new grower !! CFL LST help and advice please!

alright this is my first grow, trying to keep it as simple as possible no fancy shit,
i have got 3 cfls is 20W red spec bulbs and 2 15W blue spec daylight bulbs,i also have a little PC fan just to keep some air circulating and keeping the temp slightly down. made a reflector using cardboard and maylar, lined the box with maylar as well.
its day 17 for 3 of them and 1 is on day 15 they seem to be looking alright,
2 of them are in the same pot i kno this isn't ideal but they are only there as testers seeing as i have more space, they are very stretched as they were the furthest from the lights.
i'm using bag seeds from some thai weed, any advice will be well appreciated remembering that i have a very low budget.

you are gonna need alot more light.


My advice would be this,

Go get yourself something like a 200w ECO CFL Red spectrum to use over head. Change all your 20w bulbs to blue spectrum . hang them around the sides. Switch to 12/12 and continue LST'ing them for 4weeks in to 12/12 . try to keep all your canopies at the same height. Throw away males and see what happens.


J

more light. get at least 23w 6000k cfl bigger if you can but they are cheap at any home depot type store. 5 or six bucks for a 3 pack. keep em short by topping or lst and then switch to 2300k lights for flowering

thanks i have one more red spec 20w cfl that i could put in, if i take out those 2 lanky plants will i have enough light for the others, and how much does it matter about red and blue spec for veg and flowering because yh i have a really small budget i would like to work around what i've got or can easily get and i'm from the UK so anyone know some good shops where i can get better lights if necessary

DAY 19: i've transplanted my plants into slightly bigger pots mixed in some fertilizer from my wormer, not sure if i should starting nutes or will the wormer compost stuff sort out my plants for a wile?
i improved my LST before i was using rubber bands now using string, starting to get loads of side shoots with a second set of leaves for some of the shoots.
the other 2 crappy plants in the same pot have been removed from the box and i have left them in my garden and just gonna see what happens to them
these are some pics from 2day..

easy fella. cheap grow is my kinda thing. i was thinking off getting a cheap t5 light off e bay but managed to find a hps 150 with reflector and bulb and ballast and delivery 40 english pounds. do your cfl give off alot off heat? my hps gives off abit but not as much as i thought. works well as have a cold house. good luck with your grow will keep an eye on it. also wot nutes you thinking off using? am trying to pick myself but so many out there dunno which ones to go for. also get confused when i hear some people using 2 - 4 different types nutes during flowering?

hello matey. nice ideas and good luck to you. i no u on low funds same as me but if want boost for flowering time get a cheap 150w hps. it doesnt throw off much heat with th right bulb, is bright and cheap as chips. mine was 40 squid with bulb ballast reflector and delivery. just browse ebay. and with them cfls you could use as side lighting wood get some good results. not saying you wont as you r but lil bit hps love cant b a bad thing for the ladys.

yh i have looked at them and was considering getting one but my problem is the electricity, my dads already on my case just for these small CFLs :/ and as for nutes i'm not really using much, in my garden i have access to a worm bin, basically you put in old food and stuff and all these worms eat it us and poo it out but there shit is really good organic nutes and i mixed a small amount into my soil when i transplanted, i'm not sure yet if i'm going to use nutes on top of this maybe in a couple of weeks and i've only got some seaweed liquid stuff to mix in with my water don't really kno much about it myself. and CFLs put out hardly any heat but i did have them too close earlier on in my grow and my leaves started turning upwards

alright guys i have seen a few signs of spider mites , not sure if i'm being paranoid and over looking things or i have hopefully caught it before it get worse but have a look please, also in these pics you cant see the little white dots i can see on my leaves but i can only see them in my grow box for some reason, please someone prove me wrong

the yellow-ish leaves have been there for quite a wile but i think that was from me slightly burning them and some of the leaves were turning up

yeah i was massively put off hps by the electric and heat but am pleasantly suprised with mine so far. i wanted an led set up as i have seen some good results with them. also no heat so choppers dont see a heat source. but to expensive to by now so settled with a low power hps. kicks out so much light and keeps temps up
. i have a couple of wrinckled leafs to but im putting that down to low temps at night as i dont have a chamber or tent to grow in just yet nor a fan so dont get near as much air as they should be. that or my soil is to strong on nutes. i no the ph is just right in it but its high in nutes so could b that i guess. i hoping as they get bigger they will get hardened to it. yeah that hole in your leaf is a bit off a worry matey.

i'm hoping soooo much that my first grow isn't going to be overtaken by some little bugs getting really worried HELP PEOPLE

plenty good treatments out there if does turn out to be bugs. not th end, if you treat early enough. hear normal water shower gets rid to. but i wood wait till you sure. good luck. try looking on line bout mites and see if any pictures simular to wot you have. think th yellowing is just the heat damage or nute burn but cant help with the wrinkles nor the hole sorry and good luck

just passed my 3rd week quite proud of my budget grow so far
some of the yellow leaves are from heat damage from earlier on in the grow, but i've noticed that some of the leaves are curled but this could be to do with them pressing against the edges of my box, but not 100% sure so what is usually the cause of this?




do you think i can trim some of my leaves because of my LST most of the big leaves are getting in the way and covering my new side roots which by the way are growing really good so far but i keep moving the big leaves out the way but it would be a lot easier to trim the ends off , do you think this would be possible ? and i'd like to get a rough idea when my plant would be ready to harvest? i kno i havent started flowering or anything but just a basic guess would be really helpful

the curling could be a number of things mate, they are young plants still and I find in soil they tend to go through phases- look at some of the time lapse weed grows on youtube, that put my mind at ease when I was growing soil because you really see how the plants react better if you watch it all together. For sure with your LST you can cut off lower fan leaves. have you seen the state of the underside of the scrog in my grow? shes stripped bare. cut the leaves at the base of the stems but remember DONT go wild, you are growing in soil and your plants will take a lot of their nutes from your fan leaves. if you are 3 weeks into veg then you want to veg her for at least another 2 but again, do some research on your strain some prefer 6 weeks veg to 5. then you are looking at between 8-10 (on the outside dependent on strain) flowering.
so you are looking at around the 8th to the say perhaps 20th of june. this is a rough guess and dont hold me to it!

Also I would be bending those outer notes out a bit more, perhaps tie em to holes in the rim of your pot, not too much mind, but valuable light could be getting in there and its not.

Your plants are looking real sweet for their age but I couldn't tell you if that's mites, keep a sharp eye, its easy enough to deal with but DO NOT TREAT unless you are certain!

Hope I have been of some help I am a bit medicated and rambling!

just get one 1000wat hps will solve all problem

I agree a HPS would be the thing to make it all good but i dont think 1000 watts is strictly necessary! 250 wd do it but rufus is on a budget so its snot so simple as buying 1k of light! although remember its rare to get more weed than watts - 250 watts no more than 250g if you get me. Most of the time its less but aim for a gram a watt, its like the target so you can always cover your electric costs.

yh thanks for the advice guys, to be honest i dont think i am going to be buying any hps or anything, i'm trying to keep buying stuff to only necessities and my cfls seem to be working ok, gonna try to do as best i can for these bag seeds of thai, and for my next grow after these upgrade my lighting system and ventilation to invest in some nice feminized seeds of some niceee skunk trimmed some of my leaves getting more light to the ever growing new nodes , i'll be posting some pics in a few days

alright guys its week 4 my plants are still growing healthy, havent seen any signs of mites or bugs i think i was just getting scared before the groth on my plants seems to be slowing down a bit and i have noticed on the very first 2 leaves (not the rounded ones the first proper set) have turned yellow?? is this normal or should i be doing something about it ? and the new leaves are quite dark blue/green , is this bad?

my LST is going great getting my side shoots really growing strong i've got 2 different plants as you know but one is a lot closer to the lights and is kno where near as stretched and no where near as bushy really hoping there gonna be females or at least the stronger plant , thinking about starting to flower next week, 2 be honest i think they could do with a lot longer but i kinda wanna get them smokeable my summer holidays , oh yh and by the way any estimates on how much i will yield?? its a thai plant growing under 2 15W 5600K cool white bulbs and one 20W red spec bulb (don't know any details about them) and for plowering i can either add another 20W red spec or swap the red spec 1 for one of the 15W day light ones ,,, if you need some more info please ask tell me what you think

some of the lower leaves on my plant are turning yellow but i don't know why, all the top leaves look healthy ??? why is this happening?