First CFL Grow - Help appreciated

Gastanker

Well-Known Member
Still trying to secure propper housing to set up my real grow but this is what is running atm. something between 700-1000w CFL SCROG. 6 Plants are at the canopy and i have 3 small ones that are just bumming it in there for the moment.

Here's some pics incase anyone cares.
 

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Still trying to secure propper housing to set up my real grow but this is what is running atm. something between 700-1000w CFL SCROG. 6 Plants are at the canopy and i have 3 small ones that are just bumming it in there for the moment.

Here's some pics incase anyone cares.
Dude I dont even know where to start man..... I have got to say this has been extremely exciting reading your whole journal, with the exception of your plants being stolen. SOB kids By the way I am very sorry bout that man. It sucks to see so much work and effort go down the drain like that! Anyway bro congrats on your CFL growing success! So being that it took me 2 hrs just about to read your whole journal, It was kinda hard to follow your steps by step so I was wondering if you wouldnt mind helping me out with my grow. Right now I currently have 3 beatiful clones that have been out of the cloning dome for approx 5 days and are in an area (2w by 3depth by about 3height) In the room I have 4 x 100w CFL's and soon to be 6 but they are hanging about 3inches from the tops horozontaly. In the 5 days the seem to be doing real well. Basically at this point my questions are:

(BTW If you could put the answer to my ?'s right next to it that would be greatly appriciated)

1. How many hrs were the lights on/off during vegative stage ?



2. How long did you veg?



3. Right now im just watering (no nutes) when did you start adding nutes?



4. I have 4CFL 100w soon to be 6. In your opinion is this enough lighting?



5. Lighting schedule for flowering? and when do you flower?



6. I water every 2 days right now. Do you know if thats ok? What would you do for a 5 day old clone at this point??


7. When you did add nutes. What ones did you use and what stages?



8. What is the total length of grow/flower time to yield your average of budz (23gr-26gr)?


Anything that you learned the hard way in this process that you could possibly share with me so that I could have a descently healthy crop would be greatly appreciated.


Sorry bout all the ?'sbro its just that Im admired by your CFL lighting growth rate success! Excellent Job Again!


Here are a few photos of the set up. Tell me what you think??????
 

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Gastanker

Well-Known Member
Thanks! Always an honor when someone goes through my grow and pleased to teach and inspire and hopefully learn alil from you at the same time.

Basically at this point my questions are:

1. How many hrs were the lights on/off during vegative stage ?
I ran my lights 18/6 durring veg. I find that a decent amount of dark improves root growth. You want your flowering plants to be focusing on buds, not expanding under the soil - not to mention more roots = more surface are for water and nutrient absorption.

2. How long did you veg?
I think a week and a half but you could easily check by looking at the dates on my early posts. I started flowing when they were 4-6" tall at around 4-6 nodes. I grew from seed however and clones often take a week or two to enter veg. Clones also tend not to shoot off quite as much when entering flowering so you want to enter flower when you have nearly the number of nodes you want - if you're lollipoping you can go with no veg, if you're LSTing or SCROGing you'll want more nodes.

3. Right now im just watering (no nutes) when did you start adding nutes?
I added nutes fairly early not to mention I was growing in pretty hot miracle grow soil at first. I diluted my nutes to about 1/10 of what they recommended at first and then slowly stepped it up to around 1/2 recommended.

4. I have 4CFL 100w soon to be 6. In your opinion is this enough lighting?
I am pretty sure you have 4 23 or 26w CFLs, 100w equivalent. Make sure to post actual wattage versus equivalents or people get confused. 1 23w light per plant is fine for vegging 4 small plants for a week or two if you keep them close and have reflective material surrounding the plants as close as possible. More lights the better. I'm running 700w at the moment and on my first grow was running 388w. 8 x 23w and 3 big 68w bulbs. Have a home depot near you? You can get a case of 16 or 20 23w bulbs for like $25 and they come with a 9 year warranty...pretty much free lights for 9 years.

5. Lighting schedule for flowering? and when do you flower?
Easy way to flower is turn to 12/12 and make sure no light leaks. I like to start with 11 hrs light 13 dark for 3-4 days, then up to 12 /12 for half of the remaining flower time and then back down to 11 for the last half. I find that the initial shock of the 11 hrs puts the plants into flower faster and by lowering at the end you get better resin and esther (scent) production.

6. I water every 2 days right now. Do you know if thats ok? What would you do for a 5 day old clone at this point??
Couldn't tell you, depends on your soil, size and type of pot, and how big your plants are. I start with 30cc once a day in dixie sized started plugs, then up to 50cc a day in 3 inch tiny pots, then end up with 2 cups a day in 3 liter pots. Currently I'm going half gallon + every 3 days in 3 gallon pots. Fill a pot with moist soil and pick it up. then let it dry out and pick it up. Then you can just pick up your plants and you'll know how dry they are. Get good at this and you never need to worry about specific amounts and times to water, you'll just know. I pretty much pick up all my plants to know when and how much to water. (not advised for containers over 3 gallon)

7. When you did add nutes. What ones did you use and what stages?
I mixed bone meal into my soil when I transplanted the final time before flowering. Veg nutes I used shitty Vigoro 24-8-16 I think. You can use any 20-20-20 also though. You want high nitrogen and the second two less of, I find the vigoro works very well and its very cheap. Hard core chems though so cant claim to be anythign close to organic. I fertilize every water but dilute my nutes much more than suggested. I start with the vigoro at 1/10 strength and then slowly up is as i veg. For flower I use more bonemeal and Floranova something. I do not just switch over though. I go 80/20 vigoro/floranova to begin then 60/40 then 50/50 then 40/60 then 80/20 and then I start the flush. FOr flush I use molasses water and again slowly transition. 80/20 Floronova/molasses water then 60/40, 50/50, ... until the last two weeks its just molasses water.

Here it is simple bases on an 8 week cycle. v = vigoro fn = floranova m = molasses
Week 1 flower - 60/40 V/FN
2 - 40/60 v/fn
3 - 20/80 v/fn
4 - 80/20 fn/m
5 - 50/50 fn/m
6 - 20/80 fn/m
7 - 100 m
8 - 100 m

8. What is the total length of grow/flower time to yield your average of budz (23gr-26gr)?
My first grow start to finish was between 6-8 weeks. Two of my plants finished really early at 6 weeks, two more at 7 and one at 8 and another at 8.5. That was seed to bud including veg time - Don't expect such a fast grow with clones and I'm pretty sure my seeds had the F1 vigor. I got 5.4 oz off the 6 plants. Might ahve gotten alil more if I had let a couple go alittle longer - I'm particular about the ripeness I like to personally smoke.

Anything that you learned the hard way in this process that you could possibly share with me so that I could have a descently healthy crop would be greatly appreciated.
Don't let them get too tall! If if looks like they are going to get tall bend em over earlier than later. You need lights as close as possiblt to every bud and tall plants are much harder to cover from top to bottom.

Sorry bout all the ?'sbro its just that Im admired by your CFL lighting growth rate success! Excellent Job Again!

No Problems! I'm honored.

Here are a few photos of the set up. Tell me what you think??????
 

KolorBlind

Well-Known Member
Still trying to secure propper housing to set up my real grow but this is what is running atm. something between 700-1000w CFL SCROG. 6 Plants are at the canopy and i have 3 small ones that are just bumming it in there for the moment.

Here's some pics incase anyone cares.

Heya Gastanker!!

Its been a while! I was beginning to get worried, haha! The new setup you are rockin looks pretty solid man, I love the wicked looking conglomeration of y adapters :)

Those 68w bulbs are just amazing, I recently finished a Diesel Ryder under one and a Gorgeous Apollo11 under some others with HIDs. Im glad to see that you are still growin and hope all is well. I finally got my mini fridge project off the ground and I have a Diesel Ryder SOG going on in it now, Im at 5.5 weeks :) I have the thread on another forum due to having some friends on that particular forum that asked me to start one. Heres a link if youre interested.

Keep the pics flowing man, that screen will be filling up nicely very sooN! Hope the little plants catch up asap!!

Peace
KB
 

Gastanker

Well-Known Member
Heya Gastanker!!

Its been a while! I was beginning to get worried, haha! The new setup you are rockin looks pretty solid man, I love the wicked looking conglomeration of y adapters :)

Those 68w bulbs are just amazing, I recently finished a Diesel Ryder under one and a Gorgeous Apollo11 under some others with HIDs. Im glad to see that you are still growin and hope all is well. I finally got my mini fridge project off the ground and I have a Diesel Ryder SOG going on in it now, Im at 5.5 weeks :) I have the thread on another forum due to having some friends on that particular forum that asked me to start one. Heres a link if youre interested.

Keep the pics flowing man, that screen will be filling up nicely very sooN! Hope the little plants catch up asap!!

Peace
KB
Hey! Great to see you stop by. I took a look at your other links earlier and was wondering where u had gone to. Your current mini fridge grow looks nice. You have 8 in there at the moment?

I'm embarrased about the Y connector mess. I'm currently without my own residence as no one wants to rent a secluded country house to a young guy where I live regardless of how much I make or references (really fucking annoying). So I threw all the plants I had in veg in my friends backyard where they got shitty light and he finally just said, 'fuck it, go throw your silly spiral lights in my travel trailer and finish those fuckers off'. So I did. Simple Simple set-up with too many Y connectors and a single peice of ducting with a bathroom exhaust fan hooked to it - for $20 those fans work great!

But my little closet grow should hopefully get me 1/2 lb and with that I'm buying a tent and a big light - Just convinced my buddy to blow up a 6x15' hidden room he's had that I just found out about. Either putting 2 6.5x6.5 tents into it or a 4x4 and a 4x8. Should be lotsa fun regardless. ANd I'm taking soil ecology atm and have started a crazy smelly ass organic compost pit so the next round should be all natural. Woot Woot!

Ill keep checking up on your grow as I'm really curious to what you can yield SOGing Autos. Might as well flip a 4x4x6.5 tend on its side and put 2 600s in it versus one 1000. could run a decent auto sog that way.
 
Hey! Great to see you stop by. I took a look at your other links earlier and was wondering where u had gone to. Your current mini fridge grow looks nice. You have 8 in there at the moment?

I'm embarrased about the Y connector mess. I'm currently without my own residence as no one wants to rent a secluded country house to a young guy where I live regardless of how much I make or references (really fucking annoying). So I threw all the plants I had in veg in my friends backyard where they got shitty light and he finally just said, 'fuck it, go throw your silly spiral lights in my travel trailer and finish those fuckers off'. So I did. Simple Simple set-up with too many Y connectors and a single peice of ducting with a bathroom exhaust fan hooked to it - for $20 those fans work great!

But my little closet grow should hopefully get me 1/2 lb and with that I'm buying a tent and a big light - Just convinced my buddy to blow up a 6x15' hidden room he's had that I just found out about. Either putting 2 6.5x6.5 tents into it or a 4x4 and a 4x8. Should be lotsa fun regardless. ANd I'm taking soil ecology atm and have started a crazy smelly ass organic compost pit so the next round should be all natural. Woot Woot!

Ill keep checking up on your grow as I'm really curious to what you can yield SOGing Autos. Might as well flip a 4x4x6.5 tend on its side and put 2 600s in it versus one 1000. could run a decent auto sog that way.



Hey man thanks for your reply message! This is great stuff! +rep for sure
 

Gastanker

Well-Known Member
More pics. Not very good quality and I think i have way too much vegetation/growth under the canopy even after pruning alot off.

Was try to show how long and bent over some of these are and several were LSTed originally to get better even shoot growth. SHould have also taken a picture of the kinks I made in some of the stems. Definately helps to bulken up stems.

Btw, this is only two weeks into flower so hopefully thee things bulk up quite a bit.
 

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bigdaddydan

Member
hey tanker, just wanted to say that you're tha man! i don't post alot and haven't really garnered up the balls to post my own thread b/c where i live i would get fried for this, but i've accumulated alot of knowledge and inspiration from growers like randyrocket among others. but none more than your grows considering all you've accomplished and all you've lost(theft). hopefully before long i will move to colorado or somewhere more tolerating of our kind, but in the meantime keep on keepin on, cuz when i do get somewhere else, i'm basing my future endevours on every piece of fantastic info i've gotten from you. awesome man!
 

Gastanker

Well-Known Member
hey tanker, just wanted to say that you're tha man! i don't post alot and haven't really garnered up the balls to post my own thread b/c where i live i would get fried for this, but i've accumulated alot of knowledge and inspiration from growers like randyrocket among others. but none more than your grows considering all you've accomplished and all you've lost(theft). hopefully before long i will move to colorado or somewhere more tolerating of our kind, but in the meantime keep on keepin on, cuz when i do get somewhere else, i'm basing my future endevours on every piece of fantastic info i've gotten from you. awesome man!
Thanks! That's what rollitup is all about - learning and benefiting from the knowledge you acquire. Gotta love what randy did in those soda cups! Alotta good people on here. Thanks for the rep!
 

tkjoe

Active Member
wow really nice grow man!!! i hope my Grow turns out this well. i jsut changed to 6 lights on mine. right now i have 2 -42w, 2-26w 6700k cfl's and 1- 42w, 1-26w 2700K, just changed from the pictures on my grow. on saturday i am going to start flowering maybe wait a bit longer and do a bit more LST as i jsut started to bend a couple days ago. Take a look at my grow if ya like. id appreciate any help you can give!! im going to start nutrients right away, and am thinking of going all organic, so bone meal, blood meal, and not sure what else to use!

Really nice to see your grow!!
 

Gastanker

Well-Known Member
wow really nice grow man!!! i hope my Grow turns out this well. i jsut changed to 6 lights on mine. right now i have 2 -42w, 2-26w 6700k cfl's and 1- 42w, 1-26w 2700K, just changed from the pictures on my grow. on saturday i am going to start flowering maybe wait a bit longer and do a bit more LST as i jsut started to bend a couple days ago. Take a look at my grow if ya like. id appreciate any help you can give!! im going to start nutrients right away, and am thinking of going all organic, so bone meal, blood meal, and not sure what else to use!

Really nice to see your grow!!
Thanks man. Stopped by your grow and left a comment and will make sure to check up. If I don't leave a bitchy mesage on my post ;) I give you permission. Good luck! (more importantly have fun and learn something)
 

LogHead

Well-Known Member
hey man i read your shit got stolen. weren't you talking of a jealous 1000w grower? just an idea.. well none the less +rep nice lookin shit.
 

Gastanker

Well-Known Member
hey man i read your shit got stolen. weren't you talking of a jealous 1000w grower? just an idea.. well none the less +rep nice lookin shit.
Thanks man. Currently have two jealous 1000w+ growers after me but neither knew where I lived. And they my buddies and know i'de kill em if I found out it was them. ;)

Thanks again for stoppin by!
 

Gastanker

Well-Known Member
Blah, so I'm really dissapointed with this strain. Super stringy buds and lots of trichs but very small ones. I asked my friend who gave me the clones and he goes, yeah...my buddy thought they were great and then realized they sucked, sorry bro, shoulda prolly told you. lol, and i'm growing at his place. "shoulda told me" rofl. Anyways Ill go snap come pics.
 

LogHead

Well-Known Member
hey so how many lights ya got in there? i see a range of diff watts, whats the yields in your space? looks like a clean setup
 

Gastanker

Well-Known Member
hey so how many lights ya got in there? i see a range of diff watts, whats the yields in your space? looks like a clean setup
ya what size bulbs are you using and how many bro?
I have 21 23w and 3 68w bulbs in there. Some of the bulbs look diffferent from eachother because I'm running more than one specrum as well as UV. I have 3 odor eliminating (2.7k), 2 10.0 UVB (I want to say 5k but they look almost purplish) 4 6k for a more cplete spectrum and the rest are 2.7k. No idea on yeild as I haven't grown in this enclosure before nor this strain. Like I said above I am not happy with the buds on these plants and my supplier already appologized for giving me shitty clones but I hope to hit 2 oz per plant (12oz total) but more likely might only get 1 or 1.5. We shall see in a few weeks I guess... This is a temp one time set-up that I am not able to readily monitor. half of me says ill be pleasently surprised and the other half thinks itll end as a big joke.
 

tkjoe

Active Member
i just made a new box but i have to add some ventilation as it gets way to hot in there. i bought a computer fan, but am going to need another one! how many clones are you growing? how many sockets dd you have to split?
 
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