Hello rollitup,
I've been toying with the idea of growing my own weed for some time and finally got around to buying a few things to get started. Initially, I was hoping to grow in my windowsill with nothing but sunlight, but after a short bit of research and watching the plant for the first few days, it quickly became clear that that's not a viable option.
Being reluctant to invest too much money in this right off the bat, I went out and got 2x23W cfl lights to help my girl along. From reading around, it seemed like this would be roughly the minimum I'd need for a decent first run (autoflower [Easy Ryder]).
Now, here's where I need some help deciding: I have this south facing window that picks up sun the whole day and obviously, if I can bathe my plant in this light that would be ideal. The trouble is partly cloudy days, and partly that the days here are only 10h30m long at the moment. So I was thinking I have a few options:
1. Ignore the sun and put up a little room with my two 23w cfls for the plant to live in.
2. Put up a room and move the plant between this and my windowsill based on the levels of sunshine.
3. (What I intend to do unless you all tell me it's stupid) Place my plant in the windowsill and add the lights there. I would put reflective walls around 3 sides of the plant and have the window as the fourth, and the lights would be hanging down from above. When the sun is down, I would put up another reflective wall in front of the window so as not to waste light. This way, I'd get all the sunshine that comes throughout the day and I'd still have as a minimum the light my bulbs produce.
The biggest questions here are: When it's cloudy outside, would I lose more light from my bulbs through the window than I would gain from the sun? And do I need a roof? The lights are twisted cfls pointing down so most of the light is sent downwards and to the sides. It would be a nuisance to have to try to construct a decent ceiling for the plant with the bulbs hanging the way they do.
Basically, assuming I get a good few sunny days, would this be better than only keeping the plant in a box with cfls?
About the weed:
I'm only growing a single plant as a test run. It's an Easy Ryder (an auto strain). Currently, it's 3 days old and it's already stretched quite a bit - I just bought the cfls today.
I'll put up some pictures later today. If I've missed a crucial bit of information, let me know, I was in a bit of a rush writing this.
I've been toying with the idea of growing my own weed for some time and finally got around to buying a few things to get started. Initially, I was hoping to grow in my windowsill with nothing but sunlight, but after a short bit of research and watching the plant for the first few days, it quickly became clear that that's not a viable option.
Being reluctant to invest too much money in this right off the bat, I went out and got 2x23W cfl lights to help my girl along. From reading around, it seemed like this would be roughly the minimum I'd need for a decent first run (autoflower [Easy Ryder]).
Now, here's where I need some help deciding: I have this south facing window that picks up sun the whole day and obviously, if I can bathe my plant in this light that would be ideal. The trouble is partly cloudy days, and partly that the days here are only 10h30m long at the moment. So I was thinking I have a few options:
1. Ignore the sun and put up a little room with my two 23w cfls for the plant to live in.
2. Put up a room and move the plant between this and my windowsill based on the levels of sunshine.
3. (What I intend to do unless you all tell me it's stupid) Place my plant in the windowsill and add the lights there. I would put reflective walls around 3 sides of the plant and have the window as the fourth, and the lights would be hanging down from above. When the sun is down, I would put up another reflective wall in front of the window so as not to waste light. This way, I'd get all the sunshine that comes throughout the day and I'd still have as a minimum the light my bulbs produce.
The biggest questions here are: When it's cloudy outside, would I lose more light from my bulbs through the window than I would gain from the sun? And do I need a roof? The lights are twisted cfls pointing down so most of the light is sent downwards and to the sides. It would be a nuisance to have to try to construct a decent ceiling for the plant with the bulbs hanging the way they do.
Basically, assuming I get a good few sunny days, would this be better than only keeping the plant in a box with cfls?
About the weed:
I'm only growing a single plant as a test run. It's an Easy Ryder (an auto strain). Currently, it's 3 days old and it's already stretched quite a bit - I just bought the cfls today.
I'll put up some pictures later today. If I've missed a crucial bit of information, let me know, I was in a bit of a rush writing this.
I'm kind of in the mindset of "every little bit helps". Especially considering I know that my bulb light is a little scarce for the plant in the long run. I know that I have a few sunny days ahead (and March usually has a lot of sun here) so I will try to take advantage of that as best I can. Even if it won't do wonders for the plant, it will make me feel better.