CapCity's First Grow - Larry's OG In Soil Under 2x125W CFL's

[CapCity]

Hello all and thanks for clicking on my first ever grow and first ever journal.
I'm excited to share my adventure with y'all and learn from all of your expertise.

My name is CapCity and I recently moved to a city where I can legally grow! I recently purchased all my supplies at a local grow shop and will outline them below.

Setup:
- 2'x2'x5' Tent
- 2x 125 W CFL with Reflective Hoods Linked together by C-clamps to form one large hood
- 6" HydroFarm inline fan for ventilation and heat control
- Thermometer half way up the tent w/hygrometer (currently reading from 70-75 degrees and 50-55% humid.)
- Thermometer at ground level (currently reading ~78)
- pH meter and up/down solutions
- General organics Go Box
- 3 Gallon Smart Pot
- 3 Gallons of Happy Frog soil

So on to the Plants and the Plan

A little background first. So this whole setup started in a 2' wide closet. I decided to go with a single CFL lamp to keep heat down in the small closet with no ventilation. At the time that I purchased the equipment, the grow shop promised me some Larry OG clones would be rooted in a couple weeks, so I went home set everything up and waited. A little time went by and I got greedy, I bought a second lamp. Next thing you know temps were in the 90's. So long story short, I bought a hefty ventilation fan and moved the whole setup into my bedroom where there is plenty of space for air flow.

During the time that I waited for the clone I also purchased some Critical Jack Fem Auto seeds and started them, so in the pictures you will see a smaller pot containing that plant, but I will focus this journal on the Larry's OG. The Critical Jack is in a small pot and if the OG overshadows it I will prob give up on it.

Here you can see the two lamps that I combined into one using C-clamps and the 2 plants (Left= Larry's OG):

I plan to use some low stress training and encourage the plant to first bend over sideways then begin to wrap around the pot in a spiral. You can see in this first picture how I have started to bend the plant with wire and string, and in the second it is bending away from the camera and you can see how I have trimmed a couple of leaves away to expose the lower branch buds to more light:

So this day marks 14 days of growth for the Larry's OG. I plan to continue training until the plant reaches about a foot in height then switch the light cycles. I am currently watering with pH 6.5 reverse osmosis H2O and no nutrients. Can someone please help me out with some advice on when to start feeding?

Any critiques, suggestions, or advice are welcomed and encouraged!!!

-CapCity

 

[Pennywise]

Hey Cap, does the Happy Frog soil have nutes already in it?

 

[CapCity]

Hey Pennywise thanks for your question.
The grow shop I purchased everything from told me Happy Frog had less nutrients than other soils made by the same company.
They recommended I get the one with less nutrients because I plan to also use the General Organics liquid nutrients.

That said, HappyFrog does have microbes, composted humus, sphagnum moss, bat guano, worm castings, humic acid, oyster shell, and dolomite lime. I know some of those are not necessarily nutrients but conditioners and pH regulators.

 

[Eyes4grandpa]

Welcome to 420 mag, Cap. You have chosen the best place to journal your grow! People here are generous, helpful and best of all just plain great people! I am only on my second grow, but I am growing Autos. Being blind, I cannot see your pics but your setup sounds fine. The only thing I might do is add 10% extra Perlite to your soil. That adds some extra drainage without adding too much. I use Earth Juice Nutes, because of their organic nature. I have learned to not use the recommended dosage that is on their labels. I use them at 1/4 strength at first and see how they handle it. I guess the best advice I can give overall is be patient and let them tell you what they need, don't make decisions for them. I hope that makes sense. .

I think I'll grab a seat and tag along. Happy growing and good luck!

 

[CapCity]

Thanks for joining us Grandpa,
I wish I could have added perlite but I've started in the pot that I will also be finishing in. Next grow I will make sure to add some.
Regarding nutrients I plan to be very conservative and will definitely start with 1/4 strength.
Thanks for your tips and welcome to my journal. I will try to update with pictures frequently!
-CapCity

 

[Pennywise]

Yep the plants look fine for now, if they start to get lighter in color start them on a weak nute solution.

 

[EastCoastGhost]

Im subbed, looking good so far, I don't know what it is but I like these CFL grows, best of luck to you.

 

[EastCoastGhost]

Does the CFL's pull 125 true watts each from wall.

 

[Tony Urban]

Welcome to 420! Sounds like fun, and with the usual lurkers...I shall join you, good luck!

 

[CapCity]

Hello fellow east coaster,
Thank you for supporting me in choosing CFL. I too am excited. I was inspired both to use CFL and to write a grow journal by the book written by Seemorebuds, Marijuana Buds For Less. He shows day by day how he adjusts his CFLs to be within 3" of the plant.
The way i have my lamps set up, i can adjust their height with ratchet straps and their distance from one another with the string that connects to the c-clamps. You can kind of see in the picture above. I hope with this system and some training of the plant i can keep the lights as close as possible to the plant and optimize light exposure.

When it comes to true wattage i have no idea brother. Do I need a meter to determine that?

 

[FatNeil]

Subbed. Your plants look very healthy.

 

[EastCoastGhost]

Hello fellow east coaster,
Thank you for supporting me in choosing CFL. I too am excited. I was inspired both to use CFL and to write a grow journal by the book written by Seemorebuds, Marijuana Buds For Less. He shows day by day how he adjusts his CFLs to be within 3" of the plant.
The way i have my lamps set up, i can adjust their height with ratchet straps and their distance from one another with the string that connects to the c-clamps. You can kind of see in the picture above. I hope with this system and some training of the plant i can keep the lights as close as possible to the plant and optimize light exposure.

When it comes to true wattage i have no idea brother. Do I need a meter to determine that?

You can buy a meter to check how many true watts they are pulling but it should have said on pack if it didn't pull 125 true watts. Most of the time on the pack It will say 125w equivalent, then it will have beside of that how many true watts. If yours just says 125 then that's probably the true watts. I grow with led right now but I love these small CFL grows. I also like how you have c- clamp joining them together, it helps to keep the CFL's at same height with the rachet straps. I believe your setup will perform good.

 

[CapCity]

There's no information on the fixtures packaging about true or equivalent wattage.
The fixtures are two VitaPlant 125 watt CFL fixtures and the bulbs I purchased are two Vitalume daylight bulbs for veg and two Vitalume warm bulbs for flowering.

 

[CapCity]

Update:
Auto flower looks like its starting to flower already. Larrys OG is continuing to be trained.

 

[CapCity]

Day 27:
Critical jack is flowering. Started fertilizing at half strength. Continuing to train the Larry's OG in order to create a flat canopy for a SCROG net.

 

[CapCity]

It's Flower time!!
Switched to warm CFL's and 12/12 light schedule. I decided to switch earlier than planned, because I've read that CFL light penetration is low, making it less suitable for taller plants. I'd rather have smaller plants with bigger buds!!
Also, I'm happy with the shape of the plant at this time. I don't think the SCROG is necessary.

 

[CapCity]

Btw does anyone know why my leaves have such deep ridges? Some of the lowest leaves have smoothed out and become taught with no ridges, but most of the upper leaves have not.

 

[CapCity]

Plants doing well. Got some extra lights

 

[CapCity]

Extra lights

 

[CapCity]

Both are running on 12/12


Larry's Og:

Critical Jack auto flower: