Back in action after a few years, CFL

Hello fellow stoners, its time for me to start one here of my own, Ive been reading here on this site for many years, never posted much but the know-how gained here assisted me from halfway through my first grow (what a mess that was lol think i pulled maybe 13 grams from harvesting my first 3 plants and it wasnt very good) through now...Im out of apartments and back in a house where I can grow again and this time because of this lovely site I now know a lot more than I did back then.

Ok for starters Im a cfl kinda guy so that will be my only light source, I currently have three plants in early veg that came from bagseed. I litterally 3 minutes ago placed my first ever order for "real" seeds, I used attitudes pick and mix and have feminized seeds coming my way, 2 white widow, 2 northern lights, 2 big bud, and a northern lights x big bud cross as a freebie. Im quite excited to start growing from some amazing genetics.

So...when those seeds get here I will try to do a nice little journal here of them, and in the meantime Ill get some pics of my current bagseed plants (one is a monster) I actually had to pull my lights away an extra couple of inches for a day or two to induce just a little bit of streching (Im talking like 5 nodes in an inch and a half or so)

I use miracle grow moisture control potting soil, just picked up a bag of perlite today to add in (will probly add about 15-20% perlite more for airflow than drainage, Ive had the overwatering is really bad lesson...that one was almost as harsh as the overfeeding, I do have balanced miracle grow nutes but I dont believe in feeding in potting soil untill flowering has started (tons of nutes in the stuff and even 1/4 feedings can nute burn if you dont wait untill the plant can handle it)

I use a mixed spectrum of both 2700k and 6500k bulbs, Time cycles will be 19/5 throughout veg and will roll from 13/11 -11/13 during flowering, Im thinking I will also do 4-6days of darkness at the end as well.

Looking forward to posting pics and such as I get up and rolling with the good plants (i plan on cloning and playing around with SoG and lollipopping and such once I have the spare clones,) done a little topping already on my beasty plant and will be training with LST mostly.

Currently 4 26w 2 42w and a 55w in the middle This is the garbage can that holds every in early veg Fan and everything Nother view This is the tub my good seeds will veg

for veg use only the 6500k. 2700 is not needed right now.

also, if you car about power consumption.....you could get by with just the 55 watt or use the 2 42watts

until they are a foot or more

I want nice tight plants and the more light the better. I use a mixed spectrum through the whole grow as all of the best cfl grows ive ever seen used both, simply more of one depending on which phase of growing.

Update on my seed order. Got an email telling me my order has changed from processing /packaging to dispatched im so excited.


I have these bagseed plants on 12/12 and have lst'd them all a bit. Will maybe do a few more pictures in a few hours once they switch directions

Will it be good to use 1 85w 6500k only for the veg? plus a 2700k when flowering

Unless your doing a scrog grow in a small box you will be much better off using multiple smaller bulbs

Crazy how things change just like that,These little beasties are doing great, just starting there weeks of 12/12 stretch but I am apparently getting some money I didnt know I had coming and turns out Ill be adding a 600w digital dimmable hps & mh ballast to my op. Still waiting on seeds so Im kinda just sitting at the moment, my clone box has a small flouro mounted inside and a few holes drilled in the side, waiting and ready for use. I still plan on using my cfls too, Ill basicallly start a perpetual with ~150-200w or so for veg and then have the 600w and 150-200w of cfl for additional lighting

Man this has to be the most creative setup I've seen yet, good job man. Have you seen the 4-way LST tut. that what I plan on doing the next time, instead of the way I did mines.

LordRalh3 said:

I want nice tight plants and the more light the better. I use a mixed spectrum through the whole grow as all of the best cfl grows ive ever seen used both, simply more of one depending on which phase of growing.

Click to expand...

you'd still get nice tight plants with just one bulb, as long as your using 6500k and have it close enough.

more light the better in flowering for sure, for veg you do not need much light at all for healthy and fast growth

like I said just if you care to know, if not by all means use all the bulbs you want.


oh yea, and get those bulbs horizontal (or at least on a angle) if you can....more light comes from the sides of the bulb rather then from the bottoms

I don't remember you Richard. Or Darken? um... Nathan? You can't be Panis, he's dead...

Welcome back I'll be watching!

You really have vegged three plants with one cfl under 100w? That doesnt make sense to me, I want more lumens than that, if I was doing one plant micro grow style Id do one or two bulbs. I will see what I can do about getting the non central bulbs turns horizontally a bit, thanks for the tip


Thanks Chief, Ill check into the 4way when I get a free minute

Close relation to Nathan GrnMn my boy, they sure dont make em like they use to....wizards that is... Why back in my day we could toss webs that would leave you ...(trails off in a stoned gaze off into nowhere)

I wouldnt be vegging three 1ft tall plants with a single 30w cfl if thats what you mean lol.

up to 6-8 inches (which would be 2-3 weeks maybe depending) you could easily veg three with a 30 or 42 watt no prob.

once they get bigger its harder because of the cfl intensity.

however i use a reflector with my cfls when not constricted by space or awkward placing....

once they outgrow the radius of the light I would add another light. these things are great focus all the light down where you want it.

Like I said you dont need many lumens for veg.

currently i'm only using two 30w (2000 lm each) for three 3week old plants. If I wasn't doing a micro and getting them ready to flower, id prolly only have one in there still. if they wernt lstd they prolly be 6 or 7 inches right now.

My babies are booming, added in some Y's ro change angles and add a little more light,, got my hps 600w bulb ordered (decided to go with a digilux 95k lumens) had to adjust every light this morning they grew so fast will put up some more pics this afternoon when I get home

I ended up pulling the lights up and took away three of them for a light cycle and a half to induce a bit more stretching, I have now seperated them out of the pot into their own 12q bags (6 quarts new MG, +3quarts perlite, plus their originols) Each bag has at least 20 good slits in it and will be the final container for these bagseed plants, I was able to keep the mixture super fluffy the whole time and within an hour of the transplant and watering they were already perking up. In hindsight I should have taken pictures of the roots they were amazing but then again thats extra seconds my roots are air and light exposed.


This one popped up 4 days later than the other two and I left it alone, no topping or nothing The slightly less vibrant of the two stronger plants (I topped both of these) This ones the monster, tempted to take a clone just because it really likes the conditions of my water and temps (Thinking about adding it to the genetics I ordered if they dont handle my stuff so well, ) All of it Lights on Lights of to give you a little better view


So it was about 1.5-2 weeks of veg and Now just about 1 full week of 12/12, Have not given any nutes at all and the only change I did for my water was during two of the waterings I added a little citric acid to bring the ph to a 6.6, otherwise I dont touch it (MG is a slighty acidic mix so as long as you dont have 7.2+ water it works very well.) I filter my water through my Brita filter and it sits the whole time in between waterings (my city is on old school chlorine not chloromides) I cant wait for my 600hps to get my temps in the room up some more, I would love it if I could keep them 83-75 (Lights on off respectively) but for now it more like 75-60...

My seeds tracking order say they got to New York 3 days ago
no tracking on my ballast or bulb yet. Found a sweeeeeet airfilter in random junk from back when I was married (ya know the "old stuff in life ya keep") One of those plug in ones with scent packs/carbon filters (and they have like 3 replacement packs) so that should take the strain off the homemade charcoal filter Ill be doin with a couple wire mess baskets and some hose attached to some duct with a fan.



~Nother change, I decided to put a heating pad and some fabric underneath the Growcan, (Up off the concrete floor with an insulator and a heating pad on low to warm the can from the bottom, should warm the bags of soil helping root growth as well)

Quick update, My digital ballast and digilux bulb both arrived yesterday, got an email from the guy I bought the reflector from, he had an issue now hes sending me out a Hydrofarm 6" aircooled dayastar hood. My seeds left NY and went to New Jersey....at least they moved.

Plants are doing well, good growth, one of em streched over 3 inches in a day on the 12/12

Plants are doing great, got my good seeds in the mail today, starting a new thread since it doesnt really pertain much here anymore