So as the title suggests this is my first time grow and I need some advice on my baby, but firstly let me introduce you to her. NL#5 Soil grow using Biobizz nutes every other feed 600w dual spectrum CFL Currently in veg but hoping to switch soonish. Around 6 weeks old from germination and about 16" tall. My question is......should she be taller? I have looked around other peoples journals and stuff and every plant seems to be taller with much more space and room. However, my plant is soooooo bushy I struggle to see her stem. Is this normal? I have seen other NL and they look nothing like my baby. Also her stem is as thick as a finger making it impossible to train her, is this normal. And lastly should I be concerned with some purple stems? She looks healthy enough to me but I have read so many conflicting opinions my head hurt reading them. Peace out guys and any help would be appreciated.
do yourself a favor and get a high pressure sodium set-up...at least 400 watts....you won't get much of a harvest from CFL's. I know this from experience...but my guess is you can't afford one right? if you were using a HPS setup, you could expect your plant to at least double in size once you put it into flower...not sure you will see that much stretch from a CFL though, so you may want to veg more before you flip. Is your plant from regular or Feminized seed?
Hey thanks for the advice. Well money isn't really a problem, it is the heat and electricity cost that I was more concerned about as I'm doing a stealth closet grow. As for the seed it was a regular but I got lucky and it is definitely a female plant!!
Dude, CFL rocks. Check out my recent harvest. You have to spend time daily with your babies, but i'm loving it. Anyhoo, she looks fairly healthy, just keep your lights close with a fan blowing up at your lights.
If your running 600 pure watts cfls then a 400 watt hospital would be less watts. Plus a 400 has a low heat output. Beck look into my bulbs they put out even less. Sent from my SGH-I747M using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Actually just noticed it is a 300w cfl oopss!! Think I'm going to buy a 400w hps as they are pretty cheap
Switched to 12/12 the other day and I've noticed that there are a lot of new bud sites emerging from the undergrowth. Might just stick with the cfl this grow and do a comparison on my next grow. It is soooooo bushy it's unbelievable, when I compare mine to other NL grows the differences are considerable. Is the bushiness a good or bad thing??
Cfls will work ok. I've grown with them in my earlier years. There's nothing better than a 1000 watt hps burning but cfls will get what your looking for. Just keep them as close as you can without burning the leaves and use as big as you can find. Looks good. Keep it up. You'll.be smoking chronic before to long. Your northern looks a lot like mine do. Where did you get your seeds? here's a pic of one of my smaller northern lights from peakseedsbc its about 2 weeks into flower. (Sorry don't want to high jack your journal). I'll be following along can't wait to see her flowering hard. What are you using for nutes?
I bought some regular seeds from picamix and got very lucky as I didn't buy fem seeds. Yeah I did a little reading up on the hps and I don't think my small closet would be able to handle the extra heat as my only ventilation is a small fan and opening the door when I'm around. As for nutes I'm using Biobizz but regret using them as I have heard and read there are much better ones out there - I think I just panic bought them as this was my first grow and wanted to start asap. Putting a lot more thought into my next grow, I want to do a hempy v soil comparison grow ( just to use my remaining soil stuff up ) and see the results. Your plant looks nice, you say you have used cfl for awhile - what dried weight are you getting on an average plant?
You can get a hps in a 250 watt and smaller. You could get a air cooled hood and fan to keep it cool. With minimal veg time and small pots (1 gallon) I was pulling about a ounce give or take. I had about 6 plants under my flowering cfls. I was using about 400 true watts of cfls. I have a buddy that used 2 150 watt cfls and pulled over a qp off a plant in a 10 gallon pot. It can be done. There's a lot of people on grass city using cfls and getting good results. It's all trial and error. What works great for some doesn't for others. Find your groove and grow some nugs!! Good luck brother.
Yeah I know you can get smaller hps and cooler fans but I don't want to invest anymore on this grow. I may see what my results are and then adjust for my next one if necessary. Hopefully it won't be too long in veg.
Fuck it, I've changed my mind again. I reckon if I buy a 400w hps and I get an extra gram it has practically paid for its self. Also as an update I did some trimming today as the lower bud sites where way too overshadowed by the massive fan leafs, hope she will recover fast and start budding those precious buds!!
Now you're talking...CFL's can be adequate...but HPS will give you bigger denser buds...and the trimming was also a good call...im a big beliver in defolliating for bigger yields ..dont worry, she will bounce back ..you will prob have to trim again.