Intro - First CFL - Advice Welcome

Greetings, and warm blessings to all my fellow "lightworkers"!

I've been lurking here on these forums for some time, and y'all have been so informative and helpful in my project. In way of thanks I wanted to both introduce myself and formally join the community, as well as share the joy of my first CFL grow with you. I know I've made some mistakes along the way, so please go easy on me!



This is my girl Zula, named after Grace Jones' character from Conan the Destroyer... because when I took her in she'd been beaten badly, could barely stand on her own and needed some help against the ravenous hordes. She's got some scars from doing battle with the queen's slugs, but she's a tough little scrapper! My financial resources are limited, so I've got to make the most out of what I've got. Keeping that in mind, any suggestions to improve are welcome, as long as they're respectful and courteous.

She was grown from bagseed, so I'm not sure exactly what I'm working with. She's fairly sativa dominant but there looks to be some indica traits expressing themselves, so I think it'll be some nice painkiller bud (it's the only thing that hurts me, you see) while still lifting the depression so I can get things done. The nugs are crystallizing, things are starting to get pretty stinky, and it's getting harder every day to resist "sampling", but we're almost in the home stretch and with only the one survivor I really want to try and maximize the yield. I don't know if it's sinse yet, I took her in early but Bombaata was throwing off a lot of pollen before I killed him. We'll have to wait and see.

I've got her potted in Miracle-Gro Garden Soil. The delayed release fertilizer probably isn't ideal, but I was concerned about making trails with regular feedings (nosy neighbors, this is the second year I've found a trail that wasn't mine) and I honestly expected her to stay outdoors. Unfortunately pests had done some early damage (I've had a big problem around here with those slugs.. weed, beer, I think those little guys just like to get high) and the delayed veg cycle meant she was going to start freezing before she matured, so I took her in to provide acute care.

She's about 3 weeks into flowering now on a 12/12 cycle. I've got her under 5x26w(100w) 2700K CFLs, providing 10,500 lumens of sweet autumn light, and she seems to be loving it. When I get a chance I'll paint the walls or pick up some Mylar to help reach under the canopy, but for now I think this will be sufficient without overtaxing my budget.

She's getting a little extra Miracle-Gro Bloom Booster (10-52-10) for chow. I failed to adjust the mix for indoor planting, forgetting that she needed less now that the rain wasn't constantly washing her out, so there was a bit of nute burn, but she's recovering nicely from that. Unfortunately I over-compensated with the watering to purge all that extra phosphorus, but she's starting to bounce back from that as well. I told you she was fighter! No money left over this month for pH monitoring, so if y'all see signs of trouble or anything else of concern I'd be glad to hear of it.

A few more close-up shots of some buds:



So there we are. I hope she makes y'all as happy as she's made me, and encourages those who are working with limited resources as y'all have encouraged me. Sorry I don't the entire grow documented, I'll share some more pics as we get closer to the harvest. Peace out!

Golden Buddha

I don't have the time to really get in depth here and honestly I'm no expert anyway but I'll help where I can. First, DON'T USE MIRACLE GROW, either soil or nutes as they contain too much salts, if you must use it make sure you flush well the lats couple weeks, what you should do if your gorilla growing and you can't or don't want to visit your plants often is to make a super soil, look up Subcool's Super Soil recipe, there is a whole step by step process to make the super soil which I won't go into and this is just one way to use it. Understand I may not be spot on with this and I may overlook something but this will give you a basic understanding of what to do. Basically you want to make three different soil mixes/strengths, the first will be basically just plain potting soil (Roots Organic, Fox Farms, Amazon Bloom, Happy Frog etc) with some additives/amendments like beneficial bacteria & microbes like mycorrhiza etc, the second mix will be the same as the first but with a stronger concentration of veg type amendments, seaweed extract, worm castings and so forth to promote vigorous vegetative growth, the third mix will be the strongest with the same beneficial fungi/microbes as the first two but with added blooming nutes like bat/bird guano etc. So, in the hole you intend to plant in you'll put the strongest mix in first with the flowering additives filling to a 3rd of the depth, next you'll put in the second strongest mix with the veg amendments, seaweed extract, worm castings etc filling to another 3rd of the depth, you'll then fill the rest of the hole with the light soil mix which is basically just potting soil with some added amendments, next transplant your girl into her new home, the point of this is that as your plant grows its roots grow into the soil layers and it gets everything it needs as it needs it, by the time the roots reach the bottom strongest layer it will be in flower and will be able to utilize the stronger soil mix. You might have to supplement some things during the grow like cal, mag, potassium etc, however if your super soil is amended properly and your checking on the plants at least once a week that shouldn't be too much of a problem. My local hydro shop carries these clay/ceramic cones that you screw onto a 2 liter bottle, stick in the ground and it will water your plants as they need it for about a week or so, you could even DIY something like this if you prefer. Hope this helps, keep us posted and keep em green.

my advice is cfl sucks i dont grow indoor but my buddy uses them to slow....i start my outdoors underthem to slow lol looking good tho hopefully u get some nice bud

and you gotta switch light spectums im guessing those are the 5500k blue spec light bulbs switch to the 2700k red spec now spose to for flowering u might now this i jus didnt wanna read ur whole post ;p

SativaMe@420 said:

I don't have the time to really get in depth here and honestly I'm no expert anyway but I'll help where I can. First, DON'T USE MIRACLE GROW, either soil or nutes as they contain too much salts, if you must use it make sure you flush well the lats couple weeks, what you should do if your gorilla growing and you can't or don't want to visit your plants often is to make a super soil, look up Subcool's Super Soil recipe, there is a whole step by step process to make the super soil which I won't go into and this is just one way to use it. Understand I may not be spot on with this and I may overlook something but this will give you a basic understanding of what to do. Basically you want to make three different soil mixes/strengths, the first will be basically just plain potting soil (Roots Organic, Fox Farms, Amazon Bloom, Happy Frog etc) with some additives/amendments like beneficial bacteria & microbes like mycorrhiza etc, the second mix will be the same as the first but with a stronger concentration of veg type amendments, seaweed extract, worm castings and so forth to promote vigorous vegetative growth, the third mix will be the strongest with the same beneficial fungi/microbes as the first two but with added blooming nutes like bat/bird guano etc. So, in the hole you intend to plant in you'll put the strongest mix in first with the flowering additives filling to a 3rd of the depth, next you'll put in the second strongest mix with the veg amendments, seaweed extract, worm castings etc filling to another 3rd of the depth, you'll then fill the rest of the hole with the light soil mix which is basically just potting soil with some added amendments, next transplant your girl into her new home, the point of this is that as your plant grows its roots grow into the soil layers and it gets everything it needs as it needs it, by the time the roots reach the bottom strongest layer it will be in flower and will be able to utilize the stronger soil mix. You might have to supplement some things during the grow like cal, mag, potassium etc, however if your super soil is amended properly and your checking on the plants at least once a week that shouldn't be too much of a problem. My local hydro shop carries these clay/ceramic cones that you screw onto a 2 liter bottle, stick in the ground and it will water your plants as they need it for about a week or so, you could even DIY something like this if you prefer. Hope this helps, keep us posted and keep em green.

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you dont have time to get indepth but time to right a essay lol

smokinsomeweed said:

you dont have time to get indepth but time to right a essay lol

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If I was to really get in depth regarding Super Soil and how to properly use it I could have easily wrote four times what I did, lots of information to cover regarding beneficial microbes/fungi, what amendments to use etc. I hear ya though man, when I typed "I don't have the time to really get in depth" I thought "Man somebody's gonna call me on this, lol"

SativaMe@420 said:

If I was to really get in depth regarding Super Soil and how to properly use it I could have easily wrote four times what I did, lots of information to cover regarding beneficial microbes/fungi, what amendments to use etc. I hear ya though man, when I typed "I don't have the time to really get in depth" I thought "Man somebody's gonna call me on this, lol"

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lol i was just kindin yes there definetly is if you do happen to go indepth about benefitial microbs inbox it to me would be interesting i was thinking of using this stuff called micomadness but cant find it an any hydro shops

SativaMe@420 said:

DON'T USE MIRACLE GROW, either soil or nutes as they contain too much salts.... (Roots Organic, Fox Farms, Amazon Bloom, Happy Frog etc) with some additives/amendments like beneficial bacteria & microbes like mycorrhiza etc, the second mix will be the same as the first but with a stronger concentration of veg type amendments, seaweed extract, worm castings and so forth to promote vigorous vegetative growth, the third mix will be the strongest with the same beneficial fungi/microbes as the first two but with added blooming nutes like bat/bird guano etc....

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Thanks for the feedback. I'm aware of that drawback with Miracle-Gro, it does impart a pretty heavy chemical taste. I plan to flush thoroughly, though I'm pretty much stuck with the pellets in the soil. I'm hoping it won't be too noticeable. I hadn't really thought it out, I just grabbed some essentials as cheaply as possible. The last time I did this was in high school when it was pretty much throw some seeds (LOL.. that gets turned into a hyperlink? Far out, man...) in the back field and hope for the best. Good information used to be hard to come by, but with the progress we've made towards legalizing there are so many awesome scientific resources available now. I was kinda surprised to find out how much I really had to learn, but I'm making progress. I just wish I'd found this place a little sooner! I'll definitely be researching a better soil alternative next time and appreciate the advice. Next grow will probably indoors though, I have enough on my plate without worrying about extra security and I've got a LOT of slugs around here.

smokinsomeweed said:

and you gotta switch light spectums im guessing those are the 5500k blue spec light bulbs switch to the 2700k red spec now spose to for flowering u might now this i jus didnt wanna read ur whole post ;p

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Those are 2700K. I've been growing outdoors but I think the wild hot/cold swings are stressing them out, we've had some crazy weather patterns the last couple years and most of the ones that lived have been male. I think a more controlled environment would be better, but I only started putting it together on this flowering cycle. I'll be picking up some 6500K for the next round. I figured to throw this one into reveg along with the new seedlings, maybe try my hand at cloning. Kinda putting things together piecemeal, adding a little each month. I'd love to grab some HID and HPS lamps but I figured these would be the most bang for the buck on a really tight budget.

~

I'm thinking the spotting is maybe Mg deficiency, since it's mostly on the older leaves? I was researching some pH meters but anything reliable looks like it's going to be expensive. Should I just add some dolomite to correct it and act as a buffer, or might that start giving me problems with excess Ca? The damage hasn't been progressing, could this be just from the over-fert/over-watering?

Golden Buddha

Go to home depot and get a couple of 300 watt cfl's and change them in there . it will make a big dif. .. GOOD LUCK !!
P.s. they draw less then 70 actual watts each

allen bud said:

Go to home depot and get a couple of 300 watt cfl's and change them in there . it will make a big dif. .. GOOD LUCK !!
P.s. they draw less then 70 actual watts each

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Yea they used to have a pretty good deal on TCP 68W (300W equivalent) 2700k CFL's, they used to be $15 but they went up a few bucks everywhere, now the best deals on CFL's is to get a pack of them on eBay, I haven't found a better price anywhere, just look at this deal for 6 x 150W CFL's for $77 W/Free shipping: (http://www.ebay.com/itm/6-pcs-150W-Studio-Daylight-Photo-Bulb-5500K-110V-Energy-Saving-Bulb-E27-CFL-s-/130687425667?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1e6d93dc83)

Nice lights, got my eye on some relatively cheap 420w 6500K for the next crop, it's just a matter of juggling another $100 into the budget among all my other bills.

Camera's gone down with a lens error, I don't know if I can fix it before the end of this grow but here's a couple shots from a few days ago. Trichomes are developing rapidly for a sativa, now about 20% clear, 75% cloudy and 5% amber. Calyxes are fattening up very nicely, but aside from the two buds I pollinated there's no sign of seeds. I gave her one last meal tonight with a little extra nitro to support the second phase (I don't want her using up those fan leaves just yet.) It's almost time to start a slow flush and get ready to harvest the main colas in a couple weeks, though it'll be at least another month for the other half to mature.

The extra light seems to have helped tremendously, there'll be a dozen of the dense 3"+ blunts from the first phase and at least two dozen bowlfuls out of the second, even if she doesn't make the transition. Not bad, considering I thought the whole crop was lost this year. Fungus gnats have been persistent, but the spiders have been doing their job pretty well. I'm really not happy with the drainage of these buckets at all, I planned for a drought but I'll definitely have to set them in something else next time. No worries, a sample this evening tells me that when she's properly cured it's going to be an outstanding, uplifting smoke!





Sláinte!

Golden Buddha