell of skunk piss once these little bleeders start ponging up the place - any comments or suggestions, or if I'm making a total cock up here - please let me know. Will let you know how the filter goes once its built and I can start smelling something without having to stick my nose in my lil ones leafs.
Good growth today/over night and the start of the third set of leafs is just visable. Hopefully a nice surprise for me when I check in tomorrow morning! Even though the Power Africa strain is supposed to be mainly satvia, these two seem to be staying short and bushy but to be honest if they grow as much as I've read about during flowering then I'm happy to veg short as long as the stems are strong enough. Hoping to do some Low Stress Training with these to maximise the CFL during flowering but after some disasters with bonzai trees a few years ago I'm still not sure if this is a good idea?
PICS!!!!
Plant A
Plant B
Howdy Grower!
I've read all your journal just cause it says with Fluors like mine: https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/176131-daily-updated-4lowriders-2big-bang.html
Have a look!
I'm just a little behind compared with you in days. I'm def subscribed and will be following yours for sure.........
Congrats for your set up and girls, hopefuly they are girls, right?
One last and stupid question: How the hell do I post pictures in the body of the message?
Cheers,
Latin Weed Grower!
dafoe23
Well-Known Member
Hey Tatan - cheers for dropping in again. Yeah the flowering is bound to stink up my basement so hopefully I will have all this exhaust sorted by then. Was going to ask your advive if that's ok as you're well ahead of me. The pics I'm posting today - this is day 12, my plants are bushy but seriously small in height - is that a good thing or should I lift the light a bit to encourage them upwards. I am intending to do some LST though so maybe short and stocky would be better. What do you think?
dafoe23
Well-Known Member
Hey Mr Bitti. Nice one for looking in and posting. I would love to stick them under an HPS but definitely want to see how the CFL grow goes first to make sure I've got my basics sorted before I shell out any more cash (it's cost more than I was hoping for already but have caught the growing bug and cant stop!!!) Have def decided to go down the LST route but think I should let the plants come on a bit before I start - what do you reckon? Todays pics hopefully show that although they are both bushy there is not much height to them yet. Cause for concern or added bonus? Will spend a few hours gening up on LST tonight and get myself ready. Any tips would be appreciated.
dafoe23
Well-Known Member
Hey Latin Weed Grower. Cheers for taking the time to read this and comment - appreciated. Took a look at your journal and have subscribed. Be good to keep track of each others and pass the tips around. They are definitely girls as I bought feminised seeds so if they turn out boys or herms I'm gonna be kicking off with my seed shop!!!! lol. I manage to get the pic in the message by just clicking the little yellow button at the top of the quick reply box and copying the link of my pics in my pics album into it. Seems to do the trick. Anyway, will keep a look in on you fluro grow and keep up the good work. Gonna write todays update now. Laters!
dafoe23
Well-Known Member
Day 13 (12 in soil)
OK whats up readers, I'll tell you what's up. I have a few questions to ask is what's up if anyone fancies answering them. Todays pics should help set the scene. Picture this - its bushy, its green, its looking tasty but shes only 2 inches high!!! Is this right at this stage. I am hoping to do some LST as previously mentioned so this could be a bonus but wanted to check if they should be reaching for the sky a little more by now. I'm getting impatient about adding nutes to the soil but am def going to wait for week 3 as this Plagron light mix has nutes in it already for initial stages. Will hit them with the Plagron Grow nutes in good time. Am I right to build this up at 25% recommended dose first and increase 25% each time?
Last question. Plant B's left hand leaf looks a bit funny to me (maybe I'm being a bit over protective). It is positioned right next to the fan so maybe this is affecting it. I'm reluctant to water too often as I;ve seen so many over watered plants but could this be a sign of underwatering? Comments appreciated.
Forgot to add - I have added hydroleca to the pots again! (See pics - very decorative
)
AND NOW FOR PICS!!!!!!!
Plant A:
Plant B (Notice right hand leaf?!?!?)
Dirty two shot of my ladies (Are they looking a bit on the short side for Satvias????!!!!????)
OK whats up readers, I'll tell you what's up. I have a few questions to ask is what's up if anyone fancies answering them. Todays pics should help set the scene. Picture this - its bushy, its green, its looking tasty but shes only 2 inches high!!! Is this right at this stage. I am hoping to do some LST as previously mentioned so this could be a bonus but wanted to check if they should be reaching for the sky a little more by now. I'm getting impatient about adding nutes to the soil but am def going to wait for week 3 as this Plagron light mix has nutes in it already for initial stages. Will hit them with the Plagron Grow nutes in good time. Am I right to build this up at 25% recommended dose first and increase 25% each time?
Last question. Plant B's left hand leaf looks a bit funny to me (maybe I'm being a bit over protective). It is positioned right next to the fan so maybe this is affecting it. I'm reluctant to water too often as I;ve seen so many over watered plants but could this be a sign of underwatering? Comments appreciated.
Forgot to add - I have added hydroleca to the pots again! (See pics - very decorative
)AND NOW FOR PICS!!!!!!!
Plant A:
Plant B (Notice right hand leaf?!?!?)
Dirty two shot of my ladies (Are they looking a bit on the short side for Satvias????!!!!????)
Mr. Bitti
Well-Known Member
yea i would wait a bit or move the lights away just a few inches so they stretch more. i would start when you see space between the nodes. Nothing wrong with that leaf its just a little bent by wind/light position. Also nothing wrong with being 2 inches tall, again it depends on the strain and light type/position. Your girls look great, dont add nutes till week 3 for sure then add at 25% then 33% a week after then 50% twice a week. I dont know what your soil/nutes has in it but is very easy to burn plants in nutrient rich soil. You will see your plants react to the initial dose and you can take it from there. good luck bro
Looking good to me man, am only on my first grow so can't say I know too much but when I was at your stage had the same worries and found that the plants were slow to begin with but they will take off. I am growing with a 300 watt CFL and I think with a CFL grow it might take a little longer for them to gain height. I veged for 7 weeks and then changed to flower cycle and then they really will began to stretch. Dont worry about the leaf postion it looks ok. Just becareful with the nutes don't over do it and keep a look out for burn when you do start with nutes and if you notice any burn just revert back to water for awhile. I've just been using about half strenght nutes all time and it seems to be working for me. Best of luck with the grow your doing great.
zeb
zeb
Tatan
Well-Known Member
Dafoe, your plants are looking very nice...
A lot of people really like short spacing between the nodes. When you have bad lighting is when plants stretch too much, so your plants are doing great, but at the same time, like Mr. Bitti said you dont want to burn them so keep them at a distance whee the heat is un unpleasant to your hand.
The thing is that once you put them in flower, thats the time they really stretch to get eady for bud formation. So during veg stage yeah height is nice, but what you really want is number of nodes.. not really the height. Your plants will double or triple in height once you put them to flower.
A lot of people really like short spacing between the nodes. When you have bad lighting is when plants stretch too much, so your plants are doing great, but at the same time, like Mr. Bitti said you dont want to burn them so keep them at a distance whee the heat is un unpleasant to your hand.
The thing is that once you put them in flower, thats the time they really stretch to get eady for bud formation. So during veg stage yeah height is nice, but what you really want is number of nodes.. not really the height. Your plants will double or triple in height once you put them to flower.
dafoe23
Well-Known Member
Cheers Mr Bitti - will definitely follow the good advice on the nutes tempting as it is to help the growth along, but they do seem to have gone up again today so all in good time. It's helpful to have feedback on here and just to find out I'm roughly on the right track - appreciated!!! The nodes are still close together so will wait on the LST until there is more space, should give me plenty of time to read up on technique as well. Again, nice one for the advice.
dafoe23
Well-Known Member
Hi Zebedee, nice one for checking in and commenting. All first few week nerves I think from my end so was flapping a bit yesterday lol but everyones comments have chilled me out so to speak. Nice to hear you're CFLing as well!!! Best of luck with the grow and if you have pics I'd love to see them. What strain are you growing? Will def keep an eye on the nute level when I start, don;t want to burn these puppies especially after toasting plant B with the light!!! Really need to come up with names instead of plant A&B. Answers on a postcard peeps!!! 
dafoe23
Well-Known Member
Hey Grandmaster Tatan. Cheers for looking in again. Feel like I've been taken under the wing by all the kind smoke filled people on this site and the backup is good!!!! I'm so impatient but am chilling out about the growth now lol! Up to 3 nodes today so will keep counting, nute week 3 onwards and decide when to LST then flower from there. Keep posting dude, read your journal and know your comments and advice for me is from a reliable source. Right, onto todays pics and post!!!