First time grower, first time cfl grow

Hope this is the right place to post - total newbie so sorry if I'm cocking this up!

OK, so I have decided to grow a bit of the good stuff as I've been having real problems finding anyone that sells around where I live at the moment and always fancied turning my hand at the indoor gardening so to speak. Thought I'd provide a diray/log for anyone that is interested so all replies and tips are much appreciated! Keep in mind that I am a total beginner though and this is my very first grow

I have decided to grow "Power Africa" under a 250w CFL (mainly due to cost and being a first timer I didn’t want to shell out loads just in case it all goes tits up, although since seeing lots of others flowering under HPS and the yield they are getting I just hope I’m not seriously disappointed at the end of all this).

I've constructed a grow box from sterling board measuring 4ftHx3ftLx2ftD and have decided to use 250w CFL's all the way through both stages and see what the outcome is – (HPS users feel free to laugh and mock but as I said, first timer and limited funds). I bought 5 feminised Power Africa just to make sure I don’t end up having to cull my crop - it’s got to be heart breaking!!!!

Strain Vital Stats:
Genetics: Skunk/Haze x Durban Poison
Variety: Mostly Sativa
Type: Hybrid
Harvest Date: End of September
Flowering Period: 8-9 weeks


Location: Indoors/Outdoors/Greenhouse
No. of seeds Per Packet: 5
Characteristics: Large yielding, fast flowering sativa dominant strain.
http://www.seedsman.com/en/cannabis-seeds/seedsman-feminized-seeds/seedsman-feminised-5-seed/power-africa-5-seeds

Grow Box Vital Stats:
Lighting: 250w (Actual Wattage) CFL with reflective hood, controlled by a set of eazi rollers.
Height: 4ft
Length: 3ft
Width: 2ft
Coating: Reflective insulation foil that I had left over (Bought in Tesco’s)
Fans: 2 x 54cfm passive intake pc fans, exhaust 1 x 124cfm pc fan (exhaust fan in post but fittings already in place and have wired up one of the intake fans as the exhaust for the time being until other fan arrives just to keep the temps correct and provide good circulation and new air exchange)
Filter: Will be constructing my own due to funds lol but have found a great article on construction: https://www.rollitup.org/do-yourself/101248-best-diy-ez-walmart-carbon.html

Right, I will post my pics and snips day after day unless I get no replies and find I’m boring the shite out of everyone. I’m actually at day 5 whilst writing all this but wasn’t until now I decided to post. So, wish me luck and here goes!!!!!

Nice, but you need to show pics

Yeah, I know but had error message uploading them. Will sort this out tomoz if people are interetsed. Laters!

OK, pics are up and running! Have started with the project from the very start. Will post more grow pics tomorrow but for now you're going to have to admire my DIY handywork and have a quick peek at my power africa babies!!!! Happy viewings!

Day 1
My seeds germinated within 12 hours - I know!!!! So planted them in two small pots and whacked them under the 250w light on an 18/6 cycle, watering with ph stable bottled water and fans coming on every half hour for 15 mins to keep the temps correct and the stems strong. Temperature is between 24c-29c (75f-84f) in the day depending on when the fans are on and humidity is resting between 50-60%.

Day 2
Got up to check my lil babies this morning not expecting to see a lot but to my surprise they had sprouted. I'm sure this is all a bit quick but more power to the lil buggers, they obviously want to please me.

dafoe23 said:

Day 1
My seeds germinated within 12 hours - I know!!!! So planted them in two small pots and whacked them under the 250w light on an 18/6 cycle, watering with ph stable bottled water and fans coming on every half hour for 15 mins to keep the temps correct and the stems strong. Temperature is between 24c-29c (75f-84f) in the day depending on when the fans are on and humidity is resting between 50-60%.

Day 2
Got up to check my lil babies this morning not expecting to see a lot but to my surprise they had sprouted. I'm sure this is all a bit quick but more power to the lil buggers, they obviously want to please me.

Click to expand...

hello matey, i will be keeping track of this one and seeing how it goes =], im just flowering my first indoor lot (lemon skunk + himalayan gold) under a 125W CFL and the buds arent how everyone said they would be, they are coming on compact and are starteing to fatten up nicely=].
i have recently started some big bang (green house seeds, fem) but dropped the propogater they were in and have now narrowed down to three lol, i have just discovered that you can actually get 4ooW envirolites CFL's for £35 with standard E40 fitting, may be worth looking at mate.

good luck!

nice i think youre set. maybe in the long run, you might need more height but everything else is nice.

Cheers Frosty and Exo! Appreciate the replies. Am off out tonight but will up date this asap - am on day 6 today so have some writing to do. Frosty, do you have a journal as would love to see the results of CFL during flowering - well up for having a go at that! Best of luck! Will def have a look at the 400w as am sure 250w isn't going to be enough, but you never know - all trial and error at this stage. Will up date later and add more pics.

Day 3

Ok, not much to write really - will let the pics do the talking here. My babies have started to stand up tall. Worried about them straining too much for the light so have lowered the lights a bit. Is this usual devlopment for the amount of days so far (4)





Day 4
All good in the hood! Temps resting nicely between 24c-29c and these puppies are starting to look sharpish - any comments post away. Exhaust fan is in the post so should be here this week, still making do with lesser cfm pc fan but is doing the trick for now - wont hold out when I put my carbon filter on later on. Is this usual devlopment for the amount of days so far (4), the leafs are starting to take shape but not sure if the plants should be bigger on the whole????

Day 5

Not much visable progress, have grown slightly taller and the leafs are looking slightly bigger. See if I get much growth tonight!?!





Day 6 (5 days in the soil)

Some growth here, not as much as I had hoped for but you can't rush these things!!! Everything seems to be taking shape but just taking its time about it. Can't wait for second set of leafs. Any tips or advice greatly appreciated. Nice pic this one lol:

Day 7 (6 in soli)

OMG!!!!! Shite!!!! Woke up this morning checked on my plants and fricking disaster!!!! Leafs on plant B were all brown and toasted. Could have wept as this was my strongest plant out of the two. I can put it down to 2 things - please let me know if you agree and if you think there is anything to help save this plant (other than being a more careful owner and not toasting my beloveds):

1) Grew too much in the night and got too close to the lamp (have since moved the lamp up to allow for rapid growth spurts)
2) Water spilt on leaves whilst watering has caused the light to be magnified and singed the leaf?

Either way I've messed up - my first big mistake - Gutted!!! Am not giving up on her though. Will leave her in there and hope she has the growing power to pull through. Plant A is looking good though and I think I can see the second set of leafs starting to appear.

Turn your head away if you can't bare to see cruelty to plants: This picture is graphic and very disturbing!!!!



Plant A still going strong:

Day 8 (7 in soil not soli as I wrote yesterday!)

OK, plant B seems to still be alive even though I managed to burn the shit off her only leafs. The second set of leafs are even coming through on plant B despite my cruelty to her!!!! Power to the Power Africa!!!

Have a few questions to ask today so please spare me an answer if you can help. I am planning to use Playgron Terra Grow nutes as I am using the Playgron light mix soil (good combo to have apparently). When should I start adding nutes? Is the beginning of week 2 too early or late - especially as my plants don't seem like monsters yet and I burnt the one?

Managed to find two metal mesh pencil cups of differing size for my carbon filter today so will build this Monday and post pics. https://www.rollitup.org/members/dafoe23-122475-albums-start-picture45737-photo0389-copy.jpg (Great step by step article for carbon filter)

Third pc fan has arrived so have rejigged the box so that this is now acting as the exhaust and the two 54 cfm fans as individual passive intakes. Fans are coming on every half hour for 15mins and keeping the temps regulated nicely and through flow of CO2.

And now for the pics:

Day 9 (8 in soil)

Didn't get to see my plants all day as was working!!!! Got back at half five and had a snealy peek - impressive growth for one day with second set of leafs coming on nicely:



No one seems to be reading this journal or replying = I'm gonna carry on regardless as its more for my records and benefit than anything else but please feel free to comment if you wanna. I'm thinking towards the end of week 2 for the nutes as feel it's a bit early at the moment and don't want to kill my babies off. Plant B (yes the burnt one) is actually growing bigger than unburnt plant A so I don't think the light incident was as much of a disaster as I first though - although not gonna be repeating it. Pics:

Plant B


Plant A

Can you post a picture of your cfl? I want to see if your using the same one as me.

Also why do you have foil around the top of the cups? Foil can cause hot spots, which could be trouble.

looking good bro.

looking good mate. is the light nice and close to the plants? CFL looks nice. i assume it's full spectrum? i'm using a 2 t8 tubes 18000k. CFLs are great for growing. i think it is necessary to do some low stress training on the plants when using cfls to allow light to get to the lower growth. when your plants grow to about the 3rd-5th internode you can start tying down the main stem to the sides of your. it ends up being like a bonzai plant and you'll end up creating an even canopy which makes better use of your light as the CFLs have to be really close to the plants.

anyway. i'll keep an eye on this post. good luck!

Hey guys - big thanks for the replies and questions, will answer one by one and update todays activity at the end!

Captain Cannabis - Cheers for your reply. Here is a pic of my CFL. It's a 250watter, 8U CFL 6400K (will have to buy a seperate flowering 2700k bulb but had a good deal on this bulb with reflector hood, etc, and wanted to make sure I managed to germinate before going any further). It measures about 14cm in length and weighs a fair bit but seems to be doing the job so far. Am probably going to need more light though as I think I've under estimated my plants (fingers crossed, ha ha) and don't think this will cover enough square footage if I want to keep the plants close to the light. What bulb are you using? Cheers for the advice about the foil - I wonder if this is the reason for the burns on Plant B and not being too close to the light after all??!?? I have taken the foil off now just in case but had read that it helps reduce mold by covering the soil around the plant and had the obvious reflective quality to bounce the light back up - if its going to burn the leafs though I'll take my chance with the mold and keep the humidity at the correct level (currently around 65%)


Cheers for the reply again as well Exo - still can't find a journal from you? Are you keeping one as would like to have a look? Any adive please pass on

Hey Istme, cheers for looking in - light was about an inch away until Plant B took a torching and thought it best to lift it until I found the cause - thinking now it may be the foil I had put around the plants causing hot spots so have taken the foil away and lowered the light again. Definitely going to do some LST on these once they are big enough as I think you;re right - it's the best way to maximise the CFL's and get some decent bud from them. I have had a look at some articles on this site about LST, but if you know of any good ones that would guide a newbie through please feel free to point me their way!

Day 10 (9 in soil and as of today NEW SOIL and BIG ASS POTS!!!!)

OK - it all took off today!!! Got home from work and checked on my babies. Unexpected amounts of grow last night (always seems to be happening during their 6 hour rest period). Not only had they grown more than I had expected but both plants roots had popped out of the drainage holes at the bottom of their pots. TIME TO POT UP PEOPLE!!! Have transplanted both plants into their final pots, although they now look dwarfed in comparison to the new pots. Lets hope they grow to match the size and provide me with a much deserved smoke at the end of all this.

PICS:

Plant A's night growth (before Potting up)


Plant A's night growth (Again before Potting up)
Still shudder at the sight of those burnt leafs!!!!!!

Potting up picks to show size of pots:

Plant A


Plant B:



Final result of Potting up and back under the lights:

A+B


Just put this pic in as my plant looks like she's loving her light (just humour me here ok):



Right, it's late here and have been at work all day. Will wrap this thing up just by saying that I expect a bit of slow down in growth over the next few days as I'm guessing the Potting up will shock my ladies a bit and they will take their time to settle in to their new homes. Will keep you posted and cheers again for the replies. If anyone has a similar CFL grow going on at the moment and is posting pics - send me a link as would be well interested in seeing how every one else is getting on. Laters people, Laters!!!!

Becarful about having the lights so close to the plant at a young age, they seem to burn much easier thats what happened to mine.

I also have that light bulb haven't hooked it up yet, hopefully it will get the job done.

I have 5 26 watt 6500k and 2 23 watt 2700k running on my two plants right now.

Keep up the good work!

Hey Captain Cannabis - cheers for that. Still not 100% sure what caused Plant B to burn so have lifted the lights a little to make sure (figure if I take out all the risks including foil, lights, etc, it shouldn't happen again). Like your set up, I definitely think I'm going to need a few more single lights to help with the square footage coverage - I'll take a look on ebay later and see what I can find for some smaller CFL's / local DIY store - whichever is cheaper and easier. Have you got any pics of you set up and plants as wouldn;t mind checking them out?

Day 11 (10 in soil, 1 in new pots)

Evening all. So checked on my plants this afternoon after Potting up to bigger pots last night. I was expecting little change or rapid decline from the shock of the new pots but I must have done something right as the little bleeders have only gone and grown on me. Both A + B have sprouted the beginnings of their next set of leafs and are looking really bushy for this early on I think. Hardy little buggers these weeds! Check out the pics and feel free to comment. Any nute advice would be greatly appreciated. I've bought Playgron Terra Grow and am looking to nute at the end of this week or next (this would be end of week 2 or maybe later into week 3).

Cheers peeps!

Pics:

Plant A


Plant B


A two shot of the family working hard for me!