LED+CFL Closet Coco grow

Update, wondering is resin/trichome production appears to be where it should be for how far in I am 33 days of 12/12:










Even the bud I burned is looking good

Trich production is totally strain dependent,, but your looking pretty spot on bro! You gotta be happy with how things are going

That last picture is awesome.

I'm pretty happy, just not sure what to look for or what I should be seeing at this point. I've noticed a few of the pistils turning brown/orange but not too many, as you can see I tied up a few branches I was worried about. I simply used fishing line to fasten them to the top of the tent.

Whoa bro, super sick! Looks like your well on your way to 1g per watt! Don't get hasty and harvest early, I know it's tempting but let it ride, let those fan leaves yellow out and your nugs swell up, the anticipation is killer but it will be worth it to stretch it out those last couple weeks when it comes down to it! Remember that a lot of sativa dominant strains are at least 10 weeks flowering, and personally I would measure that starting at 2 weeks from start of 12/112, just my two cents but it could gain you an extra 2 oz's! -slinger

great thread, thanks SativaGrows. i was hoping that when i came to page 31 i would see the final product, but i guess I will have to come back and check how things are going for you.

A few questions pop into my mind:
1) How do you like your LED light?
i am currently thinking about starting a garden of my own and am really torn between using LEDs or an HPS / MH setup - or perhaps splurging and using both.
2) is it common for plants to get so wide, or is this dependent upon what type of strain you are growing?
as mentioned i want to start a little garden, maybe 4-6 plants, and if they all end up being 44" wide i grossly underestimated the area required to grow a plant.
3) What have been the benefits, from your pov, after you started using the grow tent?
I'm torn on whether i should get one. The room i want to use would likely be an empty 3m by 3m room with an AC unit mounted on the wall. If you feel the only benefit of the tent was better humidity / temp control, then perhaps i won't need it?

Anyway, awesome thread.. i don think i have ever read an entire thread from start to finish as quickly as i did this one. Really looking forward to your upcoming posts

This is my first grow so I can't really compare to HPS/MH but I love the LEDs I did a lot of research and found that Prosource seemed to be the best so I purchased one, the LED I have is rated to do this entire plant on it's own, I added the CFLS as supplemental lighting. Obviously I have been pretty successful with the LED/CFL combo.

As far as it being common for plants to grow so wide, it is very strain independent, each one will grow differently, there re many training trechniques available though to get the plant to grow how you want it to, on this grow I did not use any of those techniques and opted for a natural approach. Just my personal choice as it is my first grow.

The benefits of the tent: I mainly bought this for temp control, the LED I use suggests a temperature of 85º my closet was running between 90º-94ºF which any temp above 90º slows or stops growth, so I need it a little cooler, the tent was able to make this happen for me. Also the reflective coating is much more reflective of light than the white painted walls in my closet. Keep in mind if you are going to cut clones those clones will grow quickly and need to be in a room of their own under veg lights i.e. 24 hours cycle while your other plant is still flowering on 12/12 The tent gave me the added convenience of having 2 rooms, which is now necessary for the setup I have as the 8 clones are in veg and the mother is flowering.

Good luck to you and welcome to the forum. I'm glad you liked my journal, please do not mistake me for a pro or anything though as this is my first grow and even though I'm successful I'm still learning and all my info might not be the best to follow haha. There are a lot of great people on this forum that are willing to help, I suggest starting a grow journal, even if you are still in the planning stages maybe get some ideas going.

***edit*** Also i should mention those CFLs are very powerful lights so I am thinking having them as side lighting really helped contribute to the plant becoming so wide.

Also completely random but I stopped by a grow shop I don't normally frequent and after talking to one of the employees he asked me if I'd like to try a bag of his soil, I explained I'm not really interested in soil but he asked me if he gave it to me if I would try it, I told him I honestly likely would not but he insisted I take a bag of soil, these bags were marked $15, I believe it is a 50 or 60lb bag I'm just wondering if this is good soil and also since I really have no interest in using it I was planning on giving it to my mother to use in her garden of vegetables/flowers would it be good for that?

That is actually some really good organic soil from what ingredients say...you may want to give it a shot or give it to your mom and see what it does in her garden

Hey I just wanted to say that even though this is your first grow, you definitely did it right. Love the added CFLs. I'm waiting on a SolarFlare 200 FullCycle and after seeing this, fully intend to supplement with those exact bulbs!

Nice writeup there. Id like to throw this out though. Growth does not stop at 90f. Plants outdoors THRIVE in high temps provided they get enough water. But in containers the root system will end up getting too hot.


That soil sounds really good. Iv made very similar mixes with great results... As the name says, its "hot shit" (nice) so dont put any young sensitive plants into it. Id give it a test run for sure especially since its free. You can make it cheaper yourself though.

hey man really nice grow going. I was wondering about how much did your electric bill go up when you started your grow?

My electric bill was around $40-60/mo now it's $90-110/mo roughly.

thanks mate!

Just checked, my most recent electric bill was only $86 my most expensive was $103, average is $80-$90 while growing, while not $50-$60. I mean my tent is only 580W of lighting (not sure what the air purifier is pulling), my current veg room is 200W, the clone lamp when in use is only 13W. All other lighting in my home is CFL and is usually off unless it's night. I'm a pretty power efficient person.

Enough about power bills...

I noticed some of the pistils on the left side of the plant started turning a peachy pink color, the stem these flowers are on has turned almost all reddish/purple, wondering if this is normal, I know color change can happen during flowering but will it be random per branch? Also some branches seem to be producing more trichomes than others is this normal as well? I'll take some pics in a little bit if I get some time. The lights just throw off my camera so bad and I hate posting crappy photos. I'll shut the lights off and post some with flash only, haven't posted any like that in a while. I want to show off the true colors of this beauty.

Took some new photos, all under flash to show natural color. Enjoy.


My half ass attempt at some LST, I bent 2 of the clones a few days ago, I need to get something to tie them with but they seem to be growing kind of sideways, is this good?





LST Clone 2




I believe I need to get them more sideways and actually tie them down. I'll work on that.




Yes I know the top of my coco is dry, this is intentional. They'll be getting their first full dose of nutes soon. Just waiting for more than the top of the coco to dry out.

Onto the Main attraction:



This is one of the flowers I said the pistils are changing color, can't really tell in the pic though, flash washed it out.





Excuse the burnt bud in front, I keep it in front so I can easily monitor it.

Bushy Bushy brother! Love the pics out of the lights, you an really see all the trich production! It looks like there is some water in your drain reservoir? Perhaps you just watered but if not I wouldnt let that stuff sit in there, you can get some major mold issues that way! Its a good thing you got the big tent because you definitely need it! My tent is a little small for what I need, should have spent the extra $ but oh well now I got a clone tent. Keep the pictures coming man! Are you adding any bloom enhancers like Bud Candy/Carboload type stuff?
-slinger

Watered last night, my humidity is around 25% so mold hasn't really been an issue for me. I usually just let the water evaporate, it will likely be gone by tonight or tomorrow afternoon. Hasn't been a problem yet, but thanks for the tip I feel like the coco sucks some of it up as well as it is packed with roots, I feel like by letting it sit there I am putting my run off to good use.

I bet you are glad you took clones from this 'beast bitch'....

Very much so. Looking forward to seeing how much weight she packs on also of course interested in how the smoke is.

^^^very nice looking girl......healthy&well fed..........is that the burnt bud up front in the pic???