noneed's first medical cfl grow w/pic

Here's my setup. Bought a pre-maid box, thinking it would cut back on start-up time, now I spent my wad wished I had gone with a grow, diy hydro DWC system, tent and a 250w hps/cfl combo custom setup. Will be slowly upgrading equipment as I can afford it. Added another air pump and the drip system plus the hanging lights. Also added a net a third of the way up the box which 2 of the 4 are growing into now.

Been vegging since March 20th clones doubling in size. Using mostly 6700k spectrum cfl's with a few 2700k for better spectrum mix. Will reverse lights when i flower. Using FoxFarm Hydro trio and Aquashield. Water in reservoir is changed weekly with sparklett's pre-ph'ed to 5.5 to 6.3 range sitting in grow area to maintain equal temps. Box stays in 35% to 50% humidity and 70's to 80 (at 80 I do something) with box always slightly open with small high cfm fan blowing in. No heavy breezing on plants though. Started clones on 1/4 strength nute regimen (based on bottle measurements). Now I have been adding about 1/4 teaspoon every 2 days of Big Grow and Tiger bloom to reservoir with only a very light indication of nutrient burn so I keep it there. Aquashield a little less than directed. Going to move into an A/C room soon as it gets real hot here early on.

Starting with 4 clones in a dwc/bubbleponics type setup. Its supposed to be an indica dominent hybrid called Grape/Ice I got from my wife's old uncle who works at a collective around me. Looks good growing so far very nutrient tolerant.

Going to flower soon but my question to folks is how soon should I to avoid overgrowing my box? Got some seedlings growing outdoors will add pics soon.

Edited by noneed4me2, 08 April 2012 - 04:00 AM.

Here is an update. Slowly increasing nute regimen. humidity keeps dropping lately. Any thoughts when I should go 12/12?

You can go 12 12 anytime. But most usually wait 30-45 days or when it reaches a foot tall

Thanx, waiting a full month but am new to hydro but so far so good. Biggest worry is overgrowing the space.

hi.

I would drop the screen down about 4 inches...or raise the rez up higher...it will make the plants fill the screen faster and save you a little veg time. Flip to 12/12 when the screen is about 75% full...review the grows I linked below and see how full their screens were when they flipped ...make sure you don't get trapped into the scrog though...make sure you have access to the rez later after the plants are all grown into it. Alot of ppl will just attach the screen to the rez/container so that the whole thing can be pulled out later for maintenance....something to think about.

add some more light if you can. What size bulbs are in there now?

You should read through these grows cuz they're similar to yours.
These are at ICmag-
- Aeroheads awesome aeroponic pc scrog

D.I.try's kickass hydro PC scrog

...

Thanx bongsauce I'm re thinking my whole lighting config for my next grow. Right now I am dealing with some nutrient burn but there doing alright. Tommorrow is a reservoir change so I will go a day or two with no nutes. All newer growth is fine just my older leaves showing the burn.

Arghh, got some more nutrient burn. Mainly isolated to the older foliage, all newer growth looks clean. Changed out a couple of the hanging cfl's from 13w to 26w. Now all hanging match with 26w, 2000 lumen, 6500k spectrum. Changing out my water tommorow already prepping new water batch. Going to go no nutes for the first couple days to see how it does. Reservoir and roots are still cool. PH has been dropping a little had to up it to 5.8; seems stable now. All other signs look good. Add pics later.

The stalks have gotten alot thicker and the net was haphazard and thrown in at the last minute. The lights are two inches above the uppermost foliage and I do get some heat stress up there. I am vegging another week from tomorrow for sure then playing it by ear from there (an exact month but I am adding a week for the plants to adjust to my setup). The net is acting more as the limit I want the side foliage to grow to which I have been lst'ing a few branches to fill in the unused spaces and adjusting the hangers to fill in some of the lower branches better and its working. Side branches pulled down are now twisting up towards the light in the unused space. I am still tweaking my nute regimen but I noticed my ph was dropping so my growth slowed and probably had some nutrient lockout. But all is still good.

Edited by noneed4me2, 10 April 2012 - 03:49 AM.

Update. Well things are bouncing back on my 4 girls. Got past the nutrient lock. Made some light adjustments and doing more lst'ing to get the lower branches some more light to better grow out the foliage. Roots are still awesome and I am getting some fresh growth from the netty basket not just in the reservoir. Got a new water source where the water ph is a perfect 6.0. I trimmed down some of the more heavily burnt/damaged foliage and am extending my veg time. I am now being alot more religious about ph control as the fox farm nutes seem to cause alot of ph fluctuations. Fine tuning is coming along. My main focus now is to limit upwards growth and wait for denser foliage till I flower (two weeks from, now fingers crossed).

My seedlings are doing well; pics included but I am not sure what will be culled do to sex/health whatever. Ones a keeper for sure which I successfully topped for the first time (thanx Rod), if its a male i will be so disappointed as it's got alot of vigor. All these seedlings were planted at the same time. Three have been culled so far and the 2 growing with Biggy are now companion plants to draw away predators till Biggy needs the space. I might grow him to term in soil but move him to my cab once this grow is done. The others in the pot by themselves seem nearly equals. My precious Humboldt xxx cross is being kept apart from the other random bagseeds. If all grow/goes well I will move both biggy and precious to my cab eventually for my first seedlings grow.

My brother is maybe going to try to get me a 150w or 250w hps to mount on top my box to enhance flowering. He was a grow master till he became domesticated but thankfully he and has been right by my side whenever I need some tips or info confirmation. I would love to open up a collective with him and my old ass hippy dad someday. Comments are welcome and yes I need better light just making do with what I have as best as I can for now.

Got my 150w hps light today. Will mount permanently tomorrow. All is well. Yanked the drip system but left in the water pump for circulation. Used a splitter and added a second airstone. Seems to have helped. PH levels now stay much more balanced. The drip system was an algae maker. I anticipate these plants are now to big to fully flower in this space effectively and am working on getting family to help put together a second box on the cheap and move the hydro setup in there and the soil plants to the smaller box. I am looking at 4.5'x2.5'x2.5' in size. Anyways here is some pics.

Been flowering for little over a week now. Bud sites popping up. Plants look real healthy and strong. Added a second air pump. Brother is working on getting me a second box with the dimensions of 5'x3'x2.5'. The plants have been fm'ed the crap out of them to keep upwards growth slowed and tying down branches has helped but I barely have 6 inches left of upward growth room even with the cfl's gone.

Nutes now include full strength regimen of the powdered stuff I got with the my box not sure what it is but it seems to work great. I supplement with the fox farm big grow and tiger bloom. Outdoor seedlings are also doing well and appear to be showing sex but I need a better camera to get a decent set of close ups. Been volunteering at my collective trimming and thats been a great learning experience. Also gives me access to many variety of strains and help give me ideas what would work well for a micro gro. Blue Dream is one I would like to try out some day.

P.S. The string on the light isn't there for support that's for something else. I made it so the light won't drop in unless you really wanted to destroy everything.

looking really nice good luck with the outdoor

Thanx for the attaboy Bongsauce. I hope to be able to attain your level of expertise and your warnings on cfl's was helpful. Happy I made it to flower without one breaking in my cab. Feel better that I moved to hps but I am getting a second cab so I will still be using cfl's to veg but I will take extra precautions. The guard you built around your light was smart. Droplights also have shroud/cages that could be utilized for the same effect if you removed them from the cords or bought separately. Anyways I'll be around.

Here's some new pics. Took some heat damage over a weekend I was away. Lost one clone, one is doing perfect and another is so-so. The one clone I transplanted to soil pot outside is flowering now. It was flowering strictly outside but being away at times I don't trust it being outdoors so I stuck nearly in the box with the door cracked. The hps should finish the job nicely.

Seedlings are doing well. Precious took a hit but she's already nearly fully recovered and vegging gently off by herself. Biggie lost the race for biggest seedling being overtaken by another bagseed; gotta figure out a new name. This sucker has some serious vigor. I pray to the weed gods everyday that these seedlings are girls.

My bro and dad are building me a bigger box 5'x3'x2.5'. My fisrt cab is 3'x20"x16" so it will eventually get relegated to veg for continuous grow. I will be getting a HID probably a switchable 250/400w hps setup for a little future proofing. Looking at HTGsupply as they have good prices and good rep (mostly).

Bad-sad news. The dwc setup is not practical with the sudden and devastating onset of summer. I was away for memorial day weekend and there was a brownout apparently and my room's A/C reset to off and basically it slow roasted my roots. I already trimmed them down and put them in the freezer. Now all I have is the one clone that is now doing great in soil. I will veg the seedlings for about 2 weeks or more then throw them in the box I am flowering the sole clone survivor (plenty of room now). I lost 2 seedlings that went male. Cut them down and added to trim. I have 4 seedlings left of unknown status, although Biggy is leaning towards female from a couple of opinions, plus Precious(OG xxx cross/unknown). I took Precious out to Long Beach so my bro and dad can grow her outdoors in the ground. Going to clone her if it is a she.

I am not to bummed about the loss though. Come to find out that the strain is pretty weak. The collective I trim at had some and it was bottom shelf stuff. There is a dispensary around the corner from me with some Afgan Kush clones for ten each so I will give that a try in soil only. They were nice and healthy looking. I threw together a cardboard veg box with panda film on the sides with a panda film'ed tote lid acting as psuedo reflector with my leftover CFL's. Seems to be working great. Have a large fan blowing in gently through the semi open top. Will add pics later. So all is not lost but I did suffer some harsh set-backs. I will keep growing till I get it right. Hopefully if all goes well I will have to new clones and a big bag of Fox Farm's Ocean Forest soil by Friday. I will save hydro for late fall/winter grows.

I will add updated pics once I get everything else together. Still working towards getting a light and some good 4" ventilation/Can Carbon filter for my bigger grow box which is coming along nicely. Going to run a Carbon Canister filter from the bottom of the box to the light-hood then out through the top with one of those professional grade fans. Then I am running 4-5" inch holes (2 in from bottom 2 out the top) and use 120mm PC fans for slow intake and slow exhaust.

Here's some pics. Okay got a clone of something called G13 from a local collective. Only one of the bunch looked well enough to buy but at ten bucks what the hell. Still wish I had one of those Afgan Kush clones but I am still happy. Got enough going now that once my other box is done I can flower the crap out of em for some decent yields. Started some seedlings too.

damn i'd be salty as hell if I lost those plants. Noticed you've got a couple plants in the same pot. You should transplant those bitches before they start getting there roots tangled and make it harder