First time grower, first time cfl grow

Day 14 (13 in soil)

Ok - work day today so had to leave my plant checks until gone 6pm this evening. Got down to my box and boy was I pleased when I opened the door - the first sweet smell of the good green stuff wafted past my nose. It's only veg season at the moment so from what I've been told these puppies are gonna stink to high heaven when I hit them with flowering. Thankfully my kilo of active carbon turned up today so plans for my filter construction are set for the weekend. Only problem now is buying a pair of black tights from tesco's without looking like a trannie! (I'll just wink at the cashier for laughs or bottle it and use the self service check out). So both plants still looking good with some growth over night. Up to 3 nodes now and as I said starting to kick out a sweet smell. Less chat I hear you say and more pics, so without further a do:

Plant A:


Plant B (something freaky has happened to this pic where the top and bottom half have moved in opposite directions to each other????? The plant obviously does not look like this, not until after the 3rd dubie anyway):

Howdy!

Man, u r one week ahead of me and things for you look good, congrats and keep on....growing.....

Following them with you lol.

Hey Latin - cheers for the support dude. Weirdly enough have just posted on your journal. Keep it up and stick with the CFL's lol I'm sure we can do it And now on for todays post:

Day 15 (14 in soil)
OK readers and fellow growers. Am going to make this quick as I'm shagged from work and not a lot has happened since yesterday except for the plants are getting a little pongier and there is a bit more leaf growth. Pics below and will have a better post when I get time to construct my carbon filter for the exhaust and report back (although am loving the sweet sweet smell drifting from my grow box - reminds me of better things to come). Smoke on peeps!

Plant A:


Plant B:

Looking nice... just got to be patient til you can put them to flower

Look'n good Dafoe on my 2nd grow with CFLs 1x125w + 4x25w side lighting for veg, 1x200w + 4x25w for flower 1st grow was hydroponic, this 1 is in soil so been keep'n an eye on your progress, keep er lit man nothing like smoke'n your own its the dogs balls lol

I think i put mine in soil a few days after you, and i have the complete opposite thing going. Really long stem, and lots of space between nodes. Which isnt a good thing since i only have about 4 feet of height ( not subtracting the pot height and the room taken up by the lights), but i put my lights closer hope that fixes the problem. Your plants are lookin really good. Good job!

Hey dude, like your setup. Everything looks groovy with your plants.
CFL all the way. No need to go HPS, yes it will yield better but with CFL you have less heat, less electricity and less chance of getting chaught!
Stick in there!

Are your photo's through photobucket?? How did you post the IMG link as an attachment? It wont let me attach them, so al i have at the moment is a link to my photobucket album. If any one knows how to do this please let me know either by posting it here on in my journal, Thanks

Evening peeps! Took the day off from updating this yesterday as again, was shagged from work. I have however not taken any time off from my grow so pics and updates to come from yesterday and will post todays pics when I take them later this evening. Wanted to thank a few people for their comments first though:

Tatan - Nice one bro, am hanging in there and can't wait to start flowering. Going to order my 250w 2700k tomorrow so its here in time!


Bobsmokeblow - Cheers for looking in man, appreciated! Your setup sounds good and I really need to take a leaf (see what I did there) out of your book and sort out some side lights at some point. How did your first grow go and what kind of results did you get? Any reason you have switched to soil? Keep me updated on your progess!

Wiggles - Cheers for the encouragment, appreciated as well. Moving your plants closer to the lights should stop the stretching I reckon as well. I have mine very close to the plants but did manage to singe two leafs a few weeks ago so have shifted them up slightly (I was devastated but they seem to have survived - hardy little bleeders). I always panic and think the lil buggers are going to grow loads in the night and be too close to the light in the morning - no such luck that I get that amount of growth in the night though YET! I've got the same head height as you and wish I'd planned it a little higher as my pots take up a lot of space, my lights can get as high up to the top of the box as I want thankfully but it's only first grows and all good practise for the next one

Oblivion - I'm doing everything to avoid getting busted lol!!!! CFL all the way baby! Have posted on your journal and will keep and eye on your progress. With the photos, I uploaded mine into my picture album on Roll It Up, copy the link and click insert picture at the top of the reply box then paste the link - worked ok so far although my phone cam is high res and have to take the res down to 600pixels for Roll It Up to accept them, maybe that's the reason????

An now for today (yesterdays update):

Day 16 (15 in soil)

OK, not a great deal to post except that both plants have bushed out a little more and the leaf development seems to be going well. Have to admit that I hit them both with their first dose of nutes this evening as I've entered week 3 now!!! (Whoop Whoop). Taking Mr Bitti's advice and started off with a weak mix of 25% the recommended dose. I'm using Plagron Terra Grow to start. This only has an N-P-K of 3-1-3 but will watch closely to see the results and it's supposed to combine well with the plagron light mix soil I'm using. Will post the post nute pics on the next days post. PIC TIME:

Plant A:


Plant B:

Looking nice keep it up

Hey Tatan - Nice one and will do!!! Todays update:

Day 17 (16 in soil)

Wow! Am well impressed with the nutes folkes. As I said in yesterdays update I added 25% of the recommended dose to a litre of water and watered less than 400ml between both plants. All I can say is check out the pics - this is 24 hours on from yesterday and the leafs are getting bigger by the day. Have nothing more to say today except obviously I am going to monitor the nute intake so as not to burn the shit out of my plants. Enjoy:

Plant A:


Plant B:

Looking good Dafoe.
I never really post but I'm definitely going to subscribe to this.

dbodner said:

Looking good Dafoe.
I never really post but I'm definitely going to subscribe to this.

Click to expand...

Howdy Dafoe23!

Man, they look really healthy and to be honest I really hope I get there with my ones.....Once again I'm keeping an eye on them with you...congrats...

Those nutes look kick ass! I opened my nute delivery the other day to find only bloom and no grow!
Its too late to order more and all garden centers near me are crap. I gave them a tiny bit of bloom nutes, but sort of did a semi flush at the same time. Didnt flush all the nutes out but got a bit worried half way through. Hopefully only one more week till flowering so shouldnt do much harm.
If any one has any info about problems i may have please post.

Keep up the hard work. When do you expect to start flowering?

HI Dbodner - that's awesome fella and feel honoured, thanks a million. These kind of comments make it worth keeping this journal going!!!!!

Howdy Latin, had a look at your updates and you seem to be getting on fine with yours. Cheers for looking in again. Will update yesterdays and todays pics in a bit!

Hey Oblivion, what a shiter with the nutes fella but sounds like you've done the right thing and if you are flowering soon and they have grown without them so far I reckon you will be ok. Check out my pics from today, the nutes I am using I thought would be pretty lame but they have boosted even more today. Am going to monitor for burn though as I dont want to wreck all the hard work so far. Not sure about flowering yet - was going to ask adice in todays post as I have pics next to a tape measure although I havent hit my full 9 on my leafs yet. Might top them soon though so that I get two main colas per plant - will be posting questions in a sec. Anyway, best of luck with the flowering and keep me posted on how you get on.

Day 18 (17 in soil)

Evening all! Ok this is a bit late but am flat out at work at the moment and this thing takes a bit of time to update with photos and stuff - feel free to rate this thread if you want as always attracts more people to read and comment and the love can be spread further lol!!!!

Right, smells and stuff. Got in this evening to find the hall next to my basement honking of the sweet stuff. This can't do! Def do not want to get busted so thought it was time to construct my carbon filter (not mine, someone elses guide but it kicks ass and is cheap! Please rate him as this is a great invention for all to take advantage of)- https://www.rollitup.org/do-yourself/101248-best-diy-ez-walmart-carbon.html

And this is the final result of my handy work an the carbon filter:

In situ:


Ok now onto the plants. I;m guessing any regulars will want to know how the nutes (Palgron Terra Grow - 25% rec dose) have affected the plants. Well let me tell you - holy shit they've kicked some plant growing ass! Will just put todays pics in for now for you to see but have a question to ask. As you can see from the pics they have hit 10cm. I have 4ft of growing room minus the plants pots and lights so a realistic 2.5 - 3ft of growth height. I want to wait until I have 7-9 fingered leafs before flowering and I want to top to make sure I get 2 colas per plant and make the most of the CFL's (let me know if you think these are good ideas) When would everyone suggest flowering??? What height? When should I top the plants, I think its after the third leaf set has grown and am pretty sure I'm onto set 4 or 5 now. Should I hit them with a hair cut now? Comments and advice appreciated!!!! ENJOY:

Plant A:

Plant B:

Two Shot:

Comparison two shot of the plants to show the growth so far (day 17 in soil)

Day 19 (18 in soil)

Evening all. Very quick update. The plants have really outdone my expectations with the nutes. I haven't even given them more than 250ml of nute water each and they are shooting up all over the place at 25% recommended dose (see pics). I'm so impressed with the carbon filter - came home tonight to the smell of NOTHING! Had to open the cab door to top up my motivation with a good wiff of skunkiness! Hopefully this filter will be as effective during flowering and this proves that I managed to convert the positive pressure if the cab to negative pressure with a little bit of messing about and moving the fans, etc (journal post last week I think).

My flowering bulb arrived today - I have been using a 6400K 250w 8U CFL for veg and intended to use the same wattage for flowering but managed to find a 2700K 300w CFL for the same price as a 250w bulb. Obviously opted for the higher wattage but just hope it fits my refelector and E40 holder now! Still unsure when to start flowering and to top before that! Any advice would be appreciated!

Think that's about it apart from the fact I managed to get a moisture and PH meter from B&Q for under a tenner!!! Ph is measuring at about 6.8 after all the nutes and moisture at the moment is lower end of moist. Am planning to let it hit rock bottom of the moisture meter (just before DRY) before feeding the nutes again to prevent over doing it and burning the leafs. All comments gratefully received and Jesus H Christ will you check out the size of these beauties today lol. Am sure they have rocketed since yesterday?!?!?!?! (Maybe its all in my head - wishful thinking)

Plant A:



Plant B:

DAMN! Big ass plants. Looks like those nutes were worth every penny. Cant wait for mine to start smelling!
Like your carbon filter, might go with the same design. I was planning on just using an ONA block or two. Anyone heard or used one of these?

You are doing a good job Dafoe, those plants are the shape they should be at this stage, short and with lots of nodes, congrats

yea good job man, the scrubber also looks good

Cheers Mr Bitti, Oblivion and Tatan! Will update for today:

Day 20 (19 in soil.

Not a great deal to report other than a new set of leafs appearing on both plants. I am slightly concerned about Plant B as more leafs are starting to curl (and they are the opposite side to the fan). Moisture is somewhere in the middle of dry to moist, PH is 6.8 and light is far enough away? Any ideas? Also I am going to see if its time to start topping both plants tomorrow night so any adivce or if you think I'm starting to early please let me know. Carbon filter is working beautifully!!!! (Hope it holds out for flowering)

Plant A:


Plant B (Check out leafs at front left of pic????):