First time grow CFL Monster Box

those are some gorgeous plants man. a+ awesome job

EpyxN said:

those are some gorgeous plants man. a+ awesome job

Click to expand...

Hey thanks, appreciate the comment and the fact that people are watching this thing come along! Almost a thousand views and most of the comments on here have been from me. I know you're out there!

Went back to some more LST treatment on the plants. They are bigger and stronger than ever and took the bends with pleasure. Its insane how quickly you see the difference in side growth when you tie these babies off to the side a bit.

Check back in a couple of days for pics from week 1 of flower!

Happy Saturday to all! Been a great week once again for the grow. Its hard to say really which part has been the most fun because its ever changing and with it being our first time around, there's more to see than ever before!

We have reached the end of the first week of flowering. Today is day 8 of flower. We are really hoping to within the next week be able to sex the plants successfully but will take our time and make good and sure what we've got before we yank any out. You'll see in the pics I have attached for todays post that There are some pistils starting to show on a few of them, but its still too early I think. PLEASE GIVE FEEDBACK ON SEXING. TAKE A LOOK AT THE PICS AND LET US KNOW WHAT YOU THINK.

We have been raising the lights in the box almost every single day this week a good inch and a half. More and more potential flowering sites are popping up on each plant every day, as you can see. The next couple of weeks are going to be phenomenal!

Here's pics from this morning, Day 8 of flower, 6 weeks to the day since we first saw the babies sprout from the soil.

Anyone have inpput on sexing? We think we've got 3 males....may still be too early to tell though...

I cant see any hairs it may be just the pics but this is male.



Just give yours a few more days to be sure.

Hey thanks Welshy on the input, much appreciated. Right now we are pretty sure we have 3 males confirmed out of the 7 plants. There are no hanging football shaped sacks as of yet, but the forming of the little nut like looking sacks are already in the pits of the branches. We have 3 confirmed females and one who is still on the fence and should show in the next day or two I would imagine.

A couple of questions...

How soon do the male plants begin to polenate after sexing them?

Once moved outdoors, what kind of time line would I be looking at for the male plants to mature? The rest of the summer?

I've heard male plants are known to be taller and female plants to be shorter and stockier, is this true with a White Widow strain?

If anyone could help me out with those, that would be most appreciated.

Grow on!

How soon do the male plants begin to polenate after sexing them? as long as you watch them you will have more then enough time to remove the males


Once moved outdoors, what kind of time line would I be looking at for the male plants to mature? The rest of the summer? idk but why? are you wanting to keep the males for some reason?


I've heard male plants are known to be taller and female plants to be shorter and stockier, is this true with a White Widow strain? This is pretty much a myth I think, plants from seed are all different phenotypes thats the reason the all dont look the same not that one height is male and the other is female

Ok guys, so with a little help from a grow goddess here in my hometown, I was able to correctly identify who the boys and the girls were this afternoon.

The boys: Buffalo Soldier, margaret, and our beloved Chuck Norris (no surprise there).


The girls: Aunt Mary, Cowgirl in The Soil, and Girly.

Bobbi Marley is still not showing 100% but its looking very much like a female to me at this point, we'll keep checking each day for a more clear answer.

Here's a pic or two of the new look grow area, which is now down to 4 plants. Its much more suited to 4 plants I think, will allow them to maximize their full lady potential!

So now I have 3 healthy male plants. I do have a nice outdoor spot for them available, but is there any point to it at all? Let's hear your input...

I see no point in keeping the males....unless you wanna do some breeding...

Just a quick update for anyone watching...


We have now successfully identified and sexed all 7 of our plants. 4 of the 7 were males. We kinda figured going in from seed that we may wind up with about half and half for our first grow. We may have stressed some of the plants a little much in the early going when we were still constructiing the box and whatnot. We feel as though our grow area is much better suited to only 3 or 4 plants as the area will allow for them to maximize their potential.


The 3 ladies we have confirmed are Aunt Mary, Cow Girl in the Soil, and simply, Girly. We will be making cuts here sometime soon once we're a bit more educated on the cloning process to make some more fine babies out of these widows!!!

Check back later in the week for a new picture update!

Hey I just read your whole thread and it was really good! +rep!

I too am doing the cfl grow this time around. I've done much bigger hps grows but I wanted to prove to myself and some buddies that I could do it with the bare minimum ei; MG potting mix and cfls in a rubbermaid bin.
check it out.
https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/199876-minimalists-grow.html

That's cool man, thanks for the rep and taking the time to read the thread, much appreciated!. I will be leaning into a 430W HPS for our next grow. We already have plans/blueprints laid out for another box where I'll outfit a new 430W HPS system I have on order now thru Iron Legends Hydroponics. Google it, you can find yourself a new state of the art 430W HPS that will run on about 7 bucks per month! 400's are a thing of the past!

I have seen some of the guys on here with CFL's using as little as one or two lights. That is definetly more along the lines of the "Economical Grow" when you aren't getting involved with too many fans and intakes, and filters that more serious grow box's require. We have a total of 14 CFL's in there right now and I can't wait to see how this goes the rest of the way. Its our first time, period, So, we'll be happy just to be able to roll a joint and say it was our own! As we become more and more experienced with it, we'll certainly explore different avenues and methods.

Stick around and enjoy the rest of the grow!

Here's a few pics I just snapped 10 minutes ago of the 3 ladies, now in day 12 of flower. In some of the pics you can clearly see the white hairs flowing freely!!!

Plants look really healthy.....pots look small....how many gallon are they? I bet in about a month maybe less you will be watering everyday...

Smokiethebear said:

Plants look really healthy.....pots look small....how many gallon are they? I bet in about a month maybe less you will be watering everyday...

Click to expand...

The pots we have them in right now are 1 gallon pots. We thought about going a little bit bigger but it was not going to work when we had 7 of them in there. Just not enough space.

Right now we are watering every 2nd day. Each plant gets nearly 2 Gatorade bottles full every 48 hours, or when they feel light in weight. The $4 moisture meter comes in very handy.

The 3 girls we've got are very healthy right now, with NO ADDED NUTES! This premix Miracle Grow Time Release stuff is proving the critics wrong!

bendavejack said:

The pots we have them in right now are 1 gallon pots. We thought about going a little bit bigger but it was not going to work when we had 7 of them in there. Just not enough space.

Right now we are watering every 2nd day. Each plant gets nearly 2 Gatorade bottles full every 48 hours, or when they feel light in weight. The $4 moisture meter comes in very handy.

The 3 girls we've got are very healthy right now, with NO ADDED NUTES! This premix Miracle Grow Time Release stuff is proving the critics wrong!

Click to expand...

Yea damn it would be nice if you could repot them in about a 3gal pot...I wouldnt use the MG soil its fine for the first month or so but Id repot in a nuteless soil and start feeding them some bloom boosters(if you want to see full potential out of them)

Smokiethebear said:

Yea damn it would be nice if you could repot them in about a 3gal pot...I wouldnt use the MG soil its fine for the first month or so but Id repot in a nuteless soil and start feeding them some bloom boosters(if you want to see full potential out of them)

Click to expand...

Is it alright you think to repot them at this point? Will it not put a lot of stress on the plant? I am certainly open to the idea of it as long as I am not risking too much by doing it. I am visiting a local hydro store here tomorrow and will look into a Bloom Buster like product while I am there.

Also, if I do repot them into bigger pots, how will the soil react? What kind of soil should I use to repot them into? Will it be okay to mix my miracle grow root filled soil in with whatever the new stuff I move them into will be?

bendavejack said:

Is it alright you think to repot them at this point? Will it not put a lot of stress on the plant? I am certainly open to the idea of it as long as I am not risking too much by doing it. I am visiting a local hydro store here tomorrow and will look into a Bloom Buster like product while I am there.

Also, if I do repot them into bigger pots, how will the soil react? What kind of soil should I use to repot them into? Will it be okay to mix my miracle grow root filled soil in with whatever the new stuff I move them into will be?

Click to expand...

If you were to repot you should be doing it soon, as long as you are careful with them you wont put much stress on them. If your going to the hydro shop Im sure they will have a great soil for you, you can use pretty much any kind they arent going to react

i would say check the roots. if they are rootbound then transplant, if not, then i would suggest leaving them in their current pots. They are already female, and transplanting them shouldnt harm them, although it may make any present hermie genes show themselves. but youve grown your plants thusfar very well, and you know what is best for them...

Also, amazaing job on the box. I am growing CFL as well, and my first grow i built a box that was 4ft wide x 3 ft deep x 4 ft tall out of plywood that cost $2 dollars per 8x8 sheet with an attached box that was 2x3x2 for veg and clone mothers . worked great. although it was too big to move with me so now im growing in a closet, journal link in my sig...

I look forward to seeing how this grow turns out