Hey, I'm wondering what other growers think of my setup. This is my first grow, but besides that I have a 5x5x6 greenhouse, with two 60W 5500K CFL's and one 55W 2700K CFL (for color spectrum) one oscillating fan on high and a 6 in. Fan at the top blowing in between the two plants for air circulation, I also have a oil heater for heat at night and so there's no reason for there to be fire hazard (instead of electric) I have my Northern Lights and Afgoo in 15 gallon pots and using nectar of the gods liquid nutrients, also planning on moving them outside when their ready for flowering then filling my greenhouse with a ton of clones in 5 gallon pots and maybe a few sativas. Don't have a accurate light time but try to keep it between 18-24 hours of light per day. Just wondering what other growers have to say or if they have some advice, Thanks!
Also planning on adding a 5x5 pallet then putting the greenhouse on top of it so fresh air can always get into the greenhouse and so water/rain is never a problem.
And planning on putting a 10x10 panda film to put over it at night so the neighbors don't get angry at me XD so this is my budget setup!
So im assuming your using the sun during the day and the CFL's at night? I see allot of stretching in your plants, to me this is saying we want more light. Look how skinny your stocks are, they are stretching to get more light which is making them kinda feeble, the shoots are barely supporting the fan leaves. I love the set up but i would try to get ALOT more CFL's and get them withing 2 or 3 inches from the top of the plants, or just invest in a HO T5 and you'll be set.
These guys are just coming up on 3 weeks. Stocks are almost as thick as my finger. The reason a solid stock is important is because it's the only path for the nutrients from your soil to get to the plant, small road creates road blocks. I purposely keep my light super close for the first couple weeks then move it away once I want to stretch the plant (second two pictures show light distance) Hope this helps
Now I feel stupid, thanks a lot hemptation but your talking about my afgoo, when I got her as a clone she had the thickness of a toothpick going all the way up, the northern lights it doing a little better, the stock is thick and sturdy, but your saying just keep the lights super close and the stock will thicken? Because I lightly shake the base of that plant almost every day to produce stem growth, If that's all I have to do that's awesome I'll do that right now on my setup with the afgoo, and my CFL are 3800-4200 lumens each since a plant requires 3000 lumens to grow(added light spectrum) I would be fine. If I can get more sockets I'll put another one up.
I can't say it's going to beef up the stem now that it's already as big as it is, but that's how you do it when they are young. stop upwards growth so they thicken up then stretch them as needed. No need to feel stupid at all, who ever cloned the plant should have known better to take such a small stoot for a clone and not let it strengthen up. As for required lumens most of those numbers are per square foot, And there is no way a cfl bulb produces anywhere near the required amount of light (3800 lumens /Sq f). Also the energy from a cfl is exponentially lost over distance traveled so again slam those lights right on the plants and get more of them. So really you have to find the Sq footage of the space and light accordingly. You have to remember the lights are rated at 3800 lumens total, now send that light 360 degrees out of the bulb off the reflector threw your entire grow space, with no reflective surfaces limiting light travel those bulbs are lighting the whole green house, and we come back to the skinny plants as our evidence. In my 2 x 2 x 3 box I used 4 83 (actual watt 140 replica) bulbs and that's in a SUPER tight space. As for shaking the stocks a gentle far running constantly is a much better way to force stock growth, you can't see it in my pictures but at the far end beside my tent I have a 16" fan set to oscillate 24/7 just for the 4 of them. Same In my flower but I have 2 static 16" fans that blow across each other.