Arthitiseeder
Member
1. I need to get the darn days right, as it is very weird for me to see, x days from seed, x days from veg, x days flowering etc. I have been using the day since sprout as my main marker, but I think I may start to keep track from the day I plant the seed.
so for this plant it looks like this:
Today is Day 63 From Seed
Today is Day 55 From Sprouting
Today is Day 34 days in Flower
Vegging ran 22 or so days before she auto'ed up
I have learned a great deal from this grow, some good and some not so good, if I help anyone else with these tips it will be worth the typing;
1. 294 Watt CFL Turned to 375-400 watts of CFL pretty early, wish I would have had this set up during veg.
2. Low Stress Training is only Low Stress Training if you don't snap any branches..... be careful, but more importantly have either some green masking tape or some fabric adhesive bandages on hands when you do it. I quickly snapped the main growth shoot (cola) my first try and did not have tape on hand to fix, and lost the top. Granted I was lucky in the break and the other nodes seemed to really pick it up, but still I would have liked to keep that cola.
3. There is a huge temp difference in 6500k CFL's and 2700k CFL's and 4100k CFLs - THIS AFFECTS YOUR PLACEMENT OF YOUR LIGHTS SO BE AWARE. I toasted my little girl once for a day before catching what was going on.
4. still pertains to above, but understand the Watts/Distance of CFL's from plants Here it is in my experience :
6500k = up to 26w 2-3 inches away, up to 50w 4-6 inches away, up to 100w 8 inches away
4100k = only use 2 4100k CFL lights, both 45-50w and they work best 4-5 inches away from the leaves
2700k = up to 23w 3-5 inches away, up to 50 watt 6-8 inches away , up to 100w 10-12 inches away
5. I see the advantages of running mixed spectrum lighting , but not enough to keep all my lights the same. I changed my parking sign reflector for a white bat reflector and customized it to hold 6 std. light fixtures, these all stay the same with them having 3x 6500k 50w, 3x 2700k 50w. I then use 3 clamp lights and these I rotated between 4100k and 6500k for seedlings and veg, and 4100k and 2700k for flowering.
6. I personally made the change from 24/0 to 18/6 period. no changing for flowering etc. I reduced the time after reading a post involving really smart people doing some study on the what the dark period does to balance out the photosynthesis of a plant.
7. I started with miracle grow and distilled water, after a few weeks I made the change to tap water and stayed with just it for a week, I then started adding normal balanced miracle grow fertilizers (10-15-10) . There was no sensitivity to nutrients as posted around some posts so I have continued this and black strap molasses since then. one water nutrients, one water molasses, one water nutrients but let leaching off of 25 % of the amount of water used (eye ball only) .
8. I considered moving to blooming nutrients and seeing no sensitivity to nutrients I will likely do so next grow, however the nitrogen punch was a good thing for me as with the LST'ing and accidental topping even in flower I needed the plant to use as much as it could from the dirt. This was to compensate for removing some fan leaves to allow the CFL light to get to certain areas.
9. These auto's are no different from every other plant in the universe, so if you see your buds not getting first hand light, you need to remove a fan leaf or two if you can not give that areas any side light or supplementary light from another angle. it is simple math - light transfers through the leaves of plants but with CFL - you can pretty much tell that if the bud is in the shade it will not dense up.
10. I learned some patience, and mastered the idea that most of what is posted on the internet (including this site) is done so by over zealous children who will regurgitate something they read as gospel instead of walking the mile, shutting up and letting knowledgeable people offer the advice to those who need it.
11. The most important thing I learned from this first round of indoor dirt growing, is that I am in love with gardening and growing. This is a wonderful thing to realize, that you have a hobby that you can truly enjoy every minute of. Unfortunately every time I try to upload pics today it fails, so I will try again later
so for this plant it looks like this:
Today is Day 63 From Seed
Today is Day 55 From Sprouting
Today is Day 34 days in Flower
Vegging ran 22 or so days before she auto'ed up
I have learned a great deal from this grow, some good and some not so good, if I help anyone else with these tips it will be worth the typing;
1. 294 Watt CFL Turned to 375-400 watts of CFL pretty early, wish I would have had this set up during veg.
2. Low Stress Training is only Low Stress Training if you don't snap any branches..... be careful, but more importantly have either some green masking tape or some fabric adhesive bandages on hands when you do it. I quickly snapped the main growth shoot (cola) my first try and did not have tape on hand to fix, and lost the top. Granted I was lucky in the break and the other nodes seemed to really pick it up, but still I would have liked to keep that cola.
3. There is a huge temp difference in 6500k CFL's and 2700k CFL's and 4100k CFLs - THIS AFFECTS YOUR PLACEMENT OF YOUR LIGHTS SO BE AWARE. I toasted my little girl once for a day before catching what was going on.
4. still pertains to above, but understand the Watts/Distance of CFL's from plants Here it is in my experience :
6500k = up to 26w 2-3 inches away, up to 50w 4-6 inches away, up to 100w 8 inches away
4100k = only use 2 4100k CFL lights, both 45-50w and they work best 4-5 inches away from the leaves
2700k = up to 23w 3-5 inches away, up to 50 watt 6-8 inches away , up to 100w 10-12 inches away
5. I see the advantages of running mixed spectrum lighting , but not enough to keep all my lights the same. I changed my parking sign reflector for a white bat reflector and customized it to hold 6 std. light fixtures, these all stay the same with them having 3x 6500k 50w, 3x 2700k 50w. I then use 3 clamp lights and these I rotated between 4100k and 6500k for seedlings and veg, and 4100k and 2700k for flowering.
6. I personally made the change from 24/0 to 18/6 period. no changing for flowering etc. I reduced the time after reading a post involving really smart people doing some study on the what the dark period does to balance out the photosynthesis of a plant.
7. I started with miracle grow and distilled water, after a few weeks I made the change to tap water and stayed with just it for a week, I then started adding normal balanced miracle grow fertilizers (10-15-10) . There was no sensitivity to nutrients as posted around some posts so I have continued this and black strap molasses since then. one water nutrients, one water molasses, one water nutrients but let leaching off of 25 % of the amount of water used (eye ball only) .
8. I considered moving to blooming nutrients and seeing no sensitivity to nutrients I will likely do so next grow, however the nitrogen punch was a good thing for me as with the LST'ing and accidental topping even in flower I needed the plant to use as much as it could from the dirt. This was to compensate for removing some fan leaves to allow the CFL light to get to certain areas.
9. These auto's are no different from every other plant in the universe, so if you see your buds not getting first hand light, you need to remove a fan leaf or two if you can not give that areas any side light or supplementary light from another angle. it is simple math - light transfers through the leaves of plants but with CFL - you can pretty much tell that if the bud is in the shade it will not dense up.
10. I learned some patience, and mastered the idea that most of what is posted on the internet (including this site) is done so by over zealous children who will regurgitate something they read as gospel instead of walking the mile, shutting up and letting knowledgeable people offer the advice to those who need it.
11. The most important thing I learned from this first round of indoor dirt growing, is that I am in love with gardening and growing. This is a wonderful thing to realize, that you have a hobby that you can truly enjoy every minute of. Unfortunately every time I try to upload pics today it fails, so I will try again later
