First Grow - CFL City

This begins the journal of my first ever grow. I thought it would be fun to share with others and also have a stable media to document my progess.

Why did I choose CFL?

I was going to start out with T5's, but I read about CFL's and they seemed intriguing. With the T5's I was still new the wattages for each fixture size, how many I'd need, how you folks mount them sideways, etc. The CFL is plain and simple, you have your watt's, and approx lumens right on the box. I also enjoy DIY (I may not be the best at it) so I said hell, I will take this route to the best of my ability. I'm sure by absorbing as much info as I can from this forum my results will be more than sufficent for the money invested. (Which, including fixtures and bulbs was probably around the same as buying 1 cheap T5 and getting it shipped.)

So here we have it. Big up's to XCon and FlatTopBud for their inspiration and help mapping out my fixture. I'd have likely caused a nation wide power outage by now without their advice!

My cabinet is 2' deep x 2.5' wide and 4' tall painted flat white . I used that metal foil tape that you wrap around ducts to seal the cracks. (Well most of them for now, I ran out!) My lighting fixture is made out of fairly raw outdoor lighting housings. They come pre-wired and all for like $6 and change. I arranged them in a cirrcular pattern and since their adjustable the middle two point down and all the rest point to their respective center. Currently I'm a little messed up as I've got a couple 20W's in there as place holders. In a few days when things are right I will have two 65W 6500K bulbs in the center housing. Each corner housing will have a 26W 6500k and a 27w 5500k in an alternating pattern. The total amount of bulbs will be 10 at 139 watts. Cumlative lumens is 15,800 between 6500k and 5500k. If I need more light, I can obviously swap some bulbs.

I am going with 4 plants for now, all sowed this morning in FF ocean mixed with a little organic lime. I've got some blood meal on deck as well. I drooped some plastic wrap over the pot's to keep some humidity inside and flipped the switch. Lets hope to seem some action in comming days.

For now I am going to do 24. I will likely give them a week or two (and myself that time to seal all the cracks) and then switch to 18/6. Temp is a little high right now as well, so I will need to figure that out.

Thanks for those who keep with me!


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looking good mate im just starting a CFL grow my first also best of luck

Lower Your Lights! temps are a little high, but we talked about that. pm me back for more brainstorming. get bigger pots, use all the floor space you got. other than that looks good. box like this can yeild a lot. geting all 72 watters will help. What nutes u gonna use?
Excited
fLaT

Hey FT!

The lights are actually only about 6 inches from the tops of the pots - they could be lower but 1) I didn't want to fry anything on the test run and 2) I ran out of chain as I had built that small box I showed you the other day. New chain is definently on the shopping list. As is getting my damn basement finished where the temps are more than 10º cooler and I can vent right out the window.

The pots though are just going to until my first transplant - then they are all going in 5 gallon buckets which I've already got. For nutes (for now) I added the organic lime, soon enough I will add some blood meal and I've got some schultz all purpose. I'm open to ideas! I made my first trip to the hydro shop the other day for the FF ocean forest so I can't wait to get back in there again.

Bud

this seems like a good grow i'll def be following this

Buddy232 said:

I made my first trip to the hydro shop the other day for the FF ocean forest so I can't wait to get back in there again.

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WOOT!!! I take inventory when at the hydro shop. Walk in with a shopping cart and my paycheck, lol

Do you have a fan on your lights? Mine are 6" away too with just a fan blowing on them, 80ºF.

Ocean Forest + lime + 5 gal buckets is fucking WIN!!!! Can't wait to see the results!!!

Much karma, bud

I guess that karma did me well X.

Everybody decided to join the party, 4/4 germ rate and looking strong. I decided to go 18/6 to save a little on electricty and to give these kids a break from the high heat that I'm fighting until I have them in a better room. I did add a 4" inline fan to exhuast and a small box fan to the bottom to push air up. Temps are still high depending on where I put the meter, however I know that hot air isn't lingering on the plants so thats better than before! Once I get this box moved and an intake in I'll be as good as gold!

Pics in a few minutes once the lights go out! Epiliepsy patients and 200W of lights don't mix!

Bud

Sounds good and looking good i did my first indoor gro last year with 4 26wt=100wtt equiv cfls and got some nice plants i also advise anyone using cfls to read up on lstng i promise you won't be sorry and you will more thn doubble your yield !!!

Okay picture time.

It sounds stupid but I'm trying to save some cash, and you figure after one harvest (even a weak one) thats A LOT of savings versus paying for it second hand. After that I will be able to invest much more into my grow - especially since it's just for myself.

Anyways... I'm starting with two strains. One is 'bag seed' from a hermied blue dream plant - a very potent plant at that. It was a very enjoyable smoke. Second, are my Sour Bubbles. I asked a friend to ask another friend (who is in a growers circle) for some seeds. I received a little satchel of about 12 mature and 12 immature seeds that looked like they were fresh out of the bud. They aren't from BOG, however I've done some digging around my local forum and I beleive the Bubble Gum was from BOG - the SD is to be desired, however much of the SD that is grown in my area is pretty good.

Day 5 (Soil germinted, 18/6, Ocean Forest w/ lime.)

BD-01


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BD-02


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SB-01


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SB-02 (This one doesn't one to leaf I guess?)


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Mr.Highlyfe said:

Sounds good and looking good i did my first indoor gro last year with 4 26wt=100wtt equiv cfls and got some nice plants i also advise anyone using cfls to read up on lstng i promise you won't be sorry and you will more thn doubble your yield !!!

Click to expand...

Thanks for the input Mr. H! I was looking at LST the other day. Also saw an interesting thread sometime back where someone drilled holes in there 5 gal's and just weaved thin rope/twine in and out both directions to make a scrog for each bucket. I think I would benefit heavily from either. I'm not trying to have a factory ya know - I just need this for myself.

I figure do this CFL setup and in the meantime think of getting a nice HPS or MH flowering setup and worse case scenerio I do another CFL setup for flowering. Eventually I'll upgrade.

Buddy232 said:

Thanks for the input Mr. H! I was looking at LST the other day. Also saw an interesting thread sometime back where someone drilled holes in there 5 gal's and just weaved thin rope/twine in and out both directions to make a scrog for each bucket. I think I would benefit heavily from either. I'm not trying to have a factory ya know - I just need this for myself.

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I saw that thread, can't tie a knot to save my life. I wound up using twine and duct tape, lol.

Xcon said:

I saw that thread, can't tie a knot to save my life. I wound up using twine and duct tape, lol.

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LOL I thought about that too, because for a fisherman I suck at knots. Then I figured he probaly went in and out and only made a knot on the very last hole. (Is that what you tried and still couldn't do?)

If I can't do it I'll say F the knot, keep wrapping the string around the bucket and tape the shit out of it like you said X.

Ps - wtf with 1000Bulbs, it's been over a week - no email with shipping #, no package, nada.

Yeah the scrog would work well also but i haven't tried it yet i saw someone use one of those wire racks you use to keep your baseball cap in shape to scrog a plant once wrkd out pretty well also. But my thing with lstng is it seems lyke way less wrk to me just my opinion.

Day 11 update.

All looks very well!

The girl that wouldn't grow started to sprout something in the middle there. I posted in the "Problems" section just for additional information. The general concensus is just to keep it and see what happens.



BD 01

BD 02

SB 01

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SB 02

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I know updates aren't typical after 1 cycle. But......

I gave the plants some very light nutrients for the first time last night. Each received only a pint of solution derived from about 7 drops of 10-15-10 mixed to a gallon of water. Everyone seemed to respond extremely well. I didn't want to show the little cabbage plant because until it does something with itself it's embarassing!

Time to ready up for transplanting in the comming days. The plan is 5 gallon buckets - continue with the FF ocean forest, but sneak in a little blood meal in before transplant. Pre-drill holes for the potential of bucket scrogs and keep reading about that and LST!

Thanks for viewing!


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Your plants are looking super good man keep up tha good work

they are growing very well. nice fat leaves

bud nugbong said:

they are growing very well. nice fat leaves

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Thanks bud!

Although IF one of my strains was Blue Dream as I suspected, then I need smaller leaves out of the pots labeled 'BD'. Although their singles leafs were kind of skinny. With nothing for experience I guess I'll have to wait and see. Definently an impatient process for a beginner. You'd like it to be a magic bean and be 10ft tall over night. At least all is well thus far.


Since that one Sour Bubble is all cabbagey I figure I will wait another week, week and a half and sprout 1-2 more seeds to begin (or at least attempt) a perpetual.

Bud

Update - day 16.

All looks really well to my untrained eye! Good growth and no heart stopping issues. Below is what has happened since the last update.


Since starting my 1/4 nurtient regime on day 11, the plants have received 3 feedings with the solution. They will get likely 2 feedings of straight water and be transplanted to 5 gallons before receiving any more nutrient. (Aside of what will be amended to the new soil.) A few of my plants were showing some obvious heat stress. You could see that some of the fresh growth was getting a bit charred. I'd mentioned before that my cabinet is running high 80's, sometimes peaking at 90. I've gotten away with it for long enough with daily, sometimes twice daily care of my plants. Therefore I raised the light fixture way up and propped the plants up on buckets. This allows my fan to do a much better job of circulating air throughout and eventually getting it up to the exhaust. When I awoke this morning I was reading a nice 83 at plant level and 80 on the ground. Still not perfect, however now I know that when the cabinet hits the basement and an intake is added I will have no issues. Last, only one of my plants has some burn on it (BD 02). I accidently splashed some solution on it, and I gave it a double feed as I had attempted topping that one plant (first time). I learned a couple things. One, I topped a little too late as I accidently removed a 5th leaf from each side of the above branch during the process. Second, I learned to just trust the plant will do it's thing. You don't need to feed it twice just because you clipped it. She will be fine though and if this is the only blunder I have (it won't be though) I'd be VERY happy.


Also, I chopped the cabbage looking plant. Below is as far as it got in 16 days - all straggly and deformed. I sowed two new seeds last night to soil germ.

Bud







BD 01




BD02






BD02 Shot of where it was topped 3 days ago




SB01





SB01 (Cropped) You can see some of the heat burn I mentioned. I cropped it more though to see some of those pretty sativa dominant leaves.