it currently has 85w CFL and a Sweet
seedsCream Caramel automatic under it. If i were to add another 85w of CFL in that tent, could I get regular
seeds, and have enough light/room to sex the 20 or so
seeds?
Technically you could sex 20 small plants with 160-200watts. I would start them all in party cups for 2 weeks and then move them into 1 gallon's before you switch 12/12 and kill off any males. Males are super easy to spot and so are females so dont fret.
If could could control temps then i would go this route. This will give you the best bang for your buck and produce some dank buds.
Get your 10-20reg seeds and sex them as i said above. Check how much it would cost to build a set up of 26w CFLs compared to the 85W becuase you might be able to get more wattage and more coverage using 26w's. Save up as much cash as you can, pull some extra hours at work if you can and buy a used or new HID light. Size depending on if you can control the temps, i was able to run over 1000watts in a single room in a apartment by turning off my heating and running my lights at night with a window slightly cracked open (i put a ext cord out the window to plug into my car to make it look less obvious). Start with a 250watt if you want something a bit better but look into the 400-600w range. After you have female plants put in your new HID(if you opt to buy one) and buy a HPS bulb first (most used ones come with a HPS) and put them on 18/6. Once you can take clones from your mothers take them and root them and put them in your flower room. Write down basic notes for each one on things like how fast they are growing, the space between nodes, if they get nute burn easy or if they can take heavy nutes. You should also place the HID lighting into your flowering room with clones and put your LED and CFLs into your veg tent. Youll also need to buy a carbon filter and fan for your flower room if you already dont have one to get rid of that heat from the HID.
You can choose to do two things, one is to flower your clones for a couple weeks and pick the best one of the bunch and flower the other moms and keep the one you like as your mother. Or you can flower the clones all the way to the end and smoke them and choose the best high/taste/smell along with the best grower as your mother. I would chose the second option and train your mothers during the time the clones flower. Once you pick your best clone and mother flower out the other mothers and train/clone your "keeper mother"
You will figure out something fast that if you want to SCROG it pretty much means you have to Veg/flower in the same space because unless you build a movable screen that is firmly attached to the pot, one you start training you cant move it. If you want to do a perpetual scrog then you need to have a small mother/clone room with CFLs in your closet. Along with another HID, if you end up buying a 600W to flower then i would get a 400w MH to veg, if you end up getting a 400w to flower i would get a 250 watt to veg. Personally youll get the best results with the 600w if you can keep temps in control. Running this much will mean you need a A/C unit to combat heat during summer/early fall unless you're far south you might have to run it 24/7. A 5000-10000BTU window A/C (10k pref) will cost you 100-200 dollars if you buy it during winter time. I choose to run my lights like this right now (just to give a rough idea) it also saves me a bit on electric. You could scrap using a HID for veg and just use the LED plus a few clusters of CFL's but the results from a MH HID for veg are unbeatable.
(8pm-8am) 600w Flower room is on
(8pm-2am) dark period for veg room
(2am-8am) My T5 lights come on in veg room (300watts i think? you could use CFLs) My 300watts of T5 run far cooler than 400watts of HID, but the 400w MH is far superior to my T5's
(8am-8pm) my 400w MH runs in my veg room
Using this i keep my temps low and during the summer my 12k btu A/C would turn on for less than 20mins a hour during the middle of the day.
What ive mentioned above all depends on if you want to go slightly bigger, it can all be bought as you go though.
Just one thing that is slightly bugging me about the others, is I thought they would nearly be finished by now, but its the start of week 9 from seed, and to my eyes they look nowhere near ready..
Youll learn fast what most breeders put in strain descriptions is a complete and utter lie. Its all based upon one certain pheno out of the group. Also from my experience if your running the plant from seed then you have to add 1-2weeks onto the base flower time. Going by those pictures i would say you have at minimum 3 weeks to go, more so leaning towards 4 almost 5 weeks. When its getting close you will see the buds start to swell a lot, the hairs start to turn brown and recede into the calyx's. Dont rush them, those last few weeks get so tempting but it really pays off when you wait.
Sorry if anything doesnt make sense just ask, half typed this while making dinner so its a bit cluttered.
- Normal flowering, same tent, same germination date. Its Russian Rocket Fuel.
My first grow started with CFLs and ended with a 4x4x6 tent with a 600w and 400w and 8 T5's so building as you go works.
