First timer. Closet. Soil. CFL

To begin this log let me tell you this, so I don't get the "you should have planned better" speech. Well I started these with the intent of getting caught by my parents at some point. Initially just a window grow. 3 sprouted and were transplanted to a larger pot. I did however read The grow bible mostly every page before starting.

The three plants I have were supposedly Master Kush. Or so I was told by my friend whom gave them to me.

I have been using soil from a nearby neighbor who does lawn care, and didn't mind helping me out.
For nutes I have Flora Nova Grow from Veg, and eventually I will be using Flora Nova Bloom for flowering.

Upon being caught with these, my parents were initially furious, then open to the concept, and now completely understanding. (Truely a great feeling)

I am using 2 100w CFL's rated at 6500k. 1 75w CFL rated at 2700k. And for a little extra growth a little aquarium 13 watt 6500k flourescent.
For reflection I am just using walls, floor and some plywood covered in white table cloth.
I have one small fan which constantly runs 12 hours towards the plants, 12 hours away. To avoid wind burn and allow circulation.
Every morning and night I give the stem a little shake.

These are legitimately my first plants ever, of any kind, so any tips would be helpful. I am aware they have been over watered I dropped my watering cup 2 days ago and am waiting for them to recover, anyhow here are some pics from beginning til now.

I will have to dig out the pictures I took from the beginning, they arent too impressive though, to be honest. Just one from sprouting and one when they first showed signs of nutrient defiency.




Now my questions. Are these ready to be topped? also should I move them all three to a larger pot? I have a drilled out 5 gallon bucket waiting for them. Also any tips, pointers let me know. I'm willing to spend a little more money on these now. Also for flowering I have 6 100w CFL's @ 2700k as well as the 2 100w @ 6700k i will be using. Is this too much of a light change or will I be okay? Thank you kindly!

Honestly you could have topped them last week, you could do it this week, or you could do it next week and beyond. Everyone thinks they have the perfect time to do it, but just give it a whirl if you think you're ready to now.

I don't know much about flowering under CFL, but I personally would not put 3 plants into 1 container, 2 plants maybe, but not 3. 5 gal is a standard indoor grow pot, but for CFL you would be going for smaller plants in smaller pots, so maybe 2 or 3 gallons? I'd assume you'd probably want to flower once they start to show progress from the topping to keep your plants small.

RIU has lots of CFL grows, read a good journal is my recommendation.

Well I woke up this morning to some fantastic growth, I took my chances at topping my plants last night and after doing some research I attempted the FIM method. I will be giving them about 24 hours and then repotting them on wednesday. As long as my roots are not entangled I will be seperating them into 3 seperate smaller, 3 gallon containers as per your suggestion. I have been reading some of the CFL grow journals using the search function, however I just wanted to make sure they didn't have any abnormal growth/nute problems/ or any other issues a first timer might encounter.

Thank you again and I will be posting pictures here shortly

Popping in to subscribe to this and compare it to mine as well. How long have they been growing for when you took those pictures?

they just rounded out 4 weeks since sprouting, last week. So I'm no on week 5.

I will definitely have to take some pictures. my second largest plant responded well to being fimmed. my largest plant went insane with it. I don't even understand what happened! but it grew exponentially over night once again. and my smallest girl is still growing along. My biggest concern now is to seperate them into seperate pots. Can anyone tell me how much longer I should veg for? I will continue until I can atleast fim/top once more and recover it... but beyond that, is anything needed? Thanks again.

all three have shown female preflowering and are up to 9 fan leaves on the 7th node. I am transplanting today now that they have recovered fully from being topped.
I went with 3 3 gallon buckets. I also have added quite a bit more light. there are now 6 "100 watt" cfl's @ 2700k, 3 @ 6500k and the normal flourescent. I bit the bullet on some mylar like material and the plants responded very well to all the changes so far. upon replanting, I will be taking pictures. Wish me luck. I believe I'm about a week to two weeks from my 12/12

Any pictures yet, silverlake? Have you switched to 12/12 yet?