Grow Journal, CFL All advice welcome

Disclaimer; Everything I am posting is from a friend growing personally in Spain without access to the internet who's asked me to do this for him.

Anyway hello all, I've posted briefly on here but this is my first real attempt to actually grow with any hope of growing something smokeable. My first attempt was pretty embarrassing but I've been reading around here as much as I can beside uni so I'm hoping this may go a little better.
There are big space constraints which is why I'm so limited on plants and light and gotta note that the cupboard they're in is pretty much next to a radiator which I can't turn off, have moved it as far as I can but yeah if anyone has a cheap solution to making sure my babies don't cook that would be really helpful.
Anyway I'm growing from seed, my friend seems convinced it was from white widow bud but I'm really unconvinced, and so if anybody who actually knows could tell me what I've actually got that'd be awesome.

Anyway growing them under two 100w equivalent CFL's 18/6 in soil based compost, wasn't really sure what I was doing so went with the advice here and just got the most expensive which still wasn't much so again any recommendations for when I transplant them soon would be great. Using a tiny amount of organic seaweed fertiliser in their water, but so far have only been spraying their leaves to keep them weighted and a little protected as both pots still feel fairly heavy. Erm hoping to train them using the LST guide I found on here so hopefully that'll be ok and save on room.
Yeah don't really know what else to add so yeah any comments/advice/criticisms are much appreciated.
Cheers all.

good luck on your new grow. a couple of suggestions:
you can use the same soil to transplant but you should add 1/4 to 1/3 perlite to improve drainage.
not sure how many plants you have but you're going to need more light, especially to flower the plants. 75 actual (not equivalent) watts of cfl per plant is a good number to shoot for, and more light is better.

Cheers, ok cool think I should be able to get hold of that easy enough.
As for the lights just cos of the space I'm only gonna be able to add another one max two so it'd be 80 actual in total between the two plants...Am hoping to position them with the LST in such a way that eventually I could use all the lights on both at once but still is it actually vene worth me carrying on if I can't fit like 6 or 7 of these lights...?
Cheers again.


EDIT: Hmm Just been looking at a 105W Blue CFL for 20 quid and a 300 dual spectrum with the cord and shit which I do need for £40...either worth the investment? Also thinking may need to get a small fan or something as there's almost no ventilation in this cupboard...Any suggestions?
Cheers.

Anybody? Given how little room I have I was thinking maybe could get away with just the 105W?
Also thinking of getting some bio bizz nutes today if I can unless anyone has anything better to recommend, and the wire for training hopefully.
Cheers

Well transplanted both plants a few days ago and started using LST on both yesterday and they seem to be coping ok but still only under 48w between them, still need some advice about those bigger CFL's, especially the heat they give off.
Still only using the seaweed nutrients sparingly, meter still reads pretty much the middle of ideal.
Also added about 1/3 perlite to both pots when transplanting though a small amount of mould seemed to be formed on the surface of the soil of the second plant not long ago. Scooped it out and kept the cupboard open with a fan on them and seems to have done the trick but I'll keep my eyes open for it.
Again all advice welcome, realise I'm never gonna get much out of this but be nice to see what I can do in preparation of bigger and better things when space time and funds allow. Cheers.

Do you have any air exchange in your grow space? This might help the stems get sturdier.

No unfortunately not unless i use my large desk fan which aside from being needed elsewhere can't be positioned anywhere practical for long. i was wondering if there was any small fan worth investing in? Or just to wait the month or so until I can edit a proper cupboard to include intake and outtake fans?

back again - to answer your questions on lighting, your yield will go up proportionately to added light. triple the light and you will more than triple your yield. if i understand you correctly, you are still using two 100 watt equivalent bulbs? then you only have 3,500 lumens of light which is the bare minimum to cover 1 square foot during flowering. count on your two plants being two square feet each and you would need four times the light to be at the bare minimum (if you have two females, so you could count on one female and only double the light). so, yes - you just can't afford not to add lights if you want this to be more than an experiment.

for your convenience (see that you get much more bang for the buck with higher wattage cfl's

cfl 13 actual watts/60 equivalent: 850 lumens
cfl 26 actual watts/100 equivalent: 1,750 lumens
cfl 42 actual watts/150 equivalent: 2,750 lumens
cfl 68 actual watts/250 equivalent: 4,200 lumens

Hmmm cheers for that and fair enough I guess, do you have any idea how hot the 68 or even 100 watt actual bulbs get? Just limited by space and lack of airflow for another month at least.

Curious Gibbon said:

do you have any idea how hot the 68 or even 100 watt actual bulbs get? Just limited by space and lack of airflow for another month at least.

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rock, meet hard place. if you plan on a larger space with more light in the near future it wouldn't hurt to buy the lights early and see what you can get away with in your current situation.

Fair enough, there's a pair of 85w cfl's, one red one blue spectrum going for about £30, would they just about cover my needs or is it definitely gonna need to be the 105w would you think? The 85w's are claimed to give off 5500 lumens each so 11k total.
Also just spent 2.40 ordering a tiny solar powered fan...no idea if it'll work at all but for the price figured it's worth experimenting and seeing if placed close enough they might keep a bigger light cool enough...

two 85 watt actual bulbs gives you about 10,000 lumens which is good if you end up with one plant and is acceptable but weak if you end up with two females. always - as much light as you can afford, fit and cool is what you want to achieve. increasing light is the cheapest and easiest way to increase your yield.

Ok cool I've messaged the seller asking about heat and power chords as I'm not sure if they come with it and with my general electrical incompetence I really need something that's kinda plug in and go if you will. Thinking maybe those two lights plus one maybe both the other 20w's to supplement secondary branching if there's room, and if the fans are up to it, one on each bigger cfl to cool and hopefully provide airflow?
Cheers again for this advice very much appreciated.

you shouldn't need to have a fan for each light. just enough air flow through the cabinet to carry away the heat. in your situation you actually want to cool the plant, not the lights.

Ok cool well we'll see how this little fan does when it arrives from Hong Kong, a few of those might be a decent investment...the lights I'm looking at are Blue 6400k and Red 2700k, sorry if its a really stupid question but just wondering if those differences will be an issue at all? Also is it blue for growing and red for flowering or? Sorry for the newb questions.

Curious Gibbon said:

the lights I'm looking at are Blue 6400k and Red 2700k, sorry if its a really stupid question but just wondering if those differences will be an issue at all? Also is it blue for growing and red for flowering?
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you don't need me, you've got it right. for a first grow to know what it's all about, just use both through the whole grow. if you want to maximize yield you want as much light of the correct spectrum as you can afford, fit and cool.

there are no stupid q's either man. i've seen a lot of people attempt a grow and not ask questions so they screw it up. anyway, i've had some experience vegging under a 72w cfl (warm spectrum) along with a 24" flouro "grow light" and another 24" daylight spectrum flouro with great results. the grow light was pretty far in the violet area of the light spectrum and the other was like imitation sunlight but i had all 3 going for almost 24/7 during veg. I had a little more space than you're working with so heat wasn't much of an issue but you could combat it with a makeshift CO2 bubbler. your biggest concerns are gonna be getting as much light as possible to the plants and definitely ventilation/inward airflow. seeing as how you're working on both of those at the moment, i say congrats and good luck! i'm kinda new to the forum but not to the grows so i'll be in and out to check up on this but it seems like a ton of people are also here to help. keep up the work and the plants will reward you

Curious Gibbon said:

Hmmm cheers for that and fair enough I guess, do you have any idea how hot the 68 or even 100 watt actual bulbs get? Just limited by space and lack of airflow for another month at least.

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@Curious, I have two 105 watt actual (500 watt equivalent) CFLs and they are cool enough to touch. I keep them about 1.5 inches (4cm) from the top of the plant. Sorry I can't give you temps.

Ok cool thanks for the info everyone, could you maybe explain a little what a CO2 bubbler actually is sorry Sketch?
Cheers bunny that's pretty much exactly all I wanted to know in honesty so providing the seller gets back to me about power cables should be all good then, cheers guys.
Should be bending them both again in the next few days so I'll post up some more pics soon hopefully.

Update: Still waiting on the fan and info about the lamps...but trained both plants again yesterday and they seem to be coming along well, pretty with the side growth of a (faith) too. Anyway just some pics before and after as usual any advice obviously appreciated.
Cheers