Stone Knitter's first CFL grow!

We've been thinking of a closet grow for quite some time now. Finally I decided to throw a few seeds in the propagator instead of overthinking every issue and kinda build up upon what we have. I'm pretty happy with the results so far. One of my issues obviously was lighting. I wanted LEDs because they are the hip new thing and they are environmentally sound. But they are very expensive and the feedback is not that great. So I came across another hip alternative and that was the CFL. The result so far has astounded me! I did not expect these results for a first grow. My plants are still in the vegetative state and growing a little slow lately, but we’ve added more lights and transplanted the bigger ones. Hopefully I will start noticing some growth again. I planted two batches of seeds. The first two are a couple weeks older then the other plants.
I do not know yet how I will proceed with flowering lights. I would kinda like to try switching all my “white light” CFL with “warm light” CFL, but a friend has promised us a 400w something light so we might use that if I can improve ventilation in the closet.
So far, spending has been minimal and hopefully we can keep it that way for this first grow. I filter and oxygenate the water I use with an aquarium pump that I leave running 24/7. I also feed my plants whenever I water with Schultz 10-15-10 since it is so easy to use. 1 drop per cup is the ratio I use. I will obviously think of something else for flowering.
We do not have odor control yet and the ventilation does need improvement. But as I mentioned earlier, we’re building upon what we have as we go. Necessity is after all the mother of invention!

Pass it around!

Stone Knitter

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Looks good stone....I would definately not feed every watering like FG stated. You need to throw in a plain ph'd watering like every 3rd time.

Haha! I do knit!
They're pretty young so I can't imagine it being salt buildup although I am not very familiar with the issue either. But it could be the heat... I found out that CFL -DO- burn! Hmmm... I'm intrigued now! Thank you for the feedback!!

stoneknitter682 said:

Haha! I do knit!
They're pretty young so I can't imagine it being salt buildup although I am not very familiar with the issue either. But it could be the heat... I found out that CFL -DO- burn! Hmmm... I'm intrigued now! Thank you for the feedback!!

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Even though they are young.... you have been feeding with every watering and that's how you have salt buildup. Looks like early signs of it so a few waterings with just water and no food should flush the excess salt out. Then when you start feeding again only feed every 3rd watering.

I knit too

Thank you for the tip FG!! I will so do that!! -sigh- I want to live in my closet now...

Here are other pictures of our closet setup.







I also wonder how at this point I should procede with pruning! Any advice anyone?

This is horrible! There is a water leak in the ceiling of our bedroom so the landlord will need to come over to fix it. What should I do with the plants in the bedroom closet!!? Blah!!! I'm right bummed and paranoid now. I could move everything into the bathroom closet but I'm still worried about him finding them out!!!

buy locking handles for the doors u dont want ppl to get in.. easy as that

I haven't posted in a while. After the leak in the bedroom and the landlord scare, I've been a little stressed out and paranoid. But the plants are back in the bedroom closet and they've gone on a 12/12 light cycle just last weekend. I'll post some more horticultural notes later. My two first plants are female so I feel that I've otherwise been blessed by the God of Marijuana. Out of all the seeds I've planted we only grew one male of which we disposed of promptly. Remember that I've used bag seeds. I have 4 more females in 4 " pots which I'm keeping just for the sake of experimenting with them but my main focus is on those first two plants. One of them is a little stressed out by my bad choice of soil while the other one is PERFECT! The flowering of the other one is more advanced as it is more stressed. I'm a little concerned by imperfections on it's leaves. I'm shocked seeing again the first pictures that I took of the plants and how much blue is in their leaves. I see now that I really was overfeeding them at the time. Anyway, enjoy these pictures! The cat is my buddy Froufrou! He hates to smoke, but enjoys fresh greens picked up right off the plants! Pls comment if you have any suggestions on how I can improve my little "op"! Those really are greatly appreciated!

SK

I give you an A+ on your plants. wow they are healthy. i hope you have enough light as you are flowering. how many lightd did you veg with? what are your plans as far with the lights during flowering?

Thank you Alladin!

I've used 4 26w ultra white CFL for veg state. And now I've got 3 warm light CFL bulb of 26 w each per four bulb fixture with 1 ultra white. The boyfriend rearranged the closet today so I took some more pictures. I've read that you can flower with CFL: it might just take a little longer. We are trying to add some more bulbs though...

Budding in progress. There's tiny buds all around the plants. Notice the warm shade of the CFL.
The plants in the four inches pot that are flowering otherwise look fantastic despite the fact that they are pot bound. We don't have the space and ressource to plant them in bigger pots so we're experimenting with those. I'll take pics of them later. Here are pics of the main cola's to be of my two promising plants.

Would anyone have any suggestion on how I should proceed with pruning from this stage on? Anything would be greatly appreciated!

stoneknitter682 said:

Would anyone have any suggestion on how I should proceed with pruning from this stage on? Anything would be greatly appreciated!

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if your going to prune do it so it will benifit your over all harvest.. meaning prune or tie back the leaves covering/blocking light from your colas, i usually start from the bottom up, snipping fan leaves off the main stem... don't go to crazy tho with the pruning, might end up doing more harm then good, u can also try a bit of Lst to get your bud sites where you want them

Thank you Chronic! I'd really like to keep pruning to a minimum so you're comment is reassuring. So as long as my colas are not covered I'm basicly fine!

not a problem... and your exactly right... best if all your main colas for each plant are kept at the same height, so maximum light can reach each main cola, u can do this by tie'n your plants down (Lst) in areas that would benifit