1st Time Growing with CFLs . Need Help !

[Dabolili]

Hi everyone and thank you all in advance for any advice or input

growing first time in a cardboard box that's roughly 1.5'x2'x2'
strain is NL from Nirvana.feminized

I know I've stressed her out somewhat and I won't get into that too much but she's gone from drooping to almost vertical leaves in two days . this morning she looked like she was praying . I've read that it could be because of too
much light ? Heat? I'm using FFOF mixed with perlite . I've read FFOF can burn seedlings cause it contains bat guano.. she's 8 days old today

is she stressed out from moving? too much light? too hot? or is she just happy
that cotyledon is looking pretty bad , no ?
pic 1 - today , after watering.( she looked way more closed up in the morning . the soil was pretty dry )
pic 2 and 3 - set up - temp/humidity
pic 4 - yesterday , after moving her to the basement

 

[dabumps]

That's a happy plant!! You're good you got true leaves all is well.

 

[geturgrowon]

she looks fine to me whats the temps also u should get some air in there i didnt see any fans when her leaves r str8 up like in the first pic it just means that she happy and takening is all the sun she needs !

 

[Dabolili]

thanks guys I was being paranoid
now that she's in the basement , the temps are under 73-79 with 20-30% humidity
I forgot to mention that the light cycle has been 24/0 since the start ( don't even have a timer yet )
as far as a fan - I do have an oscillating 12v fan but have to wait for 12v adapter which I should be getting some time next week.
but those 3 pc fans which you can't really see in the pics create a decent draft . I have a humidifier sitting
just outside of the box next to the intake hole and the draft is sucking the moisture in the box from cpl of inches away

anyway , thanks for the input guys. much appreciated

 

[ChiefsitandChief]

Yeah man your doing good, don't worry about the coties they are going to fall off also what type of light is that in the lamp.

 

[Dabolili]

thanks for looking in here Chief . that bigger one is http://www.amazon.com/44848-65-Watt-Plant-Light-Reflector/dp/B0002YXGSC/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1359755523&sr=8-3&keywords=ge+reflector+light I bought it before I did my homework thinking that's all the light I would need (lol) so kinda stuck with it.
all the lights :
3 x 20watt 6500k
3 x 26watt 2700k
2 x 13watt 2700k
and that GE bullshit thingy

Also .. going away for 2 days and I'm worried that the soil will dry up in that 4" pot before I get back. Its not very humid down in the basement ( gas heat )
about 25% average . hope she makes it watered her today

 

[ChiefsitandChief]

She should be fine for two days, also here is a idea for adding more light also you can just keep it assembled. Click here https://www.rollitup.org/blogs/blog26328-side-lighting-solution.html this is something I came up with...
Also here is a pic of how it looks...

 

[lee harvey]

everything looks good man

 

[calicatt79]

Hey D! Congrats on the baby I have a NL auto going in flower right now, she sure is one beautiful plant so you have a lot to look forward to. As long as you can control the heat, you should as as many CFL's as you can. I've had 3 successful grows with 0% humidity and it just made my leaves a little dry. I picked up a cheap warm mist humidifier and it's helped raise my rh from 0% to 30-40% and that's awesome for me...lol

Show her love, and she'll show it right back She looks just fine.

 

[Dabolili]

thank you everyone I was being really paranoid and leaving her for two days was kind of scary however thou
I'm nicely surprised to see she's grown quite a lot in two days
oh and does anyone know how to change the name of a thread ?
I'd remove "need help" so people don't get confused

 

[calicatt79]

she's so cute if I haven't said that already I don't think you can change the name of your thread yourself. Maybe a mod can do it for you if you send them a message??
I'd just start a new one if I were you.....I did the same thing on my first thread...lol! Or you can just leave it.....cuz if it's your 1st time you want all the help you can get right? LOL

What is your light schedule like? Get your timer yet? Still on 24/0? Is she an auto? Are you planning on veggin her? You may have said somehwere but I forgot. You should have more 6500k than the 2700k for veg. I read if your gonna mix your spectrum it should be a 3/1 6500k for veg (if not all 6500k) and vice vera for flower And make sure you get that fan pointed towards your lights to cool things down before the heat gets to her. Then you can put the lights nice and close. You'd also be fine with just a few 6500k's for now till and add as she grows so you don't burn her. I'd use 2-3 of the y splitters with only 6500k's in them and surround her with them 2-3" away Hope this helps...

 

[calicatt79]

Does your thermometer have a probe to read temps? If so...you wanna put it somewhere near the top of your plant. If it's lower than your plant you wanna add 5 degrees for a truer temp reading

 

[Dabolili]

she's so cute if I haven't said that already I don't think you can change the name of your thread yourself. Maybe a mod can do it for you if you send them a message??
I'd just start a new one if I were you.....I did the same thing on my first thread...lol! Or you can just leave it.....cuz if it's your 1st time you want all the help you can get right? LOL

What is your light schedule like? Get your timer yet? Still on 24/0? Is she an auto? Are you planning on veggin her? You may have said somehwere but I forgot. You should have more 6500k than the 2700k for veg. I read if your gonna mix your spectrum it should be a 3/1 6500k for veg (if not all 6500k) and vice vera for flower And make sure you get that fan pointed towards your lights to cool things down before the heat gets to her. Then you can put the lights nice and close. You'd also be fine with just a few 6500k's for now till and add as she grows so you don't burn her. I'd use 2-3 of the y splitters with only 6500k's in them and surround her with them 2-3" away Hope this helps...

awh thank you Calicatt , you're sweet ( her name is High Hopes btw )
I will prolly delete this and start a new thread with all the specs and stuff . this one is kinda noobish lol
I've read the same thing about 65k-27k ratio and that's how I started her off. 3-65k and 1 27k. but after
moving her to basement I had to add light/or heat to keep the desired temps going (much colder in basement)
and I threw in there everything I had she hasn't complained yet. the light cycle has been 24/0 and I intend to
keep it that way until I switch to flower. I do want to veg her at least a cpl of weeks .I'm building a bigger box for flowering
the timer,12volt adapter and FF nutes are on the way ( gonna wait a while till I start with nutes thou ) and should have them sometime
this week. oh and she's photoperiod NL from Nirvana ( feminized )
Hey Cali , when do you think I should repot ? she's in 4" jiffy peat pot right now and it's been 12 days since she sprouted. and is it ok to
repot twice during her life ? would that cause too much stress? I have 1 gal container for now but that might not be big enough for flowering stage

 

[Dabolili]

Does your thermometer have a probe to read temps? If so...you wanna put it somewhere near the top of your plant. If it's lower than your plant you wanna add 5 degrees for a truer temp reading

the thermometer/hygrometer thingy is sitting almost at the same lvl as the pot and it stays around 73-75 so I think I'll be ok for now. I'm gonna hook up 12v oscillating fan this week once I get
the package from Amazon. the tru temps up to low 80's should be ok right ?

 

[Dabolili]

the thermometer/hygrometer thingy is sitting almost at the same lvl as the pot and it stays around 73-75 so I think I'll be ok for now. I'm gonna hook up 12v oscillating fan this week once I get
the package from Amazon. the tru temps up to low 80's should be ok right ?

got the 12v adapter thingy today ( very fast shipping ) and it's a chinese piece of shit with not enough power for 12v fan
It barely moved the fins ... like they were stuck or smth ... clear sign of not enough power . wtf bummed

 

[calicatt79]

Awww...that sucks Stupid cheap chinese bullshit....pisses me right off. 80's are good, she'll let you know if it's not...lol!

I'd still bring down about 2 of those Y adapters and bit. Or you can stack books. I use the old Encyclopedia Bratannica..lol! You can leave the other lights where they are if it's heat you need and just bring down a few of the 6500k's to about 4-6" from the top of her at first. It's important that the leaves are picking up the lumens (think....penetration) lol! I too have to use a little heater, temps here get down to -20 deg I just got a cheap timer and set it to go on during my lights off cycle so it stays a nice 70-78 deg. I've never really understood why peeps use a 24/0 light cycle.

"During the light period, a plant goes through photosynthesis, during this process, a plant makes carbohydrates from the CO2 in the air. these carbohydrates are stored primarily in the plant's leaves. But... every plant has a LIMIT to the amount of carbohydrates it can store!!! this means that they have to get emptied out somehow. now, during a night cycle (really called a CALVIN CYCLE), the plant transports these molecules to the roots and the main stalk. this promotes root growth. essentially emptying the stored up carbs in each leaf and allowing for new production to take place during the next light cycle. => GROWTH !!"...

I've seen both ways, and it's pretty much up to you as there is no right and wrong way. I'm sure Ms. High Hopes has faith in you....lol!

Did you plan on putting her in a 1 gal pot for now then going up once more? I'd say just transplant her one into her final home, but you should be OK to transplant now

 

[Dabolili]

Awww...that sucks Stupid cheap chinese bullshit....pisses me right off. 80's are good, she'll let you know if it's not...lol!

I'd still bring down about 2 of those Y adapters and bit. Or you can stack books. I use the old Encyclopedia Bratannica..lol! You can leave the other lights where they are if it's heat you need and just bring down a few of the 6500k's to about 4-6" from the top of her at first. It's important that the leaves are picking up the lumens (think....penetration) lol! I too have to use a little heater, temps here get down to -20 deg I just got a cheap timer and set it to go on during my lights off cycle so it stays a nice 70-78 deg. I've never really understood why peeps use a 24/0 light cycle.

"During the light period, a plant goes through photosynthesis, during this process, a plant makes carbohydrates from the CO2 in the air. these carbohydrates are stored primarily in the plant's leaves. But... every plant has a LIMIT to the amount of carbohydrates it can store!!! this means that they have to get emptied out somehow. now, during a night cycle (really called a CALVIN CYCLE), the plant transports these molecules to the roots and the main stalk. this promotes root growth. essentially emptying the stored up carbs in each leaf and allowing for new production to take place during the next light cycle. => GROWTH !!"...

I've seen both ways, and it's pretty much up to you as there is no right and wrong way. I'm sure Ms. High Hopes has faith in you....lol!

Did you plan on putting her in a 1 gal pot for now then going up once more? I'd say just transplant her one into her final home, but you should be OK to transplant now

I think we've looked up a lot of the same stuff I do realize a lil rest would be nice for her but when I started her off , I didn't even have a timer and didn't wanna face the temp
problems rite away because it gets so fuqing cold here . you must be close to NE area yourself
as far as the distance from the lights .. it might look too far away in the pics but it's really maybe 3inches away tops. I have empty boxes of lights/pc fans and such stacked up to
bring her closer . oh and that shitty 12v adapter is good enough for a pc fan so that's what I'm using right now. totally ghetto

I try to take care of my lil girl )

 

[Dabolili]

Day 13 . High Hope has got some burns ( poor girl ) after I moved her closer to the lights , thinking that PC fan would cool it down a bit.
Hope she bounces back soon. other then that , so far so good for a newb like me . she still lives lol new sets of leaves almost every day
any advice/comment is appreciated

 

[StellerKeller]

Any? Cool.

If the plant is too far from the light, it gets all stretchy and it might fall over (move it closer). If it gets too close to the light it burns up, and the next thing you know it's dead (throw it out).

At this stage in the game, it's the roots you need to concern with.

The bigger the container, the slower the dry out process.

Sometimes, the pot sitting in a dish of water will keep everyone happy.

 

[RIKNSTEIN]

If it helps any (cuz ima po man) I got two double 4ft hoods @ Walmart for around 40 bucks with 8 t8 HO bulbs, each bulb puts out about 3,000 lumens, that's 12,000 lumens for 40 bucks...and I added a few single CFLs @ 1600 lumens (more to come for the sides as they grow and vegin w/6500k) but here's how I set it up (with a little help from my friends here)

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