Knowledge is Ganja? help me-Cfl first grow

Bonjour Gentleman,

All your plants look really nice keep up the TLC. My plant is really quite young still, only 2 main "chronic" leaves and the 2 smaller leaves with a node coming up through the middle of the four. Its Under two daylight spectrum 23 watt 1500 lumen lights giving it 3000 total. Should i tie the plant down with a twisty tie or paper clip? What does this do: I hear making the stem parellell to the lights is also good? When should I start topping / Fimming.

Help a young scholar out

Those will help maximize your usage of the lights you have, but the main thing it sounds like you need is more lights, 3000 lumens just isn't enough for the plants to grow quickly, 8000 is the minimum lumens you should be aiming for, investing in some more CFLs and keeping them close to your plant will give you far greater results than LST or topping. The general rule is once the plant is six inches tall or more you can begin training.

I like your name sir - have you heard the dj shadow song entropy? Yes i will invest in another CFL. should i go another day light spectrum or get a cool white or soft white cfl? Also what about tying the stem down?

When you tie the stem down otherwise known as low stresss training(LST) you have all your bud sites all level(same height) and it causes there to be all main colas(guess their not MAIN colas) instead of just having one big main cola and a bunch of little buds

hope this helped out

peace
k-town

There's a good tutorial with illustrations here somewhere!
hold on a second and let me see if I can find it

Yeah it's called " How To LST (low stress training)" and it's by TillthedayIdie420

Just type that in the search box at the top of your screen it'll probably help you out a lot!

peace
k-town

I haven't heard that song but am downloading it now...

Get some cool white or daylight CFLs, they're higher in blue spectrum light which is more beneficial in veg growth, the soft and warm whites are higher in red spectrum light and work better for flowering.

Also, I don't know if you're in the states or not, but check out your local Lowes and Home Depot if you are, they often have 150w and 70w HPS lights for $20 when they're on clearance. Best bang for your buck so far as cheap lights go, they do run fairly hot but you will be more than pleased with the results.

Oh, and check out thrift stores for cheap bulb fixtures, from $1-10 it's the shit.

Your lighting is fine as long as you keep your lights close to your plant. I currently use 3-20 sum watt cfls and they work well. If you wanna get more lights and can afford them get them. the more light the more energy for growth. however there are a few things u should know.

1. U have to keep lights about an inch away from the plant to get the best results using cfls therefore u have to be careful when usig a lot that your grow area doesnt get too hot. Ive had more than a couple burnt tips from just the three cfls.

2. If you dont spend a lot of time at home you may want to keep the plant from growing too fast and up into the lights before u have a chance to adjust the height. The amount of time spent before the plant needs water again will also shorten because the extra heat will cause more water to evaporate so more than a weekend trip could dry the plant out.

Ive also just recently started using paper clips and string to stake and position the leaves for best coverage. I highly suggest it. be careful not to break the stem though. bend it a little first to see how well it bends. then put your first stake above the second true leaf set as far from the main stem as possible. This increases the light coverage of your plants leaves. Then put stakes at evry 3rd node after that and guide the plant from the center to edge of the pot then all the way around the edge and back to the middle as the plant grows. it will look strange at first but give it a good 24 hrs and your leaves should all be turned back up towards the light. move them around and use strings to tie leaves back and get the most coverage. coverage is important when using cfls because they dont penetrate as well as other lights. The energy saving cfls That say like 100w but they are really 24 or something are the better of the cfls because they penetrate more.

One thing u really have to learn when growing pot is to adapt. every plant is different. just as every grower is different. just try things and see how the plant responds. love it and learn from it and itll grow fine.

PEACE

4 sho, as i munch down on my 2 sandwichs. I say werd. My plant is young tho maybe 2 inches so i think imma wait a few b4 i low stress. However when should i begin topping and fimming? does anyone have suggestions?

i just trimmed my plant b using the fim method i will take a picture of it and post it on my journal it is still young but im going to use the scrog/vbog method to see what it will produce in a very small area if you read what i have done you might be able to improve on it....

good luck on your grow
420Noob

Give the young plant a while to grow before you decide to do anything like trimming it. If its between topping and LST go with LST. topping causes stress to a plant. the more stress the more likely it is to get a hermaphrodite. and u dont want that. I strongly urge you to go with LST. Both styles are used to get pretty much the same effect. more branches. however with topping each of the two branches that come from your cut are much weaker and will produce less buds than the branch that would normally grow there. topping also wastes a lot of energy that really doesnt need to be wasted when using cfls and such. your plant will use its energy to fix the branch rather than for growth.
With LST each of the side branches will turn up towards the light and continue to grow that way causing the plant to have several main stems. which will all grow at a relatively even height and with no trimming they still have all the potential to form the best buds its can.
It's all up to you really. Take into account all aspects of your grow first. Such as the size of the grow area and the lights being used. The amount of water the plant needs and nutrients. have fun and keep growing.

Hey I need more help. how close should my 2 daylight spectrum 1500 lights be to the plant. Also the bottom leaves are green on the outside with a streak of yellow on the inside. Is this a nitrogen deffiecieny or 2 much nitrogen or too much wattering?

this should answer more of your problems

i don't think you should put nutes in before the first 3 weeks or so

https://www.rollitup.org/view.php?pg=faq&cmd=category&id=33

Yea man big time noob sauce on my behalf NUTE BUrned one of the bottom leaves i think. Its has like a burn mark on it but the chronic leaves still look good and the node from the middle is sprouting. Just gotta hope it pulls through and i gotta go less noob! right 420

did you post me your grow journal already?

Anyone think that getting a bone meal soil with calcium would be a good idea for when I transplant into a larger pot?

Instead of bone meal get some worm castings. Its like crack for plants. Best natural fertilizer. Also if you have like $25 and a fair sized plastic bin like a 30 gallon tote your can actually buy the worms and all you need to make all the best compost your plants will need is scrap breads and veggies, no meat. But they also love cardboard and newspaper so if you get a daily paper your pretty much set

as for light distance they say 1 inch for cfls however my plants tips tend to burn a little at 1 in so i set mine at about 1 and a half. If you stack a couple cd cases on top of each other and put the pot on them and set the lights they make it a lot easier to adjust height. set it up stick it at 1 and a half inches from the light and watch how the plant grows.

If your plant is small enough to fit in an upside down plastic cup without bending the leaves a lot then you should get a clear disposable plastic cup , or the bottom of a 2 liter, mist the foliage and set the cup or bottom over the plant. You want the open end to reach the ground so if the cup is too small use the bottom. Anyways this creates a little humidity chamber. Young plants love it. trust me youll notice the difference. If you do this set the light 1 inch above the plastic and make sure it doesnt melt. Check every few hours. It shouldnt get hot enough to melt if you have good ventilation. I use a box fan.

sounds like some Ganja growing knowledge. Let me lay this one on you. I think i nutrient burned by plant. Will it be okay? imma lay off on nutrients and make it very diluted when it grows a bit larger. I have 4 leaves with a node coming out of the 2 middle chronic leaves. The smallest lowest leave looks like it was dipped in acid from the nutrients...but the rest of the plant remarkably looks ok..you think it will pull through without me changing the soil etc...?

i would suggest making sure the plants soil is moist then put a lock on the door to the area where the plant is and give the key to the lock to a friend for a few days to keep you from playing with the plant to much(i should have done the lock thing )

"just let it be" just about any thing you do now will hurt the plant more

if you change the soil you will break roots if you flush the soil you might drowned the plant there is no real win-win situation !!!!!!!!

the best thing you can do now is read this

https://www.rollitup.org/view.php?pg=faq

good luck on your grow
420Noob

Just use plain water until you get about your 7th leaf set. Then use only half the nutrients you normally use. wait untill the next time you water it and see how it looks. If it looks nice and healthy keep with the half nute mix for 2 weeks then go full strength wait till the next watering and see how it adjusts. if everything looks good then you should be in the clear. Just keep using the same mix untill u r ready to flower. However, if the plant looks like it needs
a little more nutes then give it to it. Your plant can always tell you what it needs better than I can. Also if you want to increase nitrogen levels later on you can try adding a thimbles worth of piss to 2 L of water. It sounds a little gross but urine is loaded with N. You just have to dilute it because there is so much N that straight urine could easily burn a plant.