2nd CFL grow Grow Journal

This is my 2nd CFL grow. The first time worked out successfully but only after much head ache and much research. A little back round......The 1st time I started in a card board box with a single cfl and some guy told me hey man your a idiot. So I upped the par a bit with the lighting and ditched a few of the plants that I had started. I soon found a 30x40x48 grow closet and rigged up some lights in it which were very difficult to move. I then realized that venting would be most necessary if I didn't want these guys to die. THen I found out......woops can't plant shit in dirt and expect it to grow. So I picked up some miracle grow moisture control soil (I know most of you are groaning right now and shaking your head but it worked out great for me). I let the plants 9 I believe veg for about 3 months fighting gnats the whole time. I NEVER had to put in nutes and never got nute burn on my plants. I ended up with 4 females that produced 2oz dried and cured.

Now for round 2.......



I was going to change up my lighting but had decided for the cost I just better stick with what I knew. *What I learned from last time.....Need to add more ventilation during flowering with 24 CFL's going closet was reaching about 80F would like to drop that about 10F. Solution = Cut larger vent holes in the closet, put metal grate over them and increase air flow with exhaust and intake fans.
*Clamp lights while great and versatile they are hard to move on existing wood work to maximize light on plant. Solution = Install metal shelving so lights can clamp on easily and be moved up and down with ease. (Also allowing multiple brackets to be put on one track at a time to have multi lights on plant)
* Plants need to be close to CFL's otherwise they stretch like crazy. Solution = Cut 2x2 blocks about 1" in thickness to put under plants to move closer to lights.


Seeds were started from random bag seed. Started in paper towel and ziploc bag. Germinated in 2 days.

Pictures to follow. Also pics from my last grow in my album.


Feel Free to post in Journal at any time

So, I think it has been about a week or so now. The new venting seems to be working well. I'm concerned though that the colder winter here is going to hinder the plants as I only keep the house about 55 to 60 at night, not sure if those few hours are going to be a problem...(answers anyone?) The plants seem to be coming along well, i started out with 19 and have cut back to 17 as of today. I'm going to need to increase my lighting probably start with 3 more fixtures with 2 to 3 bulbs each which would bring me to close to 30 CFL's in the closet which I tend to think may be a little much........idk......



I have noticed that the soil seems to be a little diffrent, not sure if the older soil that I had sitting around isn't holding moisture as well and that is the diff... will have to watch to see.



Pics are posted if anyone is following feel free to post.

Got new water bottle today..........has a pretty cool thing to water a little more evenly. Seems as the water doesn't soak through as much anymore which was a problem that I was having.



few plants have gotten really large today nice and low no stretching as of yet but time will tell.....


More pics tomorrow

Plants have started to grow really well a few have wilting or yellowing leaves and I'm not sure what is causing this....

Grow looks good. That's quite a lot of plants you've got there. I am subscribed for sure.

A few questions though:

-What wattage are your CFL lights? They look to be 23 watts each. You said you have 30 of them, but from my count it looks as if you only have 18.
-What strain are these seeds?

A few answers:

I think that your plants look that way due to either a lack of water or over-watering. Maybe your pH is off too...

Anyways keep on going, I'll be here to watch!

whiterain said:

Grow looks good. That's quite a lot of plants you've got there. I am subscribed for sure.

A few questions though:

-What wattage are your CFL lights? They look to be 23 watts each. You said you have 30 of them, but from my count it looks as if you only have 18.
-What strain are these seeds?

A few answers:

I think that your plants look that way due to either a lack of water or over-watering. Maybe your pH is off too...

Anyways keep on going, I'll be here to watch!

Click to expand...

Thanks guy! with the lights there is a mixture of 23 and 18W I think they are 18.....Yeah I was saying that with the extra fixtures I want to add. 3 or so I that I would be close to 30 as I can put 3 on each fixture for 9 total bringing me to...........well 27 okay my math sux.....lol........


I have thinned down a few plants cause they just weren't going to make it. I have put the plants in larger pots now execpt for a few....ran out of pots....home depot bound..........



The seeds are just random bag seed. Feel free to check out the pics of my first grow as well.........

https://www.rollitup.org/members/growtosmoke-155373/albums/1-st-time-7292/


Then pics of flowering............not to many there.........was a little to high!! lol


https://www.rollitup.org/members/growtosmoke-155373/albums/flowering-8390/


Thanks for subscribing man stay tuned for a few more pics later today....

I thinned down the plants.....think there might be 13?? now.....I don't really feel like counting but I'm sure it's more than 10. I had a few more pics than what is posted but my card reader died while up loading them errr.....


A few of the plants were kinda small and clearly weren't going to make it so I pulled them. Have switched to larger 1 gallon + size pots. Having a little trouble with the watering which is much different than the last time for some reason. I'm not sure why but it seems as the soil isn't holding the water as well this time which I would think to be quite the opposite as it is much cooler in the closet this time and the humidity is much lower. The soil is exactly the same but seems to dry out much faster.

A few have really taken off and seem to be getting fairly large. they seem really low this time as opposed to the last time but that could have been cause last time the plants had stretched from the lights being to far away.

I added a few more lights today. I was still feeling a little under lit. Still feeling like I may want a few more fixtures and bulbs. Right now I'm up to 23 bulbs. I checked the wattage and I have 23w and 13w bulbs......and a couple 9w.......the ones I bought today were 2700k daylight bulbs. Not really sure if they will make the plants respond diff than the ones that I currently have which are soft white. I have read that it is good to have a certain light color for flowering and vegging but I'm not to concerned.


The soil still seems to dry up pretty quick. I have watered lightly for the last 2 days instead of doing my usual every other day water and the soil seems to still be slightly moist. I have a feeling that I'm going to be fighting the soil again this time. Last time it was the damn bugs and I'm glad to report that this time they are not present at the current time. I will hope they stay away.

Pics to follow next post......

Been a couple days since my last post. Not to much has happened. I have thinned out a few more, think I may have trashed 2 that just wern't producing. I now have all execpt 2 in 1 gal + pots and the other 2 are in smaller pots but their growth is def stunted and they will not grow larger til they are put in bigger pots. I think the 1 gal pots are still to small for what I have right now but my space does not allow for larger containers. The larger plants need some trimming on the lower leaves to promote upper growth but I want to wait a little longer. I have just topped all of the plants that were ready.

Still fighting with nute burn a lil bit as I over watered and the MG soil already has the nutes in it. Seems to be a fine line between under and over watering with this soil in this current state of humidity and temp. (being in New England).

Comments?

Anyone subscribed?

Grow seems to be going really well. No issues thus far. The plants seem to have a lil nute burn but nothing to bad. I think i finally have the watering pretty much down. I'm going to wait till the new chutes start on the couple of plants I just topped before I flower. I think I have 10 plants at this time so hopefully I will end up with at least 5 ladies out of the bunch.

Seems to have needed to veg for less time this grow. I think it is due to the soil being the MG from the seed and last time i used dirt. The plants seem to be shorter than the last ones but now only have 1 month of Veg as compared to the 3?? months it took last time to reach this point of thickness of the plant.

Having the lights so far away at the start of the grow last time causing strectch might have been the issue although i wonder if the yeild of this grow will match the yeild of the last grow.




Pics will follow on next post

About a week from flowering I believe here are the new pics. Some have a little nute burn from over watering (damn MG soil) oh well all and all I think they look pretty good for vegging for about 7 weeks.

where did you get the mogul light sockets from?

thetrollsmasher said:

where did you get the mogul light sockets from?

Click to expand...

Guy Everything and I mean EVERYTHING here that you see I have bought at the local Home Depot, Lowes, or Ace. The light socket splitters are about 4.00 ea USD.

Have fun Good luck

A few leaves are starting to yellow or brown. Others look like they are turning diffrent colors. Not sure what is causing it but for the most part the plants look healthy. I'm hoping that my big "girl" is indeed a girl. i will be wicked bummed if it's not. it is huge and is the one that seems to show the least stress and is the bushiest and has a thick trunk on it! no really it's a trunk.


I have been on a watering schedule of every other day and everyother time watering light as to not over water and cause nute burn from the soil. I think it is time to replant the plants in larger pots which will give them a boost of the nutes too I think as I will be adding new soil as well from the MG. Think I will have to go with 2 to 3 gallon pots for all the plants they seem to be stunted. I may be looking at them as to small but when i think to my last grow the plants were very stretched at first so i may be expecting them to be much taller. I would like to hope that I get 5 that are female so I can keep one or two in the closet maybe in 5 gallon buckets as I would like to see what will happen if I were to flower them for a month longer than I did the last time.


I will switch the lights over to flower probably on monday when i get back in town.

Looks good