Let me introduce myself.
I am a retired Senior and I have grown African Violets under lights for 5 years.
I have the usual bunch of physical afflictions for my age and decided to investigate to try and find out if medical marijunana would be useful.

After researching how to grow I bought Top 44 seeds from a reputable Dutch company and of the 5 seeds I planted all sprouted.
These seedlings are now about 6 inches tall and are branching out nicely.
I am use a wicking or passive hydroponic system under pretty strong 'soft light' compact flurorescents with the timer set for about 17 hours a day.
I have been using houseplant fertilizer but will soon switch to an more advanced A/B system specific to growing weed.
The grow area is lined with mylar and is not much bigger than a tall cardboard box.
I have added a small computer fan to circulate the air and have just order some ONA gel to deal with the odor.

The plants are gowing like the weeds they are. I am surprised by their vigorous growth and I'm a little worried that they might get too tall for their grow space.
I have room vertically but not so much horizontally. When I find out which plants are male I expect I'll have more room.

I am wondering if I should try to force bloom earlier? As I mentioned they are only 6 to 7 inches tall at present.
My though to let them reach 12 inches and then shorten the light to 12 hours a day and add a small incandescent to get some red light going.

My cat Smokey

Welcome to the board. Good luck on the grow. Your 12" plan sound about right.

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Welcome

Top44 is a good choice for a beginner - it's mostly Indica based and shouldn't grow too tall and is a fairly fast growing.

I'd like to know a bit more about what lights you're using. Forget incandescents, they're the wrong light spectrum and don't give out anything like enough light, although I understand you're using it with CFL's I still don't think it's worth bothering with.

I think you might run into trouble when you enter the flowering stage because these plants require a lot more lumens at flowering stage than they do at vegetative growth stage and as they grow taller, the lights move further away from the lower parts of the plants and the further away light is the faster it dimishes.

You might want to think about a 'SCRoG' (Screen of Green) technique, which is essentially putting a large meshed screen over the tops of the plants and (lst) low stress training the lower branches up through the mesh so the lower parts of the plants are nearer to the light source.

You're right about allowing the plants to reach about 12" high before switching to 12/12.

Good luck with your grow.

I just read an early sexing technic. Use a black piece of paper, (to block light, not air flow) wrap it around the bottom stems with new growth in the crevice, blocking all light, but still allowing air to flow. With that contraption, put the bottom on a 12/12 schedule, while continuing the plant on 17-18 of light a day. Once the 12/12 part of the plant indicates male/female, uncover and return the entire female plant back to vegitative till ready to flower. (Lets not even talk about the males)

Thank you all for your good advice.
On the CFLs I am using are 42 watts 2700 lumens
45 watts 2900 lumens
They are kept about 4 inches from the tops of the plants.


I'm going to try that experiment with the black paper when they get a little taller. Their bottom leaves are not quite developed enough for that yet.

Smokey, my cat

I'm sorry to tell you this but your lights aren't going to give out anything like enough lumens you'll need at flowering stage even for small height plants. You might get away with it on the veg stage (just) but the light requirements quadruple at flowering.

You need to think quite seriously about getting something like a 200w envirolite for your flowering, preferably two.

Hello, netchess ...

From one senior med user to another, heed the advise given on your lighting. Also, if you induce flowering now, you will end up with two-foot plants at the end of the flowering period. They will stretch even more with the lighting you are using. Sorry to say, growing mj is like a lot of things ... you get out of it what you put into it. One has to invest in quality gear to get quality bud.

Vi

I hear you on the lighting.
Thinking of getting a 4300 initial lumens 65W Full Spectrum Compact Fluorescent but I suppose that's not enough either.
Maybe a 6000 lumen 105W (daylight) Full Spectrum Compact Fluorescent would do it but I'm a little scared by this mogul socket thing. Nervous about wiring it myself.

Right now I'm just eating leaves to get some relief from the Restless Leg Syndrome so it's about medical use rather than how high I can go

The problem is, you may be disappointed with your buds if you don't give it the right kind of light in the flowering stage. You can buy the E40 sockets for the Envirolites pre wired on ebay for about 5 GBP.

Take a look at the Envirolite site - http://www.envirolites.co.uk/

I feel your concerns. Being a first timer, just remember you are learning. Write down everything you do for your next couple of harvests and you will start to see what works best for you.

Try a low wattage HPS or MH light if you want a single light for grow and bloom. You can find these in smaller wattages. They are bright, so you may need to conceal the light.

Get away from houseplant fertilizer! You arent growing a houseplant! If you must use something from a regular store, make sure it is good for tomatoes. Miracle grow has a tomato fertilizer, but I would still suggest moving away from these fertilizers altogether. You can find other fertilizer products at an online greenhouse.

I always sex my plants. No use contaminating a pretty girl with seeds.

Heres a short guide.
Use some cloning gel, rock wool, new razor blade and a GLASS pie dish.
Cut the clones at a 45 degree angle with a NEW razor blade, just above a joint.
The clone doesnt need to be too long. About three inches in stem length. It does need to only have a few leaves on it though. Cut excess leaves off w/ razor (I usually leave the top leaves).
Dip the FRESH cut clone into the cloning gel (follow directions on bottle!!!) and put it in a wet rockwool piece. DONT FORGET TO LABEL!
Place the rockwool squares w/ the plants into a pie dish.
Put water in the pie dish. You should only need about 1/8" in the bottom.
Put the new babies in the dark for 24 hours.
Then set them into bloom by giving them light for 12 hours, then dark 12 hours.
You will know the females as they will spout white hairs after a while.

If you want to keep the female clones alive...

Dont let the pie pan run dry! Roots need to be moist to live.
Change the light cycle for grow.
Wait.
Its awful tempting to pull out the stem to see if it has roots. All I can say is DONT. Let them grow until you can see the roots or they are dead.
Then put them into your growing medium and GROW!

I would research it a bit more and pay attention to what you are doing, you could have your next fems sprouting roots!

OH! And DONT FORGET... keep a journal.

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Spreading strife is my greatest joy.

Ponderings of late:

*Why do people die? To make life important.
*Is there a purpose to life? No, life is protoplasm with a reproductive nature.
*Do I belive in a personal "God"? No, the truth is one, but is shown in many faces.
*-isms are very dangerous things.
*We are the vehicle of spirit, we radiate "God" from ourselves to others.
*Eternity is now, experience it now.