Stealth 250W CFL Auto Grow - Sweet seeds fast bud automatic

First grow, starting small with 3 small autos, been a lurker here for ages, just joined to start my journal.

Growing 3 Feminized fast bud automatic plants by sweet seeds.

Using a vermiculite compost mix, starting out straight away in 10 inch pots since I hear its best to get autos in bigger pots straight away. Germinated in paper towels, but from what I have heard it would have been better to go straight into the soil, although it hasn't done any harm.

Growing in the lower half of a cupboard, currently venting into the top section. Venting using 2 x 120mm computer fans set up in series in a home made box thing, works pretty well gets a decent flow going. Got two more 140mm fans just generally circulating air, can't be seen in these photos.

Using a mylar survival sheet as a reflector on all sides. Reflective white plastic sheet elsewhere.



Started off with 1 6400K blue 125W CFL, but added another 125W 2700K red CFL after a couple days, think this should probably be enough for 3 small autos till completion.

Temps running at around 28C max.



Bulbs are pretty big




Exhaust fans, two in a row in the tube, hooked up to 4 inch ducting.




First plant 5-6th day looking alright.




Closer.




Even Closer.




Second plant.




Third plant from the side.




All three.

On about day 6 now, going to wait another week before I start the nutrients, not sure what to go with since autos are fairly unusual.

All seems to be going alright for my first grow any one got any pointers?

Thanks for stopping by,

fx85ES

Your ladies are lookin nice man. I'm currently growing the exact strain as well, check it out in my signature if you want we can compare grows. Anyway keep it up, I'll stay posted.

very nice looking br0 perfekt cfls but u can get the flower or butterfly they better
i use dem they good for da top then use the other normal ones for da side!!!!!11111222

sourtrees said:

Your ladies are lookin nice man. I'm currently growing the exact strain as well, check it out in my signature if you want we can compare grows. Anyway keep it up, I'll stay posted.

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Nice, I had looked at that thread for research after I bought the seeds, how is the odor? I'm only 8 days in and if i get up close to the plants they already have a pretty skunky smell, ordered the parts to make a carbon filter and also bought an ona block, hopefully the smell should be manageable.

zo0t said:

very nice looking br0 perfekt cfls but u can get the flower or butterfly they better
i use dem they good for da top then use the other normal ones for da side!!!!!11111222

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They look pretty good, I just got these because they were the cheapest light i could find per watt of output.

Here are some update pics from day 8:







Looking good I think, although the grow area is running pretty hot, going to have to deal with that before they start flowering.

looking good dude, Subbed and +rep

Looking nice. Those bulbs are a trip....

SilverSerf

This is how they are looking on day 10, getting bigger!


Front plant of the three, should I be worried about the inward curling of some of the fan leaves? Anything to do with over/underwatering or heat?



Same front plant from the side, the curling is more obvious in this picture, any ideas?



Here is the right hand side plant.



Back left plant, fan took a chunk out of the bottom fan leaf when I was moving it around, this picture was taken after the tip had been missing for a day so it hasn't done too much damage.

Set up a simple carbon filter and bought an ona block ready for when this starts flowering, which shouldn't be to long since its a fast automatic.

What do you guys think?

Tried posting on the 14th but that didn't seem to work for some reason, so here are the pictures from the 14th day and 15th day together.

I have managed to get rid of most of the smell using a carbon filter, ona block and dryer sheets, but it hasn't started flowering yet so the smell isn't that intense, still pretty strong though! Have a carbon prefilter coming and another ona block for flowering. Really have to keep the odor down since a couple of my house mates don't know I am growing, they don't come into my room that often but I want to keep the smell down so they can't smell from the hallway.

Here is day 14



Largest plant from the front.




Largest plant from top.


Didn't get any shots of the other plants on day 14 but they can be seen below, I moved the pants around a bit because I found the one nearer the red CFL was growing quite a lot faster and was much larger than the other two so I put the smallest one there to help it catch up.

Day 15



Here is the biggest plant, was previously at the front of the three.




Smallest plant, moved to the front to see if it can catch up a bit with the others, this one has had a couple of nicks from the fans on it's lower fan leaves, may have something to do with the slow growth.




Middle sized plant, staying in the same place on the right. Anyone know what might be causing the curling at the edges of the leaves? Here is an enlarged view:



Any ideas, do you guys think it is going to be a problem?

Nice I'm going to be trying something like this fairly soon, sorry can't help you with your leaf problem.

Slam said:

Nice I'm going to be trying something like this fairly soon, sorry can't help you with your leaf problem.

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Hey thanks, I think my leaf problem was something to do with over heating, but i think it is only mild so it should be ok.

Good luck with your grow.

Day 18 since these plants showed above the ground

Pretty fast to start flowering, not even into their third week, the biggest of my three plants has started putting out white pistils, the other two plants are a couple of days behind, here are some pics:



Biggest plant.




Closer.




Even Closer.




One of the nodes, you can see the pistils.




My smallest of the three, still a couple of days away from flower I think.


Pretty sure the odor is under control, carbon filter seems to be working well, stopped using the ona for a while since the smell in itself was pretty strong, I will start using it again if the plant smell becomes an issue.

What do you guys think?

Day 19

Just started LSTing the biggest plant which is already in flower, here are a couple of pictures.

First I tied down the main stem and left it for a couple of hours:



Then I pulled down some of the surrounding branches to try and even out the canopy, dont have any string so I am having to use some spare venting wire to tie everything down.



Definitely allows light to get to more of the plant, I will be lsting the others, but its a bit difficult since the internodal distance is so small. I need to also pick up some kind of screen to use for SCROG. Does anyone know where I could get something like that online?

Day 21 and everything seems to be going ok, I think one plant has a little bit of heat stress, only visible in a couple of the leaves, here are some pictures:



All three plants.




Canopy close up.




Biggest plant well into flower.




I think this is heat stress, but this is my first grow so I'm not sure, any ideas?



Cheers
FX85ES

well if around that leave got above 82 F then thats what it should be, those big bulbs probably put off some heat even though they are cfl

hey mate.. nice grow you have. i'm a fan of cfl to.i also grow 2 ladies under 380 watt cfl. not autow though.. keep up the good work..

p.s : i think your first prob with the leaves are curling it's probably fron heat.. i had this too cause i underestimated the heat from these big bulbs...

subscribed.

Well I guess nearly everything got deleted during the big Rollitup Hack.

So here are all the pics that used to be here, all over again:

Photos gotten back from imgur, managed to get the text from google cache, but can't be bothered to get all the comments so here is just the relevant stuff.

3 weeks ago

• Had a bit of an issue, went away for the weekend and watered them just before I went, but unfortunately a couple of my fans stopped working while I wasn't here so they got pretty heat stressed, also a couple of the buds started to touch the lights and got burnt so I had to cut them off. But the damage wasn't too bad, here they are after a few days of recovery.
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• Hopefully the heat stress won't have too much effect on the yield and quality.
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• Day 32
  
  Couple of pictures to update you on how they are doing. They are getting pretty big, all three are in flower and I have started lsting all of them.
  Here is a wide shot:
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• Getting really crowded, hard to get a good picture.
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2 weeks ago

1 week ago

• At the moment they are on 18/6 but they used to be 24 hours a day for the first couple of weeks. But only because my timer got jammed and I didn't realise! Good luck with your grow and post a link up here if you get a journal going.
  
  Anyway check out this super macro shot I just took of one of the buds!
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  Originally Posted by Dula
  I'm a first time grower as well myself, so i am not 100% sure, but i think the dying fan leaves are natural. I bought a book about growing with CFL's and the author said fan leaves die during the flowering stage, around this time. My plants are a few days behind your and the bottom fan leaves look similar to your.
  
  
  
  
  Yeh, i think it is normal to some extent, but I think I have some N deff as well since I went straight to flowering nutes since the veg only lasted around 10 days. And the flowering nutes have no N at all so it seems likely the problem.
  
  Also here is another super close up bud shot:
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  Originally Posted by MarkNeves
  FX, your photo's and time lapse are awesome. Nice grow also!
  
  
  
  Thanks, I was hoping to do more timelapse but the camera made too much noise and my housemates were starting to notice it.
  
  

  

  Originally Posted by silverserf
  Thoses photos are the bomb man....shit i can't see that well with a microscope....what kind of camera are you useing..let me guess....Nikkon Dxx
  
  I think you are right about the N def. That's one good thing about the 3 part systems...i use flora nova but keep a bottle each of the three part GH series around so i can boost at will...i'm often out of flower or grow and just suppliment as required. I try to keep my visits to hydro store to 1 per year...can't help thinking the cops are watching...(if i can i get a friend to go, but they always buy the wrong shit)
  
  Cheers,
  SilverSerf
  
  
  
  
  I use a canon 400D, just got an old 28mm f2.8 manual focus lens reversed on a set of extension tubes, lets you get ridiculous magnification.
  I just get all my stuff from a generic hardware/gardening store, pay with cash.
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5 days ago

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  Originally Posted by dunkin73
  They need more water, when leaves curl upwards they are lacking water usually or temps are too high. How often are you watering and what are temps just under the lights? Pull the lights a little higher, just a tad and see if it makes a difference. I have grown with cfl's and that usually worked for curled leaves, curled upwards that is. If you overwater, leaves usually droop.
  
  
  
  Probably a heat issue my temps are a little high around 27-28C but there's not much i can really do about it.
  
  At the moment I think my bigger prob is the N deficiency.
  
  Anyway here are some more pics from today:
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1 day ago

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  Originally Posted by silverserf
  Fucking brilliant....do you do weddings?
  
  SilverSerf
  
  
  
  I have actually been asked, but I can't imagine anything more stressful, maybe one day.
  
  So today is 7 weeks and 2 days from seeds meeting soil, according to the seller it should be 7.5 weeks germination till harvest; how long do you guys think I have left?
  
  I think some of my plants are quite a bit more mature than others, but since I have to dry them in the same grow area I guess I will have to harvest them all at the same time; some will have to be a bit over ripe and some will have to be a bit early.
  
  Anyway, here is what it looks like from outside the garden:
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• I could take some more ultra close-up shots of the trichomes if that would help.
  
  Thanks!
  fx85ES
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  Originally Posted by fx85ES
  What kind of lights were you under, trying to work out what kind of yield to expect. Cheers.
  
  
  
  Hey nice pictures, your girls are looking good!!!
  I was using 200W of CFL but I was in a DWC bucket--I yielded 2 1/2 ounces, Had PH problems early but I was still very pleased with the bud..They're pretty good producers from what i've seen around here.
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And the topic of conversation was how long left!

Forgot to add the timelapse as well: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KZh6xN-jwU

This is simply awesome man!

Very nice, I love the macro pics. Sub'd + Rep