1st CFL Grow....here we go

Roseman said:

I put 42, 65, and 85 watt CFLs two inches from my plants. I put my 105s 3 inches away.

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daaamn.... you didnt grow those with cfls did you??? how big was your yeild?? daaamn.....

Thank you! I'm getting ready to repot plant #3. When I originally potted her in the intermediate pot, I didn't put enough soil in so the level is about two inches below the others. She needs more room to breathe.

Lights on, temps 73-80 humidity 40-50%
lights off, temps 65-70 humidity 20-30%

when I went in this morning plant #5 was almost touching the light. It was 1-1.5" away when I went to bed last night. It's at least an inch growth in a little over 12 hours. I'm anxious to measure them today to see their height.

I went out last night and realized halfway through the night I hadn't turned the fan and humidifier off. The lights are on a timer. The fan and humidifier aren't. I got home after the plants' lights went off. I turned all lights off and snuck in the room to turn them off and saw a light blue glow coming from the closet. I about kicked myself when I realized the humidifier had a light on it. I knew that, and had since forgotten. I've left it on twice after lights-off since I put them into flower. Once was overnight completely and the other was about three hours after lights out. It was dim, and kinda moodlight-esque. I'm hoping I didn't confuse the plant. It's now officially time to plug the humidifier into a timer.

I'm quickly realizing trying to start this getup with minimal funding was a bad idea, but I'm just trying to limp along until the much anticipated paycheck comes in.

Time to go repot and measure. Updates in a minute.

rambler420 said:

Wow! How old was that plant (or it is, two) when you went to flower? I'm feeling just a tad bit inadequate right now.

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1st, remember HYDRO growing is much different than soil growing.
That is THREE plants in the pic, I was just showing how close my lights are. There's a runt to the far left, gave me about one short ounce of dried buds, and the one on the far right is my biggest to date, harvested 7 and half ounces of dried manicured buds.
Trick is very early topping, to force more braches to grow.

I'll experiment more on my next go-round. I need to start w/ basics and change a little bit each time.

Here are the recent pics. I rearranged the plants in the closet to maximize lighting. Repotted plant 3 to something bigger. There are before and after pics of her. I also paperclipped up plant 6, the baby, to make her more stable. She's my "runt." I don't expect much, if anything, out of him/her, but ya just never know.

Don't mind kitty #2 making appearances in the pictures. He's always afraid he's going to miss something.

Plant 3 is looking a little pitiful with bent, droopy leaves. Plant 5 has the crispy, discolored bottom leaves, but whatever it is has been contained just to those leaves. Hopefully a more attentive water schedule (read: stop overwatering) and a bigger pot with more room to breathe will be beneficial.

Hydro is something I'm definitely going to read up once I find out for sure I can make decent yield this way. Then I'll move up.

Lots of growth last night:

Plant 1 - 1/2"
Plant 2 - 7/8"
Plant 3 - 1"
Plant 4 - 3/4"
Plant 5 - 1.5"
Plant 6 - 1/4"

I'm happy with that for now. They need to get used to their new digs before I expect them to get overly happy.

I just wish they'd let me know who the boys are...

if you need help on getting started in a hydro dwc diy set up let me know. with hps lighting, an array of cfl's, fixtures, reflector domes, tubs, ph kit, cocotek,hydroton, ff nutes, 2 pumps, 4 air stones and extras i got it done for around 200. it would have been WAY cheaper but since this was my first time i over spent and even bought some shit i didnt need. i think i can have it down to about 120 all said and done. let me know.

thanks. Maybe I'll try hydro next year, but I'm liking the soil getup for now.

Went in to measure this morning. Plant 5 is taking off. Again, it was damn near touching the light. Had to raise the light. It grew 1.5" since yesterday and is the first one showing definite signs. I saw all kinds of preflowers this morning on it, and while I'd swear they were balls, there's only one at each node and the "cola" looks like it could have white hairs. The top nodes also haven't gotten their secondary branches. It's one big stem w/ fan leaves.

I'll wait until tonight or tomorrow to make the male/female call. I tried to get in there with the scope but with my shaky hands, it was difficult. What I finally focused in on was not round, but more oblong, with no stem. That says female to me, but with it being the first to show signs, and it's quick growth tells me I might be wrong. We'll see.

Growth from yesterday is as follows:
Plant 1 - 3/8"
Plant 2 - 1/8"
Plant 3 - 1/4"
Plant 4 - 0
Plant 5 - 1 1/2"
Plant 6 - 0

rambler420 said:

thanks. Maybe I'll try hydro next year, but I'm liking the soil getup for now.

Went in to measure this morning. Plant 5 is taking off. Again, it was damn near touching the light. Had to raise the light. It grew 1.5" since yesterday and is the first one showing definite signs. I saw all kinds of preflowers this morning on it, and while I'd swear they were balls, there's only one at each node and the "cola" looks like it could have white hairs. The top nodes also haven't gotten their secondary branches. It's one big stem w/ fan leaves.

I'll wait until tonight or tomorrow to make the male/female call. I tried to get in there with the scope but with my shaky hands, it was difficult. What I finally focused in on was not round, but more oblong, with no stem. That says female to me, but with it being the first to show signs, and it's quick growth tells me I might be wrong. We'll see.

Growth from yesterday is as follows:
Plant 1 - 3/8"
Plant 2 - 1/8"
Plant 3 - 1/4"
Plant 4 - 0
Plant 5 - 1 1/2"
Plant 6 - 0

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their moving right along at a great pace rambler....awesomeness...

rambler, give your babies some love - that means some juicy names instead of numbers.

Oh, they'll get names after they're proven to be girly girl plants. The LST plant, #2, will be called Lisa (as close to LST as I could think of) if she proves to be a girl.

My last outdoor crop was named Bertha (Big Bertha), Wilma & Twiggy. These will only get named after they show their flowers. I don't want to name them and get all emotionally attached to plants I have to murder.

Pulled Plant 5 from the room. I'm convinced it's a boy. Looking closely at the top, it looks almost like wheat. In the picture below it looks like there are hairs coming from the balls, but they're not. They're the stipules from the other side. Of course the tallest plant had to be a boy. The amount of balls multiplied two-fold just since this morning. That pic was taken through a magnifying glass. Sorry for the crappy coloring.

going to pull it and plant one of the remaining intermediate pot plants in #5's big pot.

....just as soon as I can get enough money to buy my next transmission on Grand Tourismo 3.

aww. sorry to hear about the boy plant. i myself have just found out that one of my plants is a boy. ill be posting pics soon. sorry

Came home from work to find plant #1 was touching the light. It has grown 1.5" since yesterday. I get a gut feeling it's male. The rest are trecking right along. I have some discoloration on some of the leaves. I think it's time to do that whole nute thing and check the ph again. Gotta wait until the soil dries out.

Plant growth is as follows:

#1 - 1.5"
#2 - 1 1/8"
#3 - 7/8"
#4 - 1"
#6 - 1/4"

Plant #5 is no more since he was a boy.

Plant #2, I'm still not sure. I swear I see white hairs, but I second guess myself that it's new growth. The "cola" is starting to look like a bud, though. I'm still thinking she's a girl. I hereby announce her to be worthy of a name. She shall now and hereinafter be called Lisa.

hey there. how are things? how was your first day of work?! (if you read this before work) then good luck at work!!

new company seems promising. So far I'm liking it.

I'm not liking having to get up at 5:30, though. My body's not used to it. Ug. It's just not natural to be up before the sun.

Plants are well. Tonight I'm thinking I'll be able to tell if plant 1 is a boy or girl. It was starting to show mini-signs last night when I got home. I wish I could go look now, but they're sleeping.

We have a girl! ...or rather 2...maybe even 3, if Lisa turns out to indeed be female.

Plant 1 and Plant 4 have shown white hairs. YAY! I'm still not sure about Lisa LST. She might be in drag. Every time I think I see a hair, it turns out to be new growth. It looks like the main cola is really getting thick, though, and there's all kinds of white hairs, but I'm second guessing myself because there aren't white hairs at the nodes, just the cola. There aren't balls, either, so that's promising.

Plant 1, hereinafter Tessa, was almost touching the light when I got home. Plant 4, hereinafter dubed Minnie (as in skinny-minny) is in one of the smaller pots. Will have to repot her soon so she can stretch her legs.

about to go measure now.....

Yep...Plant 3 is a girly, too.

Growth:
Plant 1 - Tessa - 3/8"
Plant 2 - Lisa - .5"
Plant 3 - Veronica - 0
Plant 4 - Minnie - 1/2"
Plant 6 - no name yet - 0

Added a bit of Schultz Liquid Cactus Food (2-7-7) today. I did half the dose so as not to shock them too much.

So, out of 6 plants, I have 3 confirmed females, one transgender wannabe, and one baby that doesn't know what it is yet.

lets see those pics girl

I'll upload pics tomorrow. The early morning wake up calls makes rambler a tired girl.

hahah. it puts the lotion on its skin!!! it uploads its pics onto RIU!!! LMAO!

Pictures as of last night:

All the plants are small and gangly, with the underbrush growing from the bottom up. One of them has bent bottom leaves but the upper leaves are more sturdy.

The LST attempt looks like it might do good things for that harvest. One can hope...

the baby is hanging on. It's there simply because I don't have the heart to kill it. Why not give it a shot to impress and surprise me?