CFL Closet Grow (to start) with Big Bud

Just basic Big Bud seeds, non feminized or anything, so I'll just have to wait and see.

5 Gallon DWC
3 Air Stones
43 Watt CFL x2 at the moment till she grows more
Dehumidifer converted into water chiller (if needed, water temps are around 70 all the time)
Fox Farm nutes
Antique photo light stand to help position lights perfectly =)

This girl sprouted on 3/5/12 so that makes her 18 days old today. I'm a bit late in started this journel, but hey that's how life works sometimes.

About 4 days ago I started her on about 150-200 PPM of Fox Farm Big Grow, seems to be LOVING it so far, really perked up about 2 hours after I put in the nutes. The yellowing of the first leaves I believe is from the Super Thrice I used, I only put 1-2 drops but I guess it burns easily... But at least the roots are growing good. Still need to work on ventilation, thinking of installing a higher power bathroom fan in my closet to help ventilate, but right now things are going smoothly.

My birthday is April 17th, so I've already told my wife what I need (600 watt switchable ballast for MH and HPS), but until then I'm using these CFLs...

looks nice! good job! +rep and subscribed. I wanna see these big buds lol

Does your name have anything to do with commands? lol

Haha, I am a computer geek so yes it deals with terminal, etc.

well lets see if this becomes a sudo plant!

Ok, so more pics and updates. Lots of new growth, the roots have grown tremendously, but I could not get a good pic of them withiout dismantling my lights which I didn't fell like doing. The new growth is a bit droopy to start, is this normal? Or should I give it more nutes? I just upped it to about 500 PPM since we are on week 3, and I have always heard it's better to not use enough that to use too much and nute burn it. Any advice would be great since this is my first hydro grow.

Still working out the issues with the new leaves curling, so I flushed my res... PPM is down to about 250 now, PH is at 6.0 even. I don't know if the leaves curling was nute issues or what, but I never had any issues before I added the nutes in so I'm taking a step back and hoping to see new growth... I also lowered the water level a bit, it's about 1.5-2 inches below the bottom of the netty pots.

Still working on the issues but it appears to be getting better. Still a bit early, but the new growth coming in is not curled... The leaf tips are still curled down but the leaves were also curling down on the edges which they are NOT doing now. So a good sign, I'll post more pics in a couple days when more progress should be seen.

Nutrient issues seem to be resolved. Really curled up that set of leaves though. New growth seems to be straight and green. What PPM should I be at about now? I'm a little skeemish to add any right now because it seems to be growing fine but I know I have to add more at some time... It's at about 180 PPM right now. Bumped her up to 6 CFL lights as well, trying to get as much light in there as possible.

Ok, so on April 5th this Big Bud will be one month old... This is my first successful hydro grow up to this point... My last one died quick from root rot which was my fault with the res temps... Anyways, other than the newbie mistake I made of giving her Nutes in week 3, things are looking good... the 2nd are 3rd set of leaves are a bit droopy from my nute fuck up but this new growth looks to be coming in perfect now. I've also had a couple issues with burning the damn leaf tips... I adjust my lights twice a day at least to try and keep them as close as possible but this thing goes through spurts where it just perks up and then BAM, I have a brown leaf tip from the CFL light burning it... Birthday is in mid April so I'm hoping my wife remembers my only WANT this year... and that's proper lighting... adjusting these lights all the time is a bitch and even with 6 CFL's I cant get EVERY spot.

Anyways, here are pics.

Lots of new growth. This plant is actually getting pretty hard to manage with these damn CFL lights. I'm up to 8 now all over the plant. I switched from Fox Farm Nutes to Greenleaf Nutrients, they imitate the big name companies for a fraction of the cost. Figured I would give it a shot since it's a lot cheaper and so far it's pretty damn good. I got their general hydroponics imitation, gro, micro, and bloom. When I did a res change about 4-5 days I put in the new nutes at around 550 PPM, the plant TOOK off from there. Only thing I'm noticing is some of the leave tips are curling, left, right, down, up, no consistency, and on the newest growth coming in some of the tips are orange and skinny. I was looking around and it may be a zinc def, I'm not sure. I'm not going to touch anything right now, I'll see how it all looks in a couple days, because again, it's not all growth. Some leaves are perfect that are coming in new, and some seem a bit strange. Overall though I think the plant looks good for being 1 month and 3 or 4 days old.


Possible deficiency?-->
Got confirmation that it's a girl! not a super upclose shot but the ladies are there.

Just switched light cycle to 12-12... Let the fun begin... Plant was 16 inches tall at switch.

Will be taking pics later today but I just measured the plant because it seemed a lot bigger... 19.5 Inches tall now.

Ok, been really busy this last week and the new light schedule makes it harder to get pics... By the time I'm done with work the plant is under darkness! Anways... New pics... Had to use a rope to assist holding her up, she was slanting to the left (I believe because of the uneven growth due to CFL's sucking ass). On a side note, I should be getting a 400W MH and HPS kit soon so hopefully that will assist in getting big fat buds.

Around 25-26 inches tall now.

Also, I think the weight distribution problem thats making me use a rope to hold her up might have to do with how the top leaves started to come in, you can see in the 4th pic... why is one branch about a half inch higher than the other... not symmetrical...

Ok, lots of bud sites popping up. about 30-31 inches tall... still at around 700-800 PPM, but I've added in more of the Bloom... This plant is bushy and taking over so I had to MacGyver it up a bit. Took an old Ironing board and hung it from the clothes hanger thing in the closet so I could attach a light to the leg of it =) and I took the old light fixture out of our Kitchen since it was just sitting in the attic and hooked it up to a basic computer power cable to give me 3 additional lights. So I think that makes 12 total lights... all 26 W CFL and a mix of 6500k 5500k? and 2700k soft white... Added in more of the soft white since it's flowering.

Also, I've decided to wait on lights for now. I'm going to finish this grow using the CFL's and then buy lights. That way I can compare the difference between CFL and MH+HPS... Learning purposes... Figure I've gone this far with CFL I may as well let the suckers finish up, not doing bad I don't think...

I'm finding that the more ghetto the light fixture, the prouder I am of this grow, lol. Pics tomorrow, can't even close my closet anymore!

Ok, had to add another light in, and realistically I need to add in a handful more but I'm going with what I have right now... Took a normal nightstand light and made it into another grow light... If this isn't a ghetto grow, I don't know what is... I have a damn dining room light and a nightstand light, lol... Anyways, plant is about 35 inches tall now with I think 13 lights covering her... Bud sites popping up all over. Tried to take pictures of as many as I could... PPM is roughly the same, around 700-800... I've been adding in more of a bloom ratio which each gallon I top off. Anyways, here is pics.

The Ghetto Grow! Household items used (Ironing Board, Dining Room Light, Nightstand Light, lots of rope, standard computer power cord)
Top -
Buds -
Inside the Jungle -

wow, this is pretty amazing man! cant wait to see the end result!