hey everyone, i recently started another grow (Another CFL Grow!), but i completely shit the bed on that attempt, so I'm trying again now that my box is pretty well finished. Dimensions of the growing section are 23 3/8" H x 13 3/4" D x 10 1/16" W, with a utility section on top of that. total growing height is 19" from the floor to the closest the plants can get to the lights, minus the height of the final pot to be transplanted into (still to be found, recomendations on what to use would be appreciated). i have 4, 23 watt, 6500k bulbs in there for veg, and will be using 4, 23 watt, 3000k for flower. for fans i have 3 small 70mm fans all wired together and has an adapter to plug into a usb port (taken out of a small laptop cooling pad), which is plugged into my phone charger. at 5 volts it is rated at 36 cfm (charger puts out 5.1 volts). 2 seeds that i got from a buddy have just been dropped in a shot glass full of water, which i put into an empty margarin container, and placed it on top of my vent, so whenever the furnace comes on they get some extra heat. once they split and get some tails, i will be putting them into pots, similar in size to solo cups. the medium i am using is just a regular potting soil. as of right now i dont have a pH meter or any nutes, so hopefully i can get those soon. i will add some pictures tomorrow afternoon of the cabinet. feel free to ask any questions, or give some adive. but for now, happy toking.
Well it is good to see that you haven't given up after your last grow. Good luck on this one man. subbed. What kind of strain is the new seeds, you know?
Good to see a fellow grower going for his bones. No nutes, no good man. Go to the supermarket to the gardening area and get a hold of some african violet 7-7-7 with micronutes. Its liquid so its very easy to feed according to instructions. I recently panic and had to do so. I ended up shellin U$15 for 3 diff liquid nutes and a reflective screen. You can later get quality stuff Now that the closet is empy, paint it white or fix some reflective surface (mylar is the shit) Also, wire some extra sockets for side lighting, you may not use them at first, but youll be glad to have them ready later. Be careful picking your CFL´s aim for the higher lummen/watt output. Dont settle for less than 55 lumen/watt; that will be 5060 lumens. Phillips brand has bulbs that go up to 67 lumens/watt. That will be 6164 lumens. Thats a big difference and the price diference wont be that much, but worth it. If you have access to it and the money i believe you can get CFL´s up to 80 lummens/watt. I believe theyll be bigger bulbs, and in such cases i prefer HPS cuz they give over 100 lumen /watt. Downside they get hot... Do you have a time frame for the grow cylce yet? Drying and curing is a bitch when in dire need of smoke, so grab a big jar of patience next time you can. What outcome do you expect? Peace
thanks for all the replies everyone. still no idea on seeds, same ones from last round. thanks for the advice man. so ive done some looking and im thinking of picking up GH Flora Gro, and Flora Bloom. is that going to be enough or should i get more nutes from their line of products like Flora Micro? as for lights i already have 23 watt, 1600 lumen cfls, and will most likely be sticking to them. as for time frame to start off with i will go with an 18/6 light cycle. once the plants have their first set of 3 fingered leaves i will start veg nutes at 1/4 strength for a week, then to 1/2 strength for a week, and then full strength for the remainder of the veg cycle, feeding every other watering for the entire life of the plant. i will be topping the plant after the 3rd leaf set and will be trying a 4 way lst and maybe a ScrOG. i will then switch to 12/12 a week after topping, so im predicting about a 4 week veg. and the plants will be transplanted from their starter pots once they are about 4 inches tall. my only expected outcome is to make it to harvest. feedback on my plan so far is greatly appreciated.
Sounds good to me. I might of just read it wrong or just processed it wrong but how often are you watering your plants? I have mine set to water on wed and sat/sunday. Give or take a day on soil. with my flowering plants what i do is i will water them say the first wed of a month with nutes , well my nute teas. And then the next watering they only get straight water. I try and give my plants time to use up the majority of the nutes before i give them another dose. Your plan sounds good tho. Yeah i am also in the group of my only expected outcome is to hopefully make it to harvest, walked in this morning to find my biggest purple power plant dead. this morning.
thats shitty to hear man, any idea how that may have happened? but i plan to water every other day or less once they sprout up since thats what i see everyone doing for their solo cups, and my pots are very similar in size, and then ill see how im going to water after their transplant, and water after the first 1/2" - 1" of soil is dry.
with the solo cup, I just do the weight test to see if they need water. I take a plant empty solo cup that are filled with soil that i am not going to be using. And i fully soak one and let it drain. I then do a weight check of it to get myself use to the weight of what it is just watered. Then i wait 24hrs of it being in the grow box like it had a plant in it and then i check the weight again and then feel how far the water has moved down in the medium. I do this till the medium is dry. And that way when i have seedlings i dont have to really bother them much while they are establishing themselves. But with my big pots I will have a small plastic tube that runs down into the soil when i fill the pot. I do this for 2 reasons, first is so that i have a dedicated spot in which to do the finger test where i do not have to worry about damaging any roots and second is to act like a vent for the soil. I drilled holes thru the tube to allow air to passively vent in and out along with the bottom of the pot. But that is all going to be in the past , well the pot anyway. I am starting all over cuz im tired of half assing it. Building two 4x3x8 boxes and upgrading within the next month to hps and mh even if i have to go out and buy new ballasts for the hps lights i have in the attic. But i am still going to use party cups for the seedlings and then 5 gallon smart pots for final homes.
I would watch the watering too. every other day seems like a lot for cups. best not to have much of a set time, but water when needed. cup's shouldn't be watered until sprouts above ground and u want to allow ur seedling to search for water, grow this baby roots nice and big, over watering may stunt this growth. jmo
Check the labels of Flora Gro and Flora Bloom for micro nutes. N-P-K-S will definitely be included, but you want the secondary ones. If not, then get the Flora micro just to be safe. 23 watt 1600 lumens CFL´s = 69.5 lumens / watt. Stick to em, they should work. How many of those? Color of the light? 2700 for flowering 6500 for vegging Sounds a good plan, i go straight to 12/12 from seedling to use the same grow space for the flowering ones that are ending their cycle and the new ones. Cheers mate, happy growing.
Heres the GH nutes, GENERAL HYDROPONICS , it would be great if you could tell me if i need all 3 or not. as for lighting i have 4 23 watt 6500k for veg, and 4 23 watt 3000k for flower
4 x 1600 lumens = 6400 lumens, so thats about enough light for growing a good harvest. AS long as the nutes go, ill definetly use the flora micro, specially during the early veggin or seedling. Just dont over do it, but according to the label it carries more nitrogen than the floragro, and it has some micronutes that you only notice when you lack them... The one youll be needing the most is the flora bloom, so maybe try getting smaller size bottles for the flora gro and the smallest for the flora micro. Cheers.
Thanks for the advice man, i have decided that i will change my watering schedule to every 4 days while in the starter cups. good luck on your next boxes, they sound like a good setup. sorry if i didnt make myself clearer but i meant i would start watering after they broke ground. but i did decide to change my watering schedule to every 4 days. i'm tight on cash right now and not sure if im going to be able to fork out money for all 3 nutes because i need the money for other things. so i think i will just get the flora bloom once i get to flowering, or may not even use nutes at all for this round. i'm not really too worried on yield as this is grow is a learning experience. other than that, does anyone have any idea what yield i could expect if i were to use all 3 nutes, have a 13 or so inch tall plant at the end of the grow, in a 6 or so inch deep pot, topped, 4-way LST'ed, and ScrOGed?
The pots that i use are about 6 inches deep and around a 3 gallon pot. I have 3 diffrent shapes. 2 that are the same size at top and bottom. and then 2 that are smaller at the bottom then the top. and then a square one. They have a bit of a large footprint tho. And its really hard to tell or guess a yield cuz there are alot of factors that decide that. Biggest and the one you can't change is genetics , then you got the enviroment in which it is growing , and there are alot of things that could change the outcome considering how advanced your setup is. Nutes aren't a must have to grow. The plant will flower and bud just as nature intended it to without any. Now granted it wont be as big of a yield as it would be with the nutes. You could even look into dry nutes to use as top dressings during the begining of the flowering time. Usually they are alot cheaper. Granted it takes a little longer to see the results of the application apposed to a liquid nute. But what part of this hobby is ever quick? lol its never really actuall growing of the plant that we walk away from its the lesson of patience. i will stop rambeling now.
well that ramble helped me out a bit. but i think i may just go without nutes for this round just to get the feel of growing the ganj, and im not too worried about yield anyways as long as i get something out of it and get to smoke my own produce, although next round for sure i will get all the nutes needed. and for the yield i was just wondering what others got for yield with around the same growing conditions, no one can really tell yield from such few things, and especially not knowing strain.
Got a good setup going there man. If you can afford it try and get a clamp on light with reflector. Wal mart carries them for like 5 bucks i think. and get a y splitter socket for like 2 or less. Throw in 2 more bulbs and hang it down in the center and you got more coverage of whole plant and more light to help the plant be able to yield more. Currently the only nutes i am using is the 2 listed on the first page of my journal. I just mix a bit of the blood in with the soil when the plant is ready to xplant into the 3 gallon final pots. I throw in a little of the bone also to help with root growth into new section of the pot. I also make a tea with it that i use like my grow nutes. I use a coffee filter and pour about 3 tbs of each into it and tie it up. I wrap a string onto it so i can let it hang in the middle of my tea jug. I then take my air pump and run the airstone into the bottom of the 3ltr bottle that i use for my tea. The cap has a hole in it for the airtube and then smaller venting holes. I put it into a cardboard box that i have blacked out and let it brew for 48 hrs. I remove the filter and let it keep aerating. I water with it at a 2 parts tea and 3 parts water every other watering. I plan to use coco this next round tho and getting it and the nutes that are made for coco tomorrow as well as building the new box. Decided to go with one big chamber that all plants go into from start and a small 3x3x3 box for mothers. Really like the setup man +rep
thanks man! but my thermometer broke, and i think my temps have been a little high in there, what are some ways to lower temps in a grow box?
more airflow. bring more fresh air in from outside the box. and have enough exhaust to vent the heat out of the top of the box fast enough that it doesn't build up to much.