First closet grow. CFL/Fluorescent

Entering the 3rd week of a closet grow I spontaneously set up. I was given the plant, deep water culture grow bucket, and the 2 two foot light fixtures and the nutrients pictured. I purchased the salt for magnesium and a grow store employee sold me the root powder. I added the 2 cfl lights for extra juice until I can get a proper cfl setup together. The cfl bulbs are of the 6500k spectrum and the 2fts are high output blue spectrum t5s. The plant is growing steadily and I've topped 2 locations. Trying to keep ph at 5.7-5.9 or as close as I can get to it. I've been using dry ice for co2 supplement. Temp bounces around from 75-80 at day and humidity at 30-40% with lights and fan on. Light breeze from small fan 24/7.

The plant is a Bruce banner clone.

Initially I am looking for critique and input of my setup and overall health of the plant. Also any small pointers anyone has would be greatly appreciated. Don't be scared to be offend me, I'm prepared to be corrected for first timer mistakes.

Thanks for any input!

All I can offer is you'll want more light, but you're already planning that.

looks good d at the moment, as Red1996 said "...more light..." but your already planning on it. the plant looks good so far man, have any cfl light systems in mind? I have a hydrofarm 125w setup. Got it for 50$ off amazon. Happy grows

lots of lst and topping will be the easiest way for yield without high powered lights.
but looks great and keep up the happy plants
keep doing lots of research we all have so much to learn.

blue widow grown under about 375w cfl just an example of whats possible under cfls.

Thanks for the input guys. I was planning on creating my own custom fixtures with 8-10 additional 26w bulbs, using the 6500k bulbs for veg, and switching to the 2700k for flower. Realizing the cost efficiency for the said hydro farm 125w, I like that. Would 1 of those units be enough with what I already have? Would the bulb it comes with be sufficient for flower? Also with lst on this plant, is it too late? The main stem is pretty solid and I don't want to break it. I'm topping a bit, but am nervous about over stressing the plant, how much is too much? With all this being said, I'm obviously trying to save as much money as possible (who isn't) because I wasn't planning setting this up, a friend basically was throwing this setup away, so I said fuk it. Thanks a lot guys.

pics of my homemade fixture

feel free to ask questions that plant can still be manipulated any way you want just go slow and use good judgment.

link to lst'd blue widow

Thanks a lot, I have a few questions. I'm a DIY guy if at all possible and with that being said, I'd like to make my own housing using Home Depot materials and a quality cfl/many quality bulbs. Am I able to use any mogul housing for the 125w and up bulbs? I'm looking at two 125w bulbs wired with the sockets in the link,[FONT=.HelveticaNeueUI] in a custom reflective hood, [/FONT]would that work?

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Leviton-Black-Weatherproof-Socket-R60-00055-000/100356874#specifications

you will have to look at the sockets and make sure they don't exceed watt and volts make sure the gauge wire is proper also. i am running all of mine in series with no problems.
i know a lot of the larger bulbs will not fit in regular sockets. my opinion with cfl's and like i said opinion is that the 23w are the best for the fact they can be placed near every leaf and produce less heat. another thing that cannot be put aside is 23w are most efficient with lumens/watt. i just could never see the advantage of the big bulb cfl's not saying they won't work cause they will. if your not topping or lsting that girl you will have figure a way to light it from the sides by surrounding it with bulbs. which i found to be a pain. that is why i went to lst and topping to keep it short and just light it from the top. hope this helps not everyone will grow the same way so figure out which style will work for you. i will help best i can to get you going.

also another thing i believe that most may not is i like 5000k lights. i seem to veg a plant as fast as anyone with 6500k and dont have to switch all bulbs to 2700k for flower.
since i am in a small grow i have found 5:1 ratio of 5000k:2700k during my whole grow seems to work just fine.

my cheap lowes bulbs 2700k

Very Much appreciated. I will take a run around Home Depot tomorrow and see what I can find. I definitely like what you did with the lst on that blue widow, if I could duplicate that, I'd be more than happy. In your success, how many 23w cfl bulbs are sufficient for producing something close to that, with just one plant, keeping in mind I already have 4 2ft t5s supplementing my cfls, which will probably light the top? Thanks again hiitsbob, I've already found your info very useful.

figure up how many lumens you are using. shoot for roughly 5000-10000 lumens/sqft.
you can def duplicate my results less than 8 months ago i was in your shoes with no experience.
read read read ask questions read and ask more questions inform your self the best you can.
i run 22 23w cfls in a 2x2 room each bulb is 1600 lumens so i am at 8,800 lumens/sqft.
this blue widow plant actually has about 375w of cfl and my revegged pineapple express is squished in the corner with about 135w.
now sure some of this light is shared between the 2 plants. with my setup last run i yielded 5.5 ounces off 2 liberty haze now this setup tweaked and a bit more experience i should be able to hit around 7 ounces but that is left to be seen.

Right on. Thanks a lot man. I did a bit of lst tonight and hopefully it takes to it well. I feel good about it. I will post update pics as soon as I get my lights rigged up.

sounds like your on the right track buddy.

The plant took surprisingly well. I was wondering if I did it right, and also if there's any adjustments to make? Should i influence the smaller, lower branches the same way?
Thanks a lot

plant looks great keep all tops as even as you can. you want those lower ones to come up and match the tops.
hope your keeping those lights as close as you can without burn or heat stress.
now this is a general hydroponics water farm? if so i looked into these for the fact of the amazing results i have seen.
but i am an all organic grower in my veggie garden/fruit trees/cannabis. so i stuck to the old super soil mix.
not saying your wrong for choosing this to each their own. you will have great results.
have any interest in doing a scrog this may be easier for you than lst'ing just a thought.

Honestly I'm not sure who made the system. A buddy was cleaning out his garage and said he was gonna throw it away. I told him I'd take it so he threw in a clone and hooked me up with his old nutes. I got pretty lucky. Just purchased three 23 watt 2700k cfls and four 26 watt 6500k bulbs. Working on designing a fixture now. In total I will have five 26 watt 6500k bulbs, four 23 watt 2700k bulbs, and four high output 2 ft t5 bulbs running one plant. How's that sound?

each t5 bulb 24w? know what k they are? if so your looking at 320 watts or so.
that will def do the trick can always add more my blue widow is only about 375w.
am interested in seeing what you come up with to light this lady.
by any chance you grab a couple y splitters can turn a single socket into a 2-4 bulb socket with ease.

Ya I'm prolly going to go with porcelain bases each fitted with a Y adapter. I was looking around but couldn't seem to find any of the grey plastic fittings you used. I feel like those would be more space effective. I think the T5s are 24w so that's 96w from those and 225 from the 9 cfls.

i used these from lowes for my main light.
very easy to wire up in series.
i will take a couple close ups of my 2nd strand of lights i made also very easy.
they were single light sockets with screw on tops that pinched the wire and poked a hole in the wire they even had little hangers to dangle each one from.
made this so i could supplement my corners a bit more you can see it in one of pics.

Just got back from the store. Got 6 standard light bases and 6 y adapters. I'm going to buy 3 more bulbs which will put me at 12 23-26 watt cfls and four 2 ft t5s. Building the fixture tomorrow, will have pics when ready.