First Grow - CFL

I understand the hesitancy. I looked at the two nice plants I have going right now and tried to see how I would possibly LST them... harder to see than you might think. The best I could plan out requires them to be a little bigger. If I had topped or FIM'd earlier the I might be able to do it now but I need the branches to get a little longer. I did cut the wire and get some holes ready. Maybe in a few more days. They are starting to grow quickly so it wont be much longer.

Just realized that I messed up in one of the first posts. I miss typed when I said they were just over "2 weeks" old at that point. It was actually just over 3 weeks. Total mistake.

Here is the biggest one. Getting nice and bushy looking. Lots of nice branches growing out of all sides. The FIM is looking really good as well. I think I might get 4 tops from both plants, plus some good side branches.





I need to decide how big I want these to get before I flip them. Once I have them doing some LST?? Hell I might get too excited and just flip them without doing anything more complex with them. I will wait a bit longer and give the Little Mutant a chance to bounce back. It is growing much better now. The new leaves are actually looking more normal.

Here's hoping!!

Looking good man! Isn't this shit fun!? I think we are both doing well on our first grow! I'll keep you updated on mine daily or weekly. Going to be interesting to see how both of ours turn out since the are about the same age.

Right on.
I totally agree it will be good to compare how they do. We should be able to learn a few things for next time.

Cheers!

How ridiculous is it that I have to tell myself not to go and water them??
I know better... they are not ready for more water yet. I could mist them a bit but not actual watering.
If I watered every time I felt like I needed to I would drown them.
Stupid.

Got to just leave them alone. It's not like I'm new to growing things. I've had gardens and house plants my entire life. I can grow Orchids, so I ought to be able to grow a bit of Weed without screwing it up.

FIM worked on both of them!!!

I can see 4 tops starting on both!!!

If I can just keep this going a little longer, I might actually get a decent amount on my first babies.

Hey BC, check out my thread, I just started LST today. https://www.rollitup.org/cfl-fluorescent-lighting/713446-first-indoor-grow-closet-cfl.html

I wish I had unlimited space for them to grow.
I have tonnes of space, but my COO (wife) would get a little grumpy if I tried to expand. Right now she is being tolerant and letting me do my thing. Problem is that where as I come from a background, she does not. In fact her whole family is very much against the glorious herb. She is much more open then they are, but she still has all those years of listening to her parents wanting all those "Hippy Potheads" locked up. She will be happier once I can grow outside and away from the house. The grow tent makes her nervous.

So I'm having some issues with my temperature. I'm sitting at about 82 f during lights on. This is with all the lights on. I would like to be at 74-78 most of the time.

I knew it would be like this. Just means I need to upgrade my exhaust fan. I have a 4" inline that needs to be put in place. I need to get another fan for inside the tent. It needs to be small though. I looked on the weekend but didn't find one. Soon.

Future plans: I'm working on a recirculating hempy bucket system. I can fit two in my tent but height becomes an issue. The res, bucket, lights, and ventilation take up a lot of the space. I'm really only left with 18" of growth potential. SCROG here I come!!

I need to finish putting the system together and test it properly. I'll run it for a couple days first. Make sure the pump and timer work properly, feed enough but not too much, too slow or too fast. Test the bubbler. Test the tubing and joints for leaks.

The system is based on Flowamasta's design. If I can get it working smoothly I should have a really nice setup. Being able to do half what Flowa does would be incredible!!!

I gotta dream.

So I was reading some of the 12/12 perpetual grow threads. They are very interesting. That might be a good thing to try out. If I mess up at some point and end up with seeds in a grow that would be a good use for them. Harvest a couple girls every 3 months during the winter months? Or even every month if i do the timing right.

I still prefer the idea of growing outside but I can see the appeal of the 12/12 from seed grow style.

So much potential from one single plant... Amazing!!

Update Time!!

So here are a couple more pics of my FIM attempts.



And SUCCESS!




And this is where they were at a couple of days ago.

So after that I moved the lights up a bit to cause a bit of stretch... in preparation for this.


It is time to start some LST. I have carefully bent over the two main ones and started to direct the branches towards where I want them to go. I haven't really decided where this is headed, but it's fun. They have even started to turn back up towards the light in just the last two hours. Impressive how quickly they can change.

The Little Mutant is starting to look much better as well. Its got some good leaves and short branches that are now looking more normal and growing. It is slow and not normal but it has started.



And here is all three of them.

Looking good man, I think it's a good idea to LST. My purple haze that I am training is looking great, flat canopy and about 9 or 10 tops. I was LST'ing the White Widow but untied her, she didn't seem to like it as much and she is smaller and her stalk didn't seem too sturdy.

I also just flipped them to 12/12 tonight. They are almost all 5 weeks in so its about time, excited to see some flowers soon!

Thank you.
I'm very happy with them so far. Even the Little Mutant is doing much better than I thought it would. Coming back from the brink... Tough little plants.

I'm going to continue with the LST for just a couple days and then flip them. I can't have them grow too tall.

So this evening they have turned completely back up to the lights again. Stems are nicely turned 90 degrees but the leaves and branches are heading up.\

Perfect!!

Question is what do I do now?? Do I continue to do some LST? Do I flip'm?? Or do I plan for a small SCROG? Seems to be pushing my luck to go for the SCROG on my first grow... Not to mention it will extend the grow further.

CHOICES CHOICES CHOICES!!!!

SCREW IT ALL!!! I'M GOING SCROG'N!!!!!!!!!!!

So my setup has the built in ability to have a screen at just the right height. I am going to take advantage of that and put it in. I am sure I wont be able to do a really good job, but I'm going to do it anyway. The screen is going in today!

PICS to come soon...

Cant wait to see the scrog. I was thinking about trying it out but chickened out. I'll follow along with your scrog and learn from you! Check out my thread, just added some new pics of the lst purple haze and the new 2700k lights.

It is now done! The screen is in!!!

But first a little update:

Here is the Little Mutant. Doing its best to keep growing. I'm cheering for the underdog here.



And a little LST for everyone. I don't really know what I'm doing but it all seems to be the same as the Tomato cages or trellises I've used. Training a vine to a trellis seems to be the same basic thing.



And finally the SCREEN!!



I'm going to let them veg for a couple more days at 18/6. I'll flip'm by Sunday i think. Any more than that and I'm worried about them outgrowing the tent.

PS. I still don't know the SEX!! Here's hoping for girls!

The screen looks awesome! I'm definitely going to try that on my next grow. Where did u get the screen? What's holding up the screen?

The screen is part of the tent. It has 4 levels to it. Each level has a screen that is supported by three pipe supports. I took out the top two levels to start with along with the center support pipes. Now to put the screen in I just used Zip-Ties to hold it down on the outside supports. No center support.

The spacing of everything seems to be pretty good.

I think with the next soil grow I am going to take out one more level and start at the bottom so I have more height to work with. Should let me veg more and do more FIM and LST before reaching the screen. I should be able to fill the whole tent with a single plant, no problem. I measured it and the growing area is 26"x16"x36". If I start at the bottom I can put in another set of Florescent lights on the sides and have a couple under the canopy as well as screen height, plus the CFLs above the whole plant. Right now I have 8 bulbs (23watt) above. But I have the space to put in another 8 if I wanted to. That would all push me up close to 500watts of light.

One down side to the screen that I am using right now is that the openings are small. Only about 1.5"x1.5"
This screen will only work with small plants. You also need to keep everything under it until you want it to grow up. It would be hard to bend back down without breaking branches. That is part of the reason for me not doing truly serious SCROG work on this grow. I can't be sure that I will have the time to check and adjust or tweak the branches often enough. Maybe next time.

I have a bunch of different types of screens that I could put in so sky's the limit for me. Everything from 1/4" mesh (wouldn't work), 1" and 2" chicken wire, 2"x3" mesh, Chain link, 4" welded mesh, up to 4"x6" hog panels. I'm wondering about doing an outdoor SCROG with some of the 4" mesh panels. I could just arch them over a plant, FIM and TOP until it hits the mesh then SCROG it. Lots of possibilities to play with.

Now that I think about it... How am I going to ever smoke everything I can grow??? I'm only growing for myself and I'm not a chain smoker by any standard.