Vitalume+Cfls Grow, 2nd grow. Pics!

these pics dont really accurately show the size, sorry.

Bagseed, closet grow, 200W vitalume 6500k, 3x 3000k/2700k 23watters, 1x30W 3000k, 1 2700k 13W, so roughly 230W or so. i have 2 fans for circulation, GH flora(grow/bloom/micro) nutes, MG organic soil (best i could find), 2.5gal pots. Ive been bending and tying for the last few weeks, and its made a vast improvement on the plant in the second photo (same one as on the left in the first), but i broke the stalk of the other plant, so its growth has been substantially slowed down. Aside from that, some light burn, and a few rather minor nute problems (as far as i can tell), im really happy with them. I'm starting flowering soon, i cant wait to see all those beautiful tops fatten up into delicious colas

cheers!

You got some nice looking plants there. Hope they end up female, or at least 1 does, bagseed have a tendency to get alot of male seeds.

What do you think about the vitalume 200w? I have the same bulb and am using it. I am eager to hear what and how you have it running.

look great.... remember do your bending after watering, not when your plant is dry and it should reduce the risk of your hurting/damaging your babies

thanks for the tip venix! 40acres, I'm not positive mine is actually a Vitalume, it was given to me, i dont have much info on it, but its basically the same thing(ballast in the hood, mogul base, ect ect). I really like it for vegging, as far as heat goes, i took the glass off my reflector and my plants can actually grow into the bottom of the reflector without burning, just a couple centimeters from the bulb. I did my last plant under just the 200w and veg was great, buds were really airy and light, but i dont think it was the light alone that was the problem, i was really inexperienced and didnt have a big enough pot/right nutes/whatever. I think in conjunction with a few other CFLs its a fantastic setup.

homegrownboy, the little one was stressed enough a few weeks ago to start preflowering, female, and the bigger one has shown 2 little tiny preflowers, also female. not for sure, but its looking good

edit: forgot to mention, there was a male, but he was the tiniest one anyway.

I know when i put a plant directly underneath my vitalume it seems to double in size within days. Anytime i seem to have a weak plant I place it directly underneath the bulb. I am using the 200 in the middle, and then using a 65, and a few 43w warm to flower with. Buds arent as tight as hps would be, but they aren't going to float on air like most cfl buds you see.

that gives me some hope, im getting more and more excited.

one more question, i have 2 waterfarm hydro buckets, im growing in dirt now but i hate to see the buckets just sit there unused. is there anything i can do with them? possibly set up an auto-watering type thing, or at very least just use the buckets, theyre bigger than the ones im using now. Are 2 gallon pots too small for plants this size?

I would use them and see what you can do. Especially if you already have them. keep us updated.

40acres said:

I know when i put a plant directly underneath my vitalume it seems to double in size within days. Anytime i seem to have a weak plant I place it directly underneath the bulb. I am using the 200 in the middle, and then using a 65, and a few 43w warm to flower with. Buds arent as tight as hps would be, but they aren't going to float on air like most cfl buds you see.

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CFL bud floats?...i wanna see that...lol. Actually the only reason the cfl bud is fluffy is because people aren't using enough lights to properly cover there plant...i had a plant under cfl's during flowering and my buds turned out almost as good as my hps bud. The proper amount of light is important...cfl's work great if you can keep them about 1" from the plant...but you need to have at least 1 light on each bud site in order to acchieve nice tight bud. CFL lummens degrade very quickly...thus the reason you need ALOT of them to get good results. In my opion if your going to grow with cfl's don't grow more then 1 plant...and have at least 5 lights per plant during your veg stage...and be prepared to at least double the amount of lights during your flowering period. In total with some patience and observation between my 2 rooms...i went with 7 bulbs for veg, and 14 when i flowered, sounds like overkill i know...but i was NOT dissapointed with my results.

well i started my flowering today and will be adding 3 more bulbs, hopefully, in the next week, so there will be 4cfls to each plant before the vitalume is factored in. I think if i keep problems to a minimum it should be some nice tight buds.

more questions, while im at it!

Im going away for 4 days on the 20th, and im a little worried about burning. I have someone whos going to come once or twice a day to make sure things are alright and water if neccesary, but im not sure theyd be able to move the lights easily, would it be smart for me to move the lights a few more inches away for those 4 days? i know theyre going to stretch more during the start of flowering, and i dont want any brown leaves when i get back!

I set up a bucket with a tube floro for my northern lights seedling, which has now doubled in size, and growing its third leaves. and i now have 10 seeds given to me by a friend, supposedly white widow.

Dont get me wrong, I am not talking bad about cfl's or what they produce. I grow with cfl's and am getting fairly good results for how relatively short my experience is. what I am saying, where you agreed, is that most people don't use enough light in their cfl grows, which leads to all sorts of threads starting with, "it's week 6, how come my plant still looks like a seedling?"
This cat is putting a good amount of cfl's in his grow and i applaud him for it.

Move the lights back a bit for the four days. I'd top them off with water and/or a little bit of nutes if you feel comfortable. They should be fine for four days. If you have trustworthly people to check on 'em then all should be fine.

it all keeps getting better! Stocking up on more CFLs and splitters tomorrow, hopefully some big 42W ones. I found a mattress air pump today that im going to try and modify to be a little less powerful, so it can be an exhaust fan. it would fit perfectly.

and also, my new grow room that i found, and ill be moving into, is a perfect light tight closet thats probably about 3x3x7 or so, im splitting it vertically, with flowering on the top, possibly under hps, or more big cfls. Under it will be a big veg chamber somehow. or something to that effect.

suspect54 said:

it all keeps getting better! Stocking up on more CFLs and splitters tomorrow, hopefully some big 42W ones. I found a mattress air pump today that im going to try and modify to be a little less powerful, so it can be an exhaust fan. it would fit perfectly.

and also, my new grow room that i found, and ill be moving into, is a perfect light tight closet thats probably about 3x3x7 or so, im splitting it vertically, with flowering on the top, possibly under hps, or more big cfls. Under it will be a big veg chamber somehow. or something to that effect.

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Those matress air pumps are built (Chinese, probably) to be run no more than 30 minutes.

if you mean, no more than thirty minutes, you probably have a point, i came across it and figured it might be useful for something or another.

maybe ill have to get an air mattress for it to be useful though..

Yea, sorry.. there must have been a reason for that...

just got a 70W hps floodlight and 6 more CFLs. is there such thing as too much light? sofar, heat hasnt been a problem, well see if it becomes one.

suspect54 said:

just got a 70W hps floodlight and 6 more CFLs. is there such thing as too much light? sofar, heat hasnt been a problem, well see if it becomes one.

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More light = faster growth and higher yield

The only downside to more light is more heat.

both plants just showed sex at 5 days of flowering. funn stufff.

the hps hasnt been setup and neither have some of the lights, the hps doesnt like to be used on the same circuit with the other stuff. kindof a bitch. but who cares, im officially budding