First time CFL closet grow on a budget.

Karmacidal said:

Looking good, Evil! The stalks are thickening up nicely.

I topped mine at 4th/5th/6th node period...they were about 5-6 inches tall and they've definitely gotten much taller! They've easily doubled in height since then and just this last week alone, they put on 3".

The book I have that's so widely talked about on this site, Buds for Less with CFLs by the infamous Garden Knome, says they triple or even quadruple in size during flowering. I'm seeing this is not exaggerated at all. I'm starting to panic a bit. I've got a side by side comparison photo of a weeks growth in my journal if you want to see.

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Thanks for that. I'll probably be topping them pretty quick then. Because that's about where they are. I'll probably take more pics tomorrow, but I'm just beside myself at how fast they're starting to grow and from everything I've read, they haven't even hit their stride yet.

I also put in a couple more lights. There were two 26w CFLs over those, now there are four. I have eight, but I don't think I could sneak anymore in there while they're placed that close together. But I think they're really enjoying the extra light.

They're not root-bound yet, so I have time to get my grow bags, but not a ton. Even though they're not root-bound, they're drinking up the water like crazy now.

After a clarification of exactly what topping does. (I had slightly misunderstood, but I get it now), I went ahead and topped (technically: fimmed) my three largest plants before I went to bed, you'll see that in my close-ups.

Other than that, they're moving right along. I can't believe I've had them for three weeks already. But people always say stuff like that.

There's not much more to say now because I gave a descriptive update last night. So, I'll just move on to the pics.

T@ll T33 said:

Shippin is a bitch but......................


http://www.bghydro.com/BGH/itemdesc.asp?iC=COGB2

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Yeah, I see what you mean. Fuck that. I can get plastic pots for that amount around here, which I can reuse if I decide to grow again.

Momentous day, this. I did my first transplanting today. I got my hands on three containers that were the right size, and I'll get more very quickly. They were a bit more rootbound than it appeared when I looked through the sides of those cups, but not serious. I think I did it at just about the right time.

I would've thought they'd look smaller once I put them in bigger pots, but the opposite has happened, they actually look bigger and fuller to me somehow in this new home.

It's a lighter soil with some perlite and other good stuff in it. Hopefully they'll enjoy it, because the soil in the cups was rather dense. They seemed to do okay in that, so hopefully they'll go mental for this stuff! Or, at the very least not, you know, kill them. That would suck royally.

One of them slipped through my fingers while I was lowering it into the recessed bit of soil in its new pot. A small part of the rootball tore off, which wasn't much, but they stem felt looser, and that worries me. The impact may have simply loosened the soil inside the root ball, but I'm still rightfully concerned.

So far I'm not seeing any signs of trouble from it, but it was only around five o'clock this afternoon that I transplanted. It's in one of the two slightly smaller pots, I believe it's the one in the lower right. If I still can't tell for sure after a couple days, I'll take that as a good sign.

On the closeup pic that I included, you can see that my fimming is beginning to show its benefit. And I took a pic to show how my lights were suspended. I have some more ready to put in when the time is right, but they seem to be doing fine under what I have now.

Finally, I have a pic of my "nursery" for want of a better term. Those are coming along very well. It's funny because they kind of feel like the second child. You don't love him any less, but you've learned from the first what to fret over and whatnot, so you're a little more lax this time. I'm a youngest child myself, so I know the phenomenon well.

Technically, I'm just under two hours into day twenty-EIGHT, but you get what I mean here.

Okay, I put everything into the growroom on... Thursday. While I was hanging a new set of lights, one of the other cords went to low and one of the bulbs was pressed against one of my plants. So, one of the leaves has a burn on it. I did a close-up of that.

Just two extra lights made it really start to get warm in there. So, now I have the fan going not just for building up stem strength.

I'm looking to my final transplanting this coming week, and switch to 12/12 next weekend. In another week, the smallest plants will be where my biggest ones are NOW. If all I had to worry about were my largest ones, I would've induced flowering around the middle of this past week.

If light leak weren't an issue, I would've kept my younger plants in the nursery, induced flowering on the bigger ones, and stuck in the little ones as they grew to the appropriate size. No such luck, though. So, back to my original plan.

One of the fimmings looks like it didn't take. I still just have the one stem up there, but with truncated leaves. So, I gave it another shot, cutting a bit lower this time. It DID take on other plants, so I know what to look for. If it doesn't work this time, then I guess it'll just have the one cola. I can't delay flowering any longer to do trial and error. Also, I don't want to stress my plants anymore.

And as you'll see in the photos, my closet is getting a bit crowded. So, you get what I mean by how I'd be in trouble if these turned out to be all female.

Pics tomorrow. That'll be day 30, so that seemed like a good day to do one. Also, I did the last of my transplanting yesterday. So, I'll give my small plants another week to veg, and then onto the fun part!

I meant to put pics up, but a combination of being busy and the site's downtime delayed that. Then I took a couple a few minutes ago. But I think I stupidly deleted the images from camera instead of copying them. I didn't sleep well last night, and my brain isn't running at full capacity. I'm a bit more prone to doing such stupid things today.

I'll post a few this evening maybe. I have to recharge my camera because it's batteries were pretty low. And I'm off to my Mom's for a bit. She's watching my sister's new baby boy for a few hours, so I'm gonna go visit the little guy. Still at the new stage where everyone just wants to pick him up for a while and pass him around and be all "Aww... so cute." and such.

To be honest, there's not much to see anyway. They look pretty much the same, just, you know, bigger and the older ones are bushing out like crazy. I just want to get at least one good set of pics up before I induce flowering on Monday.

I'm growing pot. This is so cool. ^_^ I hate not being to just tell everyone I run in to. But, I'd hate prison a hell of a lot more. And seeing how well they grow just in this closet, it really makes me pine for the day when I can grow a few under the sun without a fear in the world of being punished for it. I always wanted it legalized, but this gives another reason, because I really like growing it. But I won't tell any of the anti-legalization people that. One of their arguments is "We wouldn't collect much tax revenue because people would just grow their own!" I disagree, I think many, many people value convenience too highly to resist being able to just pick up a bag at the store, but still, best not to give them more ammo.

I had a busy, crappy, humid, poorly-sleeping week. Which obviously cut into my posting updates.

But, since I'm going to switch to 12/12 on Monday, I thought I'd get one more set of pics up before I did that. And since I'll be busy most of tomorrow, I figured today would be the last chance to do that.

Not much to say. The plants all got set back when they were topped and transplanted. Each of those stunted their growth for a bit, but they've all come back from that, and they're growing again.

I repositioned my plants so the biggest ones were in the middle and not up against the walls so much. I realized if I had my smaller plants near the corners, they wouldn't be as cramped as my big ones.

My small ones were also given that extra time to grow some more, just like I wanted, although I'm gonna be PISSED if those little ones turn out to be my only females. I guess I'll find out in the coming week or two.

My bigger ones have some huge fan leaves on them. I took a picture of one that was the size of my hand. And I have good sized hands, not small girlish ones! It'll be a real tragedy to have to out any of those to death because they're male. Again, I'll have to wait and hope for the best.

Okay, today was a big day: my plants just started their first dark cycle about half an hour ago. I peeked in there a few minutes after nine just to make sure the timer did its job. I'm just a little concerned about how much light leak there will be between the hours of, oh, 6-9 am. But I looked into my closet today with the lights off, it gets very dark in there, and I blocked out the one window the best I can.

And now I wait a week or so and cross my fingers as I await the formation of their naughty bits! ^_^ It's bagseed so I expect some males, I just hope they aren't among my three largest plants! Two out of the three being female would be pretty good too. But if only one or-- Christ I hope not-- none of those bigger ones are female, I'll be very disappointed.

Any males won't be a total loss, I'll try making some cannabutter with them. Some have said that works well, others have said it's a waste of time. Personally, I think it's worth a try. I mean, how much is a couple sticks of butter and a box of brownie mix? At worst I have brownies, at best I have brownies that send me to heaven for six hours.

No pics today, though. Two reasons: One, they don't look different from two days ago. Bigger, but not that dramatic. Two, they are sleeping right now, and they need that beauty sleep to grow into big, strong sinsemilla.

Wow, they look really great! That fan leaf is huge. I think I love the veg state best. They're all so lush and green and pretty. I hope you get all the females you want, but what are you going to do if they're all female?

I learned one thing from last night's first dark cycle, I have to be more prudent in how far I hang my lights.

One of my plants suffered some heat burn because overnight it grew up to where it was in contact with the lights, and then I was still sleeping when the light cycle began, so the leaves were right against that bulb for a good few hours. They've never done that to me so quickly, so now I have to put more thought into how much growth they'll have in those twelve hours. A few brown-tipped leaves doesn't worry me, but I don't want that to happen to any buds in the future. And I've learned in the past that it does NOT take long for those plants to suffer heat burn when it's right up against one of those lights.

I also just took a moment awhile ago to pick up each of my plants and just really have a good, admiring look at them. I was just really impressed at the nice bushy plants I've grown, and their healthy rich shade of green. I haven't grown many plants before, so I'm quite happy with myself for being able to get them this far. But I'm gonna be a wreck while I wait for them to show sex.

Not planting all these seeds at once seemed like a good idea after my first batch didn't sprout, but now those differences in plant size are turning this stage into a real nail-biter for me.

Karmacidal said:

Wow, they look really great! That fan leaf is huge. I think I love the veg state best. They're all so lush and green and pretty. I hope you get all the females you want, but what are you going to do if they're all female?

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Same-time post, cool.

If they're all female. I'm not sure. I don't want them crowded in there too tightly, but at the same time it would actually help that they aren't all the same height. Lights hung over my smaller plants would provide top light for them, and side light for my larger plants.

BUT, it would also be a big problem for air flow. It would a real tragedy to be stricken with mold growth because I tried to cram a couple extra plants in there.

Okay, I fed and watered the plants before they went to bed-- which will be in about fifteen minutes.

But I took each out and examined them. Still no signs of pee-pees or hoo-hoos, but I decided to take some photos of them. And for scale I included that standard unit of measurement among the craft: a bic lighter.

Until they DO show signs of sex, I have very little else to say about them. So, I guess no news is good news for now.

I have my first plant showing sex, and it's a male. Not shocking, since I read the males usually reveal themselves before the females do.

Since I don't have the most experienced eye, I posted a thread in one of the other grow forums. They confirmed it's a boy.

It's too late to get it out of the garden tonight, because my plants have started their dark period. The only shame is that it's one of my bigger plants. Although even my little ones are reaching a pretty respectable size!

Oh well, I can use the space. Although getting just the one plant out of there isn't so helpful. I don't have a good way to arrange SEVEN plants.

Well, with a heavy heart I removed my male and processed its carcuss so it can be dried and boiled into butter. And after just one more day of growth, it looked even more male than it did yesterday, way more pollen sacs. They aren't kidding when they talk about how quick those male flowers can grow!

But, I was able to re-arrange some of my other plants in a way that should stop some of the heat burn they've been experiencing. One of my lights doesn't like to stay still. I used tape and string to keep it from swinging around, but it comes loose from time to time.

But now I've been able to re-arrange the plants around that light so that even if that DOES happen again, the bulbs shouldn't come in contact with any leaves (they were brushing against the side of a taller plant). So that's good, because that can't have been good for those plants.

I also think I may have my first female. It's hard to tell if I'm seeing hairs or young leaves, but they look whiter. I'll be more certain within a day or two.

Well, I pulled two more males today. But I have happy news as well. I've got some GIRLS! Joy!

I have five plants left in the closet. Three are definitely female. One more is likely female, but I'm not yet certain. And one more hasn't shown sex yet.

Also, among those three biggest, oldest plants, two were female. So that worked out really well. I have lots more air in that closet, and a much better light to plant ratio. I might throw in a few more if I can swing it. I'd like to get some side-lighting in there.

Before they go to sleep tonight, I'll bestow names upon my girls. I'm thinking Hermione, Ginny, and Luna for my confirmed three, and any extra girls, well.... there were a lot of female characters in those books, so I'll have plenty more to go with. ^_^

Anyway, I snapped a few pics of my budding... buds. So take a look. I think the last photograph is the best. Best PHOTO that is.

Final count: 3 boys, 5 girls.

So, I'll get myself a few more lights soon. Maybe four more and a couple y splitters because I'm out of spare extension cords.

I can't take pics right now because my camera has a low battery. Just as well, no need to snap pictures so frequently. It's just hard to resist gushing about these plants right now. They've been on the 12/12 cycle for awhile, and at first it was a little hard, because they were growing quickly and I was sleeping erratically, so the lights kept getting too close to the plants and causing burns. I was worried they were going to hermie on me or give a generally poor yield from this constant overheating. And I knew it'd be especially bad if the buds suffered heat burn (I actually never read anything to that effect, but it seems obvious). I even had a couple dreams where they died on me-- although in the dreams it was because I was being incredibly inept, and I'd wake up right around the time Dream Me thought "Hey, there's NO WAY I'm this dumb!"

But now I've got my established females, I'm pretty happy with how many I've got, and it's a relief that the closet is so longer so crampt. I've gotten adept and knowing how much space I need to give those lights, and how much the plants might grow between the evening and when I wake up the next day. (I'm a night owl, so by the time I wake up, they've been in their light cycle for several hours, all the more reason to make sure the lights are placed at least a good couple inches from the tops of the plant each night.)

And, by watching these flowers get bigger everyday, this has become satisfying again. Waiting for these plants to flower was the worst part of this experience. I mean, waiting for them to sprout and form that first set of serrated leaves was a little tense too, but when those first seeds didn't sprout, it set me back all of a week, and I still loads of viable seeds. But now when I go to bed I look forward to checking in on those plants the next day. When they were vegging, I still felt that way, but I could look in on them whenever I wanted. Now they need that darkness and I have to wait, the plants get to tease me a little and make me want. ^_^

And yeah, when I wake up I make a beeline for the grow closet. If my bladder has reached critical mass overnight, I'll address that problem first, but otherwise it's right to the closet. And I get to see how much bigger my flowers have gotten overnight, and it's always been noticable so far. And I'm now able to say "Lllllllll-ladies", in that creepy, trying-to-pick-you-up-in-a-seedy-bar sort of way whenever I look in on the plants. And I have a lot of confidence back as a grower. Those first couple weeks of the 12/12 phase was about the only time I really doubted whether I knew what I was doing. I was worried I'd become yet another one of those guys who was able to make the plants veg for awhile, but couldn't properly mature them to harvest.

I admit I DID come here and start up this post with the expectation to wax philosphical over my plants a bit. But I like to get this stuff out sometimes, and it's not like I can talk about this on Facebook! Can't go over to livejournal with this one.

Oh, and I made cannabutter from my male plants. I made a batch of brownies that did nothing. I got a little cottonmouthed after eating several, but that's about it. But I may have baked them at too high a temp. I went with what was on the box, completely forgetting that you don't want to get any hotter than 350. It's PROBABLY because as far as THC, the plants just didn't have dick. But it's worth another go at the forum-recommended 325. Because I've heard stories of it working, and not working. And the butter didn't really affect the taste of the brownies much, so at worst I'll just have another pan of regular brownies. It's worth picking up another box of brownie mix next time I'm in town.

I thought I would put up a few photos today because the buds are starting to really grow.

First, I have my less-cramped grow closet. Although there are three fewer plants, it still looks like a wall of green when I look in on them. But you can get a look at a lot of the tops too.

Then I got one showing all the buds starting to form at every node on one of the tops there. I wish all my plants had that many nodes so close together. But a couple of my younger girls had to veg in a crowded closet against bigger plants, so they're a bit skimpier. Still, the one in this photo looks like a beautiful cola in the making.

And finally this third picture is probably a new favorite for me! That is, until next time when the flowers will be even BIGGER! It took me six months to figure out how to make my camera focus. But now that I know how, I can take really nice, close photos. It's gonna be a lot of fun to take pictures of these progressively bigger buds.

Wow...nice. They really do look great. You've restored my faith. With the heat problems I'm having, I was not really looking forward to my next grow but looking at these, I can't wait! I just love the lush green soooo much.

And really, those other plants going male did you a favor. I think we have about the same size space to work with and 6 was overwhelming once they started flowering. With the lack of light to the bottoms, I'm sure I would have had the same yield or probably more from 3 much happier, healthier plants that had more space, overall light and circulation.

Keep doing what you're doing. They look awesome. Oh, and wax away. I find myself wanting to do the same thing. I don't feel so nerdy when others do it, too.