First ever grow... any tips? (pix)

[The E Man]

Ok, trying to grow some purple haze and just got started. My setup is in the basement. I've read through all the stickys and think I'm doing well so far...

From the pics, anything obvious that I'm doing wrong?

The lights I have: (and I'm an idiot when it comes to watts/lumens/etc)
Total of four 2 foot plant grow fluorescents... 750 lumens each (3000 lumens total)
and two 75 watt equivelant fluorescent bulbs that only use 19 actual watts

The whole light rig is on chains that can be raised/lowered/etc.

Plenty of airflow and good temps...

Just waitin for them to grow...

Any suggestions or am I on the right track?

[vincent47]

hello Eman I wish I lived in COwhat kind of soil are you using it looks a little barky? For how many plants you have you'll need more lighting(100 watts per plant)especially during flower.

[The E Man]

My wife's the one in charge of the soil, she takes care of the "outside" garden, so she decided she should be in charge of the "inside" garden too!

Anyways here's a pic of what soil we're using:

It's a 70/30 mix of the two... 70% of the bag on the left, and 30% of the right.

[The E Man]

Ok, here's an update... 3 weeks from the last post, about 5 weeks total so far.

Seems like we should be further along than this by now, but again I'm new to this.

Definite odor coming from this area (smells sooo fuckin good)... any ideas on how to keep the odor down?

We lost two of the seven, but it looks like we have 5 healthy plants going.
Also we upped the lighting to more than 100 watts per plant.

[theVirtuoso]

Everything looks healthy, but like stated before, you are going to need more lighting.

good luck on the grow, you seem to be doing very vell so far.

[The E Man]

More lighting?

I currently have 5 x 100 watt bulbs, plus 4 x 2' fluorescents (not sure how much wattage they give out). I thought 100 watts per plant was ok? How much more should I use??

[IslandMon]

100watts per plant is a minimum. And that is talking actual watts, not the incandescent equivalent. So if the CFL says 19watts=75 watts...you have 19watts!

Based on your 1st post
So my adding says you have;
4X2foor bars = 80watts
and
2X19 CFL's = 38watts

Grand total 118 watts...about enough light to grow 1 plant.

You say you have 5x100 watt bulbs...are you sure, or is that equal to incandescent power???

Also, what is the light spectrum you are using?? If your not sure it should hopefully say on the packing. Your looking for a # in thousands of K, lol, sounds funny. Typical CFL options include 2700k, 6000k, 5000k...what you got??

[The E Man]

Ok, I have five daylight bulbs and the packaging says daylight 6500K on it. Also it says the light output per bulb is 1600 lumens whatever the hell that means.

I no longer have the packaging for the 4 two footers, so I'm not sure what it might have said.

With the fluorescent daylight bulbs, it says that they equal the light output of a 100 watt bulb, they just use less electricity to do it. I looked to see what the light output (lumens) on a standart 100 watt bulb was, and it was about the same in terms of lumens... are you saying that one of these won't give me the same effect of a standard 100 watt bulb that gives off the same # of lumens?

[IslandMon]

From the look (not a great way) of the floro tubes they are 5000-6500, other wise they look a bit redish...yours look white or blue..thats good for veg.

What I am saying about the wattage of the CFL's is very easy. When people tell you you need 100 watts per plant...they mean ACTUAL watts, not the =100 incandescent.
We are not talking lumens here, only wattage. They are very different.

You want to get to 100 watts of the actual wattage...so your 100watts really =20-30 watts...should say on package.

I just don't want you thinking you have 200 watts of light power on a plant when you honestly have only 2 20 watt lights! Your plant will not like you for a very long time with only 40 watts...let alone 5! If you KNOW you have all females, are you going to keep and flower them all?? If so, your going to need a TON of CFL's.

I use CFL's too, but I got 3 hi power ones, 1 150 watter that uses a mugul socket, and 2 125 watters using same mogul base. I also use a single 4foot strip, and 2 42 watt CFL's...FOR 1 PLANT!

Not trying to lecture you bro, just want you in the know too!!!!

[The E Man]

I appreciate the help... really, I do...

It sounds like I need to get more lighting! Off to home depot again... I'll post an update once I've upgraded...

I believe what you're telling me, but can someone help me to understand something tho? I am not an electrician, but want to understand just a little more about watts vs. lumens... for example:

If watts are a measurement of energy used by the bulb, and
lumens are a measurement of energy/light output by the bulb,
why don't we need to focus on the lumens since that is what the plants receive?

What I'm having a hard time understanding is that if a 26w CFL gives off the same amount of light or lumens as a regular 100w bulb, why does is matter how many watts you use to generate the lumens?

Thanks again for all the help...

[vincent47]

I don't think it does matter how you produce the light.The only thing that matters is color spectrum and lumens. More watts=more lumens, but the more efficient the light is(more lumens per watt) the better it is. HPS and Metal Halide produce a lot of lumens per watt compared to other lights.

[The E Man]

So if I'm currently producing 11,000 lumens, what would be the appropriate # lumens for five plants?

Also, I missed another question from IslandMon... I don't know if they're all female yet or not. A friend suggested that if it works out I should take 1 male and 1 female and separate them and let them germinate for the seeds... is that easily done? And how far should I take the males so that they don't interfere with the females that I will take to flower?

[vincent47]

well a good 400 watt HPS(which is for flower) produces 55,000 lumens.I think your plants will do fine for veg. it just depends on how good of yield you want. You could a HPS that comes with a metal halide conversion bulb if you want stronger veg period.I would just put the male in another room under low amount of light and collect the pollen.I can't tell, but you might be able to put your CFL's closer like 3 inches away.Are you using a fan?

[The E Man]

YEah we have a fan on about 1/2 of the day.

Looked at the HPS bulbs, not cheap but appears to be worth it. How close can you get to the plants with the HPS? I'm assuming they produce quite a bit of heat. I'll move the CFL's closer.

After collecting the pollenating the one female, can it be put back with the other females or is there a chance she could 'share'...?

Thx again...

[vincent47]

There's a chart somewhere on these forums saying how far you need to keep HPS away forgot where do a search. Some HPS have cooling units built in.Some of ebay's HPS are cheap, but I'd be careful since I've heard of raids happening as result of light purchases.You can collect pollen from a male in a baggy or something and just pollinate the buds you want with a paintbrush or something.one male(kinda confused by your question you collect pollen from male to grow seeds on female) should be more than enough to pollinate 4 females you don't want a buncha seedy bud do you one pollinated bud should give you lots.