Hey guys, first post and first grow. Been reading a few other threads and guides and decided to give it a go myself. I'm looking for help, tips, tricks, advice, anything that will benefit me and my grow. So, I germinated x2 bagseeds about x3 weeks ago, this was just a test to see if i could pull of germination, it worked. I planted the seedlins under a cheap fluro untill i could get hold of a better light. So. I bought my new equiptment last week. 125W CFL System With 125W Blue Lamp Canna Coco Growing Medium I repotted the old bagseeds and x8 newly germinised skunk*1 seeds, And placed them under the new light on feb 3rd. These shots were taken on the 6th This one shows the old bagseeds clearly bigger than than babies. And these shots were taken 5 minutes ago. So, the skunk*1 plants are starting to sprout up, they were droped in there on the 3rd of feb. it's now the 8th. The light is on all day/night and has been since the grow began, Are they growing at a decent rate?. Do i need more light/nutes/more-less water? ANY advice would be awesome Thanks
yeah man there growing at a good rate keep it up get more lights or a better light for veg like a 400watt mh or some more cfls how often do you water it and you should only use nutrients every other watering do you have a ph meter to test what your ph is for the soil? good luck hope your grow comes out good i'll help you as much as i can
Hey, thanks for the speedy reply. This coming thursday i will investing in some fert, a temp monitor, and a ph monitor. would it be wise to get another one of those lights in there for this stage? (vegative) I water a tiny bit once a day, I'm giving them a break of water today and will put the fan on to cool things down a little bit. Back to watering a little bit tomorow afternoon.
You will certainly need more light, that 125W light will only grow about one single plant efficiently. Your light should be closer to the plants or they will stretch badly, i already see signs of stretching.
I was afraid of that. So if i drop the light down a bit, and keep the fan on to avoid burning the plants i should be alright? suggestions for another light?
That CFL should be able to be 6" from your plants without burning them. I run a 200W CFL and it doesnt show heat stress until it's within about 4". You will realize that once you drop that light down to the position it should be that your footprint will be drastically smaller. Light choice will be based on space limitations and the amount of plants you plan to grow. General rule is 100W for the first plant and 50W for each additional plant.
How about a higher output CFL similar to the one im already running, alongside the original, (blue lamp)? this is gonna be expensive at any time in the vegging stage do i need to give them a break from the light?, I hear a 12 hours break from the light at the stage 'could' initialise a growth spurt?
you could get a 400W HPS for less than 200 bucks. that would be 4x your current light and it's a penetrating light, which is much better. Don't play with light cycles. You risk the development of hermies. If you are going to veg 24/7 then stick to it, or 18/6, 20/4. Your plants will naturally boom as soon as you initiate flowering.
Say if i buy a 400w hps setup. Would i remove my 125w out of the grow? What type of bulb do i need for flowering, and when do i trigger?
yes, you would remove it. The 400W will be plenty of light. The bulb is a HPS bulb it will work for vegging and flowering (i vegged my plants under my HPS with great success). you could then use the 100W for a veg light and make a mother plant.
awesome, thanks for the help. Will look into grabbing a 400w on thursday. untill then they will have to strugle
small update as promised. Funds were tight, so picked up a 250w (blue) hps and have it running alongside my 125w hps. I need to create some sort of getto baslast as i cant really afford to be paying out for one to go with the new bulb. No ferts as yet. The two older plants (the bagseeds) are starting to grow a bit, one of them is happier than the other i will admit. the other seedlins seem to be stretch still, no massive increase in leaf size, but they were only planted on the 3rd of feb. open to suggestions/comments/criticism
Hey man, I just got into growing relatively recently (I have a handful of soil and hydro grows under my belt), I finally feel like I'm getting the hang of it--anyways, I just want to say that if you're gonna grow pot you really can't half ass it. grrower is onto something with that 400W HPS suggestion. HPS lamps have ancillary costs (they require ventilation, area will need to be light-proofed, etc), but a lot of those things you really should being doing for your plants anyway. They will ultimately thank you for this by giving you "more better" bud than they will under CFLs and stagnant air, not to mention growing healthier and stronger, and not dying nearly as often. Also, that new bulb is a CFL, no? Those are self-ballasted, so no need to worry about rigging something that could burn down the neighborhood. I've never seen a CFL that big. I'm not saying you can't grow under it man, I'm just saying I had collosal headaches with my grows until I got my HPS.
those are CFL's not HPS. With 325 watts you should be able to grow 3-4 plants with those CFL's. It wouldnt hurt to supplement light with small CFL's as well, that light doesnt penetrate for shit. you need to create a ghetto ballast? do you mean you dont have a mogul fixture or hood for the new light?
If you are going to do a cfl setup, you should use the scrog method. I have seen good results w/ cfl's with this method. It works b/c you can put the cfl's really close to the bud sites. Once the plants start growing vertically in your current setup, the majority of the plants will not get enough lumens. You will end up with a very small amount of mediocre weed.
Yeah sorry they're both CFLs. The new bulb just came with the hanger/pug. so i would need to grab a hood/reflector for it to be of real benefit.
to be fair i really need to get that grow area sorted out completly. and aranging the lights better. at the moment it's a hash of a job with bit of nylon/plastic string holding shit together. I have an ocsilating fan in there at the moment on a slow speed. also there's a gap when i close the door. Does this need to be sealed complely with a port for fresh air incoming and extractor at the top for outgoing (air)
tiny grey and brown spots apearing on some of the bigger leaves, starting to worry a bit. Will source a better camera tonight and grab a few pics. I doubt it's the light burning the leaves. they're not close enough. any sugestions?