Marijuana Potency way too low

I'm on my 3rd grow with cfl's, use fox farm soil, closet grow, and half the time the weed doesn't get me as high as stuff bought from the dealer. I've read tons of stuff about nutrients, etc., and I've got that down to a science. I'm wondering if it's the lighting I use. How many lumens should I have in a 2x2 grow with 2 plants? I have 2 reflectors with 2 26w cfl in each. I use the blue ones for vegetative stage, and the soft white for the flowering stage.

I've used seeds from weed that a friend gave me that was good weed, but after I grow it, harvest it, the potency isn't like the stuff that was smoked....help please?

The dealer's pot is grown under hid lighting with temp control (under 80) plus you must let it go further -8 weeks+ , the buds harden the last two weeks.

you need a lot more light.

Good bud does not always produce good seed sad to say and this is the problem from the get go .. Flouros , compact or old school T-12 can and will produce modest size potent buds ... But you do need at least a few hundred watts

Dont believe what others say , of course one would do best with big guns but hey we all start somewhere and if you start better seeds youll find better weed then before but realise with almost all strains there is a pheno search that is unavoidable and sooner or later youll find what you seek ....

gvillegirl said:

I'm on my 3rd grow with cfl's, use fox farm soil, closet grow, and half the time the weed doesn't get me as high as stuff bought from the dealer. I've read tons of stuff about nutrients, etc., and I've got that down to a science. I'm wondering if it's the lighting I use. How many lumens should I have in a 2x2 grow with 2 plants? I have 2 reflectors with 2 26w cfl in each. I use the blue ones for vegetative stage, and the soft white for the flowering stage.

I've used seeds from weed that a friend gave me that was good weed, but after I grow it, harvest it, the potency isn't like the stuff that was smoked....help please?

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Sounds like you still need to more reading and get better equipment.

Do you have your drying and curing down to a science? You could grow some lovely weed and if dried wrong the whole lot could be a load of bunk from my experience.

And yeah, your dealers use decent lighting. And you wanr a red spectrum for flowering.

It sounds like you have a lot of factors you need to eliminate. good weed can be grown with a couple of cfl's, so your first port of call should be to buy some tried and true genetics, not just some bagseed. The seeds in your weed could have come from any waste of time male. I myself have pollinated one of the better strains out there with one that is known for it's colour, not it's potency, and the phenotypes heavy on the latter, well they are not worth anyones time, as others have found out. The weed in the bag came from one plant, the seeds came from two, so to assume that the seed must be as good as the weed is silly.

More lights I would say but I'm new. I have a power strip with 6 outlets, buy 4 outlet to light socket adapters, 4 y splitters, and get 8 of the highest watt cfl's you can. I have around 175w of cfl power on my plant with this setup and it loves it.

its all about the trichs, the resin glands produced during flower time, more than anything. if you start with decent genetics, and are growing without any nutrient deficiencies, i would tend to think you may have harvested a little too early. When the resin glands are clear colored when viewed with a 30x or more powerful loupe or scope, then the buds are not ready to pluck. When they turn a milky color, harvest them at that time for a "up" high. Once the resin glands turn amber colored, harvest at that time to get a body stone, couchlock type of effect. Harvesting when half are milky and half are amber will give you an effect of both a high and a stone... invest $5 in a 30x loupe and never have any doubts again....

For a 2x2 area you should use around 150-200 watts. a 250 watt hps is good for a 3x3 area, to give you a reference point...

imo you could be taking it down too soon.. even 2 weeks or so chopped too early will kill potency.. it can be a real challenge not to cut it down early, but waiting for it to be truly ready is sooo worth it when you smoke the buds..

i made the mistake of taking one crop down too early and it sounds like the same thing you're talking about.. looks good, tastes good, but don't do dick all getting me high..
i've made that mistake once and will never repeat it..

I have the same problem, i get 4oz using a high quality 250W flowering CFL all the way through but lack of potency, my setup details and pictures are here :

https://www.rollitup.org/cfl-fluorescent-lighting/132387-fantastic-fluoro-frenzy-252wcfl-grow-34.html#post9239786

Cfl isn't good like hid and/or you harvested early...

gvillegirl said:

I'm on my 3rd grow with cfl's, use fox farm soil, closet grow, and half the time the weed doesn't get me as high as stuff bought from the dealer. I've read tons of stuff about nutrients, etc., and I've got that down to a science. I'm wondering if it's the lighting I use. How many lumens should I have in a 2x2 grow with 2 plants? I have 2 reflectors with 2 26w cfl in each. I use the blue ones for vegetative stage, and the soft white for the flowering stage.

I've used seeds from weed that a friend gave me that was good weed, but after I grow it, harvest it, the potency isn't like the stuff that was smoked....help please?

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You have nutrients down to a SCIENCE?

You are struggling to grow a decent plant but you think you have nutrients down to a science?

I think you may be overestimating your knowledge by a lot.


Figuring out what types of lights to use is much easier than working out a solid nutrient schedule. Considering you havent worked out decent lights, thinking you have mastered nutrients requires a huge leap of faith.

i use 10 42 watt cfls in a 2x3 area and thats still not enough as far as im concerned . Lighting and soil, ventilation/air movement, most important factors ,then nutrients, (Ive learned the hard way less is more when it comes to nutes)and lastly plants just take longer to finish under cfls in my experience.Wait until pistils have curled into the bud ,turn red and calax's have swelled to the point it looks like they're gonna pop.Quality seed from a good breeder a definate ,you never know what your getting from a random bag seed ,may be better than original weed it came from but in most cases not.

hps or led will get you good weed but also gentics, pick the seeds that say 20+ thc content. then buy 20 females and let them grow.

luckybleu said:

i use 10 42 watt cfls in a 2x3 area and thats still not enough as far as im concerned . Lighting and soil, ventilation/air movement, most important factors ,then nutrients, (Ive learned the hard way less is more when it comes to nutes)and lastly plants just take longer to finish under cfls in my experience.Wait until pistils have curled into the bud ,turn red and calax's have swelled to the point it looks like they're gonna pop.Quality seed from a good breeder a definate ,you never know what your getting from a random bag seed ,may be better than original weed it came from but in most cases not.

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Interesting...

I hit my babies with as much nutrients as they can uptake. I push until the plant tells me it doesn't want any more, then I back off just a little.

I am all about pushing the feed.

gvillegirl said:

I'm on my 3rd grow with cfl's, use fox farm soil, closet grow, and half the time the weed doesn't get me as high as stuff bought from the dealer. I've read tons of stuff about nutrients, etc., and I've got that down to a science. I'm wondering if it's the lighting I use. How many lumens should I have in a 2x2 grow with 2 plants? I have 2 reflectors with 2 26w cfl in each. I use the blue ones for vegetative stage, and the soft white for the flowering stage.

I've used seeds from weed that a friend gave me that was good weed, but after I grow it, harvest it, the potency isn't like the stuff that was smoked....help please?

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Growing with 4 26w CFL's is not going to give you quality bud. When growing with CFL's, you need to look at the lumens, and generally higher watts = higher lumens = more light penetration. You need to completely surround your plant with bulbs... For my set up, I don't have any part of the plant that isn't within 6 inches of light, and I'm using 3 55w, 2 60w, and 5 26w - 6 bulbs on top and 4 on each side. And that's for one plant... I'll probably add more or replace some of the 26w when I grow more. Harvesting and curing also has a big impact on quality.

silasraven said:

hps or led will get you good weed but also gentics, pick the seeds that say 20+ thc content. then buy 20 females and let them grow.

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My favorite plants have nowhere near 20% thc.
I am much more concerned about the profile than I am about the THC percentage. In most cases, I have found thc percentages to be misleading.