Hey Growing 2 White Widows using CFL's/Indoors

Hello I am new to growing, this was started out of curiosity and boredom I am not an Avid smoker but my friends are and my love for Botany has got me into this adventure and I came into this expecting this to be a cake walk however the more I research the more I realized this is not to be taken lightly and I would love for this forum to help me out and give me advice in the upcoming weeks as I develop my plants.

I am growing 2 White widows in a 3 gallon pot with Miracle Soil I am using 8 23 Watt Cfls (100W Equivalent) so technically 4 23 watts for each plant but they share the same place my Lumens is about 12800 Lumens I am using "Daylight" so it should be 5000k

My grow space is an Orange closet that I taped printer paper around to reflect light I guess... The dimensions are 2Meters Tall, 1 Meter wide and 60 Centimeters deep. I water using Tap water that I leave out for 2-3 days and I water using the 3 inch rule ( the one where the surface needs to be dry and if I dig in my finger in if its moist or not).

The plant is 7 days in I see 2 Jagged edges leaes and 2 round edges leaves perpendicular to it on the first set and the stem is about 1.5 inches tall.
1.5 in.

My initial questions are Is there a difference between 5000k and 6500k ?
Should I get more Lumens?
Is my current set up enough to sustain life and for it to produce a decent amount?
Should I invest in nutrients when I water ?
I let my closet breath 2-3 hours a day is that enough? should I invest in a fan ?

Any information on what I am doing right/doing wrong will help greatly I appreciate it and Thank you.

pics would help first, i prefer not to use 5000k except for additional lighting to get more of a full spectrum, it is not bulb you would use strictly to grow for as your main source

Crash course. Lose the miracle grow soil. Just do it, or will be debating this with folks all night. I agree with do3 5000k is the best for veg accent with 6500k and even 4100k.

You can't have enough light remember lumens is the light intensity and kelvin is color spectrum. Example 2300k red end of the spectrum 6500k blue end. Use as many cfl's as you can handle without getting your room too hot. 82 degrees max with plenty of air circulation and this may be too hot for some strains. When it's time to bloom, change to 2300k cfl's and only leave in a few 5000k. The red end of the spectrum triggers a plant to bloom Quicker and keep the nugs nice and tight.

A small fan should be turned on while the lights are on. Most closet/cab growers leave it on all the time. A plant will use up all the available co2 that is in contact with the leaves in 30 minutes when there is no circulation, which is the case with most sealed cab and closets. A fan is a must.

We could spend hours talking about water. RO water is the best way to go. Most grocery stores sell it by the gallon. Read the label you want "Reverse Osmosis" not Spring or Distilled. If your dead set on using Tap water get a bubble stone and airate the water while you let it set for couple days. This will help with the chlorine but there are other nasty things in it that will not bubble out. PH control is crucial to good yields, sooner or later most growers find this out. You may as well start now. You get what you pay for when it comes to PH meters, so don't be afraid to spend some cash. self calibrating and ATC (automactic Temp. Compensation) are key features and start about $80.00. Don't buy a probe type soil PH tester you'll just be sorry later. You want to control the PH of the water you will be applying and the runoff from your drip pan. The runoff test will tell you where your soil stands. Don't over water, common mistake. Weigh the pot when the soils dry, Water and don't water again until the weight reaches the orginal firgure plus a little for new growth. Over watering is a big mistake new growers make, including myself. A cheap moisture meter works too $4.99.

Nutes are a great idea just follow the directions and you'll be just fine. Until you see how your plant reacts to them, start with a 1/4 or 1/2 of the reccomended amount. This is very important when their little/young.


I hopes this wasn't to long winded and I hope I have cut down on your learning curve I wish I would have came here for advice when I was starting out.

Peace! and happy growing!

Hello Thank you for all the advice I have indeed taken it to heart and writing it down.

1. Why is Miracle soil bad and What can I replace that with ?

2. I don't have a small fan can I just leave one of the closet doors open with a fan blowing inside ?

I also will get pictures ASAP

This is gonna start a war on here. But you asked. MG soil has salt based nutes. Salt = death. These nutes are time released, when you water they are released and your plant absorbs them. The more you water, the more your plants absorb, sounds good in theory. But cannabis like regular water every other watering. You can't do this with MG soil. Also the wetting agents are not good because your plants like to dry out completly. Hard to do when your medium is fighting this with it's wetting agents. Remember as long as the mediums wet, it's releasing more nutes usually ending up in nute burn on your plants. Then you'll come on here with pics and folks will say you need to flush, so you start pouring the water on them and guess what, you compound the problem and things get worst. Another thing is MG say there's enough nutes for 6 months way to long for a cannabis cycle. There are more reasons that are a little more in depth that have to do with the size of the N molecules. Much more than I wanna get into on this post. I have made this mistake and cost me in the yeild department. I not saying if you water correctly it won't work, I'm just saying for $20.00 a bag for good organic soil, you'll have higher yeilds. Go to your grow store and get a soil designed for cannabis. Fox Farm makes a product called Ocean Forest. There are others to Happy Frog comes to mind.


Now I'm gonna sit back and watch all the MG soil growers respond with their bullshit (not many facts, but they'll tell you "no problems just use it")

DerpSteiger said:

Hello Thank you for all the advice I have indeed taken it to heart and writing it down.

1. Why is Miracle soil bad and What can I replace that with ?

2. I don't have a small fan can I just leave one of the closet doors open with a fan blowing inside ?

I also will get pictures ASAP

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Sorry I forgot, 6" clamp-on desk fan $9.00 at any of your home improvement stores. Very handy, Good luck!

I appreciate the swift response however I am doing this for fun and I want to finish this trial run with Miracle soil and learn this the hard way I guess(also feel really cheap to waste my soil), I know I am disrespecting your opinion by still continuing with the soil, I apologize for that and for the second run I will follow your advice and get soil that is not salt activated. As I continue with the Miracle soil how would you suggest I "control" the damage that Miracle soil will have on my plants?

Also I run the lights permanently for 24 hours a day out of the 24 hours how long should I leave the closet doors open. Once again I appreciate your help my knowledge on this has increased exponentially and I am regretting a lot of things now that I am reading more deeply into these forums and I apologize for not following your advice YET.

No offense taken Brother. My cockyness was not directed at you. I have debated this many times before. In my area the costs difference is this, 2cubic/ft MG $9.00. 2 cubic/ft Foxfarm or Happy Frog $20.00. I won't beat that drum any more. You should really buy the fan. In my area a legal grow must be in a locked room. Door open and your not home, cops show up you go to jail. for me it's well worth the cheese.


If you have anymore questions I'm Happy Frog to help. Opps I just beat the Drum. Peace!

Hucklberry said:

No offense taken Brother. My cockyness was not directed at you. I have debated this many times before. In my area the costs difference is this, 2cubic/ft MG $9.00. 2 cubic/ft Foxfarm or Happy Frog $20.00. I won't beat that drum any more. You should really buy the fan. In my area a legal grow must be in a locked room. Door open and your not home, cops show up you go to jail. for me it's well worth the cheese.


If you have anymore questions I'm Happy Frog to help. Opps I just beat the Drum. Peace!

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im switching from mg but ill agree. a nifty trick you can use if your stuck with the MG like me for a bit you can actually SEE most of the time release nutes they look like seeds kinda but like one is grey, one is orange and theres a couple others but if you pick out those suckers dont have to worry about that problem as much other soil highly recommended, like he said happy frog, fox farms, a local soil you can get is called Pro-Mix if you maybe dont want to order stuff on internet. Its sphagnum moss, worm castings, limestone and other stuff no time release nutes or wetting agents tho

I understand your point inexpensive quality stuff is an oxymoron but I can't find the potting soil FF Ocean and happy frog anywhere in the place I live the only fertilizer I found that is with FF is American pride and Marine cuisine will either of those suffice ?

I will invest in the fan and is it okay if weekly I purchase more lumens for the plants,because I am cheap and I only limit myself 50-80 dollars a week to invest in this project.

I will also get a Ph meter can you crash course explain to me the optimal Ph level for the soil and water or just redirect me to a thread I can read that is accurate and correct?

Once again thank you for your time.

Also My pots don't have holes in the bottom should I make some ?

lagarrettBLUNT said:

im switching from mg but ill agree. a nifty trick you can use if your stuck with the MG like me for a bit you can actually SEE most of the time release nutes they look like seeds kinda but like one is grey, one is orange and theres a couple others but if you pick out those suckers dont have to worry about that problem as much other soil highly recommended, like he said happy frog, fox farms, a local soil you can get is called Pro-Mix if you maybe dont want to order stuff on internet. Its sphagnum moss, worm castings, limestone and other stuff no time release nutes or wetting agents tho

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Thanks for backing me up. I use Pro-mix and FF mixed 50/50. The Promix is inert meaning no nutes at all, but it is very light and allows good root penatration it feels like air. You have to use nutes when you water. The nice thing is you get to decide what nutes your plants get. Control is important to me. After you use pro-mix everything else looks and feels like mud. $32.00 a bail.

DerpSteiger said:

I understand your point inexpensive quality stuff is an oxymoron but I can't find the potting soil FF Ocean and happy frog anywhere in the place I live the only fertilizer I found that is with FF is American pride and Marine cuisine will either of those suffice ?

I will invest in the fan and is it okay if weekly I purchase more lumens for the plants,because I am cheap and I only limit myself 50-80 dollars a week to invest in this project.

I will also get a Ph meter can you crash course explain to me the optimal Ph level for the soil and water or just redirect me to a thread I can read that is accurate and correct?

Once again thank you for your time.

Also My pots don't have holes in the bottom should I make some ?

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6.3 to 6.8 for the water you apply. Drill several holes in the pots and when you water allow for 10 to 20 % runoff this helps draw the salts out.

Hucklberry said:

Thanks for backing me up. I use Pro-mix and FF mixed 50/50 The Promix is inert meaning no nutes at all. but it is very light and good root penatration it feels like air. But you have to use nutes when you water. The nice thing is you get to decide what nutes your plants get. Control is important to me. After you use pro-mix everything else looks and feels like mud. $32.00 a bail.

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my question to you is i have MG perlite, they put some of their feed crap in it but very very very low amounts will this be ok to mix with the pro mix.

Sure, use it up then buy a large grain perlite. MG perlite grains are very small, the larger grain perlite holds more air, Plants love it.

DerpSteiger said:

I understand your point inexpensive quality stuff is an oxymoron but I can't find the potting soil FF Ocean and happy frog anywhere in the place I live the only fertilizer I found that is with FF is American pride and Marine cuisine will either of those suffice ?

I will invest in the fan and is it okay if weekly I purchase more lumens for the plants,because I am cheap and I only limit myself 50-80 dollars a week to invest in this project.

I will also get a Ph meter can you crash course explain to me the optimal Ph level for the soil and water or just redirect me to a thread I can read that is accurate and correct?

Once again thank you for your time.

Also My pots don't have holes in the bottom should I make some ?

Click to expand...

pro mix is at local menards, if your really gonna stay with this remove the time release nutes and add some as you go it will prevent stuff going terrible later on.

Hucklberry said:

Sure, use it up then buy a large grain perlite. MG perlite grains are very small, the larger grain perlite holds more air, Plants love it.

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lol i actually have a grow going in only MG perlite, just as a experiment lol

lagarrettBLUNT said:

lol i actually have a grow going in only MG perlite, just as a experiment lol

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Better add some bloom nutes when you turn the lights back.

Hucklberry said:

Better add some bloom nutes when you turn the lights back.

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will do -

Hucklberry said:

Crash course. Lose the miracle grow soil. Just do it, or will be debating this with folks all night...... Peace! and happy growing!

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I did my first grow with a base of MG Moisture Control, was told it would work fine (before I found these boards) and it went great, first run of clones from first grow got nute lock just as you say. Flushing is useless as all it does it release more nutes. Thanks @Hucklberry for the straightforward common sense approach! I hope to be able to help like this some day, once my experience level grows.

Flush the shit out of your plants that MG is going to burn them