Help First Time with CFL

pictures will be uploaded tonight once am off work and lights come on...

ChroniklesOfTheDankSide said:

Yea, im doing something similar like this grow. And i tried to throw my plants from 18/6 into 12/12, and without that 24 hour dark period, they never completey pushed over to flowering mode yet.
( But luckily they didnt, cause while their in veg it gives me time to address the pest problem )

Also, for your clone, i'd recommend 24/0 lighting. 4 hours of darkness may not seem like alot, but it is

More Light = more growth.

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24/0 --> 12/12: After many grows I have noticed that running the lights 24/7 in the vegetative stage is of little use compared to 20/4 or 18/6. I also think that constant light without a rest period is not beneficial for the seedlings, puts your equipment under unnecessary stress and runs up your electric bill for no more than a 5-10% increase in weight, at the most. It can be said that this is unnatural but then again, periods of close to 24h sunlight during summer days is not unheard of in arctic regions. On the other hand, how would you cope with around the clock work and no sleep? The dark reactions are important for the plant to build up and move around essential biological components, ultimately it affects things like resistance to stress and sufficient root structure for further development. Furthermore, the 12/12 stretch becomes unnecessarily long due to the big difference in daylight hours. Hey! Where did the sun go?

20/4 --> 12/12: This is a kinder option for the plants, your equipment and your electric bill. This gives the plants some time to rest and your equipment time to cool down once and a while. I run the lights over my mother plants with this light schedule, the light is on a timer and turn off for an hour four times a day. Four consecutive hours of darkness are sufficient for the dark reactions but still, the 8 hour jump after the switch to 12/12 is a bit of a stretch. 18/6 --> 12/12: This is a valid option to the light schedule above. Not that big a difference in final stretch as the stretch caused by increased dark hours in the vegetative stage evens out with the lesser stretch in early flowering stage after the 12/12 switch. The plant might be a bit stronger under this light schedule compared to the one above as it has some time to rest. 18/6 is no where near the equatorial daylight length that sativas are used to but is suitable for both indicas and sativas during the vegetative stage.

20/4 --> 18/6 or 16/8 --> 12/12: This is a good option, at least when growing from seeds. This light schedule gives the plants a chance to prepare for flowering in good time with minimal stress. I run the lights 20/4 for about two weeks, then switch to 18/6 or alternatively 16/8 for another two weeks and finally 12/12 for the duration of the flowering stage (I usually drop the daylight hours to 11/13 in late flowering, this benefits especially sativas but works well for indicas too, don't go much lower though).

20/4 --> 18/6 --> 16/8 --> 14/10 -->12/12: The best option. Same as above but a little more work. Depending on the length of desired vegetative growth, decrease daylight by 2 hours every 7-9 days. If you are going to take the time to grow weed, why not take the time to reprogram your timer?

12/12 from start: This is good when flowering clones but can also be used on mostly or pure sativas. I always clone the strongest females and keep them in a constant vegetative stage in a separate grow room. Once my harvest is done, I take a clone of the mother plant and move it into the flowering room. Usually the mother plants have several months of vegetative growth as well as rigorous training under their belts, so these heavy duty bonsai plants are well established, strong and produce monster crops. Their stems are usually as
thick as my thumb when they go into flowering.

Plant 1 - Sativa 70%


Plant 2 - Indica 80%


Plants together



My Sativa Clone - dont think it will clone most of all the leaves are 50% yellow now.


i know the plants look really small but i threw it into flowering today. The Sativa is growing really nice i think i have about 9-12 colas on that and like 8 colas on the Indica.
The indica is heat stressed i know cause seems like the fan does not blow on it enough ill have to add another small fan.

My room temp light on 83F and off 75-80F. Humidity 30%. 147watts 3x2100K and 3x6500K...8250Lumens ill add 4 more lights once i know they are female. dont want to waste electricty over male plants. Gosh i really hope aleast 1 female...

Thanks for the tip on lighting, definitely illuminates on what i should probably be doing with my plants as well.

I'll switch them over to 18/6 or 20/4 during their next watering cycle.

it seems to grow better with 18/6 and and switching to 12/12 is way easier on plants the 20/4

XD What i keep on forgetting is that " I dont have to wait till its night time to put them in their dark hours "
Since im not using a timer, i have to set an alarm 5 minutes early on my phone to remind me to switch the lights.
And at first i was doing 12/12 from seed, and then noticed how small the plants were staying and i wanted them just a but bigger height wise, so i figured i'd gradually change their lighting cycle. slowly building up from 12/12 to 18/6, and then to 24/0. XD So now with this new bit of information, i'll have to work my way back down, so it doesnt stress the plants too much.

( Also, i think one of the plants may have gone into flowering, because the new foliage this one particular plant is developing, seems like hairs and not leaves. ) I'll know for sure within a week

Either way!, keep up your good work so far, hopefully we both end up with some killer CFL Buds

what i dont get about FLOWERING is total darkness... outside is not total darkness even in the woods.... the moon reflects light of the sun so i dont get it ....

Yea, but i dont think the moon produces enough light to really affect flowering negatively, the light is probably a useless spectrum to Cannabis plants. So who knows?

ya i read about it and the moon only produces 1 lumens so watever i hope me room is dark enough... am worried aobut light goning through my vent hole for intake

You can always take some cardboard, and make a square to fit around the outake fan, to try and block most of the light. But i dont think it'll be too bad.

What i'd do with my Growbox, during the dark hours, i'd drape a dark sheet over the box. to help minimize any possible light leaks.

ChroniklesOfTheDankSide said:

You can always take some cardboard, and make a square to fit around the outake fan, to try and block most of the light. But i dont think it'll be too bad.

What i'd do with my Growbox, during the dark hours, i'd drape a dark sheet over the box. to help minimize any possible light leaks.

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Ya my room is pretty dark for the first 9hrs and the last 3 hours (7pm-10pm) i turn the one 13w cfl lights in my room to see i hope the light does find itself into the box. It sealed really good this is my problem here ...

HERE IS MY FEEDING SCHDULE:

Sept 13 - OCt 11 (28days) Vege
OCT 12 - DEC 08 OR 14TH) FLOWERING


Fert - Wed, Water - Sat/Sun

Kgro Super Bloom 10-54-10 (1/4 tsp per gallon(full strength))
MG Cacti Fertilzer 2-7-7 (10-20 drops per quart(full strength))
S.T. - Superthrive (1 drop = 1/4 tsp per gallon)

ALL MIXTURE ARE DONE IN A GALLON JAR.

Week 1 (Oct 13-19) - Wed. 1/4 tsp Super Bloom, 20 drops, drop S.T.
Week 2 (Oct 20-26) - Wed. 20 drops, Drop S.T.
Week 3 (Oct 27-02) - Wed. 25 Drops, Drop S.T
Week 4 (Nov 03-09) - Flush and Feed only Water
Week 5 (Nov 10-16) - Wed. 1/4 tsp Super Bloom, 30 Drops, Drop S.T
Week 6 (Nov 17-23) - Wed. 1/4 tsp Super Bloom, 35 Drops, Drop S.T.
Week 7 (Nov 24-30) - Wed. 1/4 tsp Super Bloom, 40 Drops, Drop S.T.
Week 8 (Dec 01-07) - Flush and Feed only Water
Week 9 (Dec 08-14) - Feed only Water

Harvest

thats what your worried about? ....dude...Lol thats not even that bad...I'd reccomend a darker cloth to cover it and maybe if you can, go to walmart, get those Velcro adhesive strips, align them to that cloth, and then set it up tightly to your grow station. ( I use to Velcro strips for my mylar, that way theres no creases and it stays put )

Don't be too worried though homie, it all looks good to me.

ChroniklesOfTheDankSide said:

thats what your worried about? ....dude...Lol thats not even that bad...I'd reccomend a darker cloth to cover it and maybe if you can, go to walmart, get those Velcro adhesive strips, align them to that cloth, and then set it up tightly to your grow station. ( I use to Velcro strips for my mylar, that way theres no creases and it stays put )

Don't be too worried though homie, it all looks good to me.

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Now another problem is my nutes... i hope they are ok i dont want to build up too much salt with Super Bloom so i was going to flush ever 3 weeks... u think the ratios for all ferts are ok and the amount i wrote in my schd.?

next grow am getting FloraMicro, FloraGro, FloraBloom, FloraBlend, Liquid KoolBloom, FloraKleen, and Floralicious Plus

you are scheduling your plants feeding around your schedule and not around the plants... you are setting up for failure.

Well keep in mind, you never really want to use the recommended portions on the label, what i've learned here from reading is, use 1/4th or 1/2 of what is directed.

And honestly, for as big as they will get growing under CFL's it's not really worth pouring in all those extra nutes just for a few extra grams in weight on your nugs.

If it was my grow, and my nutes. i'd be using 1/8th of the recommended portions. That way, it's still beneficial to the plant, and i wouldnt need to worry about the dangers of a deficiency or over-nutrition.

Considering, i dont use Nutes in many of my former grows, i wouldnt know what to tell you.

And Beast does have a valid point, you're just scheduling to where you'll remember. Which is fine and all, but honestly from what ive been reading about nutrients and how they work with plants, just use the nutes sparingly every other week, or maybe every 3 weeks.

It's a CFL grow homie, not a huge scale grow lol. So keep that in mind. CFL = Small yields ( unless your running like 20x 23w 6500k/2700k bulbs lol )

I'm by no means a pro at growing, and im only relaying info i've read here and other forums.

As long as your soil/grow medium is good, the lights are good, and your water is clean. It's pretty hard to fuck this up lol...

So my feeding should not be every week i dont get that and i guess it on my schedule.... when i used to grow in hydro (4 plants) i used the Flora Nova Schedule and its was a weekly feeding... and i also looked at their soil schedule and they are weekly.... so since its CFL i dont should not feed it as much... and yes i messed up on the amounts to feed...so when do i feed the plant i dont get that (when it starts to show defienceny which is bad since its in stress then right)? how do u feed BEAST>

i actully have 15 x 26w CFL = 390watts.

ChroniklesOfTheDankSide said:

Well keep in mind, you never really want to use the recommended portions on the label, what i've learned here from reading is, use 1/4th or 1/2 of what is directed.

And honestly, for as big as they will get growing under CFL's it's not really worth pouring in all those extra nutes just for a few extra grams in weight on your nugs.

If it was my grow, and my nutes. i'd be using 1/8th of the recommended portions. That way, it's still beneficial to the plant, and i wouldnt need to worry about the dangers of a deficiency or over-nutrition.

Considering, i dont use Nutes in many of my former grows, i wouldnt know what to tell you.

And Beast does have a valid point, you're just scheduling to where you'll remember. Which is fine and all, but honestly from what ive been reading about nutrients and how they work with plants, just use the nutes sparingly every other week, or maybe every 3 weeks.

It's a CFL grow homie, not a huge scale grow lol. So keep that in mind. CFL = Small yields ( unless your running like 20x 23w 6500k/2700k bulbs lol )

I'm by no means a pro at growing, and im only relaying info i've read here and other forums.

As long as your soil/grow medium is good, the lights are good, and your water is clean. It's pretty hard to fuck this up lol...

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how do i measure Half of 1/4 Tsp... thats 1/16th i dont get how to measure that are there spoons that small?