1st cfl grow

diamonddav

diamonddav

Well-Known Member
hi all. nice forum here! ive been reading alot for weeks. here is what im working with, closet grow 6x2.6x 6 . painted walls with semi gloss white(its what i had at the moment), caulked all cracks and seems, installed a bathroom vent fan with 3" duct to chimney for smell later on and to change the air in the closet. started this on bagseed, with happy frog soil with perlite added into it. 2 6 " small fans down under the hood for air movement. i made the hood myself using 7" round 5' long duct work and painted the underside gloss white with 4 light fixtures and y spliitters in each. using 4 23 watt 6500k and 4 23watt 5000k for veg. still trying to figure out the lumens per sq. ft to determine if this is enough? germinated seeds and im working with 9 growing at the moment. had a bug propblem from get go . i believe they were mites, maybe in the soil? used alcohol with water- 2 treatments and havent seen any since! but ill be updating as i go along. what do you think?thanks in advance20130219_232031_zpsdfa1ad0c.jpg20130302_200211_zps5ed265d2.jpg20130219_232005_zps4e687262.jpg20130302_200232_zps66b55e40.jpg20130220_024341_zpsf3cccd3e.jpg20130302_200251_zps71cb4793.jpg20130302_200311_zps54008f5c.jpg
 
Dabolili

Dabolili

Active Member
diamonddav said:
hi all. nice forum here! ive been reading alot for weeks. here is what im working with, closet grow 6x2.6x 6 . painted walls with semi gloss white(its what i had at the moment), caulked all cracks and seems, installed a bathroom vent fan with 3" duct to chimney for smell later on and to change the air in the closet. started this on bagseed, with happy frog soil with perlite added into it. 2 6 " small fans down under the hood for air movement. i made the hood myself using 7" round 5' long duct work and painted the underside gloss white with 4 light fixtures and y spliitters in each. using 4 23 watt 6500k and 4 23watt 5000k for veg. still trying to figure out the lumens per sq. ft to determine if this is enough? germinated seeds and im working with 9 growing at the moment. had a bug propblem from get go . i believe they were mites, maybe in the soil? used alcohol with water- 2 treatments and havent seen any since! but ill be updating as i go along. what do you think?thanks in advanceView attachment 2552631View attachment 2552632View attachment 2552633View attachment 2552634View attachment 2552635View attachment 2552636View attachment 2552637
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looks very nice and clean man . good luck with your grow . How far away do you keep those lights ? you don't need much wattage when they're seedlings but you SHOULD keep them bulbs close to the plants so they don't stretch . and throw an oscillating fan in there .
 
hiitsbob

hiitsbob

Well-Known Member
my 23 watt bulbs are 1600 lumens. so if your were the same as mine you would have 8 bulbs = 12,800 lumens.
your square footage is 6x2.6 = 15.6 sqft
so your your lumen/sqft is 12,800/15.6= 820 l/sqft.
for now keep them close 1-2 inches. for a few weeks that will be enough light.
but when if full veg should be around 5000 l/sqft and for flower 10,000l/sqft.
so in full flower that would be almost a hundred bulbs.
this is for optimal growing.
sure it can be done with less.
for that big of a space use cardboard as reflectors to close up the size of the room.
also may be a good idea to look into hps/mh.
i am in first grow and what i have invested i probably could have gotten a 400w hps/mh.
but then gotta also deal with a little more heat.
this is a thirty day veg just switched to 12/12 to flower.
i am at around 6500l/sqft with this light setup.
will add to it to try to get to that 10,000 l/sqft
3-1 lights.jpgView attachment 2552887View attachment 2552888
 
diamonddav

diamonddav

Well-Known Member
thanks man. the lights are at the height you see in the pic w/the lights on. 18/6 for veg. i have 2 6 inch clamp on fans laying on the floor on each end, but they dont move much air! i will be getting an oscilating fan. but the plants dont seem to be stretching much. there only six days old and allready showing third set of leaves!
 
diamonddav

diamonddav

Well-Known Member
hiitsbob said:
my 23 watt bulbs are 1600 lumens. so if your were the same as mine you would have 8 bulbs = 12,800 lumens.
your square footage is 6x2.6 = 15.6 sqft
so your your lumen/sqft is 12,800/15.6= 820 l/sqft.
for now keep them close 1-2 inches. for a few weeks that will be enough light.
but when if full veg should be around 5000 l/sqft and for flower 10,000l/sqft.
so in full flower that would be almost a hundred bulbs.
this is for optimal growing.
sure it can be done with less.
for that big of a space use cardboard as reflectors to close up the size of the room.
also may be a good idea to look into hps/mh.
i am in first grow and what i have invested i probably could have gotten a 400w hps/mh.
but then gotta also deal with a little more heat.
this is a thirty day veg just switched to 12/12 to flower.
i am at around 6500l/sqft with this light setup.
will add to it to try to get to that 10,000 l/sqft
View attachment 2552886View attachment 2552887View attachment 2552888
Click to expand...
thanks for the info!the 4 6500k bulbs are only 1450 lumens a piece and the 5000k ones are 1600 lumens.. im torn between lots smaller or less bigger on the watts area, but i think im gonna go with more bigger and see how it works. im looking into 42 watt and bigger bulbs for the hood, and i also think that my hood helps keep alot of lost light on the plants! trial and error i guess!definately a math game with the cfl's, wish now i wouldve put more under it. i might add 8 more spliitters to make 16 bulbs here soon, what do you think about that? i wired everything myself, all the way to the main box and the room is on its own 20 amp breaker. thanks again!
 
hiitsbob

hiitsbob

Well-Known Member
sounds good i would def add more light. cfl's do not draw much electricity a 20 amp breaker will def do it for a small grow.
oh yeah your hood is helping you alot. i cannot find the thread but a guy had a lux meter i believe it was to measure light.
with no reflector compared to a reflector from memory at i believe 1 foot there was 4 times as much light with the reflector.
do not quote me on that but it is the only way to go with any light. i figured it up once with my grow i believe my total grow was at 5 amps.
which is 1.5 amps for 5 cpu fans and 3.5 amps for 20 23w bulbs.
 
diamonddav

diamonddav

Well-Known Member
20130318_130546_zpsbe18f11b.jpg20130318_130634_zpsf9373168.jpgok so i need some advice! plants will be 3 weeks old tomorrow. ive added 8 more 6500k bulbs for a total of 16 bulbs. 4 are 5000k. happy frog soil with about 30% perlite. only water at this point, no nutes! ive read that the soil has enough for 3-4 weeks before any are needed? just tap water that i leave in gallon jugs at least overnight to supposedly help? read that somewhere also? anyhow as you can see in the pics the leaves are curling under around the edges? water every 4 days so as to not over water? what is going on here?my guess is ph is fukt up on my water, but i dont have a meter yet to check! or does it look like i need to start nutes allready? not all of them are doing it either! and for nutes i have dyna-gro liquid grow7-9-5 for veg, and dyna gro liquid bloom 3-12-6 for flower. oh and by the way i have a ph tester for the soil the kind you stick in , its a digital one i bought at the hydro store and it always reads 7.0? might be junk meter i dont know? thanks in advance
 
Dabolili

Dabolili

Active Member
diamonddav said:
View attachment 2574922View attachment 2574923ok so i need some advice! plants will be 3 weeks old tomorrow. ive added 8 more 6500k bulbs for a total of 16 bulbs. 4 are 5000k. happy frog soil with about 30% perlite. only water at this point, no nutes! ive read that the soil has enough for 3-4 weeks before any are needed? just tap water that i leave in gallon jugs at least overnight to supposedly help? read that somewhere also? anyhow as you can see in the pics the leaves are curling under around the edges? water every 4 days so as to not over water? what is going on here?my guess is ph is fukt up on my water, but i dont have a meter yet to check! or does it look like i need to start nutes allready? not all of them are doing it either! and for nutes i have dyna-gro liquid grow7-9-5 for veg, and dyna gro liquid bloom 3-12-6 for flower. oh and by the way i have a ph tester for the soil the kind you stick in , its a digital one i bought at the hydro store and it always reads 7.0? might be junk meter i dont know? thanks in advance
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Here man .. http://www.amazon.com/General-Hydroponics-GH1514-Control-Kit/dp/B000BNKWZY/ref=sr_1_1?s=lawn-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1363636544&sr=1-1&keywords=ph+kit
 
diamonddav

diamonddav

Well-Known Member
thanks for the info. so do you think this looks like a ph problem? from what ive read the soil (being happy frog) is supposed to balance out some of the ph? ive read so much though im confusing myself! im definately going tomorrow and buying the test kit. so do i test each gallon individually or what? and ive also read about the run off water out of the pots, do i test that as well? the soil is supposed to have enough nutes for 4 weeks i thought. thanks again
 
diamonddav

diamonddav

Well-Known Member
does this resemble under watering as well? anywhere from 35 - 60% humidity( depending on if i water)!really would like to get this under control before it gets out of control!
 
diamonddav

diamonddav

Well-Known Member
so i did a moderate watering to see what happens!!! hate seeing these plants fukt, oh well i will make my own assumptions and tell how it works guys!! i checked my ph again with the meter and i think im at 7.5- 8.2 is that ok or what? im thinking 6.5 is that correct
 
diamonddav

diamonddav

Well-Known Member
yea you need to lower your ph a bit there dav! theres things on the market that should help! just listen to yourself and everything will be fine!
 
diet coke

diet coke

Active Member
lol , not sure but I dont think you need to fertilize yet if you do go with a very weak mix at first. They dont like soggy feet , I had an issue at first with over watering, fertilizing and to much love. lol
Have you tried to mist them and see if the perk up ?
 
diamonddav

diamonddav

Well-Known Member
well i bought a ph test kit and wow is my water screwed! the kit goes from 4 - 8 and my water is probably past the 8! also got some ph down, put a small(unmeasured) amount in a gallon jug shook it and the reading was at 4. so il have to fine tune that! quite sure my problem lies within my ph problem! we shall see! adapt and overcome is my motto! also bought the "growers bible" a book called gardening indoors with soil &hydroponics, by george f. van patten! if you want to grow you better read and teach yourself! this book is awesome! also bought some ff bushdoctor boomerang comeback formula 2-0.2-0.3 for maybe a small feeding of nutes if they dont bounce back on there own good. not gonna jump the gun on feeding though.gonna figure this ph problem out first and go from there!
 
Dabolili

Dabolili

Active Member
how big are the pots that your plants are in ?
you definitely want to measure how much PH Down you add to a gallon. the kit comes with a measuring tube thingy ... I count drops .. after you've added some PH down you gotta test it . get it around 6.5 you shouldn't have to measure the runoff water for PH . you're using a decent soil , not some crap
 
diamonddav

diamonddav

Well-Known Member
update- plants are 4 weeks today and coming along better than i thought. growing more like a bush! nodes are very close together and looking lovely. gave a feeding of some nutes and their loving it. really want a short garden, so im thinking about topping these real soon. been doing some stress training on them as well getting light to the inners. so im thinking topping and lst to keep the height down. but looking and smelling damn good!!probably will wait till week 6 till i switch to flower.20130326_004905_zpse8434e6d.jpg20130326_005055_zpsc37313b1.jpg20130327_015513_zps26cf05f9.jpg20130327_125351_zpsde23389c.jpg20130326_024826_zps3a08dedc.jpg20130326_024558_zps581e6424.jpg20130326_023247_zps1813805f.jpg20130326_005223_zpsb4061fda.jpg20130326_004905_zpse8434e6d.jpg20130326_005055_zpsc37313b1.jpg
 
diamonddav

diamonddav

Well-Known Member
well topped the plants last night! it deffinately wasnt the uncle tom method but i learned of that a bit to late in the game! but i did hack 2 of them pretty good enough to be able to try my hand at cloning them. they are taking off like crazy. cant wait to see the outcome of the topping, there already bushy as hell. and FUCK I DIDNT MISS!!!
 
Dandilion Patch

Dandilion Patch

Active Member
Looking good man, Im like one step ahead a ya. My plants are about the same size as yours. Around 14 inches. Just sent em into flower though. Im shooting for about 2 and half maybe 3 feet.
 
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