My indoor grow is an outdoor grow?

if you grow indoors, i would use no less than 18 hours of lights, preferably 24 hours a day. if you're outdoor growing, let nature take it's course.

good luck.

NO GROW said:

A second thought. Are your plants getting a regular light cycle.

Do they go to the doors for sunlight at the same time everyday and do they get the same amount of cfl everday. If not then you need to get them on a good schedule.

A unusual light schedule will stress your plants and can cause problems.

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You might have a point NO GROW. My lighting schedule hasn't been very scientific - when the sun has alomost gone, about 8 or 8.30, I move them under the lights and leave them until 1 or 1.30 in the morning but sometimes later so I believe that their lighting schedule hasn't been the same every day - it has varied. I didn't think this would b a prob but if you're right about stress then, yes, it could b a factor.

sonofnothing said:

if you grow indoors, i would use no less than 18 hours of lights, preferably 24 hours a day. if you're outdoor growing, let nature take it's course.

good luck.

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Thanks 4 the input sonofnothing. That is the weird thing with my grow - it's like an outdoor grow but not completely becasue they r not outdoors but inside next to open balcony doors. They get good light all day (unless it's coudy) including direct sun for about 5 hours, but obviously they don't get the kind of uninterrupted all-round sun that they would if they were in, say, a garden. There is alimit to how much sun gets in my room because of things like buildings blocking it. I move them throughout the day to keep them in the sun as much as possible but it has limits.

Beaner said:

light will not turn your leaves any shade of yellow, if not properly hardened off the sun can burn a plant used to week flourecent lighting, but the leaves will look bleach white. supplemental lighting can't be bad for your plants, but the sun is more than you will need, i doubt your plant would notice the difference of a few extra cfls, though it will help from dusk till dawn...

when you say the first set of leaves turned yellow did you mean the coteledens? because that is normal, as is the bottom few sets of leaves over time, by flowering much of the bottom third of the sunleaves will yellow no matter what you do. if your plant is fairly young use about 1/4 strength, high nitrogen fertalizer (thats the first number N-P-K) never use more than half strength, marijuana is a weed and doesn't need as much as rated for tomatoes or cucumbers.

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Thanx 4 the input Beaner. The cotyledons turned yellow and died which I know is normal, but it's the first set of real leaves that is turning yellow. On four of the plants it hasn't got any worse (the leaves went lighter and then seemed to stabilise), but on one plant those first leaves are very yellow and look like dying, and now some of it's upper leaves are going yellow. I guess your right about the fert. Iguana Juice GROW was recommended to me - anybody know if it's any good? And does it have the right amouint of nitrogen 4 my prob? And someone else recommended BIOBIZZ GROW - anyone know anything about it?

Thanks all.

skip said:

Thanks 4 the input sonofnothing. That is the weird thing with my grow - it's like an outdoor grow but not completely becasue they r not outdoors but inside next to open balcony doors. They get good light all day (unless it's coudy) including direct sun for about 5 hours, but obviously they don't get the kind of uninterrupted all-round sun that they would if they were in, say, a garden. There is alimit to how much sun gets in my room because of things like buildings blocking it. I move them throughout the day to keep them in the sun as much as possible but it has limits.

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i understand the situation. but i would seriously just choose one or the other.. if you don't get anymore than 5 hours or so of direct sunlight, that's not really enough, in my eyes...
and if you put them under some flouros 24/0 in your closet, that baby will grow grow grow.
it's up to you.
good luck

I also did a combo inside/outside grow (see the link below my name). I harvested one plant Saturday and still have another "ripening". The biggest risk of growing outside, other than being discovered, is insects, especially spider mites. Once you get spider mites, they can quickly suck the life out of your plants. Examine your plants daily, especially under the leaves and near the bottom. Look for little black (or red) dots and the eggs will usually be pale covered.

Anyway, your plants will thrive in natural sunlight. You'll get nice tight buds. When they are outside, you'll need someone around just in case the weather changes suddenly - you don't want your plants getting unscheduled waterings. Good luck.

hearmenow said:

I also did a combo inside/outside grow (see the link below my name). I harvested one plant Saturday and still have another "ripening". The biggest risk of growing outside, other than being discovered, is insects, especially spider mites. Once you get spider mites, they can quickly suck the life out of your plants. Examine your plants daily, especially under the leaves and near the bottom. Look for little black (or red) dots and the eggs will usually be pale covered.

Anyway, your plants will thrive in natural sunlight. You'll get nice tight buds. When they are outside, you'll need someone around just in case the weather changes suddenly - you don't want your plants getting unscheduled waterings. Good luck.

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Thanx 4 the advice hearmenow. I enjoyed seeing your pics - looks like you know what you're doing. Can I ask you what exactly you did with the indoor part of your grow? I mean did you get them in and put them under lights every evening, or just some days?

I've no garden and live on the first floor and so the balcony doors is my only option. Anyway it means that I don't have to worry about the rain as you mentioned.

Not sure if sonofnothing is right about 5 hours of direct sun being not enough (anyone care to comment?) but I thought I was doing the smart thing in also giving the plants extra supplemental lighting, until the guy at the shop said to stop it. A lot of people have since said they think extra lighting shouldn't hurt so maybe I'll go back to using the cfl's in the evenings. I plan to flower in a growroom that i'm building (where I'll also by doing a winter entirely indoor grow).

Skip, you are on the right path. I would put my plants out at about 7am when the sun was out, right up until about 6 pm, when the light would begin to fade. Then I'd take them and finish the 18 hour light cycle under the lights. Make sure you have lots of light because if you go from sunlight to very weak lighting, you risk males or hermies. Once I got into veg stage, I've been doing about 80% outside and 20% under lights - weather and risk of discovery being the deciding factors. Good luck!!

hearmenow said:

Skip, you are on the right path. I would put my plants out at about 7am when the sun was out, right up until about 6 pm, when the light would begin to fade. Then I'd take them and finish the 18 hour light cycle under the lights. Make sure you have lots of light because if you go from sunlight to very weak lighting, you risk males or hermies. Once I got into veg stage, I've been doing about 80% outside and 20% under lights - weather and risk of discovery being the deciding factors. Good luck!!

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Sounds good. The hermie possibility gives me another thing to consider (just one of many with weed growing lol). My supplemental lights at this stage are 5 x 25w cfl's (6500 lumens) so not bad but not anything like 400 or 600 watts of hps. I will be flowering under something bigger but have yet to buy it. Can I ask you what lights yr using? Sorry if u already mentioned it and i missed it. Thanks again 4 alll yr helpful comments.

hearmenow -
just been reading through your journal. It's great stuff, sounds like you had a really funky time, battling green worms and other stuff. I got another question 4 u if u got the time and feel up to helping: at what point did u transplant, and at what stage did u consider yr plants were in veg stage? Yeah I know, that's 2 questions, lol...

No problem - always willing to help a fellow grower, like others on here have helped me. I have 7 CFLs that I used for vegging and flowering. I don't recall the exact specs but they range from 1500 lumens to 2500 lumens. When the plants were smaller, I used the reflectors but as they got taller, I removed the reflectors so I could lower between the plants for side lighting.

I transplanted my girls after I saw about 6 sets of alternating nodes - the plants were anywhere from 12-18" at the time. Expect them to at least double and perhaps triple in height. I would strongly recommend you topping them - it's the one thing I wish I could go back and do. Instead of one main cola of bud and smaller offshoots of small bud, you can get 3 or 4 main colas full of thich bud.

Can you bring an indoor plant outside? Is it okay to force it to show sex indoors and then bring it outside...I'm probably under 12-14 hours of sunlight dusk to dawn.