Cali patient needing help diagnosing and setup !

Welcome! and thank you for taking a look,

Well firstly, i want to start off by saying that this is my first grow ive ever attempted so i am still in the process of learning and experiencing new things. These plants were givin to me at 4 weeks old and one of them was 3 weeks. I've had them for 2 weeks now and been have taking quiet good care of them and doing everything i can do in my situation. There in good pots with soil i bought at home depot and i added percilite to the mixture.

Well my setup is basically based of home materials and minimumally under 50$ invested into equipment. So its not a super pro closet setup some of you might be thinking.
I know i definatly need better lights and im going to invest in them soon but till then i am using 100W bulbs (3), on four plants that i am growing. I am wondering how long this will last as far as there grow process because i know when they start flowering there is going to be a diffrent cycle needed.
There is a good consistancy of breeze though, bottom right there is a fan that is blowing air and giving them a good consistancy of air flow and there always moving nicely.
How long might this setup last? Whats needed.



The plaint four plant strains im growing are - Chem Dog, Blue berry hogsbreath, bubba OG and Larry
Here's the big thing although, when i got these plants they had spider mites and i started treating them 2 days after i got them with this stuff called "Bayer Advanced Natria Insect, Disease and Mite Control" and I would spray them , leave them for 20 minutes, spray them down with water and then 20 minutes and there back in. I did this once every 3 days for 2 weeks now and it looks like they are going away, but definatly still there .. not as strong although.

They are looking okay to me and looking for a nice growth for the most part, there getting new leaves as im keeping track basically day by day.
THE BIG question really im trying to understand is that there getting like this almost to say 'sperm' looking substance on there leaves. Its like a crust like also because ive actually taken it off the leaves by peeling a little bit of the white stuff off. I dont know if the spider mites have caused this but i am thinking they have somthing to do with it or if you guys know what it really is, i really need the help.



Im really interested and am going to read all of your guys feedback so please dont be afraid to put good information in it.

I will be posting more pictures throughout time of these plants the full grow and any corrections that i might make through your guys judgement and advice.

Thank you,

UPDATES


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Some updates that have been going throgh is definatly knowing to keep that light closer to them. Taken off covers due to dust and im in the process of changing up the spider mite spray and going to a local hydroponic store and getting real spider mite killer other than the homedepot shit i got.
Plants are going well and looking to start my flowering process in early to mid January.

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Caliweed760 said:

......snip....but till then i am using 100W bulbs (3), on four plants that i am growing. .........snip......

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If these are incandescent lights they are really only good for heat. They provide next to nothing in the spectrum a plant uses. Please get a 6500K T5 or at least a 400 watt metal halide or high pressure sodium. But get those lights fixed ASAP!

Well if u have the mites it might comprmise your grow if there not completly gone b4 u get too far into flowering, i would just start over with new plants from seed if i were you. if your keeping them get thoes lights closer, and i hope they are CFL's too. use the hand trick to not get them too close (back of hand cant handle the heat=plant cant handle it either)
hope everything works out man i would love to see this come through.

Do you have a roomate or something mad at you?taste it and if its not salty its probbally residue left from bug spray.or maybe som sorta mold aint from the spider mites...maybe somebody else out there knows more about sperm issues than me might help.

StewartWarner said:

Well if u have the mites it might comprmise your grow if there not completly gone b4 u get too far into flowering, i would just start over with new plants from seed if i were you. if your keeping them get thoes lights closer, and i hope they are CFL's too. use the hand trick to not get them too close (back of hand cant handle the heat=plant cant handle it either)
hope everything works out man i would love to see this come through.

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Thanks man i really apreciate it. Ill try to keep the lights close as possible, yeah there CFL lights 100W ,1750 lumens. I have 3 of them on the plants right now.


I also had another question, how much nutrients should i be giving them right now at there state would you say?

curious2garden said:

If these are incandescent lights they are really only good for heat. They provide next to nothing in the spectrum a plant uses. Please get a 6500K T5 or at least a 400 watt metal halide or high pressure sodium. But get those lights fixed ASAP!

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They are not incadescent lights, there CFL 100W. I know i need to upgrade its just this is my only setup for now.

What lights should i switch to when they need to flower also? , Once i get the spider mites off and get these plants ready.?

Most people flower under a high pressure sodium.

ranchos429 said:

Most people flower under a high pressure sodium.

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I do admire that and think that would be a better route but if im not able to do HPS, im pretty sher ill be able to use the CFL throughout the whole, is this correct?

Yes you can flower with cfl.the ones with the smaller # like 2700k is better for flower if i remember right.Your gonna whant the cfls close to your plants.like 2 inches away..and your gonna need alot of them as many as possible.and not just on top of them down sides also.might wanna get some of those y sockets to put in your lamps that allow you to use 2 bulbs per a lamp.

Look in the cfl section in the indoor growing part of this site,theres alotta good reading there about growing with cfls...good luck

Caliweed760 said:

What lights should i switch to when they need to flower also? , Once i get the spider mites off and get these plants ready.?

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I couldn't tell from the pictures if they were incandescent or fluorescent so I figured I'd give the information just in case. I veg my plants under T5's and they do fine but flowering they go under an HPS. You can flower under a fluorescent but you won't get the quantity and quality you would get under an HPS.

But it is still worth doing and even if it's not as much or as potent you can simply smoke a little more and you'll learn so much that will be there for you as you improve your equipment. Best of luck on your grow.

ranchos429 said:

Yes you can flower with cfl.the ones with the smaller # like 2700k is better for flower if i remember right.Your gonna whant the cfls close to your plants.like 2 inches away..and your gonna need alot of them as many as possible.and not just on top of them down sides also.might wanna get some of those y sockets to put in your lamps that allow you to use 2 bulbs per a lamp.

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Ah, i see alright well ill make some adjustments and see if i can tack on a couple more lights to help them. Everything right now is looking alright and all i gotta do is just get some nutrients for them. Ill post some more updates in a bit . Thank you guys for you help, probably will need more as my grow goes along!

curious2garden said:

I couldn't tell from the pictures if they were incandescent or fluorescent so I figured I'd give the information just in case. I veg my plants under T5's and they do fine but flowering they go under an HPS. You can flower under a fluorescent but you won't get the quantity and quality you would get under an HPS.

But it is still worth doing and even if it's not as much or as potent you can simply smoke a little more and you'll learn so much that will be there for you as you improve your equipment. Best of luck on your grow.

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There just 100W CFL's but ive also heard that people have done some quiet nice grows from CFL. But I will improve to HPS as soon as i can. Thank u

I've moved the lights closer and also took off the covers on the lights cause they had light dust of them. Looks like theres better light and there liking it more. I just need to figure out how im going to put like 2 more CFL's down the side of them.
Tommaro is when im going to spray them tommaro again with that bayer stuff so that will be 3 days since my last spray which should be again helping the plants. But I have some pictures and I NEED to know whats going on and whys theres LITERALLY silver crust on the leaves. Like i am basically able to take off the silver crust by hand. KinD of! just some. and there are still like 2 or 3 little black dots under some of the leaves i can see, so i do infact still have spider mites ): .. more updates to come! But here are some pics! and more advice is highly apreciated!

Before christmas or maybe tommaro how things pan out for me ill me going for the neem oil and check out the azamax product and also try and get good nutrients.

Also about the lights, yeah there is a good possiblity i will have to do CFL through the whole grow. Right now i got 2 100W and 1 50W CFL on them, but im going to figure a way out to put a couple on the side. Whats the wattage i should be using with these CFL's and what wattage should i switch the CFL's to when comes time for flowering?

I use to just let the cfls hang from there cords between the plants.The more watts the better for cfl.Now for the silvery stuff,you maybe got aphids they secret a honeydew substance on leaves that this like bacteria will grow on and sometimes leave the silvery stuff on your leaves.I also had this problem when useing cfls before.

ranchos429 said:

I use to just let the cfls hang from there cords between the plants.The more watts the better for cfl.Now for the silvery stuff,you maybe got aphids they secret a honeydew substance on leaves that this like bacteria will grow on and sometimes leave the silvery stuff on your leaves.I also had this problem when useing cfls before.

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Well aphids look like a pretty big bug and hard to kill. Im almost certain that they cant be that. There is barely any black dot under the leaves and i cant see any signs of what you posted for the aphids. Nother the less my Flowing period im thinking about starting it january 1st - the 10th seeing on how the plants go, but i gotta get those stupid spider mites! Which shouldnt be super hard if i get the right stuff.

Caliweed760 said:

There just 100W CFL's but ive also heard that people have done some quiet nice grows from CFL. But I will improve to HPS as soon as i can. Thank u

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Yup you can do a nice grow. Of course with more light power you can do better but that is what is so much fun about this hobby. There's so many ways and all of them reward you. Why don't you make a grow journal and we can follow you. I'd really enjoy seeing how this turns out for you.

curious2garden said:

Yup you can do a nice grow. Of course with more light power you can do better but that is what is so much fun about this hobby. There's so many ways and all of them reward you. Why don't you make a grow journal and we can follow you. I'd really enjoy seeing how this turns out for you.

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Thanks man, you are from southern cali and know how it is around here haha. Always trying to grow the best.
I'll definatly make a journal and keep the ones subbed to this informed. Success stories always a virtue ^.^

https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/603983-first-cfl-grow-journal-blue.html#post8438161

Here's my grow journal for these plants if anyone is interested! Cheers and thank you for all the help