3rd CFL Closet Grow - single AK-47 - Waterfarm - 2x125W Envirolites

Thanks for the link, Jim.

Thats a nice looking plant you got there. I need to spend some time in my CFL cab trying to make it look tidy like yours. mine is all rigged together like a refugee living in an ally trying to grow some nugs for the winter. Cords hanging all over and such...
Thats ok tho, soon it will be done. I plan to try out a 2x2 or 3x3 SOG soon, and I'll let ya peep it then

SunnyJim said:

Good question about the reflective material. I'm really not sure how much it helps, or if this diamond sheeting is better than standard mylar of even flat white paint. All I know is that I looked at the price, and figured I should just go for the diamond stuff because it really isn't expensive to line a cabinet as small as mine.

Peace

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From what I know, the white sheeting diffuses light more than the shiny coverings. The shiny ones reflect direct light. Sounds like the direct light thing is a good idea, right? Heres the issue.
When you use reflective materials that dont diffuse light very well, you reflect colored light. When that reflective material is in a grow cab, its probably going to reflect a lot of GREEN light seeing as the plants are reflecting a lot of it. Guess what color light your weed plants DONT use...thats right...green light is not used by most plants. Thats why they look green, because they are reflecting all the green light and absorbing most of the other light, thus only the green makes it to your eye, and only the green light makes it to your reflective sheeting to be re-reflected to the plants.
Going by these facts, I would guess flat white is better.

Some can argue the point by saying "you reflect more lumen with shiny material". I have an answer for that too.
It is true. you do reflect more lumens with shiny stuff than with flat white stuff, BUT plants don't use all the light you measure when you take a lumen reading. Lumen readings measure the amount of light you can see. That is useless when you are dealing with plants.
Plants use more light than you can see. And they don't use some light that you can see. The light that a plant uses is called Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR). This can (and should) be measured apart from lumen to tell you just how much light your plants are actually able to use. Flat white always reflects usable light for your plants while high reflective sheeting like mylar and foil reflect exactly what you see and deliver much useless light.
So why do I have mylar in my own grow room? because its cheaper than black/white visqueen!
Hope this helps.

^^
Onlyoneman (I hope your trying to make a difference )

Totally agree with everything you have just said, however, just how much difference in real world terms are we talking? I mean, so long as your grow space isnt painted black, its not going to massively affect your grow is it?

ClaytheWhite said:

^^
Onlyoneman (I hope your trying to make a difference )

Totally agree with everything you have just said, however, just how much difference in real world terms are we talking? I mean, so long as your grow space isnt painted black, its not going to massively affect your grow is it?

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Well, when comparing mylar to flat white, probably not going to see that big of an actual difference, however, if you were to paint your walls a dark color like blue or brown, I think you would see a decrease in vigor of the plants in the room, but I can't be sure as I have never done it

i personally believe white sheet to be better seems to keep that tiny bit cooler imo.

I have been following your thread with interest, I think youve done a great job concentrating on a single plant dwc. The LST you did looks like it will have the desired effects you are shooting for. Inspiring to say the least. Ill be watching and taking lessons.

So this 'mylar/white sheeting/flat white paint' talk has me in a quandary.. I'm going to construct a two-bulb reflector for my CFLs for my next grow, and I had planned to line the skeleton of the reflector I build with the same diamond sheeting I used to line my grow box. Bad idea? Should I line the inside of my reflector with white sheeting instead?

bighoot55 said:

I have been following your thread with interest, I think youve done a great job concentrating on a single plant dwc. The LST you did looks like it will have the desired effects you are shooting for. Inspiring to say the least. Ill be watching and taking lessons.

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Thanks! My friend and I were just talking about how strangely fulfilling it is to see one of these plants develop from seed to bud. We thought how awesome it would be to do a time lapse of one of our grows, like this:

[video=youtube;X2aHyru21qY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2aHyru21qY[/video]

When I harvest her (in a few weeks tops), I'll keep her intact and trim all the leaves and wimpy lower branches off, leaving just the buds. That way, you'll really be able to see the way the stems have been tugged and pulled throughout her life cycle. All the strings are still attached, so it looks like the spaghetti incident in there.

I'm selling my Waterfarm to a friend after this grow, and I'm going to build my own DWC hydro system which'll make better use of the dimensions of my grow box. My new system will be mostly the same in principal, but shorter and wider than the Waterfarm. That'll give me a little bit of extra grow height, and allow me to space my plants further apart (or even throw three in there at once). Finally time to try a ScrOG perhaps.

Peace

looks like an awesome plant mate, youve got some nice, fat buds. im actually sliightly jealous that yours look more dense than mine. if mine werent pink i'd want to switch for yours! im starting to flush mine tonight. post the weigh in of your crop for me (if you didnt intend to do so already)

J.HANDS said:

looks like an awesome plant mate, youve got some nice, fat buds. im actually sliightly jealous that yours look more dense than mine. if mine werent pink i'd want to switch for yours! im starting to flush mine tonight. post the weigh in of your crop for me (if you didnt intend to do so already)

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Thanks man. I'm pretty happy with the way this grow has gone. I'll be sure to post the total weight of my crop when I harvest next week. I'll do a wet weight and dry weight total (a week or so later).

I'm toying with the idea of snipping a tiny bud right now and throwing it in the oven for 10 mins....

ounce and a half

Show us the roots! Well, Ive seen them, show 'them' the roots!

2.6oz?

hows the drying up coming along bud , you got another plant on the go yet ?

ClaytheWhite said:

Show us the roots! Well, Ive seen them, show 'them' the roots!

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Dude, I think I accidentally deleted the pics of the roots. So gay.

man nice work on that ak its huge ! dry weight ?

zo0t said:

man nice work on that ak its huge ! dry weight ?

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Thanks man. Yeah, she was a real beauty. I'm not sure what the dry weight is yet because the buds are all still drying. Take a guess and I'll let you know how close you were in about a week.

Peace

superb job there dude. my question is : did you ever do any cutting or topping on it? if so, when did you make the first cuts (how old and how tall was she?)

hey, i also wanted to ask you about that whether you used a fan on it the whole time? you said it nearly grew too big for the grow box so i was wondering if you had room for a fan in the box and whether you left it on all the time or what? thanks