First Indoor Grow with CFLs

ritual

Active Member
Hello all,

I grew a couple plants as a kid outdoors, dunno what made me decide to try again now that I'm 30 (considering I get high twice a year...but whatever eh)...figured I'd share my progress and the eventual success/failure.

Got a few bag seeds from a buddy and planted them, two survived a few days of neglect and got thrown in pots. Started underneath two 42W warm CFLs in hoods, the hoods then draped with sheets of aluminum foil.

Revised and added recently to a home-made setup consisting of a power strip, two socket adapters and four socket wyes that I saw somewhere here in the forums, hung like a shop light. Aluminum foil draped off both sides like a pup-tent. The new bulbs are two 2700k and two 5000+K?? (called sunlight, forget the exact color) 23W?? units. Will probably pick up a couple more socket adapters/wyes/lamps as the plants grow to keep the light thick! I lifted the 'hood' a bit to make the pic easier, then dropped it back down so the bulbs are about an inch or so away.

Nutrients were just a light feeding of miracle grow once around two weeks in. Have some blood meal and other things around, but I'm planning on grabbing a bottle of that gross liquidized fish stuff. The soil is a mixture of our local soil (very nice and about four feet deep being in a floodplain), some peat moss, some bagged potting soil and some vermiculite (same mixture as we use in our square foot garden).

Light cycle is 22/2. I just pulled this out of my ass as I couldn't find anything definitive here in the forum. Will probably go to 24/0 once I remove the aluminum foil (prob replace with white paper?, will be lucky to find mylar).

Don't remember how old the plants are (my memory is terrible, I just don't pay attention to anything), but if i had to guess I'd say about a month.

The first two pics attached are when I first noticed I was burning the plants with trapped heat (according to: https://www.rollitup.org/cfl-growing/41024-cfl-proximity-foliage.html), the last five are after I changed things to allow the heat to escape.

Will update occasionally as the harsh mistress of hard knocks teaches me a thing or two.
 

Attachments

desertrat

Well-Known Member
welcome back to growing and rui. looking good so far - leaves look a little droopy - what is your watering schedule?
 

ritual

Active Member
they do look droopy, but they're firm. I think it was from growing in the heat for a couple weeks (from me practically encasing them in foil). I water a cup every other day abouts, basically dig my finger down an inch or so and see if I pull out with any dirt on it to determine moisture.
 

Dr.Chronic

Well-Known Member
Ritual just goto the camping section at walmart and buy emergency blankets. They are very reflective without reflecting all of the added heat.
 

ritual

Active Member
Figure I'd update this. Both plants were male. Epic fail :(

Only took about three days to show the pollen sacks forming, boy was that a sad day...

I did get some mylar off of ebay, so I'm all set if I want to have another round of heartbreak some day ;)
 

Love420faces

Well-Known Member
Hello all,

I grew a couple plants as a kid outdoors, dunno what made me decide to try again now that I'm 30 (considering I get high twice a year...but whatever eh)...figured I'd share my progress and the eventual success/failure.

Got a few bag seeds from a buddy and planted them, two survived a few days of neglect and got thrown in pots. Started underneath two 42W warm CFLs in hoods, the hoods then draped with sheets of aluminum foil.

Revised and added recently to a home-made setup consisting of a power strip, two socket adapters and four socket wyes that I saw somewhere here in the forums, hung like a shop light. Aluminum foil draped off both sides like a pup-tent. The new bulbs are two 2700k and two 5000+K?? (called sunlight, forget the exact color) 23W?? units. Will probably pick up a couple more socket adapters/wyes/lamps as the plants grow to keep the light thick! I lifted the 'hood' a bit to make the pic easier, then dropped it back down so the bulbs are about an inch or so away.

Nutrients were just a light feeding of miracle grow once around two weeks in. Have some blood meal and other things around, but I'm planning on grabbing a bottle of that gross liquidized fish stuff. The soil is a mixture of our local soil (very nice and about four feet deep being in a floodplain), some peat moss, some bagged potting soil and some vermiculite (same mixture as we use in our square foot garden).

Light cycle is 22/2. I just pulled this out of my ass as I couldn't find anything definitive here in the forum. Will probably go to 24/0 once I remove the aluminum foil (prob replace with white paper?, will be lucky to find mylar).

Don't remember how old the plants are (my memory is terrible, I just don't pay attention to anything), but if i had to guess I'd say about a month.

The first two pics attached are when I first noticed I was burning the plants with trapped heat (according to: https://www.rollitup.org/cfl-growing/41024-cfl-proximity-foliage.html), the last five are after I changed things to allow the heat to escape.

Will update occasionally as the harsh mistress of hard knocks teaches me a thing or two.
I think your plants may have been stretched alot!... you should keep the cfls within 2 in of every part of your plant
 
Top