1st CFL grow 3 months in

Its been awhile since I posted anything so here is my grow so far (pics from a month in until now)Thanx for your help R.I.U!

4/20/09- Seedling breaks soil and vegetative growth officially begins. 24/0 lighting.
6/01/09- Switched to 18/6 lighting
6/04/09- 45 days vegging.
6/05/09- Topped and pruned.
6/08/09- Beginning of flowering cycle. switched to 12/12 lighting.
6/18/09- Notice first signs of flowering. switch light cycle to 10/14.
6/28/09- 69 days growing.
10 days since 1st sign of flowering
7/18/09- 1 month budding.
7/20/09- switched light cycle to 9/15

So far so good...4-6 weeks more and she'll be ready.
Feel free to comment.

NICE,, how much wattage are you running?? good work

4-65w 2700k
3-26w 2700k
1-13w 2700k
2-26w 6500k

403 total watts i believe(maths not my strong point)

I was using 3 26w 6500k bulbs but switched one out with the 13w 2700k bulb so i could get it closer to soe lower buds without burning some of the fan leaves.

actually 4-42w 2700k (the 150w equivalent ones.) NOT the 65 watters

so that would make it 311 total watts

cypress

some very impressive bud! looks like you did your cfl homework
what strain(s) do you have going there?

sick!!!! nice to see that there are still a few people out there pulling off descent grows with fluros,

keep it up dude

Thanks plantsinpants, I was told I wouldnt be able to produce decent buds using CFL's but their looking pretty tight to me.

Yep Growone I've been studying hard and learning a lot about how to pull off a better grow next time. Right now I'd give myself a C+/B-...haha
As far as the strain I'm not sure...It was from a bag of pretty good bud...at first I was thinkin it was a type of skunk because it had that pungent skunk smell but now as its later into flowering it smells like some sweet bubblegum.
The buds and small leaves are covered with those sticky trichomes...shes real pretty, lookin better everyday.

CypressChill said:

Thanks plantsinpants, I was told I wouldnt be able to produce decent buds using CFL's but their looking pretty tight to me.

Yep Growone I've been studying hard and learning a lot about how to pull off a better grow next time. Right now I'd give myself a C+/B-...haha
As far as the strain I'm not sure...It was from a bag of pretty good bud...at first I was thinkin it was a type of skunk because it had that pungent skunk smell but now as its later into flowering it smells like some sweet bubblegum.
The buds and small leaves are covered with those sticky trichomes...shes real pretty, lookin better everyday.

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Whoever said you cant grow good big bud with CFL's doesn't have a clue! CFL's get a bad rap, but I know better. I know how well they work. There are a lot of others who do too. I use CFL's, fluoro tubes, and an HPS. So I know what each has to offer. People who complain that their buds were fluffy either grew weed the makes fluffy bud (sativas dont make the tight nuggets that indicas do), or did not use their CFL's properly. Or had too few or the wrong spectrum.
So kudos to you my friend. Those buds look sweet. +rep
Are you going to look at trichomes to determine optimal harvest time? I highly recommend you do.
Way to grow.

AWW YEAH! Definitely I will harvest by the trichomes...I have been doing my homework after all Thats why I'm thinkin another 4-6 weeks, so the buds can fill out and those trichs can ripen. I'm gonna have to take a trip to radioshack or somewhere to find something to magnify those babies...I have a friend with a 5x magnifying glass,its hugh..think that would work? And I have excellent vision haha.I know what you mean by people not using cfl's properly...they definitely gotta be close cause some of my lower bud sites are a tad bit fluffy but the majority are nice and tight...I've also read its a good thing to have a mix of the light spectrum, 30% blue light to your flowering lights...supposedly the blue light increases trichome production and potency.
I have really enjoyed the growing experience with CFL's but I think I will invest in a 400w HPS to use for flowering next grow.How did you like the HPS compared to CFL's?
Anyways thanks for the comments and btw your tube grow is wicked!Gotta go research how to make hash w/o buying a bunch of expensive shit now..the gumby method looks promising.

5x won't cut it. Get the one at radio shack (60x-100x). It's cheap and works perfectly for the job.
I have not grown any bigger or better buds with my hps than i did on my 1st grow with the CFL's. I'm not putting down the HPS, its just that I did such a fantastic job with my CFL's and its hard to beat that!
You're right about the mixed spectrum. Its totally better than just red or just blue. That's one of the big advantages with CFL's you can get much closer to full spectrum sunlight with them. Of course you could flower with an HPS AND a MH, but thats overkill for many peoples needs.
If you are going to get a HPS I HIGHLY recommend you get a cooltube reflector with it. Otherwise what you will get will be half light and half heater.lol I had to make my own cool tube out of a large hurricane lantern glass tube, just to use my HPS in my tent. If you can't beat the heat of an HPS you can't get your plants close enough to it to make a significant difference. So keep that in mind. Peace.

Don't get me wrong...I absolutely LOVE the CFL's...who woulda thunk it, that you could grow great weed with a household "green" light. When I first started researching how to grow weed I had no idea what a CFL was, then I did a google image search and was like "doh".Its what I freakin use in my lamps....sweeeet!
The only reason I'm wanting to get a HPS is so i can have four plants flowering at once and I hear you get a higher yield using them.I would still veg with the CFL's. I think it would take way too many CFL's to flower with ...unless...possibly,if i LST them all...hmmm...i may try that, do some crazy bonzai shit.
BTW they do make a hps light that has 30% blue spectrum so you wouldn't have to flower with both a HPS and MH to get that whole daylight spectrum. How does the cool tube reflector work? Is that the reflector that you run a fan inline with it? And does it have a glass shield so you could move it closer to your plants..possibly even being able to touch the plants?
IDK..I may just perfect my CFL growing skills. They are pretty convienent and you can always go to Lowes or Wal-mart to pick you up some when you need them.

Quote:"Is that the reflector that you run a fan inline with it? And does it have a glass shield so you could move it closer to your plants."
Exactly!

cypress
congrats again on your grow, come a long ways
cfl's and smaller plants go together like peanut butter and jelly
i'm flowering a 29 incher with cfl's and looking at the plant, many here have remarked it looked like it was flowered under hps
as you get bigger though, i agree the hps really begins to pull ahead

growone said:

cypress
congrats again on your grow, come a long ways
cfl's and smaller plants go together like peanut butter and jelly
i'm flowering a 29 incher with cfl's and looking at the plant, many here have remarked it looked like it was flowered under hps
as you get bigger though, i agree the hps really begins to pull ahead

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Thanks again Growone.
Looking back on this grow i believe i should have flowered at a month in doing 24/0, but I'm just happy to have got a female and a pretty good looking one, if I may say so myself, considering all the stress I put her through. At one point even, I thought it was a male, so I planted another seed outside to get it going until I was positive it was either male or female.I now will have another plant to flower when this one finishes.LOL. I might just keep it outside for a comparison of how CFL's stack up to the natural sunlight, which I heard is no comparison.

lookin good make sure you keep those cfls as close as possibly, like one dick inch

Platipy said:

lookin good make sure you keep those cfls as close as possibly, like one dick inch

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Yep my lights are all up in that bitch!

those are gorgeous.

oo nice looking plant you got there =[]