12/12 from seed cfl grow.

chuey

Well-Known Member
I'm looking to start some seeds with 12/12 start to finish. I already know that the yeild per plant will be much less than if they were veg'ed. This is the way i choose for a few reasons. One being the electric, second i need them to stay small, and the main reason being the fact that that i have a gf that is against weed, and i don't have the time to tend to a larger plant, lst'ing and such. If i'm spending a bunch of time in the spot i'm using, sooner or later she'll check it out.

With that out of the way, i'm wondering if it would be ok to use 2 liter pop bottles with the tops cut off. I could pack my space full that way, and have around twice as many plants growing than if i went with larger pots. I can do this in the garage in the refrigerator, where she doesn't go. I wouldn't have to spend as much time out there training them and such. Would this be a sufficient size for root growth if growing 12/12 from seed?

Goal is to try and get 10 grams per plant. I'd actually be happy with 5 grams each as long as i get enough females. 10-14 grams per plant would be great though.:hump:

Thanks for reading.
 

crazy-mental

Well-Known Member
i would vegg 2 to 4 weeks.
its hardly worth it.
you will only get 1/4 a plant, with hps, nevermind flos.
what strain?.
 

chuey

Well-Known Member
1/4 a plant is fine with me, seeing as i'll have a good deal of plants growing. If only 20 turn outto be female, that could mean 5 oz. in a couple months. I know i could fit four in there and veg them, but i realy don't have the time to train them for good bud sites, and everything else that comes with larger plants.

Electricity and time must be kept low as poosible, and this fits the bill. Been doing alot of reading the past few days, and it seems that most are yielding ~14 grams a plant, upto an oz. with cfl's although there are some that are only getting about an 1/8. Strain plays a big role, i know. I don't expect to get close to an oz a plant, but as i said, even 5 grams a plant would pay off with 20-30 plants.

Half will be harvested a little earlier than others, to get more of an "up high", while the others i will let go to get the full couch lock effect. When the early half are getting close, I can fit another 8 or so in the door to start off, then fill the rest when the 1st plants are gone, starting another 8 in the door. Then the 2nd batch finishes, and i will fill the space again. I sould be able to get in 3 harvest this season, for the cost of 1 harvest with vegging.

I'm not sure what strain this is. It wasn't from a plant of mine. My cousin grew it, from bagseed i think. The buds were a little purple, crystally, HUGE, and smelled great. Had a hint of blueberry. Tasted amazing, and after 2-3 hits you pretty much had to put it out cus you were ripped. The buds were easily big around as a pop can, and a good 12 inches long. That plant was grown outdoors.

I remember smoking with a friend who had some decent mid-grade. We smoked about 3 bowls, and were pretty high. Came back later and packed up a bowl of this bud. She took 2 hits, and said she couldn't handle anymore.lol She could hardley funtion right for about 2 hours.
 

chuey

Well-Known Member
Another thing. I know there's a couple threads here somewhere, but i can't find them.

Is it better to have more lower watt bulbs or fewer higher watt bulbs? Say 32 13watt bulbs, having lights everywhere, or 16 26watt bulbs, with less lights near the plants.

Both setups are equal in watts, although i think that the 32 bulbs would be higher in lumens. Not positive though, still need to go look at the packages to be sure.

I would think that the 13watt bulbs would be best since there would be twice as many lights, letting almost every bit of the plants have a light right on them.

I don't know, what do you think?
 

40acres

New Member
Im pretty baked, but i would think 32, 26 watt bulbs would be the best. That way you have the best of both worlds.
 

jackonthebox

Well-Known Member
go for more light coverage. the 32 13 watts should be good, but like 40acres said, 32, 26 watts bulbs would be the best.
 

chuey

Well-Known Member
Thanks. I'm gonna go with 32 13watt bulbs. All 2700k, other than 8 6500k's mixed in. Will be giving mollases once a week after 2-3 weeks, or when I see that they've grown enough the use it.

Figure I'll go ahead and use the 2l bottles as well. I know the plants would yield more in larger pots, but then I'd also have half as many going, so it should pay off I hope.

I picked up 12 bulbs today, 8 6500k and 4 2700k. I'll buy more each week till I have them all. Also picked up all my single sockets, and 3 y-spliters. The single socket I got are the kind that screw into a light socket, have a plug in on the side, and another bulb screws in from the bottom.

When I wire this up, do I just put a plug between each socket and put power to the 1st one, or is that wrong?
 

chuey

Well-Known Member
Disreguard the wiring question, I found the answer.

I have changed my initial design for the cab. Originally I was going to use a refrigerator. But power has not been run to the garage yet, and I want to get started soon as I can. Therefore I have decided to gut a dryer and use the case in my basement. The exhaust fan will stay though. I'll filp the dryer over so the fan is exhausting the air from the top where all the heat will go anyway. It will be vented into a 5gal becket filled with cat litter, to mask the smell.

I can fit up to 42 2Liter bottles in this case. With 4.85 sq ft, I worked it out to be ~85watts per sq ft, and 5427 lumens per sq ft.

Does the watts/lumens per sq ft sound ok? Remember these plants will be relatively small, and have many lights all over them. How many should I throw in there 12/12 from seed with this setup. I would assume that 42 would be too much, even though they'll be small.
 

FilthyFletch

Mr I Can Do That For Half
Dont use the pop bottles as they are clear and light kills new roots ans stnts the growth. If you flower a plant from seed before its 8 nodes high its gonna take a lot longer to even show sex and flower and the yield will be almost nothing as the plant needs to be mature sexually to produce.If you grow from clones you can go 12/12 as soon as it roots.You can veg the plants then top them which will stop the upward growth for the most part keeping them short and bushy with more colas and can be done in 1 day so its not labor or time intensive as the lst method.Figure 6 26 watt cfls per plant minmal. With the cfls you will have to move them all daily and eventually a couple times a day so your time in that area will be great.If you bought a 250 watt hps light you can set it up and not have to move it but maybe once a week and will triple your yield without doing anything and to run a 250 watt hps on 12/12 will cost about $10 a month if even that.The amount of clfs your going to try and run will cause a big heat issues to so make sure you have good fans and venting going on as those cfls heat up when in bulk like that. The 250 hps will cost less yield more use less electricity and need alot less time so Id really reconsider your lights.Buy some 1/2 gallon plastic pots they cost like 30 cents..MAke sure you use good soil but if limited a good bag of Miracle grow moisture control can be found locally for under $15 for a 64 qt bag..Just water with 6.8 ph water no need for nutes..
 

chuey

Well-Known Member
I would love to go with an hps, but I have to purchase everything in very small amounts as to not draw any attention from the old lady. I've seen 12/12 grows that showed sex in 3 weeks, and yielded 1 1/2-2oz per plant. One for instance with 12 23watt cfl's and 6 plants. all showed sex in 2 weeks, 2 turned out male, the other 4 produced a little over an oz each, but I know that some strains just won't do that. I'm just keeping fingers crossed that this strain will do alright.

Definatley won't be trying 30 plants.lol Probley start with 15 or so and weed out the males. Hopefully end up with 8 or so females. If i end up with a large amount of females, then i'll swap out some of the 13's with 26's.
 

FilthyFletch

Mr I Can Do That For Half
You ve seen a 12/12 seedling grow that yieled 1 1/2 dry oz per plant?? Got a link as I need to see a popped immature not sexually ready plant produce that much as bigger plants under hps dont usually yield that much..A 250 hps at like home depot would cost like $40 with bulb..I have seen clones go right to 12/12 and yield good but clones are mature as they come from a mature parent
 

buster7467

Well-Known Member
If you could get 1 1/2oz off of a plant grown this way, everyone would be doing it. I find it hard to believe.
 

crazy-mental

Well-Known Member
where are the pics?.
would like to see, them against mine.
i also am growing 1 week old seedlings, at 12/12.
and have been for 2 weeks, they are 3 weeks old now, and still not showing.sex.
mine are under 600hps with the older plants i am flowering.
 

jackonthebox

Well-Known Member
mine were 4 weeks old when i changed them to 12/12 and its almost been two weeks and i'm not seeing nothing yet. but i'm starting to get worried they're males.
 

chuey

Well-Known Member
International Cannagraphic Magazine Forums - 12/12 From Seed: A Different Way To Grow Page 1 has a nirvana northern lights harvest, with 12 cfl's. Grow on page 4 got oover 1g per watt. On page 27 post #394, atmosphere shows 3 plants that were grown on 12/12.

There are 72 pages so far of people posting results of different strains with this method thast has been in use since the 80's. Most people don't use it cus of yeild per plant. Most are not going to get large amounts. But if you have 25 females flower that only produce 7g each, that's still 6.25oz that can be had with less electric usage, and in the same space as 1 good size mother.

Not for everyone, but for people with needs like myself, having to keep power usage at an absolute minimum, and trying to get as many harvest in as possible, it's a time tested method.

I'm not an expert by any means, couldn't be farther from it, but people results with this method speak for themselves.
 

raeman1990

Well-Known Member
hey yeah as some people said, even vegging for two weeks would be better. i started in 12/12 really soon and it takes long to show sex in 12/12 if the plant is young, even 2 weeks will help alot, plus better high
 

chuey

Well-Known Member
Haven't started yet. Still gettting everything together. Need 3 more lights, which I'll probley grab tomorrow. 104 watts per sq ft, and 6480 lumens per sq ft. 20 bulbs total in a 3 sq ft space, highly reflective cab.

I have to get the cab into the basement while the gf is gone. She won't go down there, it scares her lol. Then I have to make some mods for ventilation, reflectors for the bulbs, ect... I already have the 4" ~150cfm inline fan, and ducting. Going to vent it into the side of a 5gal bucket filled with cat litter with the top off.

I'm wondering though, if it would be better to run a duct from the cab into the bucket. Then have the lid on, and run the inline fan/duct through the lid. That way the fan is sucking through the litter, rather than pushing air through it. I'll have to experiment with it. It has to deal with the smell, but i also need to keep it as quiet as i can. Would be quiter with the fan in the cab blowing through the duct into the bucket, but we'll see how it works.

Start 15-20 seeds, hoping for 10 fems. If the sun shines on a dogs ass and I get too many fems, then I'll up the watts/lumens a little and give a few to a friend. Whatever I do I won't kill them.

On the advice earlier in this thread of light killing the roots, I will be painting the bottles or covering with duct tape. Actually, I may cover then with real ducting tape, the kind that's smooth silver, and very reflective.

Once everything is ready and the grow is moving, I'll post some progress reports. Really wish I knew what strain this is though, so I could know what to expect. I'm not putting all my eggs in this basket though. There will ba an outdoor grow as well incase this doesn't work out and it's too late. If i can get anything like the people in the link i posted, I'll be very happy. I'll be happy with half that much.lol
 

Istayz High

Well-Known Member
Here's what mine looks like right now. I put this baby in 12/12 from seed. Started with cfls but I am finishing her off with a 400 watt hps. She was an experiment.
 
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