Greetings. Here are some pics from my first grow. I've got 10 26w soft white CFLs, four on top and three on each side. My side lighting is a power strip ziptied to a thick piece of cardboard covered in some left over visqueen I had. I'm going to redo the dome with another power strip light strip and 6 6500k bulbs in the next few days. The grow room is 2.5'x3.5'x5'.

My girls are, left to right, Blue Dream, White Widow, and Santa Berry. They're well rooted so I'm going to transplant them into 5g buckets, with three gallons of perlite and vermiculite (75/25), on Saturday. My nutes are Humbolt Oneness and Super Thrive B1, with a water PH of about 5.5. The yellow leaves are from, I believe, nute lockup because they were pretty dry when I got them (topped plant clones). I'm going to give them a week in the buckets, take a few clones of each, and then flower them.

Question about the CFL color. If you can veg and flower with an HPS why not 2700k CFLs?

edit:
There's a fan on the left, just out of the pictures, blowing across the plants. I'll be adding some computer fans for intake/exhaust and some of those nifty wire pencil cup carbon scrubbers from the DIY section.

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Very nice!

You can definitely flower with 2700k CFLs. I think 6500k is best for vegging. Long live the CFL!

Thank you, sir...or ma'am, as the case may be.

Hey Mr White,

Welcome to RIU. I am assuming this is your first indoor grow. One of your plants looks like a pure sativa by the way.

To awnser your question, yes you can veg & flower under 2700k, however expect longer leggier plants with popcorn buds. I veg and flower under mostly 6500k and as a result I get short (about 2.5 ft) plants with a couple gigantic colas (check my old threads). If I had it my way I would veg under 6500k and flower under 24-2700k, that way I have bushy plants with many big buds.

I would get all cardboard out! Not only due to fire hazard, but also it will wilt, bend, and eventually tear as it is exposed to the humid hot environment. Your actually growing hydroponic since your not using any soil which means your plants will need regular fert-ing. And I would recommend you work on getting your H20 Ph to 6. I would say buy more lights (HIGHEST ACTUAL WATTAGE AVAILIABLE, NOT EQUIVELANT), and you should be fine. A cheaper alternative to the powerstrip/ rigged light thingy ma-bob is to go to HD or Lowes, buy a bathroom light fixture fo $10, its safer, easier, and cheaper.

Keep up the good work and keep us posted. +rep on the nice tent....

BlessAmerica

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Thank you very much.

I'm going to be redoing all of the lighting in time. I want to do a pvc idea I saw in the DIY section for my side lighting. I might go with a three light bathroom fixture for the top lighting. That would get the lights further apart. Then I can use the power strip lights for cloning and vegging when I get another little space setup. On the panels, I've got the garden twine going through two layers of duct tape on each corner. I'm more concered about the twine breaking than ripping out. Humidity is around 35-40% and temps 70-85.

And thanks for the props on the tent. It was my first actual build project from design to completion.

Alrighty. I just got my girlies transplanted into 5g buckets tonight and they're sleeping peacefully.

I used a 2-1 mix of perlite (16qts. of MG with an npk of 4-1-6 and 12qts. of non-nuted) and vermiculite. I watered them with 1/2 tsp. to a quart of the B1 and let them soak per the instructions on the bottle. Then I watered the substrate with a 1/4 strength mix of the B1 (1/2 tsp. to a gallon) until it was draining. Water ph was about 6 (I don't have a digi meter yet). I dug their holes and carefully transplanted one by one, gently but firmly pushing the new medium into place. Then I gave each a cup of nutes with more B1 on top of where the root ball was. The last time I looked their temp was 80f and humidity was 51%.

I figure my total nutes are 4-1-6 from the perlite, 5-9-4 from the Oneness, and 1-1-1 from the B1 for a total of 10-11-11. They won't need water for a few days but when I do water them again, should I just use straight water for a while or is this fine for a nute ratio? They're preflowering but I'm going to let them veg for at least another week or two.

Another question, should I LST these girls or top them? I want to get some clones from them either way, but I'd like to get as big a yeild as my newbieness can manage.

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Whether to top or LST is entirely at the grower's discretion. They both have similar results when done right, creating a shorter and bushier plant with more colas. Which one is better is an unresolved debate. LST will cause less stress to the plant (go figure, its called low stress training), but requires strings and places to attach them, along with monitoring and maintenance of them. Toping is a one-and-done thing, but can slow the plant a bit while it recovers from having its head cut off. Again, up to you man.

In terms of nutrients, there are a few things to consider. First and definitely foremost, plants in a setting with the wrong Ph will drastically reduce its abilities to absorb nutrients. Ph testers are cheap and easy to use, and are often the difference between off-colored, droopy plants, and sticky fat buds. Second, perlite and vermiculite are mostly devoid of nutrients, so just make sure that while you are vegging the plants to have a 1-1-1 ratio in the ferts youre adding. Always remember, when dealing with fertilizers, less is more. Start lite and work you way up. If you do it right you wont need to flush at all until a week or two before harvest.

one more thing-- I just looked at you pic from your last post and your CFLs are way too far away from the plants. CFLs are extremely weak lights and should be kept 1-3" from the foliage at all times. Doing this will create short and bushy plants, which is necessary with CFLs as the light isn't strong enough to function on tall plants since it disperses too fast. Any farther will cause stretching and small, loose buds. CFLs are fine lights to use and are very capable of producing wonderful plants, but they need to be as close a possible without actually touching the plants.

Happy growing!

Thanks for the replies, man.

I have the General Hydroponics pH Control Kit. I just meant that the pH is as close to 6 as I can get it by matching the color of the test water to a chart.

I had the lights up like that to get them out of my way while transplanting and so they wouldn't have as direct light right after transplant. I'm bringing the top light back down, putting the other side panel back on, and grouping them in the center of the room, probably later today after the lights go on.

So I've been thinking...over bong hits of some random heady green. Prepare for deep stoner thoughts.

My ultimate goal with growing is to have either six planters or just go dwc with some of the ideas from the DIY section and get 1g per watt (about 3/4lbs.) per monthly harvest. I have 8.75sq.ft. of floor space and 40w of light per would be a total of 350w (about 3/4lbs. @ 1g/w). That's 14 (rounded up) 26w bulbs for 364w and 2800 lumens per sq.ft.. I don't really want to go over 400w total.

How would I best split that up between the top and sides? I'm thinking of doing this DIY CFL fixture then putting Y connectors in each socket for two bulbs per on the top. What would be the most effecient way to split the lights up between top and sides? If we assume six growing positions, which would be the same with a dwc setup, and put a socket above each that's either six or 12 lights on the top. Neither really seems ideal. I could run the lights lengthwise and put 4 or 5 sockets in for eight or 10 lights with Y's, but then there wouldn't be a light directly over the plants.