Princess Pot
Member


Here's the one I have going right now, pic taken at 17 days from sprout, I started it straight in the cup.I am currently using 5000k 23w CFL's. I am at week 2 veg and I have much better growth than I ever did with 30 years of HPS use (thats if you prefer short bushy plants). The nodes are less than 1" apart and the are bushy, bushy, bushy. The roots have already outgrown 6" pots and I have had not one issue thus far. I will switch to 2700k when I want to flower. I veg 24/0 and use no nutrients at this time. I have 16 CFL's over 8 plants. When they reach about 12" i'll start adding 6500k T-12's pointing up from the floor and sides. A total of 688 watts. When the lite source is only 2" from the plants this wattage has a powerful effect on growth. I have never had plants stretch using CFL's, not even the Blue Dream which is known for its height.
Here's a quick pic of the roots I had today when I moved from the cup at 21 days from sprout.One thing I have experienced with CFL's is the fast and extensive root growth. CFL's tend to cause short bushy growth which fools us into thinking there is less overall growth, hence, less root growth (my twisted theory). I started in 16 ounce cups and by day 10 I had a rootball evident of too small a container. I switched to 6" pots and by day 20 they were already outgrowing that pot (only 4" tall). After transplanting it immediately fixed that curly/puffy leaf appearance I thought the CFL's were causing). I have learned that with using CFL's I should start with a much larger container than when using more traditional lite setups. I have had to forget everything I thought I knew about growing when I began using CFL's but it has been fun and a much easier learning curve than the HPS and MH methods. What makes me smile is the massive amount of growth I get in such a short bush. Nice pic!![]()
Agreed...........Yep, that's exactly what I had in my cups. After a few more days in the 6" pot it was even worse than that. I know it goes against what the experts say about too large a pot, too soon, but the CFL's available today are technology only a few years old so there are many new and unknown factors which might go against traditional beliefs. Currently I have a grow I started in 5 gal buckets and I'm curious to see what the roots look like at harvest. I just dont see a point to transplanting 4-5 times before the flowering stage with CFL's. I would love to hear some newer science on CFL's and rooting
Really? Can you tell that the bloom spec actually HELPS in the veg?I really like useing 2700k bulbs the whole grow, with some 5000k bulbs in there. i dont like the 6400-6500k bulbs as the spectrum is alittle high. The 2700k in the begeining really makes tham hurry up and grow. IMHO
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Makes sense, I never thought that far aheadthe 2700K is close to the FALL/Autum color of the sun, whitch makes the plant hurry up because it thinks the end is near. and with autoflowers you want them to grow as fast as possible.
On that note, Lowe's has 2 packs of the 23w 2700k bulbs for $7, and 4 packs of 13w 5000k bulbs for $9.just a FYI 2700k CFLs are about 1/3 of the price as 6500k bulbs and they will veg just fine under 2700k so if your on a budget (which im assuming you are since your using CFL's) then you will be able to buy more 2700k bulbs with what you have for funding.