1st Grow - Northern Lights x Columbian Gold - CFL's

[Toddigy]

What strain is it? Northern Lights x Columbian Gold
Is it Indica, Sativa or Hybrid? What percentages? 100% Indica
Is it in Veg or Flower stage? Growing from clone
If in Veg... For how long? 6 days
Indoor or outdoor? Indoor Closet
Soil or Hydro? Hydro
If soil... what is in your mix? 100% Coco Coir
If soil... What size pot? 3-5 gal
Size of light? Four 40 watt CFL's
Is it aircooled? No
Temp of Room/cab? 70-76
PH of media or res? 5.5-6
Any Pests? No
How often are you watering? After inch of coco is dry
Type and strength of ferts used? Fox Farms Trio, Big Bloom/Tiger Bloom/Grow Big


Recently got my med card, went down and bought a Northern Lights/Colombian Gold clone to plant into coco coir (chose not to use 25% Perlite) This will be indoors (closet grow) and the lights I used were CFL, opted to get four 40 watt CFL's connected to reflectors (2 reflectors) after that I simply got a 5 gallon container, filled up with Coco Coir and safely transplanted the clone. On Day 2 I was surprised in how much it improved and started to feel excitement. Day 3 I started watering with nutrients followed by day 4 without doing so. The nutrients I was using were made by Fox Farms, they have a trio of nutrients to use but I'm only using a quarter serving for the 1st week. Through 6 days I have seen significant results by as little as a one day period, I have attached a few pics of how my plant has been growing. Tomorrow will be the first official week!!! Can't wait to keep you all updated on my first grow ever, ENJOY

 

[Toddigy]

 

[Toddigy]

Anything i should be doing differently?

 

[Toddigy]

Start of it's 2nd week, starting to form up pretty nicely. I haven't ran into any problems yet and hoping to keep it that way

 

[fieldsofgreen]

Check out my journal, I am doing a cfl grow as well and a couple weeks into flowering. One thing I would suggest is using smaller bulbs but use more of them. Also you are losing a lot of light through the sides of the bulb so try building a light fixture to house them in. Other then that your plant looks like it's about to jump into warp speed veggie growth.

 

[Toddigy]

Warp speed, haha I like the sound of that. I was thinking about the smaller lights for the sides when I start flowering it, hang a few 26 watt CFL's.

 

[fieldsofgreen]

Or what you could try is put the smaller bulbs into the light fixture so the reflector captures and reflexes more light and you can put them closer. Then hang the big bulbs individually...Just a thought andhappy growing, I will be following this and help ya out when I can.

 

[Toddigy]

About to start it's 3rd week, here she is at 13 days! (Having to water a little more I'm noticing, also increasing nutrient amounts towards full strength) Light cycle has been 21/3

 

[Toddigy]

Day 16 and she
is going crazyyyyy

 

[Toddigy]

It's day 17 and getting a bit shadowy so defoliated and cleaned up a bit, read a few things and got my hands dirty. Pic below

 

[Toddigy]

 

[Toddigy]

Here's a pic of the main stem, never gardening anything in my life before but I can say I feel quite comfortable in the health of my plant. Also if you notice in my first pic of when I first transplanted and look at day 17 (today) you'll see I removed the unhealthy looking branches.

 

[Toddigy]

Day 19

 

[peanut0862]

Looking very good Toddigy

 

[BushyBro]

Oh wicked man! NL x CG sounds insane! Cant wait to see her flower!

 

[Toddigy]

Does anyone agree that I should remove some of the top fan leaves right now for more undergrowth?

 

[Toddigy]

I also want to slow hieght growth, what part should I clip off? I want to flower starting monday.

 

[peanut0862]

What is the FIM technique?
Some growers are now using the "FIM technique" as a way to get more growing shoots per each time you top. The strategy involves cutting off 90% of the growing shoot and leaving 10% intact. From that 10%, up to 8 more branches can emerge. This is useful for those growing SCROG style or those wanting lots of clones from a mother plant.

A shows the tradional method of topping: cutting the whole node off cleanly, to induce the stalk to split into two. But diagram B indicates to make the cut below the center of the node, leaving about 10% intact. This is the key, because the vegetation left behind has cells that are rapidly dividing in many different directions. This can lead to as many as EIGHT tops from a single pruning.

This is in the How to Grow section and if you go there you'll see pictures as well

 

[Toddigy]

Day 24 and getting real close to start flowering, was pretty bushy this morning so took some big fan leaves out (not shown in pic)

 

[Toddigy]

You know what, I was thinking I might have to move the plant into my garage during flowering. So I'm checking out grow tents such as this here Amazon: LEDwholesalers GYO1001 62-Inch x 36-Inch x 20-Inch Mylar Reflective Hydroponic Grow Tent, The question I have is how am I going to hang my CFL's from the tent...?