First Grow, Need Help

Hi everyone, new to the site, and i have a lot of questions on my first grow. Can anyone tell me the steps for setting up a good lighting system (watts, brand, etc). Reason being, i germed on 05/30, and since I am working on a fixed income, I am only using 2x40 watt flourescent lights and 3x100 watt flourescent lights. Also, i am using Miracle Grow Organic Potted soil in a five gallon bucket and i am using worm casting for food along with miracle gro. My little lady is close to 3 feet, the hair has begun to growww, but it has been two months and barely any hairs. How long should it take for them grow out and what else is needed for me to have them to start bud phase. I thinked i messed up cause i germed for 16 hrs on, but when i left nursery i changed to 12/12, which i still am continuing with 12/12, did that mess up my baby's?

hello an welcome, gratz on your first! I must say pics help out a lot. Also if ya have a look at other peoples grow threads you will notice them stating lots of valuable info. What is the color spectrum of bulbs used in veg/flower. What kind of mg nute are you using with the castings? If ya see hairs(pistols) then it has started to flower. 12/12 is for flowering/sexing of plant, 18/6, 20/4, 22/2, 24/0 can be used for veg.

How long has your plant been on 12/12?

There are lots of threads on light fixtures/set-ups, power-strip CFL set-ups. I prefer to use the advanced portion of search, the search title-only function helps clear out most of the crap. But not knowing your grow area makes it a bit difficult to help with suggestions.


hey get some pics up !!!

LeoDiamonds said:

Hi everyone, new to the site, and i have a lot of questions on my first grow. Can anyone tell me the steps for setting up a good lighting system (watts, brand, etc). Reason being, i germed on 05/30, and since I am working on a fixed income, I am only using 2x40 watt flourescent lights and 3x100 watt flourescent lights. Also, i am using Miracle Grow Organic Potted soil in a five gallon bucket and i am using worm casting for food along with miracle gro. My little lady is close to 3 feet, the hair has begun to growww, but it has been two months and barely any hairs. How long should it take for them grow out and what else is needed for me to have them to start bud phase. I thinked i messed up cause i germed for 16 hrs on, but when i left nursery i changed to 12/12, which i still am continuing with 12/12, did that mess up my baby's?

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like cransi said we need moe info on you set-up. are they tube(i.e. t5,t8, ...) or cfl lighing. what spectrum are the lights. from what i understand you have been 12/12 for the duration of your veg, corect me if i am wrong. how is your lighting set up now. i use clamp style lamps on shower rods in my closet so i can adjust the lights to different heigts like this

post a couple pics please

I think i am doing okay for my first crop, but i know i need a lot of advice. Will go this weekend and get me a decent grow room, and will be ordering some seeds. This is just a test crop to make sure i do it right with next batch.

During germination the lights was on 16/8, but i think i made a mistake and switched to 12/12 after nursery (two weeks). The lights are (2 tubes) t8 40/40 cool whites, 3x100 watt cfl soft white, and 1x 60 watt daylight at the bottom of the plant. For the smaller plants, i have 100 watt each for each plant. each light fixture is 2 inches form plant. My female plant is the one in picture one on the left, and it has been growing for two months. Going to the store this weekend to purchase some Miragle Gro All purpose plant food and water soluble bloom booster flower food. Can anyone tell me if i am in the right direction? Also, from looking at the plant how long do you think it will take to blossom? Another thing, i am using Miragloe Gro Organic Soil, and during the off time i had the lights come on for only one hour in between darkness, but i switched that off and keep it off the full 12 hrs.

now is that 100 actual watts or 100 incandecent equivalent, the only reason i ask is that i have never seen a 100 watt cfl fit into one of those clamp lanps with out hangin out like 4 or 5 inches. my 85 watt is almost 1 foot long. its the verticle one in the pic i showed with out the reflector on it. if you are trying to flower i would say to add a couple more smaller wattage in the 2700k which i believe is the soft white around the plant if those arent 100s, if they are i think you got a good thing going. if it said 100 watt= then its only 23-30 actual watts. if thats the case i would add two more of those. you can get a y adapter at home depot or something so you could fit 2 in each brooder lamp, one other sugestion would be to go with the ceramic clamp lamps vs the plastic bases you are curently using, i know they may be more money but they disapate heat better and wont melt.

Thanks for the help, very much appreciative. Now, when i took it out of nursery I had the lights on 12/12 cycle, do you think that will have any affect to them? I am going to 1000bulbs.com and order 2

85 Watt - 350 W Equal - Warm White 2700K - CFL Light Bulb - Global Consumer Products 166, do you think that will do the job?

yea thats a great flower buld. They put out 5800 lumen a piece so with thems things real close and you got a lil over 11,000. and the red pectrum is perfect. i use one i picked up from menards i think it was about 30 -35 dollars. that bulb will fit into the sockets you already have o thats another bonus. only thing that kind of sucks is the lighting schedule i,m not sure if you would want to go lik 10/14 or 11/13 just to give them more dark period, but im honestly not sure what negative afects the real short day would have on it. are all plants flowering or are the rest veging. if they are still in veg i would try and seperate them and get them under an 18/6 so you dont run into the ame problems. Plus make sure you flowering plants are getting 12 hours uninterupted darkness. peace

You are awesome, thanks a bunch!! Will be re-doing my grow room soon, will post some more pics. Also, will post picks of this batch when she is fully grown. Wish me luck!

Are these good lights, (4 Pack @ 2.13 ea.) 23 Watt - 100 W Equal - Warm White 2700K - CFL Light Bulb - Energy Miser FE-US-23W-27, to add to the side along with the 85 watt ? also, during the vegatative and flowering stage can i use the same light setup with the same wattage, and would it make a difference on the light types (i.e. cool whites, soft whites, warm whites, or daylights) for each stage or a combination of two?

just wanted to put some updated photos with second batch, have to go up on light coverage for my female

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