Ignatz451's first CFL grow

Discussion in 'Indoor Grow Journals' started by Ignatz451, Sep 29, 2009.

  1. #1 Ignatz451, Sep 29, 2009
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 7, 2009
    Hello,

    I'm starting my journal a bit late, and have back-tracked a bit to start from the beginning. I am currently a little over 1 week into flowering, but have re-constructed the beginning of my grow from pics taken a few weeks ago.

    I am currently growing 4 plants from bagseed. 2 of them are on the 9th day of Flowering, and 2 others are still in veg. (I only have room for 2 plants in my Flowering box). All plants were sprouted on 8/8/09. I will be using FF soil/nutes, cfl's and LST.

    Enjoy!

    ***MESSAGE FROM THE FUTURE!***

    By the way, in an effort to aid any CFL growers who are curious about how this all turns out, my final harvest weight on my first plant was: 2 3/8 oz Dry.

    Read on to see how the other plants do.
    ----------------
    This is my first grow, and here is my set-up:

    2 52-gallon rubbermaid containers stacked-up, lined with light-proof foil tape.

    Lights:

    Vegging-
    10 26-watt 5500k cfl's
    3 23-watt 2700k cfl's

    =329 watts total

    Flowering-
    3- 65-watt 2700k cfl's
    11- 23-watt 2700k cfl's
    3- 26-watt 5500k cfl's

    =526 watts total

    I have a heat exhaust in the top corner, with a 160 cfm inline duct-fan to blow hot air out.

    I have 2 fans inside, blowing across the plants towards the exhaust. (1 small 5-inch desk fan mounted up high above the level of the lights, and 1 10-inch "air mover" fan from target, mounted low near the canopy, set on medium).

    Temps fluctuate between 75-88 degrees F.

    Soil:

    Equal parts Fox Farms Ocean Forest, Light warrior and Happy Frog, with 20% perlite.

    Nutes:

    Fox Farms Grow big, Big Bloom and Tiger Bloom, as well as the solubles Open Sesame, Beastie Bloomz and Cha-Ching.
    -----------------------------------------------------------

    Seeds sprouted in red cups on 8/8/09.Began feeding every other watering with 1/2 strength grow big and full-strength Big Bloom 3 weeks after sprouting.

    Here's some 3-week pics. 3 weeks after sprouting).
     

    Attached Files:

  2. #2 Ignatz451, Sep 29, 2009
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 29, 2009
    Here's 4-week pics from 9/5, lst began.
     

    Attached Files:

  3. Here's pics of the grow box, 2 52-gallon Rubbermaid containers stacked-up.

    The heat vent/160 cfm inline duct fan is mounted on the left, pointing up.

    There are 3 separate 4-inch air intakes on the right side, going up the side of the growbox.

    I'll post pics of the plants and the inside of the box tomorrow when I water/feed them.

    Sorry they are so dark! Not much light in here.
     

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  4. #4 Ignatz451, Oct 1, 2009
    Last edited by a moderator: Oct 1, 2009
    Hello all,

    Here I am, after 6 weeks veg and 10 days into flowering.

    I opened my flowering box last night to water the plants, and just about had a heart attack.

    The plant I suspect is a female was completely wilted.

    I had just checked the plants 18 hours before, checking the soil, and it seemed very dry, but decided to wait till the next night, as moving the lights so I can get at the plants is a hassle.

    I KNEW they needed water, but figured another 18 hours wouldn't be a big deal, so I closed the box and went to bed.

    Early the next evening, just as the lights came on, I opened-up the flowering box, only to see 1 bushy, probably-male plant, and a withered, droopy, hopefully female.

    The suspected Male was fine, so I pulled his pot out and watered it along with the droopy, hopeful female.

    When I looked closely, (and got some feedback from GC members), it became apparent that the suspected male plant was, indeed, a Male, so I murdered him.

    After thoroughly watering the barely surviving girl, I placed her back in the flowering box, alone, and hoped for the best.

    Here's a pic of my poor (hopefully) female, and a few pics of what my boy looked like before I murdered him.
     

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  5. ive got faith that shell spring right back up after being watered!

    good luck

    red
     
  6. Yeah man, definetly putting out positive vibes for your baby girl.

    She'll bounce back!
     
  7. No worries Ignatz she'll pull through with a little love. Best of Luck
     
  8. Lookin good man. Ill be watching! Hope she perks up and grows fat buds.
     
  9. #9 Ignatz451, Oct 1, 2009
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 2, 2009
    Thank-you ALL for your vibes!

    I just checked on the droopy plant. It's been 24 hours.

    I heard the lights click on, and walked over to the flowering chamber.

    I took a deep breath, and removed the top 52-gallon rubbermaid, not wanting to look-AND...

    HALLELUJIA! (sp?)

    It(she) Popped-back like nothing ever happened.

    So here I am, day 53 since sprouting, day 11 of flowering, and appear to have survived my first emergency, as well as recovered from the trauma of watching a beloved plant announce that he's a boy. (Later, dude).

    My lone plant now has all of the lights on her, (385-watts, cfl. Will add more lights later)
    and I hope will show her sex soon.

    I am continuing the feeding schedule of every other watering, using 1 tsp Grow Big, 3 TBLSP Big Bloom, 2 TBLSP Tiger Bloom, and 1/4 tsp Open Sesame. This will be the last feeding of Grow big.

    I've heard that females can lag behind males a bit, I hope that's true, but I guess I'll get what I get!

    Thanks for your support during this heart-wrenching time.

    Here's some pics from tonight, 24 hours after thinking it was dead.
     

    Attached Files:

  10. Nice! Great recovery! I've seen a few rubbermaid grows, but this is the first time seeing a light rig like yours - ingenious!

    BTW - hey Ignatz - where's Crazy Cat so you can throw a brick at her/him?
     
  11. #11 Ignatz451, Oct 1, 2009
    Last edited by a moderator: Oct 1, 2009
    Hello There!

    Here's some pics of the other 2 plants I have waiting in the wings to replace any males.

    It looks like one of them will be making the move to flowering soon.

    They are growing under my workbench, under 150 watts of cfl, 4 26-watters and 2 23-watters. (I had originally had 329-watts for my first 2 plants in veg, but I needed the fixtures for my flowering box. So far, they seem alright. Maybe I didn't really NEED 329-watts on those first 2 plants in veg? So I guess I'm cutting my vegging electrical bill by 50%, although I'd like to get 2 more lights in there, so there are 3 26-watt 5500K's and 1 23-watt 2700k over each plant.)

    *Incidentally, I'm using 5500k's instead of 6500k's only because that was all I could find at the time. They seem to be working just fine.

    These 2 plants were sprouted along with the other 2, but I intentionally left them in their small pots longer, so they are lagging behind a bit. (I transplanted the plant in the 2nd pic from its 1-gallon pots into its current current 3-gallon pot 1 week ago, at day 47 after sprouting. The plant in the last pic was transplanted from a red starter beer-cup 1 week ago into its current 3-gallon pot, and seems to be thriving despite being root-bound in that beer-cup for 47 days). I didn't have room for all of them in Flowering, but I didn't want to trash them, so I'm trying to slow them down a bit, with the intention of cycling them into flowering whenever any males popped-up.

    I don't know if this will put undue stress on them, but they seem to be doing fine so far, Day 53 of veg.
     

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  12. You are the only person to have EVER made that connection.

    Ignatz was my fathers nickname for me as long as I can remember, and I was 32 when I finally figured out the crazy cat/Ignatz thing.

    Strange comic.

    The lights were a problem, since there is no place to attach them in a rubbermaid.

    I made 2 "legs" for each side, which look like an upsidedown 'V", which sit on a ridge running around the inside of the tub.

    It's kinda like a little workshop "horse".

    Then, I just lay a stick across the tops of the 2 legs, and clamp the lights to them. (or wrap the cords around the stick, and clamp the lights to the cord. I can clamp them lower or higher-up the cord to adjust them, and keep them as close as possible without burning the plants..
     
  13. I feel compelled to provide something of a public service announcement to all grower's of the noob variety:

    Water your plants when they need it!

    If you feel the soil is dry down to the 2nd knuckle of your index finger, Water them!

    Don't wait till the next day.

    During the first few weeks of my first grow, I found I was watering too often, and the plants looked a little saggy. (I was watering every other day. The soil was MOSTLY dry 2 inches down, but it wasn't BONE dry.)

    Then, the other day, I only waited a few extra hours after knowing they needed water, and The plant drooped horribly.

    Anyway, It's good to see that these plants can bounce-back well!
     
  14. where can you get those triple light bulb things? I looked in my local hardware store and could not find them. :confused:
     
  15. All right.

    This isn't really about my grow, but it's my journal, and it's about the plants, or, rather, their trimmings.

    I haven't trimmed my plants, exactly, but whenever a leaf that I have lst'd under a branch becomes yellow or wrinkly, I just tear it off.

    I toss them in an empty pot, and recently noticed that I have a couple handfulls of dry, crumbly leaves.

    20 minutes ago, in my fevered, noobish brain, I imagined myself crumbling the leaves and packing a briar tobacco pipe with the crunchy leaves, and seeing what would happen.

    Then I did it.

    It's been about 10 minutes after smoking half a bowl of those dried leaves, and I'm kinda stoned.

    My head feels kinda stuffed with cotton, but the papery-thin leaves were VERY mild, not harsh at all.

    I've taken 3 tokes off this thing, and can TOTALLY feel it. Buzzed, not baked by any stretch, but it makes me wonder wether I should take a crack at making hash or oil or cannabutter or somesuch from the leaves.

    I realize that this a kinda lame rite of passage in noob-dom, but I have to believe that alot of first-time growers succumb to temptation and end-up smoking a few withered, dusty leaves from their first grow while waiting for buds.

    Has anyone else tried this?

    I'm a bit impresssed at how well a pipe full of old fan leaves is doing. I mean, ya gotta smoke a bunch, but it's smooth, and there's definitely something in it.

    It actually seems like the perfect thing to mix with rolling tobacco and roll into a cigarette, It's mild, and gives you a nice, relaxing "afterglow"-type high.

    Am I nuts?

    Who else has tried this?

    I KNOW you're out there.
     
  16. #16 Ignatz451, Oct 1, 2009
    Last edited by a moderator: Oct 1, 2009
    I got them at home depot.

    They are called "Y"-splitters or something, and they cost about 2 bucks a piece.

    If you put 3 in 1 light socket, (1 in the original socket, then 1 more in each of the new sockets), you can have 4 bulbs in 1 socket.

    They are pretty easy to find, I believe.

    They're really great. Every cfl grower needs a couple handfulls of these things.
     
  17. Okay,

    It's day 13 of flowering.

    Its been 3 days since discovering one of my plants was male, destroyed him, and thought I almost killed my supposed female by thirst.

    I watered the surviving plant with FF nutes, (2 Tblsp Big Bloom, 2 tsp. Tiger Bloom, 1/4 tsp Open Sesame), last night.

    I also believe that this plant is indeed a female!

    Here's some pics-
     

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  18. I haven't tried it but hey I'm up for anything haha.
     
  19. Try it.

    Maybe I'm nuts, you tell me.

    Maybe I've just been without so long. Anyway, food for thought!
     
  20. I'm no expert but I'd have to agree with you and say that it's a girl! So that being said Congrats sir!:hello:
     

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