Organic, stealth, CFL grow.

phoenix58

phoenix58

Well-Known Member
Hi and welcome to my thread. I'm new here but not new to growing. had to start all over again after being busted last year for the first time in my 51 years! Traumatic experience that I hope you never have to go through. taken time to recover but I'm growing the herb again. Keeping it very small this time and decided to go with CFL's in a stealth type cabinet with just 3 plants.

I have just one request for those posting in my thread..... PLEASE don't post telling me not to waste my time on CFL's! I see it in almost every CFL thread I read around the forums..."Get yourself a HPS" etc! I know what can be done with CFL's because I have seen it done well and its what suits me.

OK, the spec:
3 plants, 1 Bubba O Kush and 2 AK47's.
Started 7, selected best 3 females.

CFL's: 320 watts total (16bulbs!), mainly warm but with 3 daylight blues to balance the spectrum.

Cabinet: 2 fans, 1 cirulation blowing one end, exhaust fan at other. Temps hold steady at 78 day/65 night. Doors are opened at 8am and left open all day until 8pm to maximise air circulation. All lights & fans on timers..I just need to remember to open/close the doors!

Feed: organic only seaweeds and kelps plus fishy bits from the beach! No proprietary nutrients at all or additives/boosters used. I bubble my water/feed for a few hours before watering using an air pump. The mixture stinks but gives me very happy healthy plants as I hope the pics will show. I don't bother with PH in soil either thesedays.

I wont overload the details just now but I will put up a series of pics from germination to where I am today, at day 24 of 12/12. I vegged for 2 weeks only.

I use vigorous LST to control my plants shape, right through flowering where I need to to keep them as even as possible.

Just to get me started heres the 3 plants as they stand today. (Give me a few minutes to sort my pictures please! Any feedback /questions welcome :-)
 
phoenix58

phoenix58

Well-Known Member
Heres the first few pics for you. You can see how tight the cabinet is? Theres about another 8" of headroom above those new budsights but I can move all of the bulbs around where I want to.

Day 24 flowering.

Bubba O Kush ( Bubba Kush x OG Kush) (middle picture)

AK47 #1. Mutant but I love her! (3rd from left picture)

AK47 #2. Vigorous this one, just burst into flowering! way ahead of the other AK. (left)

I'll get some pics from germination put here later showing the 7 I started to make my selection.

Thanks for looking in so far.
 

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phoenix58

phoenix58

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Not sure if anyones actually following this but I'll keep it running anyway for a while! :-)

Some of the older images were taken on a phone camera so poor quality. They show the original 7 plants from which I selected the best 3 females. You can see for the first few weeks I was bottom watering from a tray which was bubbled by an air pump. I find this gives faster growth in those earlry veg stages. I'm now watering conventionally through the soil although I still bubble the water for a couple of hours before use.

As you see I remain passionate about the rights of the individual to grow and use cannabis!

Hope you enjoy browsing these images, any questions please just ask away.
 

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phoenix58

phoenix58

Well-Known Member
Update: Day 28 flowering.

I have just given them a final bit of training to get all the bud sights as much light as possible. Space is tight, the pots are each 10" and I can just about fit the 3 in there! Anyway I'm happy with them now.

The Kush is a 10 week flowering strain to finish her properly so another 6 weeks will do her. The AK's are shorter strains, maybe 8.5 to 9 weeks. All three of these plants will be revegged for 6 weeks once finished then re flowered again. I find the second harvest is generally better than the first as the plant begins to mature.
 

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phoenix58

phoenix58

Well-Known Member
TeaTreeOil said:
How many nodes did the plants have when you started LST?

Very nice looking plants, +rep.
Click to expand...
Thanks TeaTree OiI, appreciate the comment.

This pic shows the Kush just before I started the training (poor quality image, sorry). Soon as I could see preflowers through a glass I re potted then began LST by pulling the top down and bracing the main stem back to avoid strain on the roots. As they grow I then keep training the main stem in a circular fashion to follow the edge of the 10" pot. if I kept it going I would end up with a completely circular stem and all of the bud sights growing vertically, rather like a SCROG but without the net! Thats what I aim for. If your genetics are stable I find they can take a considerable amount of this without stress. All fan leaves stay on but again I tuck and tie them down out of the way if I need to or if they are blocking any light above the bud sights.
 

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phoenix58

phoenix58

Well-Known Member
Day 31 12/12.

Well, had to make the drastic desicion to pull one of the AK's due to lack of space! She will be trimmed down and placed back under a 20/4 cycle to pull her back to reveg. Once the two remaining plants are finished in 5 weeks time she will go back into flowering for a full cycle as the other two take thier turn to reveg! I've been doing this for many years so I'm confortable with the methods and the outcome. I have a friend who has just 2 plants that are both 5 years old and keep him smoking all year round :-)

So heres pics of the Bubba O Kush (3 pics on left) and the AK47 (2 on right) that are left flowering. Give it a couple of weeks and I'll show you how the reveg is going on the other AK.
 

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phoenix58

phoenix58

Well-Known Member
Took my two ladies out tonight for a photo shoot :-) having watched my lovely plants being cut down and bagged up in evidence bags last year with tears in my eyes, having suffered the violation of having every inch of my family home searched including my kids bedrooms it feels not just good but RIGHT that I have these two ladies back with me now....sorry, rant over :-)

AK47 x Lowryder. (Picture:1 to 3 from l;eft) )I lost a special one of this strain last year. She showed a strong purple and I called her 'Purple 47' and was just establishing some clones at the time. Should add these are non autoflowering but are fast to flower and can be kept short for stealth style grows. This one was another mutant and I selected her over a couple of other females because I had a good feeling about her. At 35 days shes going well, I'm happy. You can see the triple bud forming, this is on the strange mutant stem that looks like a stick of celery!


Bubba O Kush. (Picture 4th from left) Sedate lady this one! Taking her time but shes a 10 week finsher so only half way yet. Already that distinctive sweet smell of the Kush strains :-)
 

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pythiq

pythiq

Well-Known Member
Subscribed. Nice to see CFLs put to good use. Always sad to hear about a bust, but glad to see you're carrying on. Lookin' good!
 
I

IronIungs

Active Member
phoenix58 said:
Took my two ladies out tonight for a photo shoot :-) having watched my lovely plants being cut down and bagged up in evidence bags last year with tears in my eyes, having suffered the violation of having every inch of my family home searched including my kids bedrooms it feels not just good but RIGHT that I have these two ladies back with me now....sorry, rant over :-)

Did sombody rat you out
:-(
Click to expand...
 
phoenix58

phoenix58

Well-Known Member
Pythiq..... thanks for the comment :-)

IronLungs........ Lets just say I pushed the boundries and paid the price! I've learned that to keep your head down and just quietly get on with our hobby is the way to go :-) But its hard when you feel so passionate about something.

urbanfunk...... Thanks mate, I'll take a look at your thread right now, always good to follow other CFL threads. I had a single UK Exodus cheese cut that I lost in that raid last year, she was just at the point of taking cuttings too .........but one day soon......!!!!!

Just collected more seaweed etc for tomorrows feed :-) Its all my plants are fed with, what I pick up here at low tide. The bottle reeks like a wet fish shop when you open it. I'm adding 1 teaspoon of unrefined cane sugar now for those carbo's. I like to bubble the water with my air pump for a couple of hours before watering/feeding... Currently watering/feeding every 4th day to about 10/15% run off.

No proprietary nutrients, no superthrive or additives, no PK boosters, no flushing agents, just good old organic matter straight from the sea.
 
urbanfunk

urbanfunk

Well-Known Member
The only thing i will say really is i would of lst'd those plants alot more maybe alot earlier too.. apart from that they look sweet ;)

How much do u normally get in your harvest dry per plant??
 
phoenix58

phoenix58

Well-Known Member
urbanfunk said:
The only thing i will say really is i would of lst'd those plants alot more maybe alot earlier too.. apart from that they look sweet ;)

How much do u normally get in your harvest dry per plant??
Click to expand...
urbanfunk,

To answer your questions :-)

Under CFL's I would not expect to top the 1 OZ fully dry mark. These 2 plants were vegged for just 2 weeks. Before I was busted, and using exact same methods/feeds with an HPS lamp I used to average around the 1.5 to 2 max fully dry mark depensent on strain of course. The Kush strain I have been growing for around 6 years soI feel I know it pretty well.

Re additives, well It's purely personal choice, no other reason! I just find that using the seaweeds etc I dont need to add anything else and that kind of ties in with our organic living ethos. I like the thought of picking stuff off the beach and making my feeds out of it. You sure wont ever suffer Nitrogen deficiency using fresh seaweeds for example, the plants almost glow green in veg :-) My 'additives' are cockles and mussels etc and general fishy goodness. :shock: You see plenty of older growers around the forums using nothing but fish emulsions for example, it works! That said, I have used most in the past... superthrive was one thing I thought I would never be without.

I'm not a big smoker, all I need from my hobby is a half OZ per month of nice organic buds and I'm a very happy man.

Two more pics today. Budding up well now. I'm not sure I could have LST'd them much more, theres a lot of stringwork going on in there!

Left pic is the AK47 x LR mutant, Right is the Bubba O Kush (Bubba Kush x OG Kush) Seeds from my good friend 'Organic Herbalist' of the old HG420 forum.

Kinghash: Thank you for the comment. I wont comment on the bust beyond saying it was pretty much my own fault. One lesson I DID learn however under questioning was that the police over here DO keep an eye on these forums, especially the activist sites, so be careful what you show.
 

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pythiq

pythiq

Well-Known Member
I've been victim to a bust of my own doing, which is incredibly heartbreaking. I like seeing older organic growers on the forums, it's a very warming idea to know people are providing healthy bud for themselves out there.

Plants are coming along nicely!
 
grassified

grassified

Well-Known Member
Those plants are looking great, I have my own little CFL grow going, but my poor Lowryder#2's are just growing too slowly.

Hey, if you dont mind me asking, for the sake of myself and others on this forum, how exactly did you end up getting busted? Neighbors? Angry friend?
 
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