Meave's first CFL grow, short stuff #1

meave · Jan 13, 2011

Hi all,

Ok, i'm now on day 14, but only just got a new battery for my camera, so
here goes ...

Seed : Short Stuff seeds, "Short Stuff #1", 3 germinated (out of 4) (<24 hrs)
Soil : B&Q general purpose compost (This stuff)
Lights : 1x 125W Blue , 1x 125W Red

Will report progress as and when.
Next milestone : Day 17. when hopefully there will be nothing to report !

Please feel free to comment.

kindbuds614 · Jan 13, 2011

Wach for reflective hot spots not a big proublem with with what your useing but some vegies can get burnt...Good luck.

meave · Jan 13, 2011

kindbuds614 said:
Wach for reflective hot spots not a big proublem with with what your useing but some vegies can get burnt...Good luck.

Mmm Cheers for that, i'll keep an eye out, no signs of any probs (yet !)
It's a first grow so as you can guess i'm checking it every 25 minutes !

meave · Jan 16, 2011

Ok, nearing end-of-day 17 .... no obvious signs of sex yet, so either they're fems
or they're some of those special non-autoflowering autoflowerers i've read about.
Must sort out the close-up feature of my camera (or try to get a shot through my loupe !)

Btw, this grow was inspired by this thread (from a forum far far away).

meave · Jan 19, 2011

Ok,
Day 20 .... and i'm pretty sure they're all female !
:-P

Switched to the red cfl on day 17, mainly using that with a quick blast of blue
occasionally. Still only giving them water (filtered - only the best for my plants !)
..may give them a shot of tomato feed ...

Here are some pictures taken through a x15 loupe,
(better than i expected), definitely showing evidence of femaleness ..

and without the loupe ...

Some lower leaves are a bit discoloured, probably over heating whan i switched
on the red light - temp got up to ~40°C for a while !! :dunce:

Anyway, according to my plan the next milestone will be the harvest (on or
around day 60 (if i can resist the temptation ...))

Don't touch that dial.

meave · Jan 24, 2011

Yo !

Day 24 update.
Well they're definitely all female (3 out of 3 - result !! (+1 which didn't germ))

I have now added a temperature controlled switch to the fan - so i don't need to keep
opening the cabinet to cool it down ...

Using this kit - £5.99 from maplins (radio shack in USA) to control the fan which
was £2.99 from QD (it's a car fan with the cigarette lighter plug cut off.). The power
supply is a 12V DC supply borrowed from my scanner (plugged into one
of these from maplins.)

Here are the pictures, the plants are still doing well under the 125W 2700K CFL,
still no nutes, although i will give them a dose of tomato feed later today.

Next project ... filters !! The smell is starting to become noticable
outside the bedroom ...!!!!

meave · Jan 24, 2011

Oh, BTW ... feel free to comment !

azza427 · Jan 24, 2011

hey mate awesome looking plants. i have been told that if u are using cfls red spectrum and blue if u just have both on for the time u leave ur lights on for u will get a better growth of buds. just wat iv been told. o and why u change the lights so early is it a hight of cabnet issue

Oldreefer · Jan 24, 2011

Cheers on your auto grow....give'em all the light you can, control your temps, schedule your feeding and you'll reap the rewards.....

meave · Jan 24, 2011

azza427 said:
hey mate awesome looking plants. i have been told that if u are using cfls red spectrum and blue if u just have both on for the time u leave ur lights on for u will get a better growth of buds. just wat iv been told. o and why u change the lights so early is it a hight of cabnet issue

I sometimes put both lights on, but usually just the one due to heating issues, that's why i've just added the temperature
controlled fan. I'm hoping to have them both on - the more light the merrier !
Maybe i will get a smaller blue spectrum bulb (26W or what ever i can get hold of) to supplement the red.
I Changed the bulbs at around day 17 because that's when they were due to start flowering .. this is my first indoor grow so
i'm just playing it by ear so far , but they seem to be pretty healthy so ...... !

azza427 · Jan 24, 2011

yeah they are looking good cant wait to see them grow

badnews · Jan 24, 2011

Looking very good. Nice and tight, no stretching. How long do you reckon they'll be? It's always longer than it says on the packet. I'll forward the link to our mobile home growing friends grow diary as soon as he sends it to me.

badnews · Jan 25, 2011

Are they not showing pre-flowers by now? It's hard to tell from the pictures.

meave · Jan 26, 2011

Pre-flowers ?!
They're showing POST flowers already.. after about 20 days !
They're autoflowers, so what i was hoping for.
Harvest should be around 56 days, but probably i bit longer (if we can resist...)
Pop round and see 'em for yourself !
I'll try and get some clearer pics later on.

meave · Jan 26, 2011

Ok, here are the latest portraits of the little beauties ....
(Don't know which is what, they all look pretty much the same and i haven't
given them names.)

badnews · Jan 26, 2011

Beautiful. I'll nip round at the weekend. How's the smell going?

meave · Jan 26, 2011

badnews said:
... How's the smell going?

Lovely !!

Have put up one of them there reed diffusers which has disguised it a fair bit.
It's not too much of a problem - we can open the window a bit at night if necessary i suppose.
You'll have to tell us what you think ...

meave · Jan 28, 2011

Day 30 ....

Apart from this slight panic, all's well.

I have taken to freezing a bottle of water and placing it in front of the temperature controlled fan (see above) as
it was just blowing hot air around. This keeps the temp down if i want to go out and leave the cabinet closed
with both lights on.

OOoooooooooooooooooohhhh, can't wait !

makaspliff · Feb 1, 2011

Looking good. A carbon filter extractor fan would be useful for lowering the temperature and the smell.
Best of luck.

meave · Feb 10, 2011

Oh well, nothing much to report, except everything's going well and
2 of the plants are fine (although 1 is 3-4" taller than the other one !)
I've removed 1 from the light box as it was looking a bit suspect (here is the story about that). It looks female
but just a few whispy female type bits - maybe a bit retarded. I'm hoping it
might go hermy and produce a few seeds ! If it's still alive when the others have been
harvested i might put it back in the light and see what happens. Or maybe just
smoke the bugger !

Here are a few piccies ...

This is the "suspect" in quarantine...

Meave's first CFL grow, short stuff #1

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