Hey guys I'm a new member here just signed up today. I am currently growing three plants which are my first grows ever. I am going to keep up on these plants to see how the plants will do under strict budget. I have a drip system setup to three reservoir pots filled with perlite and the top layer is vermaculite. They are under two 4 foot 40watt flourescents and are set for 20 hours of light per day. The growth has been very fast seeing as I started these plants on July 3rd. I am very happy with them so far but am open to any suggestions or advice!! I did alot of research and reading to set this up so I didn't start my first time with a thumb in my ass. I chose to grow hydroponically for my first time so I could just dive right in and reap the benefits with the budget i'm working with!

Here's the most current pictures that I will keep up to date.

This is the setup i'm working with.


The first plant - day 4


The second plant - day 4


The third plant - day 3


The last plant seems to be growing much slower then the first two and seems to be forming three leaves at one time? Very odd but its looking healthy nonetheless!

Opinions and advice encouraged! Don't be harsh...thanks

They look nice, though I can tell you that you'll need to invest in some better lighting shortly. Two flouro bulbs aren't going to produce enough light to take them through flowering. They could veg on that, but you'd get really slow growth. Try getting some CFLs, they're not very expensive (relatively). Just be sure theyre the right spectrum ("Daylight" for veg and "Warm White" for flower).

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I don't grow, smoke, buy, eat, look at, touch, or otherwise interact with illegal substances. Everything I say is hypothetical. I'm always just joking.

can you give some more info and pictures of your set up

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I'm using a cellphone camera that sucks so It would be easier if I explain the setup rather then trying to get good angle shots of everything.

Basically I have a 5 gallon plastic bin filled with water and 1/4 strength nutrient solution and it has a water pump in it which pumps water to the three drippers that are setup on each plant. The drippers come on twice a day for about 5 minutes which seems to keep the plants nicely moist at all times.

The lighting are cool white bulbs and are 2 inches above the plant and is suspended from a bar that spans across the width of the closet. I might purchase more lighting but i'm not sure what to do with cfls? I've seen them but some say you can screw them into a normal socket and some say you need a certain setup for them (the bigger ones), but even the ones that work with a regular socket how do I setup multiple ones? I'm gonna have to setup multiple lamps or do they make a setup that holds multiple bulbs? I didn't look into that too much. Could I just get another tube flourescent? They also sell flourescent tubes that say for "plant and aquatic life" or something like that, are those any good? It seems like they have less light output but claim to have the best color spectrum? I dunno I need the best suggestion on what lights to add to what I currently have.

The pots are filled with a perlite/vermaculite mix and each pot has a reservoir on the bottom of it. They are those bottom feeding pots that have a little opening near the bottom to fill water but I use it to keep the roots in the water and the excess flows out which eliminates having to drill holes in the pot an inch from the bottom to get the same effect. They were only $1 each.

As an update, today the second set of leaves is forming on the first two plants and the third plant is actually growing all 4 leaves at once.

Heres another shot of the setup..kinda

I got three 23 watt CFLs to add to the setup. They give out 6500K and 1600 lumens each. I'm hoping for a good growth increase.

Heres a pic of how its setup

Easiest way to set up CFLs (at least, this is what i did):

Goto a hardware store and buy one of those vanity light fixtures (you know, its the lights above the mirror in your bathroom) There's a cheap one I got with three sockets, its only $10

Get 3 socket splitters and 6 CFLs

Get a cheap extension cord

Cut the end of the extension cord off and strip the wires, attaching them to the wires on the vanity light (cover this with electrical tape to prevent fire/shock)

Find some thick string or something similar and attach it to the vanity light (I got "yo-yo"s (reflector hangers) and tied these through the holes in the back of the fixture)

Tie up the fixture, plug in the socket splitters and the bulbs and plug the other end of the extension cord (which now powers your lights) into a wall socket.

You now have a simple yet very effective 6-light fixture for your plants that plugs right into an ordinary outlet. Total cost (not including the bulbs) is probably around $15

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I don't grow, smoke, buy, eat, look at, touch, or otherwise interact with illegal substances. Everything I say is hypothetical. I'm always just joking.

Yea I was trying to find a fixture like that in Lowes but i think the cheapest was $30 or something. Either way do you think you would need that many cfls if I already have 3 and 2 four foot tubes just for vegging 3 plants? I dunno. I think I already saw a great amount of growth just overnight with these new cfls if comparing them to day 4 above. Im sure it could be better though.

These are from today:

First plant - day 5 its hard to see from this angle but the 5th and 6th leaves are starting to form in the center.



second plant - day 5 also forming third set of leaves



third plant - day 5 the weirdest of all seems to be forming as three initial leaves and then a medium set of two and a two more leaves growing in the center of that. it seems the new lighting made it try and catchup with the two older plants all at once.




I'm happy with the growth so far but am definately open to adding more lighting in the future. It all depends on if I feel the growth has slowed.

These are shots still from day 5 which are 12 hours older then the previous pictures. Just noting the growth within 12 hours after adding the CFLs to the setup. Lots of new leaves have formed into 3 leaf clusters.

First Plant - Day 5 part 2


Second Plant - Day 5 part 2


Third Plant - Day 5 part 2

Lots of new leaves formed on day 6 overnight. It's looking really good and growth has picked up alot. I added a small pc fan for some cooling and changed the water in the reservoir to keep it fresh. The first two plants you can currently see 12 leaves in total and the third plant is still growing a bit weird but is forming its 9th and 10th leaves.

Plant one - Day 6.



Second Plant - Day 6



Third Plant - Day 6


Does anyone know why the third plant has that etching into the ends of the two bigger leaves? (it looks like horns engraved into them expecially in person its bulged out)
Is this just a weird transformation or is there an actual deficiancy in the plant? It was grown the same as the other two except it was planted a day later. Can something be done to those leaves to fix it or is everything fine.

Lots of new growth. The first two plants have two bottom leaves, then 4 sets of 3-leaf clusters, as well as two new clusters forming in the center. The third plant is about one set behind but overall good progress.

First plant - day 10


Second plant - day 10


Third plant - day 10