Indoor CFL 295w Afghani LST

Hello all. Second successful grow using CFLs. I’m interested in some constructive feedback and any recommendations you all may have.

I’m going to do my grow journal a little different. One thing I find frustrating about forum grow journals is how hard it is to see the success of the grow from start to finish. The updates aren’t consistent and sometimes people just stop posting and I’m left wondering the quality of the yield and smoke. Because I finished my grow a month ago, I’m going to post my journal in full. I did this with a legal medical marijuana prescription and card. If it’s available in your state, I would recommend getting one.

Brief overview of my setup. I’m using five CFLs. Two at 65w with a 2700k color spectrum. One 55w with a 2700k color spectrum. Two 55w with a 5500k color spectrum. I moved these around my light hood several times during the grow to give the whole plant a variety of light. I’m growing in a plastic Sterilite 4-Shelf Cabinet available at Target. I found this to be the perfect size for growing my plan in stealth. I used Mylar on the sides and under my light hood. The light hood is made out of aluminum with vent holes in the top to allow air to escape. I vent the grow box using a Soler & Palau TD-150 inline exhaust fan. Extremely quiet and can move a ton of air (298CFM). I had consistent temperatures of 70-78 degrees throughout the grow.

Day 1
Brought my clone home from a local medical marijuana dispensary. Afghani clone. This plant didn’t start out very healthy. Gave it a good dose of water. Did not PH test my water. Lights on for 20 hours off for 4.

Day 3
Growing, but the leaves are still curled and wilted.

 

Day 8
Gave it a small amount of Miracle Grow fertilizer with full water. New growth starting to look better. Red stems. Sprayed neem oil on leaves to protect from bugs and spider mites.

Day 24
Transplanted plant on day 20 to my 3 gallon pot that I will grow in until I chop her down. Plant looking better but still have red stems. Some of my bottom leaves are dying and the leaves are turning a little yellow on the tips. My theory is this plant is lacking Zinc and needs more nitrogen. This is around the time I start PH testing my water. Time change to 16:8.

 

Day 30
Decide to do a cleanse with 3 gallons of distilled water. Waited and then watered with one gallon of PH 6 drinking water and added Fox Farm Grow Big nutes (2 tsp). At this point I have begun my LST. My goal is to create a sideways L with multiple tops on this plant. The stems and stalk are starting to lose the redness.


Day 33
Leaf curl which had gone away begins to come back. Not sure that cleanse was such a good idea. The growth in day 30 looked better.

 

Day 37
Watered with two gallons of water. No fertilization. 12:12 time change. Sprayed with neem oil.


Day 38
Plant looking good.

 

Day 43
Watered with two gallons of PH 6.5 and one tsp of grow big in each gallon.

Day 45
Burnt the main cola after it grew into the light. Whoops! New growth is looking very yellow/green. In hindsight, I think I should have boosted up the dose of Nitrogen at this point.

 

Day 51
Half gallon of water applied on day 48 and 50. Today I watered with one gallon and 1 tsp of Grow Big 1 tsp of Tiger Bloom and 1 tbl of Super Bloom.

Day 54
Growth starting to slow down. Some lower fan leaves begin to yellow. New growth leaves are still yellow/green

Day 58
Water with 1.5 gallons, no fertilizer. Bud is starting to flower and you can see some magic dust on the leaves . Main cola has recovered well and is growing again.

 

Day 63
Water 2 gallons. ½ tsp Grow Big, 2 tsp Tiger Bloom and 2 tbl of Super Bloom per gallon.

Day 69
Water with ½ gallon no fertilizer. Leaves yellowing even more than before. Buds are looking good and starting to fill in well.

 

Day 73
Water 1.5 gallons. No fertilizers. Leaves yellowing with rust spots.

Day 77
Water 1 gallon 1sp of Grow 2 tsp Tiger 1 tbl of Big Bloom.

Day 84
Water 1 gallon. No nutrients. From day 24 until now I have been using PH adjusted drinking water. I say the hell with it and begin filtering my tap water with a Brita. No PH adjustment as it is usually in the 6.8 range after filtering.

Day 90
Water 1 gallon no nutrients.

Day 93
You can see many of the fan leaves are dying. Unfortunately, so are the leaves where the buds live. Again, I probably should have been giving it more nitrogen before.

 

Day 99
Water ½ gallon no nutrients.

Day 104
Almost ready.

 

Day 109-112
Harvest! Let dry for four days on hooks then in bowls cut and manicured. Final process into jars opening and closing lids periodically . Total yield of 70 grams but I did smoke a bit before the final weigh in. I also decide the smaller buds would be mixed with the leaves to make weed butter. 2.5 ounces is not a bad yield. I just wish I had given this plants more nutrients, I think I could have gotten more. The smoke is very good and clean. No bad taste and it gets me just as high as the stuff I buy at my medical marijuana dispensary. Bud density is good and much better than my first grow.

So that's it. Let me know what you think. I'm particularly interested in hearing feedback on nutrients and leaf color change.

 

Anyone have any thoughts on the twisted leaf growth in the beginning of the grow? My suspicion was Zinc deficiency, but I'm curious if anyone has any experience with that.

 

Thanks for the response. I think the Zinc issue was a problem from the get go. The clone I got was not in great shape when I got it and I'm sure it underwent some stress when I put it in my grow box. My tap water is very alkaline (7.5 to 8.0), so I think the first few weeks while I wasn't testing the PH, I made the Zinc issue worse by watering with PH water in the lock out range. After watering with PH adjusted water, some fertilizer and micro nutrients the twisted leaves eventually went away, but it took a while.

Good luck on your grow. I think the biggest factor that contributed to higher yield in my second grow compared with my first grow was light and more balanced temperatures. My first grow I used somewhere around 160w, with temperatures that would sometimes hit mid to high 80s. I got somewhere around an ounce and a half with my first grow.