First CFL Grow - Help appreciated

Just getting used to the site but love how informative it is and how helpful everyone seems to be so I thought I would start a grow journal.

I'm growing 12 plants at the moment all started 2/9/09.

4 of the plants are a super crazy Goo x Spider Kush and the rest are unknowns.

I'm growing in a small closet currently vegging with 10 23w CFLs and will then be budding with 3 68w and 4 23w CFLs.

The plants at this point are doing very well. I repotted them all yesterday for the third and final time and they seemed to really enjoy the extra space. Looking nice and perky this morning.

I have limited space as I live in a small apartment and cant have these guys smelling the place up all too much so i'm thinking of starting them on a 12/12 schedule very soon. I would like comments about this. The plants are very short - like 4" but are putting up their 5th set of leaves. My 13th plant is a bit of a mystery - first to sprout and grew its first two leaves and then stopped. Been putting out roots like no other but it's like the shoot apical meristem gave up.

Was looking at other's grow journals and was thinking that my plants are quite short for the amount of leaves they have. Should i raise lights and try to stretch them alittle before changing to 12/12?

How far away have you been keeping the lights? Have you been monitoring the distance daily?

A good distance is about 2-4 inches from the plant. Some strains of plants will just be shorter and bushier than others, but where you position the lights plays a key role. If you have your lights too close, they will encourage the plant to be more bushy and shorter.

You can try repositioning the lights so that they are not directly above the plants (if they are) but instead put several lights off to a side angle to encourage a more well rounded growth.

Hope this helped

Gastanker said:

Was looking at other's grow journals and was thinking that my plants are quite short for the amount of leaves they have. Should i raise lights and try to stretch them alittle before changing to 12/12?

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I wouldn't change anything and start 12/12 now. The smell thing will exist though regardless if it is a smelly strain.

I've been keeping the lights as close as possible without burning - about 2 inches in general. These definately seem to be the bushy type but i was thinking i want one main cola vs many smaller ones if im going to start budding while they are small. thought stretching em might help provide bud space between the nodes on the main stem.

they'll stretch when you flower them, nothing to worry about

Uhg...to flower now or wait a week. Any suggestions? Keep in mind its a very small area and I have 12 plants currently.

And for my soil... Don't get mad at me but i'm using miracle grow moisture control mixed with a generic soil and i've added 1/3 teaspoon organic bone meal to each pot (1-11-0). I'm watering with a 24-6-18 diluted to 1/10 recommended dosage. Neither home depot nor the local nursery has any decent fertilizers...but ill be happy to take recomendations on dosages of what i am currently using.

realized how little space I actually have for the amount of plants. Set-up now in the closet is 3 x 68w 2700 CFLs and 4 x 23w 6400 CFLs - will replace these 4 later in the bloom with 2700s.

Im starting a few seeds from a hermy my freind grew - which i guess i'll veg and then scatter somewhere outdoors.

Small veg space has 4 23w

Plants look great. First hermy seed has broken surface and I put an additional two into dirt. The three plants in the veg cab have been slightly pruned. am going to lollipop them when they get slightly larger.

Will upload pics of sprout later today perhaps. I find young plants are so much more fun to watch.

Just pic update

Gastanker said:

Uhg...to flower now or wait a week. Neither home depot nor the local nursery has any decent fertilizers...but ill be happy to take recomendations on dosages of what i am currently using.

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You could go higher with the nutes IMHO, long as you keep flushing the soil with lots of water every time you water. As for flowering with CFLS you have just inches of penetration really so you don't want tall plants.
I use Wal Mart's 20-20-20 for veging and 15-30-15 for flowering myself.

frmrboi said:

You could go higher with the nutes IMHO, long as you keep flushing the soil with lots of water every time you water. As for flowering with CFLS you have just inches of penetration really so you don't want tall plants.
I use Wal Mart's 20-20-20 for veging and 15-30-15 for flowering myself.

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Thanks! Shall up the nutes a bit then.

A female?!

Please look at the close-ups and let me know what you think.

3 of the bagseed have sprouted.

Topped the two plants in the veg box. Thinking of doing a bit of LST on them and then let them loose in the outdoors.

Rest of the plants are just growing like crazy. I'm very impatient to sex them.

Trying my luck at rooting a few cuttings. Took clones from four different plants and hope they turn out. And if not, it's a learning expirience right?

And repotted the 3 slackers from the first batch.

Clones look ok I guess but I'm worried about the heat in that small area.

Added a couple more lights to the flowering area. Plants are doing well.

I think i might have over nuted or watered? A couple of the plants have curled leaves - have circled on the pictures. The leaves arn't drooping but are growing down like that. If anyone reads this let me know what it might be.

Anyone give me an estimate on how big these things will get?

realizing how many plants i have and how little space makes me think i need to lollipop most of my plants. Tried to do that today but not sure if i've taken enough off.

Started trying to root a few more cuttings as well and moved the seedlings to the flower box to start 12/12.

Also put a mix of cuttings into the flower box just to see what happens.

Only two confirmed females so far and I believe 5 males. Looks like all four goo x kush plants are male

Needed more room so I took two of the males I was positive about and planted them outside next to a hiking trail - curious to see how long they survive before found/dying. Nice and healthy roots though!

Uploaded last pics of all them together. Next pics will start to show plants missing - plan on scattering the rest of the males to test outdoor locations.

hopefully it makes it in the wild