Compact Fluorescent Love Bud

The title says it! I'm using the power of love paired with CFL bulbs to cultivate cannabis purely for personal use.. and FUN!

My setup consists of the following..

MEDIUM: Coco Coir/Perlite (4.5 gallon)

NUTRIENTS: General Hydroponics (Flora series)

LIGHTS: 12, 23w CFL bulbs (8, 2700k/4, 5500k) and a 4ft fluorescent fixture (what a tongue twister! LOL) with 2 unknown bulbs I had lying around for extra side lighting.

AIR: 1 small desk fan attached to the wall, blowing over the lights. 1 box fan opposite of the smaller fan.

TEMPERATURE/RH: 72-82°F, 30%-60%

My first plant is 7 weeks into flowering today. I've learned a TON! And boy am I excited!

Since educating myself about growing cannabis I wasn't expecting a very large yield from my girl, given I'm using CFL bulbs. Although this IS my first grow, I'm still very shocked by what's in front of me because I expected something much, much smaller.

Alongside my flowering (Bagseed, I might add) plant, I have sprouted another bagseed. At first it was just going to be my second grow and another learning experience. Though it is both of those, I've also decided to participate in the 5th Solo Challenge. My solo is just 3 weeks old, looking quite small yet.

Which leads us to... PICTURES!

In order of appearance (I Hope!)

12/20 (10 days after germination)
12/28
1/02
1/12
1/18
1/23
1/25
1/31
2/07
2/08 (2 days after 12/12 flip)
2/13
2/21
3/01
3/07
3/13
3/22
3/27
4/3
And my Solo!..
I've already tied her down, you can see.

More pictures..

Harvested this morning. Left 4 or 5 lower branches to ripen a little more, if they will even swell I'm not sure.

Wet weight is 380g and I'm hoping for 4 oz dry. Great first run in my opinion. I'm satisfied.

I'll update with dry weight.

Nice grow! I'm on my first grow, all CFLs, almost 3 weeks into 12/12. One thing I'm uncertain about, is cutting back foliage under the screen (I'm using a scrog). It looks like you just let your plant go, is that true? Did you do any leaf trimming along the way?

I've been doing it because I've been told that with any kind of light, the lower leaves that receive little or no direct light use the plants resources but provide little in return to the plant, and therefor can inhibit bud development. The logic goes that this is even more prevalent with CFLs, since they have poor light penetration all of the leaf density that is more than 6 or certainly 8 inches from a bulb is not helping the plant.

What's your take on this? At this point I've even cut some scraggly small bud sites from the lower canopy. It goes against my grain to remove any part of a healthy plant, but this is for medicinal purposes so I'm trying to do what's best for the product.