Some of my worries

Hey guys,
I've currently got a CFL grow going on, you can check it out at the link in my sig.
I've got some questions though. Is it worth LSTing if I am only vegging for 2-3 weeks? I've heard it only increases the yield noticeably if you veg for 1 month +
Also I have only got 5x 20w CFL's set up (well going to be set up) 4 above the plants and 1 for side lighting. I've figured this is around 3000 lumens/sq foot, is this enough? I mean I know the plant will grow under pretty much any light but I want to flower them under these lights and get a decent yield. What do you guys think I could pull yield wise with this setup?

I know these are mostly stupid questions you can only answer very imprecisely I just felt like I needed a thread to empty all of my paranoia into XD thanks in advance guys.

Birdyboy said:

Hey guys,
I've currently got a CFL grow going on, you can check it out at the link in my sig.
I've got some questions though. Is it worth LSTing if I am only vegging for 2-3 weeks? I've heard it only increases the yield noticeably if you veg for 1 month +
Also I have only got 5x 20w CFL's set up (well going to be set up) 4 above the plants and 1 for side lighting. I've figured this is around 3000 lumens/sq foot, is this enough? I mean I know the plant will grow under pretty much any light but I want to flower them under these lights and get a decent yield. What do you guys think I could pull yield wise with this setup?

I know these are mostly stupid questions you can only answer very imprecisely I just felt like I needed a thread to empty all of my paranoia into XD thanks in advance guys.

Click to expand...

With CFL's the proper color(6500 veg/2700 flower) you can get away with 60 watts per plant easily. Anything less than 50 per plant is starving it.

The lst question I would wait to see the height of the plant- if it looks like its top will fold out of the way of the lower foliage and not be at an extreme angle go for it. My guess is that 2-3 weeks it will be too short to bother with but if yer interested in doing it- just make sure you're not bending it for nothing. If it gets significantly more light down low then do it.


CFL's plus a proper strain/soil can do wonders, but it is a bit unrealistic to assume anything more than 2 grams per watt, 1 gram per watt is considered doing well- more than that is advanced technique or 24 hour lighting on autos.

I have a thread concerning a very basic growing method that produced very respectable results- You can see that here:
https://www.rollitup.org/cfl-growing/390510-some-words-autos-cfls.html

thanks for the help wallstreet +rep

Lst is used to maximize your lighting, if you dont plan on having more side lighting for sure lst it,(more sidelighting is still a great idea with lst as well, youll get denser bigger buds) it will mean you get probally 6-12 main colas(3 weeks veg under cfl=at absolute least 3 nodes tall, should be more like 5-6 though instead of just one main cola and a bunch of popcorn buds. I would not go under 100w a plant, i'd go for 200w+ myself. How much are you looking for a harvest? Look at this as an investment, it will pay you back many times over. little 26w cfls are cheap as hell, get a bunch and totally bathe the plant in light from all angles. I mean at max it will run you $30ish probally, so its not even a big investment.

hey dude, I see you're worrying about your lady quite a lot! You've got 100watts of CFL, but what spectrums are the bulbs at? if I was doing a 5 bulb set up, and they were only 20w bulbs, i'd go with 4 blue (6400k) and 1 red (2700k) for veggin, and then swap them over for flowering, but personaly, I would use more light. I'm only growing one plant, and I'm using nearly 400watts of CFL for Veggin, and then 750watts of CFL for Flowering. Lots of light, but then I love my lady enough to spoil her! My theory with light is, if you use 200watts for Veggin, then you should know when your plant goes into flowering, its going to grow twice as big, so twice as much red light (minimum) is needed for flowering, than blue light for veggin, and also remember, when the plants go to sleep, they start to flower, so keep them pumped with blue until they are half the finishing size you want, then pump them suckers with red light! hope this helps dude , as for LST, you may see much better results doing under CFL, although I would personaly wait until 5 or 6 nodes have appeard, and top your plant off at the 2nd true node, this will give you four nice big main colas, and lots of popcorn buds. I'm not worried personaly about getting too mcuh light to my ladies because I have enough wattage to light up harrods! Keep us informed dude!

And as for Lumens, I would come off of that track asap. Its not just the lumens you want to worry about, its the Spectrums that are being given out. Obviously brighter is better, but not if the light is in the 3000k-5000k mark, as this emits mainly green light, something the plants dont like very much! Remember this my friend, Lumens is a measure of brightness to a human eye, so unless your lady is growing with a set of eye balls, I wouldnt worry too much, focus more on Wattage per sq ft, and remember because an 11w CFL is equal to a 60w Incandescent, doesnt mean it will give out 60w! it still only gives out 11. Sorry about the lenghtyness man, just wanna share knowledge and bring it all together for those in need!

wallstreet said:

With CFL's the proper color(6500 veg/2700 flower) you can get away with 60 watts per plant easily. Anything less than 50 per plant is starving it.

The lst question I would wait to see the height of the plant- if it looks like its top will fold out of the way of the lower foliage and not be at an extreme angle go for it. My guess is that 2-3 weeks it will be too short to bother with but if yer interested in doing it- just make sure you're not bending it for nothing. If it gets significantly more light down low then do it.


CFL's plus a proper strain/soil can do wonders, but it is a bit unrealistic to assume anything more than 2 grams per watt, 1 gram per watt is considered doing well- more than that is advanced technique or 24 hour lighting on autos.

I have a thread concerning a very basic growing method that produced very respectable results- You can see that here:
https://www.rollitup.org/cfl-growing/390510-some-words-autos-cfls.html

Click to expand...

Damn...I am using 184w total on my cfl grow for one plant during veg that is. Ill most likely up that for flower. Still if your saying 2 grams per watt is ideal...then even if I dont do everything right, it wouldnt be unreasonable of me to expect maybe 1 gram per watt. That equates to roughly 6 oz. For one plant thats a ton..woohoo. You made my day TohToh....glad I popped in on this thread.

GL Birdy on the grow man..I worry all the time as its my first one...lol. Im sure that I will worry on all of them from here on out.


Arch

dude, he meant that 2 grams per watt was being very very hopeful, and you probably wouldnt get that, and if youre getting over 1g per watt then your probably using some advanced technique (I assume SuperCropping or LST) under 24h of light using Auto Flowering plants. xD

Think along the lines of 0.5g/watt if your lucky!

waiting till its 5-6 nodes high and then topping after the second true node makes no sense.

darkdestruction420 said:

waiting till its 5-6 nodes high and then topping after the second true node makes no sense.

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Wait until the plant is a good few weeks old, and you have a good 4 or 5 nodes on it, and the stem has had time to get nice n strong, then cut the plant back at the 2nd node, the first time the leaves grow the opposite way. and then put her into flowering, youll have a nice supported stem so that when your plant doubles its size, and the 4 main colas grow heavy, the nodes will naturaly just fall away from each other and the stem will hold them all, instead of having to use support. I just read up on this technique and I used it last time for my greenhouse grow, and it worked wonderfully for me.