800 watts of cfls pics (should I switch to hps??)

nooo....since its sativa you have to really watch it,you said you seen some red trichs?
try taking macro(close up )shots of the trichs with your digital camera...you want a 60-40 mix of milky(opaque) trichs and amber(watered down pepsi)colored triches(really light brown see thru,almost like cola champagne) and if all else fails...pick a small amount from the side that has the red?! trichs and let it dry for a day or so and smoke it...it'll taste like crap because its not cured but it should give you a ballpark figure of where you need to be in regards to high or buzz...but never chop when they are clear...

yo man- i like your setup-looks really rad-cas 38 cfls is a hell of a lot of lamps.the hps thing-i dunno mn, if i were you i wouldnt change anything out, il just add a hps too if thats posiible in your grow space.or if not, then ill keep going as you are right know.those buds loooks really nice to me man.but why so much 23 watts, why not 26 or 46 watts???also, are you using any nutes??


keep up the good work man....

that's the one thing I really wish I could show... two problems... not near my grow right now... and the camera I was using is a video camera (no macro) and taking stills from that. I could try shooting through my 60-100x radio shack microscope but now the camera stopped working!!! I'm just wondering if everything is ready right now and I'm looking at cloudy but think they're clear. I swear they look clear and then maybe 10 red trics spread out over the grain of rice sized piece I've cut to look at.

I'm just gonna wait till I am convinced they are cloudy. I do notice that the underside of the sugar leaf has trics that look cloudy. That's from below though... any difference?

just try doing what i mentioned,cut a small piece,enough to fill a bowl or a blunt.let it air dry for a day in a brown paper bag,then smoke,if it gets you high^^^ then its close,but if it gets you buzzed then you should wait 2 more weeks atleast,but if you look at it thru the microscope you should definitely tell...and once she's ready,flush out her system with plain water for 2 weeks,then chop let dry for a week,then off to the glass jars to cure..for another 4 weeks,then you'll be done...promise,lol

grow space said:

yo man- i like your setup-looks really rad-cas 38 cfls is a hell of a lot of lamps.the hps thing-i dunno mn, if i were you i wouldnt change anything out, il just add a hps too if thats posiible in your grow space.or if not, then ill keep going as you are right know.those buds loooks really nice to me man.but why so much 23 watts, why not 26 or 46 watts???also, are you using any nutes??


keep up the good work man....

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3 part GH nutes... nothing else. And why the 23 watts? At first I thought the bulbs wouldn't be that hot but when there are 38 of them all crunched in everything changed... had to put in the glass and fan sucking out... works great but still curious what would have happened with the hps... the buds really are dense as hell but there seem to be individual buds with their own star designed leaves (when looking from above) growing out from a dense bud... off to the side

or is that how buds SHOULD look? I'm so new to this... is one bud made up of several smaller buds all smashed together... (this question makes me sound quite stupid but I could swear mine are growing buds from wherever I took samples to look under the microscope... wherever I cut, another bud would grow out from that spot. There all over the place... everything even and then one bud protruding out like "what about me?")


oh and I HAVE been trying little bits here and there... a few days drying then test. It rips me to hell but I'm wondering if I keep em going a little longer if they'll rip me to hell and then back again. lol (i'm going for as potent as possible.)

nycfunguy said:

3 part GH nutes... nothing else. And why the 23 watts? At first I thought the bulbs wouldn't be that hot but when there are 38 of them all crunched in everything changed... had to put in the glass and fan sucking out... works great but still curious what would have happened with the hps... the buds really are dense as hell but there seem to be individual buds with their own star designed leaves (when looking from above) growing out from a dense bud... off to the side

or is that how buds SHOULD look? I'm so new to this... is one bud made up of several smaller buds all smashed together... (this question makes me sound quite stupid but I could swear mine are growing buds from wherever I took samples to look under the microscope... wherever I cut, another bud would grow out from that spot. There all over the place... everything even and then one bud protruding out like "what about me?")

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well they pretty much look like that,because remember marijuana isnt REALLY a WEED at all but a flower,so a bunch of compact nugs sounds just about right,but you also have to take into consideration the genetics,because no 2 plants will grow the same,some will give you huge buds and some will give you sparse buds,and lets not forget you have a sativa which usually doesnt give much in the way of quantity but it always delivers in quality...now what im sayin?

nikk said:

well they pretty much look like that,because remember marijuana isnt REALLY a WEED at all but a flower,so a bunch of compact nugs sounds just about right,but you also have to take into consideration the genetics,because no 2 plants will grow the same,some will give you huge buds and some will give you sparse buds,and lets not forget you have a sativa which usually doesnt give much in the way of quantity but it always delivers in quality...now what im sayin?

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shit if it gets you ripped to shreads right now then i would assume you are ready to go,sativas are head high,indicas are body stone,so you always want to get the best high from sativas when they are cloudy with a hint of color...but the way you describing her to me i would assume she would be ready to go as soon as you flush,you should start now and chop in a week and a half

Yeah, I've read about sativas and quantity but man this one seems like a monster... I had two other indicas in there that finished in normal time... 8 weeks but this plant is 5 times bigger than the other two combined...

and flushing for 2 weeks... do that with aero as well? I don't mind but I've heard 3 days... will the cloudy trichs start showing up during flushing?

nycfunguy said:

Yeah, I've read about sativas and quantity but man this one seems like a monster... I had two other indicas in there that finished in normal time... 8 weeks but this plant is 5 times bigger than the other two combined...

and flushing for 2 weeks... do that with aero as well? I don't mind but I've heard 3 days...

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yes do it anyways,because you are trying to flush out all the nutrients,even if they are organic,they will make you cough everytime you smoke,you'll be coughing soo much that you wouldnt taste them juicy juices

yo man-its all really simple-you grow your plant -then when the vegge time is uo and you switch to 12-12 the plant starts to produce flowers and they will produce resin.it all happens cas in nature the plant is producing resin glands wants to be sticky as hell, cas then it atracts male plant dust or you can call it "male semen" lol ok-off the topic(sorry-being blazed)
so your plant has many buddding sites but the main one is in the top-the main cola what runs 4 the top to couple of cm down.then you got other budds sites what can be really dense almost as dense as the main cola, but all depends how much light are diffrent part of the plant getting simple as that.


keep up the good work mate...

PErsonally, i'd keep that 800 watts of CFLs all over the plant, get em closer, and then get a 600 watt HPS over the tops - that'll give you a boost in the right spectrum and even more lumens - that'll fatten your buds up a good some.

a week and a half it is... I'm flushing them out right now anyway (I do a one day flush every week or so just to keep aero running smoothly getting out excess salt buildup...) was gonna reintroduce nutes again like normal but now it seems I can just keep going with the flushing and in a week and a half or two they will be 16 weeks in flower and then I'll chop. The calyxes look like they are just starting to swell the other day... (I've heard that's another indicator of ripeness?)


ah shoot just read your post about adding the 600 watt hps. I can't put anything over the top because the cfls are enclosed within their own box. I used one of the drawers that came with the cabinet... flipped it upside down and lined with cfls... the fan is the only hole in the top of the light box... (bottom has the layer of plexiglass to keep in the heat. A 600 watt above would just be lighting the top of the light box and the ventilation hose running out... ha ha...

oh and yes-sativas can produce so much bud, but it takes a lot longer time in flowering procces.

wait people keep mentioned that the hps will give me the right spectrum... I AM in the right spectrum I thought... all 2700 right? a few 6500 placed throughout.

there are quite a few opinions on here... oh well... that's the nature of this I guess... peace and thanks to all!

grow space said:

oh and yes-sativas can produce so much bud, but it takes a lot longer time in flowering procces.

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yeah,certain sativas are good yielders,but you really have to veg em for a long time to get the right amount of foliage,but you cant expect a pound,maybe you can get 12-13 ounces(dont hold your breath)but i guarantee powerful POWERFUL smoke

nycfunguy said:

wait people keep mentioned that the hps will give me the right spectrum... I AM in the right spectrum I thought... all 2700 right? a few 6500 placed throughout.

there are quite a few opinions on here... oh well... that's the nature of this I guess... peace and thanks to all!

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HPS has the right spectrum,but it also has 90% yellow spectrum which the plant DOESNT USED AT ALL,cfl's on the other hand ONLY HAS THE RIGHT SPECTRUM...but it comes at a price of not having the high lumen count that hps's have,but you have 38 cfls and you WILL get a HIGH YIELD

I vegged for almost 7 weeks...

a quick question about those damn seeds... I swear I didn't have any light leaks but if so, you're saying that will produce it's own seed with being pollenated? or it will produce a few balls that then pollenate the plant. I am certain I didn't see any balls anywhere throughout the whole grow... but if my plant came from a seed that was in a bag of haze then it most likely was a herm to begin with? If I pollenate a herm with your technique, won't it just turn into another herm?

or are my few seeds (50 so far) not enough to be concerned about? keep in mind there are about 30 tops or colas. 50 seeds out of thirty colas ain't that bad right? (and I can see the big main cola, I know which one that is, it's about the size of a small bottled water! all from cfls)

oh I can see already that it'll be a high yield... I'm totally blown away. something tells me though that it'll all shrink right down and I'll get like 1 ounce from it. ha ha

Have you looked at any of the 150w 400w or 600w hps grows by others on this site? You aren't even getting what the guys running twin 150w hps's get yield and bud size wise. The question isn't whether you should switch the question is actually how long will you waste all that electricity to get vastly inferior results. It's not just lumens it's how effectively those lumens get to the plants and how much they penetrate.
(though plants don't care about lumens either that's a measure based on human vision.)

Don't take my word for it just go look at the other HPS growers results for yourself and compare to your own.

Technically you are using those all wrong for max yield though too, I'd bet a good half of tthe light those are producing is just blocked by the lights so close next to eachother and flat gardening that way is really not ideal at all for cfl's what you want is just a small number of plants with the lights scattered in between the plants. Basically it would be considered vertical lighting instead of horizontal lighting but that is such a pain and for no more reward than a twin 150w or single 400w hps in your size grow.

Don't buy a 150 though it would just equal what you are doing now. Since you are able to grow with 800w of cfl's you could manage the 400 or the 600 so I'd get a 600 if I were you.

Not dissing on you or cfl's, just giving you the brutal truth as it truly is. I've tried cfl's for a couple stealth cab grows a couple time in fact and immediately ditched them for equivalent total wattage HPS's or Halides and growth nearly doubled.

CFL's are ok if that's all you can swing in the tiniest grows but 800w of them makes no sense at all, ever, period, end of story.
good luck with your grow though I wish you the best.

OregonMeds said:

Have you looked at any of the 150w 400w or 600w hps grows by others on this site? You aren't even getting what the guys running twin 150w hps's get yield and bud size wise. The question isn't whether you should switch the question is actually how long will you waste all that electricity to get vastly inferior results.

CFL's are ok if that's all you can swing in the tiniest grows but 800w of them makes no sense at all, ever, period, end of story.
good luck with your grow though I wish you the best.

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yep... i understand completely. was more of a budget thing (initial costs I mean... electricity is included in rent, I know that 800 watts of cfls takes up more than a 600 watt hps but needed to try this first) but if you think a 600 watter won't be hotter than what i've got then i will certainly try that if i ever do this again. thanks. and no need to apologize. i want to do this right.

nycfunguy,

wow, i am sorry that you are having to weed through all of this crappy advice.
stick to what you are saying. yes, as you already know you are in the right spectum. obviously, with 800 watts of cfl's there is more lumens being produced than the standard 400 watt hps at 50,000 lumens, unfortunelely just not at the same energy effeciency. so a 400 would be a good investment for the next grow. but then there are heat issues that are going to be involved. (even though with that many cfls it might already be an issue. ) what is your exhaust system? what kind of fan ect. 1.5 by 2 is a pretty small area for a 400 watt. the goal per square foot for lumens is 7000-10000. this would put you at 16,700 lumens per sq ft. that being said, if you can control the heat, you will pull one hell of a yeild out of such a small area. if you get a 400, i would suggest expanding your area if possible so you can get better usage of your lumens. For the time being i would finish your current grow with the cfl's. then make your decision.

YOU WILL NOT YEILD A POUND! maybe and ounce or 2. but thats still a good amount of bud. you would have to be jesus to yeild a pound in a 3 sq ft area.

so overall, this is my suggestion, and this is what i have done also. i had 400 watts of cfls, and i thought that was alot. if possible get a 400 watt light after this grow, use your cfls for side lighting where the hps cant reach. this together will help your yeild bundles.

how much head space do you have?? you know a 400 needs to be 18-22 inches from the plant usually, unless you have a good cooling system. from the pics it seemed like possible there wasnt much height to your space, correct me if i am wrong.

i like your system and i think once you master your space you will be growing some wonderful product. good luck.