1st Time Grow White Widow & Seedmakers Autoblue

hid's work and work well but so do cfls, they got me well into flower on my first round of plants, i only switched over to hps as i was using 400 watts in total with cfls,

for veg you want a 2/1 ratio with the 2 been the 6500 or 6400k cfls so 2 x 6400k and 1 x 2700k for veg then the opposite for flower so you would want 2 x 2700k to 1 6400k cfl, i was using 23 and 30 watt cfls, id say you would need 4 to a plant, i had 4 plants and around 14 cfls, but they do work and they work well, i have got hps and my seedlings stretch like crazy under this even though it says its a dual spectrum bulb so it contains some of the 6400k light needed for veg, but clearly its not enough, now ive got a small cupboard set up where i start all my seedlings and clones, i use 3 x 30 watt 6400k cfls in this cupboard and i have around 8 seedlings in their and them lights are more than enough, their only an inch above the plants and they stop any stretch and make the nodes very close.

if i wasnt growing what i was and say i only had 1 or 2 plants then id use cfls as i would not need to use 400 watts, but cfls do work and ive seen some amazing buds with cfls, id say the best thing to do is a scrog or some decent lst work, you need to get as much light into all parts of the plant as possible, when you more than a couple of inches from the plant the light drops off pretty quick, so you need the lights as close as you can get them without burning the plant, id have a couple above each plant then another couple lower down to make sure the lower branches get light as well.

once mistake i made when i first started was not to check the temp, i had a few cfls and my temps where cold, i kept wondering why my plants where not growing, so i put a small heater in and they started growing like crazy, so if your using cfls then make sure everything else is ok, then they should grow with no problems, use reflectors on the lights and with cfls the most light comes off the side of the bulb and not the end, so mount the lights so the side of the bulb is facing the plant then make a reflector to reflector any lost light back onto the plant, use reflective mylar on the walls, all i did was buy some rescue blankets, cost me next to nothing for a pack of 5, or you can use white paint as long as its not gloss.
 
GiGaBaNE said:
just adding my 2 cents worth. if you can afford to get HiD then you should. penetration is much better with these kind of lights and is a lot less fidley than many bulbs. im a big fan of CFL's but if money was no issue i would be using sodium myself (son agro 430w bulbs to be precise), and then use cfls as side lighting with any temprature wiggle room you may have. swapping from 6500k to 2700k bulbs apost flower stretch.

eit: while we are on the subject, can we get some reccomendations for digi balasts pls?

Sunleaves 400W Two-way Ballasts from Growco Indoor Garden Supply

Is one i been thinking of, but not sure.

yes i deliberatly want to run a 430 bulb at 400, i want to make my gear last so ill be underclocking, lol
Click to expand...

I can't recommend anything from personal experience because I haven't used any. Lately I've been wanting to switch to HID and I've been looking at different ballasts and user reviews. Lumatek seems to be one of the most popular choices for a digital, but I'm digging the Phantom. Check it out.
 
the normal household cfls are the ones that give off the orange light, these are the 2700k cfls, these are cheap to buy and you can buy them in packs of 4 from most super markets, i got about 15 of them free using vouchers in the paper, most energy companies give these away, so these are the orange looking glow, the 6400k cfls give off a bright white almost blue looking light, these are the ones needed for veg and the orange looking light the 2700k are for flower although id use a mixture of the both,

but if you have the case then id go with a hps, if you buy a digital hps ballast, say you go with a 400 watt digital ballast hps, well if you make sure its a digital ballast then this means you can use a 400 watt metal halide bulb in it as well, so then you could use the metal halide bulb for veg and the hps bulb for flower, now my grow room is 3ft by 3ft and floor to ceiling high, and id easily say my 400 watt hps is big enough to fill that space, so in the flower room i have got 4 big plants in 3gallon pots, then i have 3 x 2ltr dwc hempies and i also have a 1gallon pot with the plant im getting seeds from, and i put my auto in the room for a few hours as well,

so the 400 watt does me for all i grow, i only switched to hps as i was growing more than 2 plants, so if you have the money then go with the hps, the heat will be an issue though, i cant leave my grow room door totally shut but i have no vent fitted to the flower room so i leave it open anyway slightly, but if i had a vent and filter then i could leave the door shut, this is on my shopping list for when i get paid.

now if you are going to use the cfls then the more the better, get as many as you can and mount them in something so you can build a reflector, make sure the side of the bulb is facing the plant, id have a few bulbs above the plant, then id have a couple of bulbs at soil level or half way down the side of the plant, this will get the best penetration,

even my 400 watt hps dont get light to the whole plant, anything below certain branches dont get light, so i use pipe cleaners and poke holes around the top of my pot, then i pull any branches in any direction i like just to make sure the whole plant is getting the light, so this is the goal to get as much light as possible, the hps light needs to be at least 12 inches away from the plant, this is probably why seedlings stretch, cfls can be an inch away from the plant, this keeps them short and bushy,

but if you got the money then go with the digital hps ballast, possibly the 400 watt and then buy a mh bulb and use that for veg and the hps bulb for flower, but dont buy a mh ballast as you cant use hps bulbs in this type of ballast, so if you bought a mh bulb and ballast then you would need a hps bulb and ballast for flower, so it makes sense to go with a digital hps ballast which takes both bulbs as long as their the same watt,

i got my 400 watt dual spectrum hps ballast and bulb of fleabay for £60 and a bit extra for delivery, the plants grow quicker and you get firmer buds, but cfls work and work well, you just need more of them as they are low watts,
 
how many plants you got growing and what is the rough height of them, also how big is the room your growing in, ill try and find it by going back through the journal, the way i worked it out is i used 4 x 23 or 30 watt cfls per plant, but all my plants where at the same height, so i made a lighting rig that covered the entire room and i then mounted all the cfls to this, then i could raise and lower it to where i wanted it, all my walls had cheap mylar blankets glued to them, and i made a reflector for the lighting rig that directed any lost light back onto the plants,

so depending on how many plants you got and how big the room is would really give us a good idea of what you need, but i found i was using nearly 400 watts with the cfls as i had so many, so i switched to hps and i can now grow bigger plants, the light penetration is a whole lot better, i get 55,000 lumins with my hps because its a dual spectrum, but when i get paid ill by a 400 watt mh bulb for veg and ill get a new hps bulb this is not dual spec and these are around 65,000 lumins, so id gain more actual light using the standard hps bulb
 
Small update!

White widow
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Auto blue Does this look like its close to harvest?
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The new room setup
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i agree, them cfls can be within a couple of inches, i had mine like 2 inches from the plants, just make sure the air is moving and their will be no problems, my plants only burned when leaves touched the bulb, as long as their was some gap it would be ok,
try holding your hand against the bulb then slowly lower it away and watch on your hand how quick the light level drops off, their is a huge drop after about 2 inches, give it a try and you will see what i mean.

its hard to say if its ready for harvest mate, i go by the trichs, i flush when i have around 10%amber trichs, back in the day we used to harvest when nearly all the pistils had turned brown and shrunk back onto the bud, they tend to put a lot more weight on in the last 2 weeks of growth, so make sure its done before you chop it, try checking the trichs, the plant is done when its 100% cloudy but if you want it sightly stronger and more couch lock affect then let it turn slightly amber on the trichs
 
Great advice from all Soy! I agree with The CFL's. DP, ISmokes, and myself use em. Get em close. The girls are looking on their way! I purchased
a 30x to 40x handheld microscope from a hobby shop today for $12. Anything under 30X is no good. I came home and could see those trichs up close and personal!! Damn its a trip! They were so vivid I didn't know what the hell I was seeing! Forgot what a microscope sees! Get one and check your percentages. This will tell you 100% when to harvest based on your desires. I found some on Amazon for like $5!! They are under jeweler loupes, eye loupes, etc.... A good hobby shop will have them. Michaels did not. I got mine at a place called Hobby Lobby. There a big chain store.
 
i agree, i got a hand help microscope off flee bay for a quid, i bought 3 in fact, 1 for me and one for each of my kids, the kids love them, they look at all sorts of stuff, these scopes would fit in a small matchbox and they got 2 lights on them, they have got a uv light setting and white light setting, i think their used for checking bank notes, but their ideal and show me exactly what i need to see, once my new job starts ill get a usb scope so i can take some decent pics and actually see what im looking at on a bigger screen.

keep an eye on the cfls, the heat can build up pretty quick, now my cfls i could hold them in my hand and they would only just be warm, but i would not do this with my hps as it would melt my skin, so cfls on their own produce a lot less heat, when i was using them my plants slowed down as my temps where to low, so adding more lights got my temps up, just make sure it dont get to high, i wired up 2 x 12v computer fans to an old phone charger and i had these blowing across the bulbs, this helped with the temp and stopped my plants burning, they only burned when the leaves started touching the bulb, just remember the plants can grow an inch a day so you will need to keep checking the height, id check it daily depending on how close the bulb is to the plant
 
Damn If you had to drop em 12" they must have been too high. 2" away is fine. Congrats on the Buds doing well. This is an exciting time for me as well.
 
TD is a really good strain. Can yield oz's in the right conditions. Dutch Passion yes but there are other strains that have been crossed. They are confirmed auto now. Only available through private breeders a few times a year.
 
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