Lighting Questions and Suggestions

Wassup ROLLITUP. I'm a newb but been paying attention for a while. I got one baby going (had two but the light fell on one of them), but it's not going so good as of right now. Started off beautiful but I think I a have mold issue and lacking Mg). The room i was using was heated but I think since the A/C unit is still the window, cold air is coming in and mixing with the warm air in the room. I just moved my setup into a closet that's 5'x3'x8'. I got three more germin just in case I have to cut her off. Anyway, I had an suggestion and wonder what people think. Everyone has there ups and downs about cfl's. Since our babies are just worried about the color spectrum (with the exception of intensity) I had an idea. Why not just find a colored see thru plastic of some sort (blue for veggin and red for flowering) to overlap the light. Of coarse this if only for CFL's due to low heat output. May be a retarded idea but the concept don't sound bad. I might deserve a flame or two because HPS and MH are available but just take it easy on me. Also, when you germ seeds and they sprout, should the sprout point down to feed or point up to grow? All comments are appreciated.

Im not sure about the bag over the light idea, but you drop your beans in tail down.

Thanks for the tip. Not actually a bag around it but make some sort of screen between the light and plant that light can still pass through. Like lamininating paper but colored.

I think it works like this. If I take a light and put colored glass, plastic or anythiing else in front of it I will lose a bunch of lumens. Yes you may have the spectrum right but I think it will block too much light. Besides the spectrum is already there. Blocking the others colors isnt going to make a certain color brighter. It will just make it more visible to the human eye. It was there to begin with you just see white from the other colors.

That's why it pays to talk to with the pros. I started off using bottled water for my baby and everything was good. Now i'm using tap that I let sit out for 24 hours. First I noticed that first set of spear leaves turning yellow from the tip, followed by brown spots on the second set and part of the third as it is growing. My soil has an accumilation of light brown stuff forming but starts to turn white since I slowed down the watering to every two days. After doing a little more reading I think it may be the tap water not evaporating the chlorine all the way. I'm using mirical grow soil but found this is not a good choice from what I read. I think I'm about to answer my own question and buy a PH tester. The tap water might of threw it off extreamly. Temps stay at constant 75. This is my very first grow and sort of buying things as I need them. The pics from problem link looks as if it mg lacking. If my PH is good just ad a little epsom salt?

you will want a ph monitor, my tap after sitting out is 7.0. so is the spring water i can buy here. i hear miracle grow potting soil starts with a ph of 5.0 (not good) so you probobly have nute lock out. i don't know how to change the ph of a soil without mixing stuff with the soil before you use it. maybe you should try a bnetter soil next time.

Miracle grow soil just happen to be sitting on my back porch so I used it. My soil is constantly getting this light brown stuff accumilating. I think it's mold and getting the better of me. I thought by switching to another room would help but it's not. I have a small heater in the room to keep the temp at 70ish but not helping. Could watering every two days still be to much? The crazy thing is my growing shoot started off green as every with little hairs sticking out but now is turning brown from the bottom up.

if brown is appearing in your soil that isnt normal and now your plant is turning from the bottom up maybe its now growing on your plants. if it is mold im not usre how to or if you erven can rid of it. pics would b helpful

Widow Maker said:

I think it works like this. If I take a light and put colored glass, plastic or anythiing else in front of it I will lose a bunch of lumens. Yes you may have the spectrum right but I think it will block too much light. Besides the spectrum is already there. Blocking the others colors isnt going to make a certain color brighter. It will just make it more visible to the human eye. It was there to begin with you just see white from the other colors.

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widow, I thought the color white was the absence of color and black was all color. could be wrong, but I had a professor trying to explain to us about why certain lights are certain colors. I know regular house lights are white do to the stuff, I think it is phophorus, that they put in it. the soft white light have noting in it so it gives off the same color as a HPS do to there is nothing in the bulb "bleaching" out the spectrums. could be wrong, was high as a mother fucker then.

yeah but he means the light is full of colors. when you look at the light you look and say "ooh white" but in actuallity its giving off different colors.. look at what the light bounces off of. i swear my hps makes everything in the room look a little greener.

I will post pics probably this weekend just for future reference. I already made a stupid mistake by transplanting into a pop bottle, so transplanting into the corect pot will be pretty hard. The roots are already 3/4 of the way down after hitting the wall. Its only been a week. But if this is really mold and eating my plant I will just scrap it. i got four more seeds that just sprouted and will be making another trip to the garden store in the morning. Any advice on what soil to buy?

yeah.. fox farms if they got it, ocean forest or something.. or, just make sure the potting soil has NO TIME RELEASE FERTS. and drains well. scotts with perlite is good. just keep in mind NO TIME RELEASE FERTS. and no clay.

Well good news. Went out this weekend and bought a couple of stuff. Found out that the miracle grow soil I was using was really for outdoor use (says it right on the bag). Ooppssss. Anyway brought Scott's potting mix. Man, this is some CLEAN feeling DIRT (ironic). Also invested in a temp/humidity reader. Temp stays at 80 with humidity from 40% day to 50% night. I'm glad I didn't have the heart to kill my baby off due to a so called mold issue I thought I had. As far as the brown accumilation I was seeing, just think I need to water more often. Has anyone ever seen a plant shed? The brown that was on the stem turned out to be (dead skin). It looks as if it was just for the starter leaves but the stem is now that beautiful green I remember. She appears to be doing fine as I still need to transplant again due to it beeing in a 2 liter bottle. She is starting her fan blades which should have nine blades with the seven blades now visible to count. I started four more babies which are now in planted in Scott's. Only time will tell.

Apparently everyone who works in Home Depot and minor hardware stores don't know what Mylar is. Will aluminum foil work as well or should I just buy some white paint?

you can order it online. use white paint, aluminum foil can focus the light harmfully

Has anyone ever used a halogen light for veggin? They have 300 and 500 watts availble fairly cheep. The only thing is I cant find the light output for them (lumens).

take some advive my friend use some oxy plus in your waterings as this will kill all bacteria in your soil. but not only this it also provides much needed oxygen around the root zone.making it hard to overwater your babies as they have so much oxygen to breathe.i have had excellant results using this shit its good believe me . go for the 17.5% strength and use at 1ml per litre of water.also this will allow them to uptake nutrients more efficently resulting in lush growth.yes you can veg with a mh just be sure to exchange with an hps for flowering.good luck bruv

dont even attempt to use halogens they burn to hot and are DANGEROUS for indoor cultivation

Thanxxx for the advice. Im using floros and cfl at the moment. I got the money to buy a MH and HPS but just being cheap about it. But, you know what they say "takes money to make money" or in this case "good highs". This is my first grow and kinda playing it by ear.

Also I bought 2-100w CFL. They require a mogul base which I didn't pay attention to at first. Is there a simple base I can buy or do I have to buy the whole fixture they got. These bulbs replace halogen if im not mistaken.