Strawberry and Skunk, CFL & T5 lights

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2 weeks into vegging right now. Strawberry on the left and Skunk on the right. I have a T5 with 2 14watt bulbs, 2 23watt and 1 42 watt in this picture but i added 2 more 42 watts in this box. I am going to veg for 1 - 2 more weeks and then flower. Using miracle grow as nutes :/

any suggestions or input? thanks:leaf:
 

Dr.J20

Well-Known Member
hmm...first, just a helpful hint i wish i had gotten when i started here, most people will read a question like "any suggestions or input?" and just move on because its so vague... i mean you've got lst vs. hst growers and those who believe stress is evil, those who grow with HID and those go with T5 and then there's the explorers out there who are trying their damnedest with LEDs. So, if you're looking for meaningful advice you'll be better served by asking very specific and detailed questions.
Second, everyone on here is gonna give you some lip about being a newb around here, so be prepared for that; one of the biggest things you're gonna get flamed for here is not giving the details about your grow and your goals for the grow...the easiest way to avoid that is to have all your specifics in a journal page (exploring the forum faq and my rollitup will get you the details on how to do all of this) and then drop a link to your journal in your signature (also editable from your my rollitup page).

As for your plants, there are some people who swear by mg and some who say its trash: on this and pretty much everything with your grow you're gonna want to research your genetics, find out what the plant likes in terms of nutrients, and then decide the best way to get your plants those nutes. I like earth juice but i'm an organic grower who uses self watering containers; if you're using mg sounds like you're more into this as a side hobby (don't worry, you'll get hooked soon enough) / just starting out--again thats not bad, and neither is mg, it just depends on whether your plants like it and you like what your plants produce with it.

Your T5s aren't super strong (how big are those? 10"?) so you may end up primarily using those 42w cfls and just supplementing some actinic bulbs in there to help with your spectrum. <-- this statement comes from doing lots of research and finding out about Photosynthetically Active Radiation and Photosynthetically Usable Radiation (or PAR and PUR). You may not be into approaching growing from a PAR PUR perspective and so actinic bulbs may not be worth it for you to investigate. If you're just trying to get a crop from some cfls there are tons of threads on here that will discuss that. You can check out my grow with cfls and an led (its in my signature!) if you want some ideas.
in any case i'll stop here because it should be apparent that I'm not giving you a ton of specific information; rather, i'm trying to give you some guidance on what i've found to be a good way to approach this hobby.
Read, research, listen to npr's gardening show (yes, reading about any veggie gardening is applicable to your favorite plant, especially tomato gardening), do whatever you can to inform yourself about plants and you will be very successful at this relatively simple and rewarding hobby.

Specific suggestions you're using too much 2700K light, and you're getting very spindly and leggy (long stem, wide internodal spacing) growth; i don't know if i'd send these girls into flower in 2 weeks, but thats a space limit question and if they're 10" they could easily be 30" after you flip to 12/12

best of luck
and, remember, this is all opinion so if you think i'm just full of shit, ignore it, no worries!
be easy
-Dr.J
 
Thanks for putting your time to respond to this one and send me on track! This is my 2nd grow and im just learning from mistakes so anything is awesome. My space is limited so im trying to grow just those 2 plants.I might veg them longer then and im also limited on cash :/
 

Dr.J20

Well-Known Member
Happy to throw my two cents your way man,
if you give me some specifics i'd be happy to throw you some suggestions...what i need is a list of your constraints and goals and i can help you figure out what plan will work best for you
be easy
 
Appriciate that a lot!
Im trying to yield a half ounce maybe more off a plant? I understand the cfl 2700 and 6500k but i cant find 6500k cfls around here.. that t5 is 14 watt which is pretty weak, trying to save money for a bigger one. My box has space for them to bush out more then to grow upwards so I am not sure if i'll lst, i've done it once.
Have you ever tried Miracle grow as nutes? i know thats the lowest nutes you can get basically
My plants are on week 2 day 3 vegging and 2 days ago i topped my plant on the right and the heads are already seen. How long should i veg to get the yield i want?
If i dont put 2700k t5 tubes for flowering and leave the ones i have, what exactly would happen to the plant?

sorry if its a lot of questions on ya haha appriciate it!
 

Davidsnow

Active Member
in my opinion, get more lights on the girls! and when you think they can handle it, I'd recommend transplanting to another soil with minimal nutrients and add them in yourself :)!

Looking great for 2 weeks, though. How many weeks you gonna veg?
 

Dr.J20

Well-Known Member
Appriciate that a lot!
Im trying to yield a half ounce maybe more off a plant?

sorry if its a lot of questions on ya haha appriciate it!
no worries, simple answer is probably gonna need another two-three weeks at least without upping your light and getting the right spectral mix to get an ounce off those two...David's right about transplanting but now that you've topped you might want to let em rest a week before transplanting, minimize the stress it causes.

look into Scrogging if you really want to get involved with your plants; Screen Of Green (or ScrOG), there's a thread around here somewhere ...ENter the scrog maybe?
 
transplanting? I thought their pretty nice size pots, i've grew in smaller!
Now this is what I did (before reading your reply lol)
The plant on my left is growing bigger and faster then the one i topped which is on the right. I moved the topped one to another box under the 2 14w 6500k t5, which is 18 inches i believe. I am giong to keep vegging it and I added 2 23 watt cfls in there aswell with the one plant.

THEN, the one on the left, I have more then 120 watts used on that plant but i put it on flowering just after a little over 2 weeks of vegging. JUST an experiment to see what happens, but what would you predict?
 
They look good so far man, well done!

Just make sure you have some good ventilation, and you keep an eye out on your PH & humidity levels.

Just keep reading around the forums. If you do this, you'll be sure to find sufficient information which will help you!

If there's anything that you need help with, don't hesitate send me a message, or click on the second link in my sig. :)
 

Davidsnow

Active Member
transplanting? I thought their pretty nice size pots, i've grew in smaller!
Now this is what I did (before reading your reply lol)
The plant on my left is growing bigger and faster then the one i topped which is on the right. I moved the topped one to another box under the 2 14w 6500k t5, which is 18 inches i believe. I am giong to keep vegging it and I added 2 23 watt cfls in there aswell with the one plant.

THEN, the one on the left, I have more then 120 watts used on that plant but i put it on flowering just after a little over 2 weeks of vegging. JUST an experiment to see what happens, but what would you predict?
Ok, well the one you topped is growing slower because it enormously stresses a plant to top it. It can be beneficial if you do it right, but it's risky. By the way, if you don't know, don't top the plant while it's flowering :)! Either way, topping a plant causes it stress as well as a slower growth. It will dedicate most of it's energy to repairing the hurt part of the plant. It DOES have the added benefit of allowing the plant to be shorter and add more budding sites to the plant :P.

In my opinion, flowering early isn't detrimental, but it will cause the plant to grow slower, a bit less healthy, and have fewer buds.

For the one you topped, I recommend giving it 3-4 weeks until you flower it so its healthy enough to flower properly.

Sorry if any of that was confusing, let me know if I can clarify anything!
 
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