2nd Indoor Grow with CFL. Any Advice for Increasing Yield Next Time Around?

Hi everyone. I'm new to the forum, but a seasoned outdoor grower. Last year, I took the plunge and decided to start growing a few plants indoors. All three plants in my first grow did okay but compared to my usual outdoor ladies, the yield was very disappointing.

I'm just about to harvest my second grow and despite making some adjustments, I'm once again disappointed in the yield.

Here's my setup (grow room is quite small - an unused loo/water closet with extractor fan for ventilation)

2-gallon containers
Multi-purpose compost with added John Innes
Envirolite 2nd Generation Single Lamp Reflector with Mirror
200w 6400K CFL White/Blue Spectrum Lamp for Propogation and
Growing
200w 2700K CFL Red Spectrum Lamp for Flowering
SAGARMATHA SEEDS Indica XXL Feminized

Temperature has been a steady 75F.
Water every or every other day as needed (tested with "finger" method).

Nutrients:
Veg: Miracle Grow (for Tomatoes & Veg)
Flowering: Miracle Gro Blossom Booster

I'm not one to prune unnecessarily - just take off what's ready to come off.

I've planted these same seeds outdoors so I know what they're capable of. Indoor grow produced about half the yield. But I'm not about to give up!!!

Any suggestions for third grow? Seed suggestions? Container size? What about my lighting?

Thanks everyone.

A. You're using miracle grow......It might work for your outdoor plants, but its your first minus. Go to your closest grow store, i.e. a nursery or local hydro store (not home depot or lowes) and get some good nutrients.
B. im not sure how far away your lights are, but cfl's are great for controlling heat, but lack in intensity and canopy penetration. Dont get me wrong, I use them myself for my veg tent, but when it comes to flower, hid is the only route to go if you want to impress. I simply roll with a 150 watt hps that has reasonable to low heat output, nice 16.5k lumens through one plug. It'll beam down on a 3x3 area well. If you used those 200 watt lights as supplemental side lighting you could easily light a 4x4 or 4x5.
C. You didnt use any carbs at all? not even molasses?

I dunno. Im thinking its the lighting mainly. Cfl's generally have to be real close to be effective, Im talking less than a foot away. This is purely a speculation though. Definitely look into better nutrients also, you wont be sorry.

Those should be fine or alot better at least if you just used them both at the same, time all the time, all through veg and flower. 400 watts for prob around 20,000 lumen's instead of 200 watts and around 10,000.

what yield did you get outdoor, then indoor?

ninjagrowguy said:

A. You're using miracle grow......It might work for your outdoor plants, but its your first minus. Go to your closest grow store, i.e. a nursery or local hydro store (not home depot or lowes) and get some good nutrients.
B. im not sure how far away your lights are, but cfl's are great for controlling heat, but lack in intensity and canopy penetration. Dont get me wrong, I use them myself for my veg tent, but when it comes to flower, hid is the only route to go if you want to impress. I simply roll with a 150 watt hps that has reasonable to low heat output, nice 16.5k lumens through one plug. It'll beam down on a 3x3 area well. If you used those 200 watt lights as supplemental side lighting you could easily light a 4x4 or 4x5.
C. You didnt use any carbs at all? not even molasses?

I dunno. Im thinking its the lighting mainly. Cfl's generally have to be real close to be effective, Im talking less than a foot away. This is purely a speculation though. Definitely look into better nutrients also, you wont be sorry.

Click to expand...

One of my girls is about three weeks away from harvest. Is it too late to use molasses? I've never done it before (haven't had to worry about anything with outdoor grows).

I'm also thinking of harvesting in stages. The tops are ready, but the bottom looks like it can still fill out some more. Will then be able to get the light closer to those areas.

Better nutrients, better lighting. That seems to be the consensus. I'm in the UK - not sure what commercially available nutrients I should go with... Maybe I should check out Advanced Nutrients or similar. Any suggestions?

As for outdoor yield versus indoor yield - I'd say I'm looking at a quarter of what I usually get from my outdoor ladies.

Thanks for the advice, everyone. It's been very helpful (and illuminating).

Nothing beats natural sunlight.

A friend grew some Grand Daddy Purple outside and inside. Inside plants were 6 to a room. The room was 10'x10'. There were (4) 1000w metal halide bulbs (6500k) and (1) 400w high pressure sodium in the room for vegging. For flowering there were (4) high pressure sodium 1000w and (1) 400w high pressure sodium.

Outdoor yield was DOUBLE the weight. Potency is hard to measure. But the outdoor grown seamed to be a LOT stronger both in potency and smell.