First time Cfl grow

Hello all! Thanks for checking out my post. I'm starting my first cfl grow in about a week from now. I got all my equipment today(ill post pics). I've got a lighthouse hydro grow tent, 42w red and white cfls(picture has 6 whites and 1 red, I have more red at a friends house I forgot to grab), exhaust fan, "wind" fan, light timer, hanger bars and straps, and other various items. I'm gonna clean and set everything up in the next few days and start some seed germination once everything is set up. I've been researching a little bit and starting to feel pretty confident about it. I'll have the tent in a 4x12ft closet with a fan outlet and intake path. Once they get close to flower I'm going build a wall dividing my closet in half and use the 4x6ft space for flower-harvest. Think I'm going to start off with 2 plants to see how everything goes. Well that's about it for now will post pics when everything is set up. If you have any advice or input I would love to hear it as this will be my first run at it, thanks again!

Forgot to mention also this will be a soil grow.

 

Thank you! Yea I've gathered that from some reading. Been writing down some notes for quick reference. I have all fox farm nutes I believe for when I start needing those. All this stuff came from a friend of mine who had tried at it for a couple months but kept getting some kind of fungus every time, the stems would wilt in the middle at about 1.5 weeks in every time. So he just gave up on it all and hooked me up. I apparently have everything I need. I'm thinking about starting the plants in some rock wool and just drop them into Hawaiian punch jugs for transplant. If this run works out pretty well I'll invest in some good pots and keep a solid rotation going between the tent and closet.

 

So a little update. I got everything set up for the most part just a few little tweaks to do. Also gotta buy a new ph meter cause mine got broken. Also I've been looking at/for soil and I know a lot of you guys use fox and stuff but I'm looking for something I can buy from the local store, I'm looking for a kind with no ferts or nutes or anything correct? At least for the first few weeks. If anyone knows of a kind I can pick up from a store that works well from experience please let me know. Pics of the setup to come in the next couple days hopefully, I have to work all weekend so I'll just have to see how it works out.

 

So here's the mystery seeds, thinking they are bag seeds, my friend said he had been collecting them since the start of this year. Would just catch a random seed in a bag every once in a while I guess? I never get that lucky but oh well hahah. But started the germ process and going to pick up my seed starter, extra lights, and the base for the mix today. Hopefully have some good pics later today!

 

So here's the mystery seeds, thinking they are bag seeds, my friend said he had been collecting them since the start of this year. Would just catch a random seed in a bag every once in a while I guess? I never get that lucky but oh well hahah. But started the germ process and going to pick up my seed starter, extra lights, and the base for the mix today. Hopefully have some good pics later today!

 

So just got back from getting the rest of my stuff from my buddies house. I sent the wife after some pro mix haha I forgot it on my way home. For the most part everything is set up just have to wait on my seeds to split. I will have pics up of the tent finally prepped. I'm gonna go through and clean it and everything real good.

 

Well got everything set up completely finally, the veg chamber is done! I'm using 5 42w 6500k and 1 42w 2700k. I have a question also, I have 2 exhaust fans 1 is a 300cfm and one is a 150cfm. The 300 is kinda loud from the amount of air it pushes. Would I be ok to have that one on my strip with the timer and just let the other one run continuously? Just so I'll be able to sleep at night hahaha. My seeds are swelled pretty nice right now so I'm hoping they will be ready tomorrow night. Ready to get everything going!

 

Thank you! Ok that had me wondering. So my 300 will be on with my lights and shut off with them so the other one should be able to handle the darkness I think. I've got a friend that's suppose to be bringing a plant over as well that hasn't had enough light supply, so I'm gonna try to get it to bush out. He was trying to grow it under only a 70w led grow light. It looks good as far as stalk structure and nice green leaves but it didn't bush out very well. So I'm hoping in can save it with my lights. And if you guys have and opinions on if the setup needs tweaked or pointers for the early stages I'd love to hear, I can never get enough research/advice hahaha. Just want to be successful with the first run really hahah. Thanks guys!

 

Ok so I'm still waiting for my seeds to break soil but my friend brought his plant over tonight and the growth it does have looks decent there's just not much of it. So was lookin for some opinions on what should be done with it. The medium it's growing in is a potting mix with compost but has no perlite. I topped it off with some extra soil I had from my seedling mix. So I'm betting it needs transplanted ASAP but I wanna let it recover from the move and whatnot first. If I decide to keep it I'm thinking about starting to feed it some super thrive for a feeding to see if it will help it bush out. Any advice much appreciated, got some pics of it here as well.

 

Well when I looked at it this morning it seems to be doing a bit better so I'm gonna let it continue and hopefully it'll make a full recovery. Also kept an eye on temps periodically throughout the night and every time I checked I was just sitting at 76. So at least my temps are good.

 

Help, lol. So my buddies plant started doing really well. Perked up nice and everything. Then I wake up this morning and it's leaves are curling and some of them the tip is burnt about 1/8", but there is tons of new growth. It's on an 18/6 cycle, temps run 74-78, and the ph is 6. It is still in that crappy soil though, just a peat/compost mix. No perlite or sand or anything and it's pretty compacted. I want to transplant it into some good soil I have mixed up but I'm afraid if I do it'll axe the plant. So any help/advice is much appreciated. Also my 2 seedlings popped this morning too!

Thanks guys!

 

The soil I have mixed up is ffhf and ffof cut together with some extra perlite added.

 

Day 2 since popping soil. Temps continue to hang around 76-78. Did the lift the pot today and they were dry so watered with ph6.3 and runoff was 6. The other plant was just still not doing well so I topped it and trying to get a clone from it. Everything seems to be doing good. Watered them right before end of cycle at 4pm today.

 

Hey thanks! It's gonna be pretty cool to compare with someone using 2 completely different setups. With your lights and whatnot if you can maintain lower temps you'll make some big plants. I know my next grow I'm gonna start with seeds from a bank just so I know what I'm growing haha.

 

So I just opened up the tent a little like I do everyday 2 hrs before the lights go out. I like to do this because it will drop my temps about 4-6 degrees right before lights go out then zip her all up and everything once the lights go out. I like doing this because it gives the plants a true day and night effect with dropping temps and everything. Also have tons of new growth, all 4 seedlings are up and open. My MG seedling is still doing the best by far, working on her second set of leaves already! So far they all seem to be liking the 5:1 ratio of 6500k-2700k, which I was a little concerned about because I couldn't find a whole lot of information on what mixture people were using. For flowering stage plans had to change a little bit, might be selling the house and moving early next year so I'm not going to build my flower room. Instead I'm just going to scrog the plants in the tent(made a net last night out of some chicken wire) and add 2 more 60w 2500k cfl and 1 more 42w 2700k for a total of 414w for flower. The wife said the next house I can have my own room for my ladies so I'm already drawing up plans for either some MH/HPS or big led panels haha. That all is on the back burner right now though lol. Other than that temps right now are 72 and falling. Felt the pots they are starting to feel lighter so maybe get watered again in 24 hours, thinking about throwing some superthrive in with this next watering(1ml per gallon) anyone have any thoughts on that? Thanks all for checking out my journal.

I forgot to add that for soil I went with 4 different types to experiment what worked best. I went with MG organic choice, promix ultimate organic, ffof and ffhf. As mentioned earlier the MG seedling is growing the fastest with the ffof right behind it and the other 2 are moving quite a bit slower.

 

Just a quick update. Temps still around the 76 degree mark (72 at night) and 68-70 with lights off. Ph remains around the 6.0 range. They are needing watered again so I'll do that when the lights come back on. Other than that got some good growth goin on. If you guys have any questions, tips, or concerns I'd love to hear.

My babies at day 4

Just moving right along. Temps and everything has been stable from the start. I managed to catch 5 1 gallon smart pots on eBay for 20.50$. I'll be ordering some more ffof here on the next few days. I'm going to be building some light racks this weekend so I can be completely prepared for the switch. What you guys think so far?

 

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