CFL grow. Small space, many lights.

So I will begin my journal on day 2 of flowering. Ive been meaning to post a journal for some time but I've just been too busy. I am quite a bit behind so i will spam the first couple of weeks . Feel free to comment on whatever you want just put what day you are talking about. Any help appreciated.

So day 2: 6x26 watt cfls, 4x42, and 1x55 = 379 watts of CFL's if my math is correct. I mess with the lights almost weekly (adding, moving, taking away for heat, etc)

So my grow box is 13" x 15" and I have 2 girls from seed (unknown type) growing in 12 quart (3 gallon) bathroom trash cans. One is a week and a half older. The setup currently has 4 fans and a carbon filter. The majority of the cfl's are in between plexi glass and real glass with a large computer fan blowing upwards from the center of the plexi glass. At the top of the box is a small home made carbon filter with a fan on each end. The plants are on an adjustable shelf and I move the shelf down when they touch the glass. The walls of the box are lined with panda film. Maximum plant height is about 2.5 feet or so. I flowered when the plants were just under a foot tall, and about 5 days after an extreme pruning and flush (had nute burn issues)

Day 2 pics (I turn off some lights for photos):

The big girl showed on this day.

Both have shown now. Starting to notice more rapid growth. Wondering how these 2 are going to fit in this box. I was expecting a male.... going to get very crowded.

Noticing rapid growth now, had to lower them a notch and they are pushing flat on the left and right to the walls. Im considering pruning a crap load to get the squished branches out of the way and let some light in?? good idea or no?? Im thinking they wouldnt produce anyway and would just waste energy trying to grow right?... being pushed against the wall ya know? Correct me if im wrong. Advice would be MUCH appreciated. OH, and normally, there is a 42 watter, and 2 26's hanging in the front in an upside down tree type thing. They're just moved for the picture Also, notice the yellowing in one of the pictures. It seems to be getting worse. Considering flushing if it worsens too much.

Nobody has any thoughts?

Tonight or tomorrow I should be putting up some current pictures now that the journal is up to date. hopefully somebody will comment...

Mr. Burns said:

Nobody has any thoughts?

Tonight or tomorrow I should be putting up some current pictures now that the journal is up to date. hopefully somebody will comment...

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dam those plants look incredibly bushy for cfl good work with that. Looks like the leaves are a bit yellow? Maybee a nute or ph problem but im no expert. Could just be the cam too. Besides that they look good to me. hopefully someone will come along and help a bit more. Good luck m8

looks to me like the plant is getting hot? what are temps

Yeah what's the air temp. As far as pruning, your plants looks like it likes to bush out. If you prune hard it will grown back in a week. You need to LST it. That is where you grab the stem like you would a #2 pencil and give it just a little squeeze. The goal is to bruise the outside support of the plant. Now do the same to the opposite sides of the plant and it should be unable to support itself and you should bend it over slightly. This opens up more light getting to the undergrowth and getting more yield.

Yeah the temps are usually up there quite a bit like around 80-85, but 65ish on dark cycle. I try my best to keep under 85. The other day I messed with some stuff and it hit 105 for a whole cycle and scorched my babies a little on the side of the hot bulb... had some crispy leaves. oops. I try to keep as many bulbs in there as possible while keeping it under 85 so thats why they are so damn compressed and bushy. I had some nute burn issues a while back and cut off all the bad leaves and they did bush out again a week or 2 later. Still thinking of flushing when i get time. Thanks for the input guys

had some issues with fans and so temps went crazy and fried my babies Also, yellowing got worse so I am currently flushing the larger one. Hope that helps her. Rewired the fans and got em all working right again so hopefully they recover soon. The smaller one now has a flattened side. Once it recovers, I will use its side branches for clones. Both are VERY withered right now.

Mr. Burns said:

had some issues with fans and so temps went crazy and fried my babies Also, yellowing got worse so I am currently flushing the larger one. Hope that helps her. Rewired the fans and got em all working right again so hopefully they recover soon. The smaller one now has a flattened side. Once it recovers, I will use its side branches for clones. Both are VERY withered right now.

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flushing is not gonna help a burned plant it can actually make things worse
if you have to take some cfls out to make them temps around 75-80

growman3666 said:

flushing is not gonna help a burned plant it can actually make things worse
if you have to take some cfls out to make them temps around 75-80

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The flushing was for the nute burn that was sneaking up again. I noticed some recovery after about 45 minutes and almost fully recovered this morning before dark cycle. I waited til she really needed water because my soil has poor drainage so i didnt want to stress her by overwatering. Will probably flush the other one in a few days since it gets the same problems as the big one a few days after usually...

So im a couple days behind on posting again and on day 21 I chopped the fan leaves on the smaller plant so that the tops of the lower shoots could catch up with the upper ones which are stunted, and also let light in. Just an experiment. I figure if all the tips can be 1" away from the lights then yield will increase. dunno, we'll see...

I took these pics tonight. So the heat problem has been reduced and I spaced the lights differently to make the coverage better and also eliminated the need for some others since I remembered that lumens dont stack. The chopped plant is kinda stunted like I figured. Im not sure if the lower shoots are growing or not. The last week or so the taller plant's cola has been shooting upwards so I tied it down so I could keep the other shoots closer to the lights. Added some ferts tonight since I noticed a lot of leaves dieing, but I probably shouldnt have. I will find out soon if I made the right decision. Also, white hairs EVERYWHERE! Theres like a fat bowl on every tip. For day 24 it seems like it hasnt grown much bud.... what do you guys think?