Urgr8estfear 2nd FLURO ONLY soil grow - start to finish.

[urgr8estfear]

Hi everybody, after my first fluro grow :

http://forum.grasscity.com/general-indoor-growing/91096-needs-professional-assistance-flowering.html

it's time for me to try again.
With a few tweeks ofcourse, or better say upgrades.

First off I got rid of the foil and painted my box white on the inside. Looks a lot better I'd say!

Last grow I used only 6x18W cool white (3300K) 2 foot fluro tubes.
Because this time I want bigger buds faster I double the power.
6x18W Philips Genie CFL (2700K) are added, three on each side of the 2 foot tubes :



and


So now I'm running 12x18W of power = 216W.

One problem I ran into with my last grow was the temperature.
During a heat wave my room temp goes past 35C and the difference between room temp and box temp was about 10C making the box a soaring 45C.
This is a problem, for the thermal protection on the tubes ballasts kick in and off go the lights.
Ofcourse the meager 2x 50CFM 9 cm PC fan ventilation system I used was crappy to begin with.

So, a bit of handywork seemed in order :


Again more power. 1x 30 cm 30W fan. The 9 cm fans drew 3W each, so this sucker is 5 times as powerful and many more times efficient. I don't know the CFM or maybe even CYM rating of this sucker but if I leave the door of my growbox open by 4 inches the fan will suck it closed. LOL. I guess this will suffice. The difference between room temp and box temp have dropped to about 5 degrees C, which I will improve on further by making the intake hole larger.

Ofcourse with all this tech stuff goes some life.
I planted 12 seeds in general potting soil by hand the old fashioned way, 1-2 cm deep.
Look at them after 5 days, it seems I have suffered only 1 fatality thus far :



Yes, yes, I know they look like there stretching but thats because I germinated in a shaded area of my house. It's getting proper light since yesterday.

I can't wait to see what this grow will yield/teach me, since I've improved my grow box on three important points.

Yippy! I'm growing again!

[cantgetenough]

Good luck hope, it's a better result than last time

[urgr8estfear]

Hey dude! The last time I got 25 grams of a single plant.
That's not so bad for a first timer but ofcourse it can be done better.

Lets say I end up with 5 females giving me 30 grams each then I'd be the happiest guy on the planet. 150 grams will keep me smoking for a few months allowing me to grow 5 more plants.

My goal is to grow what I smoke and buy nothing except some seeds sometimes.
This setup will allow me to do that or come close I guess....

[nicho69]

yee i will follow this grow m8
if you want to beef up your yield i suggest you invest in a hps , you'll thank me later. fluoros are great for vegging but for flowering they lack the power to give you some nice big fat buds .

anyways good luck with your grow

[Homergrower]

Plants look like they are stretching abit .,
Can you move the fluro's down or move the kids up...
They need to be about and inch or two off the tops..

Good luck.,

[urgr8estfear]

Originally Posted by Homergrower

Plants look like they are stretching abit .,
Can you move the fluro's down or move the kids up...
They need to be about and inch or two off the tops..

Good luck.,

Ahhhh, you are one of those look-at-the-pictures-only type of grower right?

Originally Posted by urgr8estfear

.....Yes, yes, I know they look like there stretching but thats because I germinated in a shaded area of my house. It's getting proper light since yesterday......

HPS?

Originally Posted by nicho69

yee i will follow this grow m8
if you want to beef up your yield i suggest you invest in a hps , you'll thank me later. fluoros are great for vegging but for flowering they lack the power to give you some nice big fat buds .

anyways good luck with your grow

No offense but I think HPS is too easy.
I'm tech-happy so I need stuff to thinker with and with fluro's I can mod or customize until I .....start smoking.

I like totally modular customizable bulb arrays.
And really, 14400 fluro lumes will do the trick on a 8 sq. feet surface.
If not I'll start decorating the walls or floor of my growbox.

[PropheCy604]

How many plants did you had in your first grow?

How many onces did you got with it?

[ctcoyote16]

Originally Posted by PropheCy604

How many plants did you had in your first grow?

How many onces did you got with it?

He said 1 plant, which yielded 25 grams

[urgr8estfear]

8 days old :

2 fatalities. (1 seed didnt change at all like its made of stone, the other 1 rots)
1 comatose (1 cm high. nice green color. no growth for 3 days .....)
9 remain with 4 that 'rest' on the side of the cup their in due to stretching right after germination. 5 are doing OK.

It appears some of them have stretched too much already during the first few days.
The weight of the leaves that grow on them bends the stem.
This is because the leaves gain mass quicker then the stem strengthens, at least for now. I will either repot deeper in a pot, lst or use a stick to support the 4 that need it.

See for yourself :

[DierWolf]

You did very very well in your first grow, dont let anyone take that away from you, you did magnificent for Flours and your LST work was great.

Will be looking at this journal carefully.

[TheTsunami]

i was having second thoughts on my cfl grow until i saw this... i have 4x23 watt cfls on my plant and will be getting 2-4 more maybe higher wattage .. what spectrum cfls did u you get?

[urgr8estfear]

Originally Posted by DierWolf

You did very very well in your first grow, dont let anyone take that away from you, you did magnificent for Flours and your LST work was great.

Will be looking at this journal carefully.

O wow Dier, such a compliment from a experienced grower like you means alot to me!
Thanks buddy!

[urgr8estfear]

Originally Posted by TheTsunami

i was having second thoughts on my cfl grow until i saw this... i have 4x23 watt cfls on my plant and will be getting 2-4 more maybe higher wattage .. what spectrum cfls did u you get?

The 3300K fluro tubes I used (read above) have this spectrum :



The 2700K Philips Genie CFLs have this :



I read somewhere that the optimum wavelength for vegging is around 440 nm.
For flowering its supposed to be around 660.
Your plants can use allmost all available light between 400-700 nm but the efficiency of green light is pretty much 0%.

I chose the tubes initially because they cover a lot of frequencies, including a nice peak right on 440 nm. Many fluros have this and its exactly why vegging under fluro's for clones and stuff is pretty popular (but not nearly as popular as it should be, I still see people using only HPS for vegging)

I chose the CFLs for longer wavelength frequencies = more red. This will make for a better yield in respect to my first grow. Stick around and see what it does!

[urgr8estfear]

Day 10





Wowie. My plants have auto-repair.
From the four that were leaning on the cup, all but one have re-erected themselves, no longer being supported by the edge of the plastic cup.

I'm not sure if I'll ever use these types of cups to germinate.
They are way taller when they are wide.

I have watered my seeds 10 days ago so the top part of the soil in the cup is bone dry shrinking 1 cm in diameter already (yes I pressed the earth in the cup before seeding/watering) but the bottom half of the cup is still wet. I can still see drops of water attached to the side of the cup.

Question : Is this because the height/width ratio of the cup is > 2:1? Or does the bottom half of the soil always stay wet and I've never noticed it because I've never used transparent cups before?

[Dipper14]

if you still have those pc fans you could get them to blow on the plants, and then the stems will strengthen