Monster CFLs

First time grower, long time consumer. I'm using 2 MASSIVE cfls on 2 Hindu Skunk clones from Blue Sky in Oaksterdam. The lights are 105 watt, 4100K, 6500 lumen...supposedly equal to a 500 watt incandescent bulb.

The girls are 3 weeks old (to me), on 24 hour light, growing in Miracle Grow Moisture Control potting soil. They are THRIVING, yay!! Easily three times as big as when I got em. I water about once a week.... I topped the girls a week ago and tied them to the side a bit to get more light in the middle. I probably screwed up by not separating them in the very beginning, but the whole thing is a big experiment anyway. I'm trying to just leave em alone and let em do their thing. I plan to go to 12/12 once they reach 12" or so, another couple of weeks. My pics are too big to post, I'll take some smaller ones and post em soon.

Watering once a week? How dry do you let the soil get??

Depending on the soil mix and temps, there's nothing wrong with watering once a week. As long as your plants aren't laying down on the soil or drooping like
overdone pasta.
You'll probably want to add more light if you're waiting to flower until 12"

mrbunny said:

First time grower, long time consumer. I'm using 2 MASSIVE cfls on 2 Hindu Skunk clones from Blue Sky in Oaksterdam. The lights are 105 watt, 4100K, 6500 lumen...supposedly equal to a 500 watt incandescent bulb.
.

Click to expand...

6200 Lumen, my bad.

Sr. Verde said:

Watering once a week? How dry do you let the soil get??

Click to expand...

They have never gotten droopy, I let the soil get to the moist side of dry on my cheapo moisture meter. I think it's the Miracle Grow soil, it has perlite in it. I made sure the bucket has LOT of holes in the bottom and the soil is pretty loose, plus it's raised off the bottom of the tray so it doesn't ever sit in standing water . IT IS HARD NOT TO WATER THEM But I've always heard that over-watering is the #1 newbie problem. I'm trying to just let them be the weeds that they are..........

probo24 said:

Depending on the soil mix and temps, there's nothing wrong with watering once a week. As long as your plants aren't laying down on the soil or drooping like
overdone pasta.
You'll probably want to add more light if you're waiting to flower until 12"

Click to expand...

Should I flower them sooner than 12"? I can't really add light due to space/money constraints. I like the idea of tying and bending, but like I say, I'm a noob and this is my 1st shot at it. Any success at all will make me very happy.

Well if you're only using those two lights,
you can start flowering now and keep tying
the buds down. I might even try to get a halo of buds around the pot/bucket.
Think a circle of buds with those two lights
lowered right in the middle of the circle.
That's how i'd grow them if that were my only
two lights. I think that might get max bud growth from the lights.

Thanks SO much for the advice. I will try that. It's all good anyway. Thanks again.

I agree with probo. Flowering now and using lots of LST will be your best shot at hitting your max yield from those lights.

Keep us posted. I'm interested to see how it goes.

Not as interested as I am, lol... I took your advice and went to 12/12 and I'm about to do some gentle preliminary training. I think I have a pretty good idea of how I'm going open up the center more, I'll post some more pics when I've done it. I'm assuming that the REAL LST will begin after they start to flower, but I want to bring the major branches closer to the edges of the bucket.

I really like these lights, btw...perfect for my apartment. 12400 lumen @ 210 watt total draw....very bright and not hot. The bulbs are touchable, and I can keep em within an inch of the girls without any visible ill effects. Thx probo