Dopey's cfl closet grow fall 2011

[silusbotwin]

QUOTE
"I would definitely get some extra CFL's very soon. Ideally you want a 23-26 watt bulb within an inch of every leaf on the plant. That isn't a requirement but it's about the closest you can get to compare to HID using CFL. What you have will work but if you continue with it into flowering, you will wind up with airy and wispy buds, and a lower yield altogether."

so are you saying he should put what? 70-80 No. 26watt lamps in his grow room? that seems a tad extreme to me.... thats if i understand you correctly, how many 23/26watt cfl's are you using/used in your grow room... i blasted through your only grow thread (first medical /4 posts) and so far i see a handfull of seedling under a t5/8 (pics blurey and too far away to tell), i aint bitching bruv (unlike some that have called you out in your other thread).. just want to know how many lamps your saying he should use based on your experience of what?

I'm not saying it's efficient or economical in any way to actually do that, I said that is the closest you can get to emulating HID. The only CFL grow I've done is a small 3 plant bag seed grow with 6x26 watt bulbs per plant for a total of 18 CFL's for 3 plants. I wasn't able to cover every leaf but it turned out way better than I expected. I'm not claiming to be some master grower or anything, I'm just giving my opinion. Regardless, he is going to need more CFL's than what he has. Personally I would say no less than 4 bulbs per plant in his case. Again, just my opinion.

The Babies in my garden are under a 325 watt T5. I know the photos are shit quality but I don't have any means to take decent photos right now. I suppose I might as well go update right now. BBL

 

[troutie]

I'm not saying it's efficient or economical in any way to actually do that, I said that is the closest you can get to emulating HID. The only CFL grow I've done is a small 3 plant bag seed grow with 6x26 watt bulbs per plant for a total of 18 CFL's for 3 plants. I wasn't able to cover every leaf but it turned out way better than I expected. I'm not claiming to be some master grower or anything, I'm just giving my opinion. Regardless, he is going to need more CFL's than what he has. Personally I would say no less than 4 bulbs per plant in his case. Again, just my opinion.

The Babies in my garden are under a 325 watt T5. I know the photos are shit quality but I don't have any means to take decent photos right now. I suppose I might as well go update right now. BBL

aghh shame you aint uploaded your cfl grow pictures into a thread ...

 

[silusbotwin]

I do have a few pictures laying around somewhere but I only snapped photos of the buds @ 3 weeks. It was only a little experiment I did just for shits and giggles. They were in tiny plastic coffee cans about 1/2-3/4 gallon each. This time for an experiment I'll be throwing a single small DWC in with those seedlings you saw in my thread just to get some hands on experience with hydro. Also, I just popped 3 breeder beans of Seedsman's "The Purple Bud", sorry OP, didn't mean to jack the thread. Let's see if I can dig them up those photos from my CFL grow......

EDIT:
These suckers were horribly rootbound and over watered
3 weeks:

 

[troutie]

firstly i think i should say sorry for having a rant on dopeys journal, sorry man

and "gulp"

yeah .. ok silusbotwin called me "damn thought you was bluffing" ... sorry bud.
i do get on my high horse about cfl growing though... it gets a harsh ride on here sometimes, and i think dopeys stuff looks great so good luck to him and anyother cfl grower

really sorry again for my outburst

 

[silusbotwin]

No worries here. Just everyone working together collectively to improve upon the skills of individuals. I have to admit though, I do love me some CFL's. I couldn't believe how well they worked compared to what I had expected. I actually still have alot of CFL lighting, I might just rig up some crazy contraption for adjustable side lighting modular stands or something in my tent. See, this thread has inspired me Namaste

 

[dopeyG]

Well, things seem to be looking good so far. Havn't really had to do to much. Been keeping pretty steay on the SCROG altho its starting to seem more lime and lst to me. I almost pulled the screen out today because i'm getting sick of having no room to work and stuff, when they are all weaved in the screen and the lights are so close. I was just thinking that if i just did an LST i would be able to pull the plants right out to work on them. I can just imagine as the plants get bigger its only gonna get harder. But i was also thinking maybe i'l just lift the screen a bit when i lift the lights. I have the screen right now sitting on top of the buckets so it doesnt leave very much roof for growth. Another problem i might run into is I want to run a perpetual but with a scrog i think it might be pretty hard because now i have my plants dedicated to where they are sitting...hmmm...Something to ponder. I wouldnt mind splitting up my closet into a veg room and a flower room. I mean really i can just keep my mother in the veg room. even my clones if i wanted to. Have you ever found a bit of mold in your soil?? I found some today, but not much. Its probably just from the moisture in the soil, but still, that cant be good can it?? it doesnt seem to be spreading to the plant and i pulled out the infected soil and threw it in the garbage.Tomorrow is feeding day and week 2 of using nutes so i was going to use the regular mixture instead of a light mixture. I Gave them 2L each last time and didnt have to water them once in between, but i think it was 2 long to have that much moisture in there. Maybe i'm wrong, i dunno, i'm no expert. Anyway maybe i will give them 1L instead of 2 and water them on the weekend if i have too.

I would definitely get some extra CFL's very soon. Ideally you want a 23-26 watt bulb within an inch of every leaf on the plant. That isn't a requirement but it's about the closest you can get to compare to HID using CFL. What you have will work but if you continue with it into flowering, you will wind up with airy and wispy buds, and a lower yield altogether.

As for how to feed your nutrient solution, you can use that one mix for all plants provided there is enough solution to water all of them in a single mix worth of water. The important thing is how concentrated your mix is, and yours is properly concentrated. All you are doing with all the extra water per plant is wasting nutrient solution. How much run off do you get when using the method you are using? It might be efficient if you don't get too much run off. Just water your pots just enough to achieve run off at the bottoms and thats enough. If you have to you can bump up the total amount of solution you mix from now on and just save the leftover solution for the next watering.

I know thats the ideal light. I plan on getting some more, its just a matter of putting em somewhere. I plan on getting an HID when this grow is over with, i just dont have the cash to put towards an entire setup atm. I mean u know how it goes. I could afford the light and ballast, but then i need to be able to cool it somehow, that costs money, in order to cool it i need some sort of ventilation. I'm not about to start cutting holes in my closet, so i would want to buy a grow tent, and so on and so forth. I just cost a shit ton. I dont know where to start lol.
I dont get any run off for some reason and i am watering them each 2L of water. It seems kin of strange to me but maybe i got really absorbant soil??? I know its a really high percentage of peat moss. But like i said earliar, i dont see it being good if the plant is damp for a week straight. I think it should dry out once at least in the one week period, mostly to prevent root rot. altho i could be wrong. Next time i will also make sure i put rocks in the bottom of my pails.

 

[troutie]

your soil looks to have lots of perlite in it.... mine had lots too and i added some more.... my water dont seem run off either in 11ltrs pots and i gave em loads on my last watering... perlite holds loads of water for future use

super lush growth in them pictures, and your getting them tied down nice too.... well impressed

 

[dopeyG]

I think the strain has a lot to do with the lushness, I've read that purple kush already is a short bushy plant. It does have lots of perlite and holds the water well, i'm just a little worried about the odd little patch of mold i find on top of the soil.

 

[troutie]

hmmmmm ...... i really don't know?... my soil has lots of moss in it so maybe its something thats come in with the soil, are you're temps and humidity out of whack?, some people cover there soil with clay pebbles and the such like to stop insects from hatching out of the soil (never 100% sterile)... so maybe stopping the light hitting the soil would stop/slow any mould growth? ... i'd remove the worst and give it a go

 

[dopeyG]

ya, thats what i did, so, we'll see what happens. I dont have anything to measure my humidity, not sure what the temp is but its not to hot in there, its not to humid in there but im sure its a little humid underneath all those leaves. I always see water on the leaves that are underneath other leaves.One of my plants has something goin on with it but its just to early to tell what it is at the moment...that or its just not that bad, but a few of the leaves are a little wrinkly and have a few brown spots on them. Seems to be only the bigger fan leaves, which i was already contemplating pruning off so that all my side branches and under growth can get some light. Kinda up in the air on that one atm.

 

[troutie]

take your time and work out what your going to acheve before you remove anything... take off any leaf that is dead or not able to photosyth-a-whatnot... and do what you thinks best

 

[dopeyG]

lol, i thought maybe without the big fan leaves she could focus more on her side branching and bushing out rather than the odd big fan leaf taking up all the space. 1 of my leaves shelters almost my entire plants lol, maybe Its just because of the scrog and the plant is growing pretty much horizontal, Soon enough tho i think that the side branches will poke thru and it will be all good. Might be time to move the lights up. This morning when i opened the closet one of the leaves was touching the light. Actually the plant had almost grown up in them. Its funny how i see more growth over nite than i do in the day. I just patted her down quick so that she was all nice and flatish so she wasn't growing into the lights, and tucked some of the other leaves that were starting to get high down under the netting. I'm trying to prolong moving the lights up until i absolutely have to so that the plants get as much light as they possibly can. They seem to be taking well to the regular mix of nutes rather than 1/2. Maybe next week i will start with calcium and Mg as well.

 

[troutie]

just about to start half strength nutes myself..... bit nervous don't wantg to screw up now!

 

[dopeyG]

just about to start half strength nutes myself..... bit nervous don't wantg to screw up now!

I bet, i wasnt to nervous when i added half strength nutes but i think they were a bit older than what they are supposed to be, but i tell you when i added the full strength i was nervous as hell. How old are yours now?

 

[dopeyG]

So today was the day i raised the lights up. They were starting to grow into them. One of the the leaves was on the light and got burnt when i went in this morning. I also came to the conclusion that the net maybe is good where it is and that i can just use it to keep the fan leaves out of the way so that the side branches can have some light as you can see in the pics.

 

[troutie]

bro this is sweet!

 

[troutie]

mine are just in there 3rd week ... (15 days from sprouting ) .... using lightly ferted mix with 1/2 tonne of perlite

 

[dopeyG]

one of my plants already seems to be showing signs of pre-flowers. It was to small to take a picture of, but its definitely a tiny pistil wil alittle tiny white hair. seems kinda strange since i don't think its an auto. Also i got a new t5 today, and a calcium booster. I'll post some pics and an update tomorrow

 

[troutie]

i will say one thing... i wish i could find a simular piece of duct to make a new reflector for my cab.... they look perfect

 

[dopeyG]

dude, you don't even know lol. When i saw that piece of duct i was like no fucking way. I'm sure you could get it there. where u from?? You got home depot?? what hardware stores you got??? Its a pretty common piece of building material so i would imagine you could find it there unless you live in a small ass town