How are my plants doing? Lighting suggestions, etc

[grapefruit]

Hey guys I just started a little setup in a cab and I want to know your opinions on my plants' health and if there is anything else I should be doing right now. Specifically, should I buy an HPS or will my cfls be sufficient?

I've got two 42w soft light cfl's about 2 inches from my plants and I just started an 18/6 cycle today, coming off 10 days+ of 24/7. The plants are 2 northern lights and 2 PPP feminized.

Aside from general recommendations and opinions, I'm wondering if it's worth it to get an HPS for the 18/6 cycle. The cab isn't huge and the two fans are just 120mm case fans, so I'm concerned about heat. I know you guys love to recommend hps whenever possible, but I'm just not sure I will be able to keep it cool enough once the weather gets warm, or even far enough from the plants, once they grow a bit more. (It's a 2 foot tall cab, and the soil level is about 6 inches off the floor.)

I'm hoping to transplant and flower these girls outside, so I really just made this setup to get them as far as I could before having to take 'em out.

Let me know what egregious errors I've made so far, and what I can/should do right now.

Thanks.

P.S. The pics are a little old; the big pot is now the same size as the others, the cfls are down to about 2" from the plants (were 10-11" away), and the camera's autoexposure makes it look a lot dimmer than it actually is.

[thosevacanteyes]

Use Daylight CFL's for vegging.

Softwhite for Flowering.

Those look like soft white to me.

http://forum.grasscity.com/general-i...cfl-guide.html

-C

[Skarecrow]

use both types of light both daylight and soft white trusssst me

anywho they look fine

[dadoc420]

yeah they look fine
delete ur other thread

[Akens_aus]

yeh not looking to bad mate, raise your pots with bricks or something aye ya plants stretching. suss my grow. check how the leaves reach for the light not the stem

[grapefruit]

Originally Posted by marygoround

Sounds like the CFL's are too far away. Is there any stretching? I keep my CFL's about 1 1/2 inches away from my plants. Have fans blowing, so they are cool to the touch. Also, if you are going to transplant outdoors...the flowering season isn't right now, so you will have to wait till the (12/12) months, or you can cover them with black garbage bags. I'd say 2 foot size cab is too small.. My plant vegged for 3 weeks about and in it's 1st week of flowering and is a foot and a half tall already. Factor in soil height, plant height+, and distance from lights.

I'd say veg for as long as possible and stick that baby outside. If you can veg it from now till sept., you shall have huge rewards . But if you can't, keep them in the cab for about a month, or until growing room runs out, then put them outside, or get a flowering cab.

Thanks marygoround, and thanks for the suggestions guys.

I'll try to get daylight cfls; these were the biggest at homedepot and I remembered reading softwhite were good--didn't think it was for flowering only. I'll try to mix 'em up but have more daylight cfls.

Thanks again.

[marygoround]

Originally Posted by grapefruit

Thanks marygoround, and thanks for the suggestions guys.

I'll try to get daylight cfls; these were the biggest at homedepot and I remembered reading softwhite were good--didn't think it was for flowering only. I'll try to mix 'em up but have more daylight cfls.

Thanks again.

No problem. Best of luck with your grow .

[grapefruit]

OK a little update guys. I bought 4 30w daylight cfls (in addition to the 2 42w softwhites) = 204w. Suffice it to say that it's gotten a little more brighter now. Check out the pic and let me know if you have any other suggestions, and if 1 HPS would be better.