just started to grow my first batch.

I have always wanted to grow buds since I was a teenager, and tried in the past but they would never survive past the seedling stage. I found about 8 seeds from a decent stash of buds I got lately and decided to germinate them by putting them in a glass cup with water and left them in the dark for about 4 days until the root grew about an inch. Anyways... I'm using a compact florescent light that use to belong to my old 55 gallon salt water tank, and the plants are growing but they still aren't big as I thought they would be after starting since October. I made the mistake of keeping them with 12 hrs light but just bumped them up to 16 hrs.... I will end up doing 18/6.

Here are a few pics. Any advice would be appreciated.

first rule with first time growers let the plant tell you what to do not you give the plant orders if you do this you will be successful.

how many watts of cfl are you running? the good news is that your leaves look healthy, but they are stretching quite a bit. you will need more light and the stretching is a sign of this. they are growing tall trying to find a stronger source of light. go to home depot and pick up the 2 pack of 27 watt cfls for 7 bucks. if you run 4 of those you are golden. also, since you changed your light schedule from 12/12 to 18/6 the growth is going to slow down tremendously for a little while. the good news is that becuase of the 12/12 cycle you may have caused them to show their sex and you can eliminate the males! happy growin!

asdewqasdfgh said:

how many watts of cfl are you running? the good news is that your leaves look healthy, but they are stretching quite a bit. you will need more light and the stretching is a sign of this. they are growing tall trying to find a stronger source of light. go to home depot and pick up the 2 pack of 27 watt cfls for 7 bucks. if you run 4 of those you are golden. also, since you changed your light schedule from 12/12 to 18/6 the growth is going to slow down tremendously for a little while. the good news is that becuase of the 12/12 cycle you may have caused them to show their sex and you can eliminate the males! happy growin!

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I don't think they are too stretched they are growing bigger by the day... My light source is from a coralife 10,000K 96 WATT & it has actinic 96 Watt but that is turned off, should I use that or get another 10,000?. I would imagine it's already around 27 watts... I may also add UVB lighting that they sell in pet stores for reptiles that will fit in my coralife fixture.

youre on track with the blue colored lighting. thats great for veg, then more of the red spectrum is better for flowering. dont spend too much $$$ on uvb lighting at pet stores, daylight cfls are just as good for plants the stretching isnt bad, they look quite healthy.

whats that other plant on the bottom left?

asdewqasdfgh said:

whats that other plant on the bottom left?

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Mother of a thousand... I read on this site "3000K for bloom, and 6500K for veg. What about 96 watts.... is that adequate for now?

update pics

bump... bump... bump...

odysseus said:

Mother of a thousand... I read on this site "3000K for bloom, and 6500K for veg. What about 96 watts.... is that adequate for now?

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96 watts and 6500/3000k are measuring different things. 96 watts measures how powerful your lights are. the ####K (or number or kelvins) represent the colour spectrum of light you are working in. the higher numbers are the blue light spectrum which is the kind of light the earth gets in the spring (good for veg). lower kelvins (red spectrum) come on stronger in the fall and are good for flowering. as for your stretch, try putting the lights closer to your plant. flourescent lights dont give alot of heat so you can put them really close and get tightly spaced nodes which is one of the nice things about CFLS. keep it up!

MasterAce said:

96 watts and 6500/3000k are measuring different things. 96 watts measures how powerful your lights are. the ####K (or number or kelvins) represent the colour spectrum of light you are working in. the higher numbers are the blue light spectrum which is the kind of light the earth gets in the spring (good for veg). lower kelvins (red spectrum) come on stronger in the fall and are good for flowering. as for your stretch, try putting the lights closer to your plant. flourescent lights dont give alot of heat so you can put them really close and get tightly spaced nodes which is one of the nice things about CFLS. keep it up!

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So I ended up going to Lowes and purchasing 2 x 100watt CFL at the 6500K in addition to my 10K CFL with a very reflective blanket which is taped around all the lights safely & securely. I'm hoping that this method will increase my plants to grow... I just have to make sure they are watered accordingly. Any other advice? I also saw in Lowes they had 3500K CFL's which Im going to purchase when it's time for flowering... I think im still way off... could anyone tell me how far along my plants are?