New member, first grow - could use a review of my setup

Seren

Member
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.
 

Jimdamick

Well-Known Member
Unless the plant is exposed to direct sun ( not through a window) you can't grow anything worthwhile. A box setup is cool, but size of plant wil limit you. Go get a grow book like " Marijuna Horticulture - The Indoor/Outdoor Medical Grower's Bible". It will give you a ton of good information. It is on Amazon for about $15. Carry on man, and keep it green. Peace
 

MrKodak

Member
I'd suggest gettin at least 2 more 23w CFL's and not bothering with the idea of the actual sunlight, its a possible risk that may stress your plant. other then that id say ur pretty set to go for your first little run. :bigjoint:
 

Sand4x105

Well-Known Member
I'd suggest gettin at least 2 more 23w CFL's and not bothering with the idea of the actual sunlight, its a possible risk that may stress your plant. other then that id say ur pretty set to go for your first little run. :bigjoint:
I agree w MrKodak....
Go for it!
Unless your window is a south facing corner, leave the outside outside...
Just try to add a little more CFL light, get 'Y's or some call light splitters and add a few more cfl's
Try to get 6500K cfl's but any will work, some just better...
Good luck !
 

Indoor Sun King

Well-Known Member
I grew a decent plant from my window in my living room with direct sun only from 3pm to 9pm, which yielded 18 grams of good bud....and I used normal soil, tap water and didn't use nutes...see attached pics.

I like the idea of option 3...mixing CFL with sun. Don't worry about cloudy days....all part of nature
 

Attachments

Seren

Member
Thanks for the feedback, guys. It's much appreciated.

Jimdamick said:
Unless the plant is exposed to direct sun ( not through a window) you can't grow anything worthwhile. A box setup is cool, but size of plant wil limit you. Go get a grow book like "Marijuna Horticulture - The Indoor/Outdoor Medical Grower's Bible". It will give you a ton of good information.
It is on Amazon for about $15. Carry on man, and keep it green. Peace
Thanks, I'll definitely look into it. I've been reading stickies and different boards intensively for the last couple of days but it would be nice to have all the info collected in one book.

That's alot to read...ha
Hah. Thought I'd be as thorough as I could. I know from experience that there's nothing worse than trying to help someone who's asking for advice with a one-liner ala "It doesn't work. What should I do?" ;)

I'd suggest gettin at least 2 more 23w CFL's and not bothering with the idea of the actual sunlight, its a possible risk that may stress your plant. other then that id say ur pretty set to go for your first little run. :bigjoint:
I'll definitely be getting more lights as I go along. It just somehow feels less expensive when you spread out the cost over a few months. All in all, I've already spent 100$ on this (I had literally nothing so I had to buy pots, soil, wires, electrical fittings, you name it..)
How would the sunlight stress it? I would think that it's only natural for a plant to experience fluctuations in light intensity throughout the day.

I agree w MrKodak....
Go for it!
Unless your window is a south facing corner, leave the outside outside...
Just try to add a little more CFL light, get 'Y's or some call light splitters and add a few more cfl's
Try to get 6500K cfl's but any will work, some just better...
Good luck !
Ah, don't remind me. I ran all over town looking for y-fittings for the lights. I ended up paying more money for the sockets and wires than for the actual bulbs.

I grew a decent plant from my window in my living room with direct sun only from 3pm to 9pm, which yielded 18 grams of good bud....and I used normal soil, tap water and didn't use nutes...see attached pics.

I like the idea of option 3...mixing CFL with sun. Don't worry about cloudy days....all part of nature
That looks pretty amazing from having only received 6 hours of light per day.
I'm still interested in my own idea. I'll at least test it out for a little while. I should be able to tell if there's a pattern in growth that coincides with how much sunshine I get over a period.



I attached some pictures of the setup, showing a top view where you can see the window, a side view and a closeup of my little plant.

As for additional info: The bulbs are 2700K (all I could get. I wanted one of these and one of a higher temperature rating, but couldn't find any). I'm growing in a 5 gallon pot to be safe and I plan to LST the plant in a circle along the surface to take optimal advantage of the top-lighting.

Maybe I should turn this into a log instead. Am I allowed to do that in this section?
 

Attachments

MrKodak

Member
i mean possible lack of sunlight your gonna want to put your plant under almost constant light for the first few weeks and unless you figure out how to put a box properly by your window (which could also be a police or thief hazard) your gonna have to be moving the plant around a lot which isnt to good for it but i see your pictures and you have found a way so it gets sun/cfls but all your neighbours will start to notice what your doing very soon ;)
 

Seren

Member
Oh, I hear ya. I don't think that will be much of an issue for me. Across from my window is a parking lot and some official something-buildings, but there are no residences or offices so there's nothing on level with my window where people would be able to look in from. Plus, it's on the second floor. The only "threat" is a big road right in front of the building. But there's a lot of traffic (drivers rarely look up) and only few pedestrians so I should be alright. Not to mention that during the day, the bulbs aren't visible from outside and at night the plate I put against the window prevents any direct view of either the plant or the bulbs. All you can see is that there's some kind of light in my window, but that could be anything as far as someone on the street is concerned.
Having said that, visibility is of course one of the reasons I've decided to try to keep it low with LST. ;)
 

RetiredMatthebrute

Well-Known Member
heres my 2¢

use the window when its sunny and thenjust place them under the CFL's when its not, dont bother trying to mix the 2.

to be honest the light intensity this time of year kinda sucks from the sun so you would almost be better off just building a small grow box/room for the plant and maintain your lights with a timer.

right now you have plenty of lightsing, in 2 weeks it will not be nearly enough, i suggest getting at least 2 more of them bulbs in there asap. also get a small fan to put a slight breeze on the plant. this will help prevent stretch and stress (in a good way) the plant to grow a stronger stalk.
 

Seren

Member
heres my 2¢

use the window when its sunny and thenjust place them under the CFL's when its not, dont bother trying to mix the 2.

to be honest the light intensity this time of year kinda sucks from the sun so you would almost be better off just building a small grow box/room for the plant and maintain your lights with a timer.

right now you have plenty of lightsing, in 2 weeks it will not be nearly enough, i suggest getting at least 2 more of them bulbs in there asap. also get a small fan to put a slight breeze on the plant. this will help prevent stretch and stress (in a good way) the plant to grow a stronger stalk.
It just seems such a waste to limit my baby to artificial lighting with all that goodness coming from the sun! :) 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.

As far as strengthening the stalk is concerned, it's definitely something I've been worried about. I've been manually stressing it a little (actually blowing on it a few times each day) but that hasn't made much of a difference. Of course, now that it's getting adequate light, that should help as well. I'll see what I can do about a fan.

I say make a space in ur closet and get some light and grow buddy grow!!!
Definitely not going in my closet - I want it out in the open where I can look at it every chance I get ;)
 

bobtokes

Well-Known Member
Unless the plant is exposed to direct sun ( not through a window) you can't grow anything worthwhile. A box setup is cool, but size of plant wil limit you. Go get a grow book like " Marijuna Horticulture - The Indoor/Outdoor Medical Grower's Bible". It will give you a ton of good information. It is on Amazon for about $15. Carry on man, and keep it green. Peace

LOL you need to read the book yourself
 
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