Micro Cfl Scrog newbie (GDP, legal CA 215)

Whats goin on guys?

This is my first grow, I got my baby almost 3 weeks ago. Shes been in her new pot for about 2 weeks.

Im growing 1 Grand daddy purple in a pot that is about a gallon in size.

I got the gdp from my local dispensary and am growing legally as a medical patient in california.

My cab is about 14"x14"x22"
-the actual grow space isnt much, ive got about 7 inches from the screen to the top of the lights (once i move the lights into position for flowering)

I am using the scrog method, i found a little dishwashing rack or something that somehow was the PERFECT size to fit my cab and cover my plant. The spacing is about 1.5"x1.5" for the squares (little small for my taste but it seems to work)


I am growing using fox farms ocean forest. Because this is just a small grow and i have so much restricted space I am not using any VEG nutrients besides Big Bloom which i just started feeding today at 1tsp per 1/4 gallon. (i only water about 1/8th of a gallon so i cut my measurements way down)


Aside from some slight burning from what i assume was transplant shock the thing has been looking good and growing along.

Based on how it looks im thinking i will flip it to flower in about a week or two hopefully no longer than 2 weeks. I want to switch it when the screen is about 75% full. The way the cab is its hard to get the lights even across the canopy so i cant fill out the side of the screen as much. im trying to focus all growth from front to back in the middle.


Currently I have 4 white cfls in there i think they are 24 watt or 26 cant remember. I also have 1 2700k bulb in there just because it fits and adds a little heat (its cold in the winter!)

I plan to use 1 55watt and then 2 24watt 2700k cfls for flower with 1-2 more 24watt 6500k cfls depending on how much space i have with my power strips (that 55watt is bigggg hah my plan is to try and focus the 55watt over the nicest bud site.)

Lastly, I am using a pretty big pc fan (way more money to buy an adapter so i just got a fat one that could be wired to a regular wall socket, not my first time wiring something either) The fan moves about 63cfm which so far is just perfect. Dont have a thermometer or anything but temp seems perfect. I also have 2 inlet holes at the bottom, passive, might cut a third if i need to.

Havent light proofed it yet, taking suggestions, currently thinking im just gunna get some 4-6" ducting and use some duct tape to seal around the fan intake/exhaust holes and run the venting around the sides of the box to trap light. Ill figure that out in the next week or two, it keeps me from flowering too early if its not light proof lol

So yeah ill post some pictures like once a week maybe more, i havent been keeping a very good journal based on dates and stuff so consider this my journal for personal use as well as to show everyone and get help lol

Pictures will be uploaded soon need to get this all set up and organized i havent really posted pictures of it except in ahelp thread.

Hope to harvest right after christmas. Merry christmas to me right? hah also her name is CRYSTAL and shes one sexy girl

 

yeah i originally wanted to try and fit 150watts but i dont know if thats gunna happen. Im gunna ditch the y splitter soon and just use single plugs and line them up on the strip. If i do it that way i am guaranteed 125watts (3 x 24 watt on each side) and it will spread the light out more evenly.

The y splitter right now has the lights too far past the middle and forces me to light the back more than the front (which works because i bent the stem backwards so for now it works)


Ideally i can get the 55watt over the middle, then opposite it 2 24 watts (the 55 will basically prevent me from using the 3 sockets on the power strip across from the light) but even then i got 100 watts in there plus the 1-2 extra lights im going to try and fit on the same strip as the 55 watt. Hard to visualize but ill get some pictures of my set up soon lol. Ill be sure to check out your grow

 

ok picture time, theres going to be a lot of them haha


Heres some pictures of my cab











here she is the first day i got her. So cute lol 10/10/10 lol good luck i hope




here she is with the screen a few days later after transplant (notice the burning, took out 2 leaves but eventually stopped and it wasnt present on the new growth) 10/13/10




took her out of the box around the same time as the burning, she kinda stopped growing 10/13/10




here she is a few days later at about 1.5 weeks after i got her when the transplant shock finally evened out and new growth looked healthy and she started to take off




Here she is almost 2 weeks old maybe? I cant remember lol



day or two later (last days out of the box)






HERE SHE IS TODAY! 10/29/10 this is about an hour after a watering with her first real dose of big bloom







Stem slowly turning green, used to be red and stressed!!!




mmmm fresh growth that finally isnt red lol also a good look at how she is adjusting her branches to get light, going to train all these ones to fill out the edges





and heres some random club dank i got




random salad bowl of the A4 and purple rain. That purple rain was fucking dank. Smelled so amazing with a little hint of coffee. Definitely a good evening smoke. the random unlabeled one is trainwreck that had a nice spicy smell to it. Definitely good. Going to the club today and getting some topshelf 20$/g after tax. Ill post up some pics or something they usually have some amazing top shelf.

 

yeah at first i did but i originally didnt plan to find that specific set upfor my screen and i also didnt plan on having as much room as i ended up with because of the way i had the lights. Plus at the time i wasnt able to find any long pots that were short enough to fit in because like i said ive only got 14 inches wall to wall. I think 1 pot will be enough for this, hopefully it wont get root bound and cause me problems.

Honestly this is like a bare bones grow. Im doing it for fun, for practice, and im keeping it small to be somewhat low key and sneaky.

If this grow goes well then im going to build a little 2'x2'x3or4' pvc grow box and just wrap it in mylar and put a velcro slit for a door and use a 150watt hps with those cfls i have now as side lighting maybe. I only plan to reuse the nutrients, power strips, fan, and knowledge for my next grow which is why i didnt worry TOO much about how this cab got built and where everything is placed. Its all pretty ghetto but lightproof minus the ventilation (have a plan) and the door (just need velcro so i can get rid of the ghetto electrical tape ive been using lol)



UPDATE! I just checked in on her after going to the gym and doing some other random stuff. In just 4 hours from watering and feeding she looks waaaay better than earlier. A bunch of new little growth that was just droopy strengthened up and started stretching out of the screen. Im thinking it needed water which is why it sprang to life but i dont think the nutrients hurt lol

Question though: Can I feed bigbloom every watering or should i use plain water in between? I only plan to veg 2-3 more weeks and when i flip it to flower, the week before im going to just use water and use a little more than normal to try and flush anything out before i start feeding a reduced big bloom (.5 tablespoon/gallon) with a half strength (1teaspoons/gallon) of tiger bloom for the first week of flower. Then i plan to alternate nutrients with water and after the first half strength im going to increase to 1 tablepoon/gallon big bloom and 2teaspoons/gallon tigerbloom and adjust as she responds to either increase or decrease them

 

UPDATE WITH PICTURES!


here she is today shes really responded well to the nutrients I gave her. The growth is a little tiny bit exaggerated because anywhere she had branches poking out through holes in the screen and scooped all her leaves out instead of tucking them so she could get better sunlight to her new growth.

I also changed my light set up a little bit. Its not the most even spread of light but in the next day or two im going to be getting a 6th light, i just need another single socket. Also decided to ditch the 55watt if walmart will let me return it. Im going to just do 6 2700k 26 watt cfls, way better spread of light and the same if not more wattage that wouldnt be possible with the bulky ass 55watt


ok now for the PICTURES

 

yeah I plan to let her go another week or so, i dont want her to fill out TOO much screen but shes definitely not there yet. The bulk of the buds are going to be in the middle and back middle because thats the way her top is bending. once she starts flowering im going to try and concentrate the back branches towards the middle and the middle ones toward the front.

Shes going to be pretty bulky in the middle because she grew in the middle of the screen (when i get more room ill definitely be starting my girls more towards the corner to train across the screen or lst and grow in the middle of the screen) Im not too disappointed for being a first timer with growing and training though, she is slowly filling the screen out but im not expecting too many bud sites for how small the area is.

But yeah when i said 6 2700k bulbs i meant WHEN i flower, i will be using 6 26watts vs the 1 55watt with like 2 supplement i originally planned. Thanks for the advice though, reinforces everything ive read. im leaning towards flowering her earlier rather than later because a less filled screen is much less work than an over filled screen

 

yeah man i want to let this thing go as long as i can, just worried about room really. Hopefully i time it right, ill be stoked to get anywhere from 1/4-1/2oz in the end

 

looking good so far man, ill have to check back in a week or two when those babies have grown a bit. Im looking to get a set up similar to yours next year when i get a new place to live. Have to keep it kinda small and low key where im at now but its definitely good practice and something fun to do

 

So today, not gunna lie she doesn't look as happy as she has. A lot of her lower leaves seem a little droopy which makes me think she is thirsty. I gave her a pretty good watering the other day and im not used to have to water her this soon which makes me think she might not be thirsty.

I checked the soil how I always do, the top half inch is definitely dry but then after that im struggling to decide whether the soil is damp or just cooler any deeper than half an inch. It definitely is barely damp if it is at all its just hard to tell and im scared to overwater her which is why im not watering her right when i see the droop and feel the dry soil.

Its also confusing because I gave her nutrients for the first time (big bloom, not a crazy amount nothing that should have burned her) and she respondes well as i posted before so im thinking maybe all this new growth is contributing to the dry soil and maybe i just need to water more often, im used to 5+ days without water and now that its been like 2 and a half she looks thirsty.

What do you guys think? ill attach a picture to show you.



Another problem im noticing is darkening almost black tips on like 3 leaves, some minor discoloration on the edges of like 2 leaves which i have no idea what it is but its not too big of a problem and mostly effects older leaves



Lastly, is it ok to cut tips off some leaves to help bring light to the lower leaves that are small and developing slowly? I have some big bulky leaves in the middle that are old and damaged from the transplant shock still slightly (they arent getting better ever) so i cut the tips probably half way on like 2 different leaves but only on like 2 fingers of each leaf.
To go along that subject, when i want to remove a full leaf, is the goal to cut as close to the branch it came from?



pictures

heres the droop notice the lower leaves, they used to stand perfect straight out now they are droopy and hanging

another view here





ok here is the best picture i could get of the darkening, its light on the edges of this leaf as well. (also the shape of the leave is how it grew, it was a weird leaf lol)



And now happy pictures to show how its been growing, now that its bigger its a lot easier to Scrog because i can see where all the branches are forming and its way easier to direct them towards individual squares. going to be a bitch when she flowers lol way too little space and im so gentle it takes forever

 

Well I gave her a good Ph balanced watering last night and this morningshe was definitely trying to thank me by looking good for me. Based on how mjuch shde perked up and grew lastnight I think my next watering will be when I make the switch to 12/12. If I had trained her better and had a little more time/room id lether go a little more but id rather underfill my screen than overfill.

Going out to get some dryer ducting today hopefully along with some more 2700k bulbs, a socket, and some flowering nutes. So excited


just took some picture and added a 6th light. Output is now right around 150watts might be a little over, got 4 6500k and 2 2700k (just didnt wanna buy more 6500k right before flower)

She looks very very happy today and definitely enjoys the added cfl, she perked up even more once i threw that in there. Im very happy with my light spread as well, little nervous about heat but that will be resolved 100% when i move the lights up because they will be at level with the exhaust.
Tomorrow ill be getting some dryer venting and lightproofing the cab to test how the heat changes before flowering this weekend hopefully.

looking good leaves 10x better then yesterday


new light set up


Trying to show the growth overall on the screen, best part is the very back had a lot more poking up i just tucked it down and split it so half went left and half went right


closeup



enjoy guys

 

No love?

 

thanks man, ive been tucking everything as soon as it gets long enough to be able to poke up in the next square over.

I gotta say growing is a great little hobby, its so much fun!

Definitely going to check out your journals

 

bleh im feeling like i might need to remove one of the lights. Its getting pretty warm in there although with the winter coming soon temperatures are going to be dropping pretty quick and i do like my room cold at night so that might fix it. Still once i put the ducting on to light proof it all i guess ill really see how warm it gets