First CFL "Stealth" Grow

Hey guys, this is my first grow that ive actually put some money into. 2 bigger plants were started on 11/1/10 and small plant was started on 11/20/10

I have a 30 Gallon Rubbermaid Tub with an 80mm intake and exhaust fan.
4-23 watt Daylight Spectrum(100watt equiv) CFL's. Nothing else too special to mention.

Growing 3 bagseeds, 2 are black seeds(not sure on strain), other is tigerstripe(not sure on strain).

they are on a 16/8 light cycle for now.

Any tips or suggestions? I'll keep this updated every other few days or so.

Thanks for reading!

I guess you could try getting the light closer to plants, the small one looks quite stretched already. CFL light is weak but they run cool so you can keep em very close to compensate for that. Im on my first grow myself and made that mistake too(i vegged with cfl). Good luck with your grow!

Are you planning on growing them out in that rubber maid? your gonna have to think about LST them soon,it dont look like theres much more vertical space to grow up considering how young they are.

one of the seedlings got burned up and died already so im pretty scurred to move them too close to the light.

ehh but ive got like 20 more seeds so i can do whatever


and yes i plan on flowering them in that same tub. just get some different bulbs. and how do i lst?

WeekendToker said:

one of the seedlings got burned up and died already so im pretty scurred to move them too close to the light.

ehh but ive got like 20 more seeds so i can do whatever


and yes i plan on flowering them in that same tub. just get some different bulbs. and how do i lst?

Click to expand...

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=LST+cannabis

herp derp.

You're going to have to lst them. they have the potential to double or even triple their size as they are in flower.

Top your biggest girl now. take scissors or razor and snip the top off or fim, then start lsting.. and i would also switch to 12/12 with the lights you have now. then in due time(asap, basically) replace two or more bulbs with 2700ks. (2700k cfl, what you have now is a ~6500k cfl)

thanks for the info. so topping the plant right now will make it grow out wider and bushier rather than tall at this moment in time?

i have 2 soft white cfl's, your saying i should switch those now?

what are the benefits of it?

Low stress training is a way of getting your plants to grow in the direction that you want them to by tying them down with string or wire etc.Its a benificial method when growing with cfls because it allows light to get to more of the plant compared to growing a plant out naturaly.There are loads of methods you can find here on the forums.As for topping them now,yeah,you can.I would give them a bit more veg time tho.You can top a topped plant as many times as you like to suit your needs,but try not to do to much training during flower as this can stress your plant.I would get a bit more light in there too,it never hurts.Just watch your temps.I grow with CFLS and I like to mix them up a bit.Mainly 6500k during veg with a handfull of small 20w 2700k,and the reverse for flower.This works for me but there are many people who use one k rating for veg and one for flower and have great results.The best thing for you to do is have a play about with things and find whats right for you.If you have pleanty of seeds you will be fine.
Hope this helps a bit,use the forums and keep asking questions.Good luck.

The reason your seedling burned up and died is because your using the wrong side of the tinfoil for reflection, you need to use the dull side or there becomes hot spots where as your seedling caught one and perished.

WeekendToker said:

thanks for the info. so topping the plant right now will make it grow out wider and bushier rather than tall at this moment in time?

i have 2 soft white cfl's, your saying i should switch those now?

what are the benefits of it?

Click to expand...

Yessir, Topping will make it bushy. And if you top now, then top again in a week or two you will get even more bush. topping, tieing, and time are the key factors to maximizing your plant size in this little space..
The soft white CFLS are probably 2700k's. (refer to chart below)







Now, the red spectrum(2700k is as close as youll get in the red with cfls) is good in flowering, however, the plant uses some of the blue spectrum aswell. (the blue spectrum would be your "daylight" cfls, or 6500k). From my understanding, the different spectrum's play different roles in the plants development (i cannot provide a link to this information, i would rather you find it yourself as it'll help your understanding).

And since the plant uses some blue spectrum as well, some growers prefer to have a variety in spectrum. Like myself, i have about 9 2700k's and 3 6500k's in my flower setup.

So basically, you put whatever lights you want in there, just make sure they have a fair amt of the reds in flower. So more 2700ks vs 6500ks. If not all 2700ks, because my choice to use a few 6500ks is just a preference.

I hope this isn't too ambiguous.

Ps. What i would do, is top them, give them about 4-5 days and start flowering. then you're going to have to tie when they get so tall after they've been flowering for x amt of time.

snwbrda said:

The reason your seedling burned up and died is because your using the wrong side of the tinfoil for reflection, you need to use the dull side or there becomes hot spots where as your seedling caught one and perished.

Click to expand...

Imo this is true and false.

If i have to use foil i use the shiny side, However, the key is to keep the foil from crinkling ! (you have a lot of crinkles in your foil, you see?)

But, i found something that kicks ass for walls.
... and that was when i was wandering around menards baked. i ran across...

peel and stick vinyl



They sell it in white. and its worked great for me. It was like... 99cents for a roll, which had more than i needed for my grow space.

I hope this helps as well.

yep I like white more than tinfoil and yes tinfoil it can cause hot spots. when you go to 12/12 make sure you get a full 12 of dark. those fans on top need a light trap of some type .

thanks for all the info guys!

i have more pics and i upgraded to a 30 gallon tub and the plants have plenty of room. i also have 4 lights now, all are daylight spectrum CFLS. which are mounted sideways. i have tried as hard as i can to have smooth foil but i have failed. and the box is in a closet so no light will get to them unless i open the door or turn the light on.


and to flower, i have to switch out some bulbs to soft whites? and also reduce the timer to 12/12 cycle?

first set is the new box setup.

second set is taken today at a little over 4 weeks.

okay so i set my timer to 12/12 and i am now running 2-23watt daylight spectrum CFLs and 2 soft white CFL's

Looking ok,I see you started training?how have you found it?It can be a bit scary when you first start bending.

haha yeah i started training a few weeks ago. i was so scared at first, but then they bent straight back up towards the light after a few hours. should i bend them again?

yeah,keep bending as much as you can.you want to get the main stem to grow horizontaly instead of sraight up.this will make the side branches grow upwards and get as much of the light as possible.

https://www.rollitup.org/newbie-central/176831-best-all-around-guide-ive.html Try having a read of this,as the title says,this is one of the best all round gides to growing i have found on RIU.It has a good lst section to it.hope it helps..

thanks so much! so if i started flowering 3 days ago, when should i see signs of gender?

well,they will normaly show sex after 7/10 days,but on my second from last grow it took one of my ladys 20 days to show.I have found that it depends on how mature they are before you start to flower.When a plant is fully mature it can start to show pre flowers on its own without flipping to 12/12.

chow said:

Are you planning on growing them out in that rubber maid? your gonna have to think about LST them soon,it dont look like theres much more vertical space to grow up considering how young they are.

Click to expand...

true what Chow said, LST is a great way to make a bigger plant and also you can yield way more