Dr. Strange Bud - How I Quit Worrying And Learned to Love The Medi Bomb

[donpaul.p]

@Dhama, start with what ever you like
for autos you cant clone them, if you take a clone from an auto it will not go back into veg it will carry on as it is and will givve you much less yield,

a fem seed means the plants is going to be fem when flipping to flower, not 100% as i have had 1 male from a fem seed so you still need to check to make sure its fem when you put it in flower, you can grow a regular seed with a fem but when you put the regular seed into flower you need to make sure its fem and not male else you will end up turning your fem buds to seed,

how much do you know about growing, what lights you using, what schedule you using,
autos dont flower due to light schedule, they flower due to light hours, so an auto will flower under 24 hours of constant light but this is not the best schedule for autos, anything 18-6 is good for autos, ive used 20-4 and 24-0 and got very poor results, then ive grown autos under 12-12 and got 2oz growing the same autos i grew under 20-4, under 20-4 i got 1/4oz, so very poor indeed, so autos do benefit from some dark period,

you cant keep autos in veg, they flower when they want to, also autos prefer slightly cooler temps and weaker nutes than regular plants,

so to answer your question if you want a quick harvest grow the auto first, if you want to be sure you will end up with a fem plant then grow the fem seed, any of the regular seeds could be male or female so you would have to grow what ever you wanted then when you put them into flower it will then show you what sex the plant is, remove any males unless your going to produce your own seeds, but producing your own seeds means less smokable buds at harvest.

so choose what schedule your using, ive grown under 24-0 20-4 and glr and 18-6, 17-7, these plants are a c3 plant which means they can be grown under constant light until you go 12-12 for flower, a lot of growers use 24-0 and they do ok, but i get better results when i give my plants a dark period, this time round im using 17-7 instead of 20-4 and im growing the same strains i grew before, under 17-7 ive got much more roots on my dwc plant, my soil plants are looking much healthier, leaves are much bigger than previous grows,

i would use glr but i got autos growing so cant use glr at the minute but will use it after ive stopped grwoing autos as glr works wonders for veg and produces top buds using dlr for flower,

but if this is your first grow then go with what you think is best, use nutrients but start at 1/4 strength from about week3 if your growing in soil, then slowly up the nutes each feed until your at max strength depending on what nutes your using, then pick a light schedule for veg and stick to it, if you choose 18-6 then stay with that till you go 12-12 for flower, i honestly think plants benefit from a dark period and grow better but others argue 24-0 is the best schedule, but i clearly see my plants are doing better with a dark period, at night plants use their stored energy to grow roots, also repair damage done in the day and it also stretches to find the light, so the main stem grows, branches grow then when the light comes back on the new growth starts to bush out,.

so its really up to what you think is best,
use which ever seeds you like, the more veg time you give them the more yield you will have,
fem seeds should be female plants which is what you want,
auto will flower due to age and not light schedule so they will flower under veg lighting schedules,
regular seeds could be either female or male but you wont know this until you flip the lights 12-12 for flower then about 2 weeks after they will show sex, then remove any males before they spread pollen onto the female plants

if you got anymore questions either post them here or drop me pm or post comment in my journal, their are many of us that are more than happy to help with any questions you might have,

just remember these plants are weeds and will grow under most conditions, its takes a lot to kill them but any problems such as nutrient issues will slow growth and reduce yield,

 

[DharmaBud]

I don't know, I'm going into my decrepit small town nursery today, but from past experience they only had miracle gro potting soil which I will not use. I assume after germination and the plant comes up, my first transplant can be into FF ocean? Also since I have some experienced growers I pose a question...

I have Skywalker OG Kush Fem-Sensi, Northern Lights #5 X Haze Fem-Sensi, Silver LA Fem-DNA Gen, Auto White Widow-Vision, and Northern Lights Reg-Sensi. My question which couple should I choose to start with? I have no idea what happens throwing a reg in with a fem and I wouldn't know how to deal with it, I don't think. Can I clone off of a reg Northern Light? Can I clone off of an Auto White widow? Anyway, what do you guys think?

you can clone off the Northern lights and sense its a regular seed you can force the clone after its rooted of course to see if its a male or female. there is no point to cloning a auto plant as that will just grow till its time is up minus the rooting period.
the skywalker and the NL seem to be the fastest to finish if you are in a hurry but that depends on how much Haze is in the genetics.and the auto should be good too pending room

sativa doms generally take longer to finish. hope that helps a bit

They say flowering time between 60-70 days, I still don't know exactly what that means, because how long is veg state, you know? You have to add that in there to don't you, or is that all taken into consideration, from seed to harvest 60-70 days?

Northern Lights #5 X Haze

 

[wildbill38]

I thought I would drive by and give a shout to my favorite fish, Howdy lol.
Question Fish...
What mixture is your soil, and what nutes do you use?

 

[DharmaBud]

@Dhama, start with what ever you like
for autos you cant clone them, if you take a clone from an auto it will not go back into veg it will carry on as it is and will givve you much less yield,

a fem seed means the plants is going to be fem when flipping to flower, not 100% as i have had 1 male from a fem seed so you still need to check to make sure its fem when you put it in flower, you can grow a regular seed with a fem but when you put the regular seed into flower you need to make sure its fem and not male else you will end up turning your fem buds to seed,

how much do you know about growing, what lights you using, what schedule you using,
autos dont flower due to light schedule, they flower due to light hours, so an auto will flower under 24 hours of constant light but this is not the best schedule for autos, anything 18-6 is good for autos, ive used 20-4 and 24-0 and got very poor results, then ive grown autos under 12-12 and got 2oz growing the same autos i grew under 20-4, under 20-4 i got 1/4oz, so very poor indeed, so autos do benefit from some dark period,

you cant keep autos in veg, they flower when they want to, also autos prefer slightly cooler temps and weaker nutes than regular plants,

so to answer your question if you want a quick harvest grow the auto first, if you want to be sure you will end up with a fem plant then grow the fem seed, any of the regular seeds could be male or female so you would have to grow what ever you wanted then when you put them into flower it will then show you what sex the plant is, remove any males unless your going to produce your own seeds, but producing your own seeds means less smokable buds at harvest.

so choose what schedule your using, ive grown under 24-0 20-4 and glr and 18-6, 17-7, these plants are a c3 plant which means they can be grown under constant light until you go 12-12 for flower, a lot of growers use 24-0 and they do ok, but i get better results when i give my plants a dark period, this time round im using 17-7 instead of 20-4 and im growing the same strains i grew before, under 17-7 ive got much more roots on my dwc plant, my soil plants are looking much healthier, leaves are much bigger than previous grows,

i would use glr but i got autos growing so cant use glr at the minute but will use it after ive stopped grwoing autos as glr works wonders for veg and produces top buds using dlr for flower,

but if this is your first grow then go with what you think is best, use nutrients but start at 1/4 strength from about week3 if your growing in soil, then slowly up the nutes each feed until your at max strength depending on what nutes your using, then pick a light schedule for veg and stick to it, if you choose 18-6 then stay with that till you go 12-12 for flower, i honestly think plants benefit from a dark period and grow better but others argue 24-0 is the best schedule, but i clearly see my plants are doing better with a dark period, at night plants use their stored energy to grow roots, also repair damage done in the day and it also stretches to find the light, so the main stem grows, branches grow then when the light comes back on the new growth starts to bush out,.

so its really up to what you think is best,
use which ever seeds you like, the more veg time you give them the more yield you will have,
fem seeds should be female plants which is what you want,
auto will flower due to age and not light schedule so they will flower under veg lighting schedules,
regular seeds could be either female or male but you wont know this until you flip the lights 12-12 for flower then about 2 weeks after they will show sex, then remove any males before they spread pollen onto the female plants

if you got anymore questions either post them here or drop me pm or post comment in my journal, their are many of us that are more than happy to help with any questions you might have,

just remember these plants are weeds and will grow under most conditions, its takes a lot to kill them but any problems such as nutrient issues will slow growth and reduce yield,

This will be my first grow, I only got the auto because I like white widow and it seemed a good first grow plant to try. I will have a 62"x36"x20" grow tent with a 2 ft T-5 HO fixture and bulbs. I'll have 4 6400k and 4 3000k to play with, bought a small fan to strengthen stems as they from, got a room temp/hum monitor, light fixture ratchet system as well. I don't think I want to go more than 2 plants my first time, so thats why I thought I would ask.

I also want to look into finding a spot in my 12'x16' cabin to put some clones separate, so I can keep things going without worrying about getting more seeds.



Jeff

 

[fish cake]

Hi DP glad you stopped by to help
good weed too!

@Dhama, start with what ever you like
for autos you cant clone them, if you take a clone from an auto it will not go back into veg it will carry on as it is and will givve you much less yield,

a fem seed means the plants is going to be fem when flipping to flower, not 100% as i have had 1 male from a fem seed so you still need to check to make sure its fem when you put it in flower, you can grow a regular seed with a fem but when you put the regular seed into flower you need to make sure its fem and not male else you will end up turning your fem buds to seed,

how much do you know about growing, what lights you using, what schedule you using,
autos dont flower due to light schedule, they flower due to light hours, so an auto will flower under 24 hours of constant light but this is not the best schedule for autos, anything 18-6 is good for autos, ive used 20-4 and 24-0 and got very poor results, then ive grown autos under 12-12 and got 2oz growing the same autos i grew under 20-4, under 20-4 i got 1/4oz, so very poor indeed, so autos do benefit from some dark period,

you cant keep autos in veg, they flower when they want to, also autos prefer slightly cooler temps and weaker nutes than regular plants,

so to answer your question if you want a quick harvest grow the auto first, if you want to be sure you will end up with a fem plant then grow the fem seed, any of the regular seeds could be male or female so you would have to grow what ever you wanted then when you put them into flower it will then show you what sex the plant is, remove any males unless your going to produce your own seeds, but producing your own seeds means less smokable buds at harvest.

so choose what schedule your using, ive grown under 24-0 20-4 and glr and 18-6, 17-7, these plants are a c3 plant which means they can be grown under constant light until you go 12-12 for flower, a lot of growers use 24-0 and they do ok, but i get better results when i give my plants a dark period, this time round im using 17-7 instead of 20-4 and im growing the same strains i grew before, under 17-7 ive got much more roots on my dwc plant, my soil plants are looking much healthier, leaves are much bigger than previous grows,

i would use glr but i got autos growing so cant use glr at the minute but will use it after ive stopped grwoing autos as glr works wonders for veg and produces top buds using dlr for flower,

but if this is your first grow then go with what you think is best, use nutrients but start at 1/4 strength from about week3 if your growing in soil, then slowly up the nutes each feed until your at max strength depending on what nutes your using, then pick a light schedule for veg and stick to it, if you choose 18-6 then stay with that till you go 12-12 for flower, i honestly think plants benefit from a dark period and grow better but others argue 24-0 is the best schedule, but i clearly see my plants are doing better with a dark period, at night plants use their stored energy to grow roots, also repair damage done in the day and it also stretches to find the light, so the main stem grows, branches grow then when the light comes back on the new growth starts to bush out,.

so its really up to what you think is best,
use which ever seeds you like, the more veg time you give them the more yield you will have,
fem seeds should be female plants which is what you want,
auto will flower due to age and not light schedule so they will flower under veg lighting schedules,
regular seeds could be either female or male but you wont know this until you flip the lights 12-12 for flower then about 2 weeks after they will show sex, then remove any males before they spread pollen onto the female plants

if you got anymore questions either post them here or drop me pm or post comment in my journal, their are many of us that are more than happy to help with any questions you might have,

just remember these plants are weeds and will grow under most conditions, its takes a lot to kill them but any problems such as nutrient issues will slow growth and reduce yield,

I don't know, I'm going into my decrepit small town nursery today, but from past experience they only had miracle gro potting soil which I will not use. I assume after germination and the plant comes up, my first transplant can be into FF ocean? Also since I have some experienced growers I pose a question...

I have Skywalker OG Kush Fem-Sensi, Northern Lights #5 X Haze Fem-Sensi, Silver LA Fem-DNA Gen, Auto White Widow-Vision, and Northern Lights Reg-Sensi. My question which couple should I choose to start with? I have no idea what happens throwing a reg in with a fem and I wouldn't know how to deal with it, I don't think. Can I clone off of a reg Northern Light? Can I clone off of an Auto White widow? Anyway, what do you guys think?



They say flowering time between 60-70 days, I still don't know exactly what that means, because how long is veg state, you know? You have to add that in there to don't you, or is that all taken into consideration, from seed to harvest 60-70 days?

Northern Lights #5 X Haze

you can veg as long as you like. most depends on how patient you are. I like to let a plant go till its mature but you can start a plant right out of the box with a flower schedule.
the time they say in flower is a ball park guess on when she will be ready to harvest after she shows sex. does this make sense?

I thought I would drive by and give a shout to my favorite fish, Howdy lol.
Question Fish...
What mixture is your soil, and what nutes do you use?

Howdy WB I use a local potting soil 40% about 20% perlite 20% worm castings and 20% peatmoss. a little kelp and lime. then its superthrive, molasses and fox farms grow big, big bloom and beastie bloom.

 

[wildbill38]

That sounds like a good mix.

 

[DharmaBud]

you can veg as long as you like. most depends on how patient you are. I like to let a plant go till its mature but you can start a plant right out of the box with a flower schedule.
the time they say in flower is a ball park guess on when she will be ready to harvest after she shows sex. does this make sense?

Perfect I think. Thanks! That's the other skill I need to learn. All these guys show pics of their plants in veg state and say its a female look...look woohoo!!!
I say look at what? LOL!

 

[donpaul.p]

no worries fish, good weed to you as well my friend.

@Dharma, try not to have the fan blowing directly on the plants for the first week of growth, i had huge problems with plants by having fans blowing on them to early, it takes all the moisture out the young leaves and dont do them any good, after about 7 days your good to go with the fans, i have them blowing above the plants for the first week of growth,

with the lights your using try and get them as close to the plant as your can, hold your hand under the lights to check temps are not to hot at plant height, just remember that temps higher up in grow tent will be hotter than lower down so make sure you take temps at the top of the plant, that way you know how hot the plant is getting at the canopy,

cfls only penetrate good light for about 1ft, if you switch them on and hold your hand against the bulb then move it away slowly you will see that after just a few inches the light drops off drastically, i kept my cfls within an inch to 2 inches from top of the plant, so adjusting height of lights is a constant battle with cfls,

i dont well with cfls and got a good harvest, i still use cfls to start clones and seedlings under as i find cfls limit stretch and promote short nodes, so i still use cfls for 2 weeks before putting plants under the hps, i only switched to hps due to the amount of watts i was using with cfls, i use dual spectrum hps so it can be used for both veg and flower cycle, it cost me £60 and came with digital ballast, hood and dual spectrum bulb, so was pretty cheap, when you consider how many cfls you use and how much they cost your not far off the same money.

but ill continue to use cfls as they are great for node spacing so will always use them for starting plants.

now with the lights you want a high ratio of 6400k for veg and 2700 for flower, i was using a 3 to 1 ratio for veg so 3 x 6400k bulbs and 1 2700k bulb for veg and 3 x 2700k and 1 x 6400k for flower so a good mixture of the 2 works best,

the blue light is more for veg and the orange regular cfls are for flower, i got loads free through the post of the 2700k bulbs as their regular household bulbs the 6400k was more expensive and could not buy them in regular shops so had to go to lighting shops or order off amazon.

dont expect huge results with the auto, you might only get 1/4oz dry so it might not be a huge harvest but will give you a good idea of what these plants expect,
for harvest you will need something like magnifying glass or jewelers loop anything from 20x upwards, i got a small scope type jewelers look of the auction site for 99p, it had a light on it and its used for checking bank notes but perfect for checking trichomes to see how mature they are.

if you get a journal up and running then give us a shout and we can come over and see how your getting on, i cant see you having many problems, just dont do what most do and over water, these plants like the soil to dry out between watering if your growing in soil, im watering every 3 days in the middle of summer and something every 5 days in winter but depends how quick your soil dries out, just dig down a few inches and if the soil is moist then dont water, if its dry then give water and leave for few days,

but im sure you will do find, you might find your auto wont need any nutes but just depends if your using soil and what type,

 

[Hiker]

Hi Dharma

Thanks for patching up our Marines

If this is your first grow, and that is your entire stock of genetics, my recommendation would be to start ONLY that auto White Widow. You know it's a female and you don't have to worry about light cycles or anything. I think it will be an easier entry into growing our favorite plant. It sounds like your spave might be able to handle a few plants, so if you're eager to fill your space quickly, I would recommend the femmed seeds. Having to account for males just adds more complexity when you're working through a steep learning curve. Sometimes I take for granted how much I learned in the 90's. Growing isn't hard, but it isn't easy either. Like most things, you will get better with practice.

You're way ahead of the game though. You have all the wonderful folks at to help you



Good weed to you Fishlasticatationater that's a good one!

 

[donpaul.p]

to find out if a plants male or female you need to look where the nodes are or where the new branches grow from which is the nodes,

plants reach maturity in veg if you leave them in veg long enough, a female plant will put out 2 white hairs from the nodes, it will be like a small ball and 2 white hairs sticking out, this is telling you its female and at flowering age, a male grows balls and looks like grapes, these are the pollen sacs, if these open it puts pollen on all the pistilts (white hairs) on a female and then it grows seeds,

if you google how to sex cannabis it will show you loads of sites that show you exactly what your looking for, once you grow a few plants you will have no problems sexing them when their mature enough,

you dont need to wait until they show sex to go 12-12, you can flip them 12-12 when you think their at a decent height, some wait till their 1ft in veg and flip to flower at 1ft then wait till week 2 of flower to find out what sex they are,

so its really up to you how big you want them, some plants double in size and some tripple but this does all depend on what lighting schedule your using, what strain, what lights and what nutrients, plus over and under watering affects plant size,

i usually let mine grow between 1ft and 2 before going 12-12 unless im doing a scrog or some lst then i might let it go longer, autos usually start flowering around week 2 to week 4 depending on strain and lighting schedule, ive had the same strain start flower at week 2 under 20-4 and week 3 to 4 under 12-12, so it depends on schedule and strains

 

[DharmaBud]

DonPaul and Hiker,

Excellent information. Thank you for your time. DonPaul, I have seen this before and maybe I am misinterpreting it. When I mentioned my light will be a 2 ft T-5HO fluorescent fixture, is that considered a CFL still? My definition of CFL was the fluorescents that screw into sockets that can be hung or even have their own hood. I only have the Hydrofarm 2 ft 4 bulb fixture that carries T-5 HO bulbs. As far as bulbs I have 4 6400k and 4 3000k which I will use 3 6400k and 1 3000k during veg state, then vice versa. To raise and lower the fixture, I have purchased a ratcheting system, so that should make things easy enough. I also bought one of those accu-rite temp/hum monitors.

I think I will start my journal soon and provide a list of what I have with associated URL's so that when I do have questions, it will help people to know what I am working with.

Thanks again



Jeff

 

[donpaul.p]

yep cfls are the compact household screw in or push fit type that fit standard house lamps, the tubes are pretty similar but not cfls as such, their just fl's but are pretty much similar in type of light they put out,

i use cfls around my home and one 30 watt cfl can light a whole room pretty good, but for growing its not good enough at that distance, they say around 1ft is the max you can penetrate with cfls, the main problem is when the top of the plant is putting the rest in the shade,
i found using some low stress training to open the plant up is best for cfl grows, removing leaves is also an option to let light in, you can remove fan leaves with a stem of 2 inch or more, but the plant takes time to recover and upward growth will stop for a few days while it repairs the damage, new growth is good after using defol method but its not worth trying until you know the plants and got everything dialed in properly,

so for a first grow i would let them grow as is and just use a small amount of lst to get more light into the plant, what i do is poke holes all the way around the top of the plant pot, then i use them bendy pipe cleaners and poke them through the holes and then tie them onto the plant, i then pull branches one way or another so that its getting all the light, the more plant thats getting light means more growth and more yield,

another option with cfls is to have them above the plant and around the sides of the plants, i used to have several cfls above the plant and then hang some down the sides to spread more light about,

i use mylar around my grow room or regular flat white paint is just as good, dont use gloss paint as it dont reflect light as well, just use mylar to reflect light back onto the plant or paint but using a tent you would be better using mylar, the more light you can get on the plants the better so reflect as much light onto the plants as possible,

try and have the cfls side on to the plants, so the longest surface area is facing the plant, just hanging them above the plant means most the light is been pushed out sideways from the bulb and very little is shining downwards, so you want the most surface area facing the plants which would be the side of the bulb and not the end, that will give you the most light shining on the plants, then make something to go above the bulbs to stop the light shining upwards and have it reflected back onto the plants instead,

it will take a while to get it set up properly, it took me a couple of grows to get my room how i wanted it, then i got it sorted and ended up switching to hps.

 

[fish cake]

DonPaul and Hiker,

Excellent information. Thank you for your time. DonPaul, I have seen this before and maybe I am misinterpreting it. When I mentioned my light will be a 2 ft T-5HO fluorescent fixture, is that considered a CFL still? My definition of CFL was the fluorescents that screw into sockets that can be hung or even have their own hood. I only have the Hydrofarm 2 ft 4 bulb fixture that carries T-5 HO bulbs. As far as bulbs I have 4 6400k and 4 3000k which I will use 3 6400k and 1 3000k during veg state, then vice versa. To raise and lower the fixture, I have purchased a ratcheting system, so that should make things easy enough. I also bought one of those accu-rite temp/hum monitors.

I think I will start my journal soon and provide a list of what I have with associated URL's so that when I do have questions, it will help people to know what I am working with.

Thanks again



Jeff

we are all here to help Brother! someone will be here with a good answer for you or at least a good guess
If you ask me rely on the guess part.

 

[donpaul.p]

we are both cannabis connoisseur's according to our ratings, so your word is as good as mine, i only know what i have tried myself and what i know worked for me, but what works for one person might not work for another,

i dont pass on info if i have not tried it myself, if i do that and everything goes wrong then its my fault for passing on bad info, plus usually someone will correct me if i get something wrong, so i stick to what i know and what i have tried and tested myself, but the best info is your own,

we can all copy others and try other methods but at the end of the day what works for 1 person might not work for another, it all depends on what suits you best and what fits your grow method, id love to try hydro but i cant due to laws in my country so i have to keep it simple, so i grow in soil and grow the odd 2ltr dwc hempie, i learn something with each grow, this time round i learned that 17-7 works well for veg,
ive also made fem seeds and got good results, im trying to work on getting a purple strain and a good auto that yields well, but lots of grows and tests to run before i get it perfected, im just looking into this super soil,

with super soil you need no nutrients and the plants flower and turn purple without stress, super soil seems the way to go for the future, no nutrients for the whole grow, just water and let them grow, subcool has been getting amazing results with super soil, his purple strains are true purple and it wasnt down to cold temps that bought out the purple,

all cannabis has purple in it but we use nutrients and this stops the plants showing their true colours, but we use nutrients to grow the plants at their best, but this super soil uses no nutrients and the plant turns its true colour in flower, so for a future grow ill give super soil a try like jon is in his journal,
sounds like its about the best idea for a soil grow and gives amazing results, its a bit of work mixing the super soil up but once its done you will have plenty of soil for several grows,
at the minute i use bpn and very happy with the results

 

[fish cake]

DP you have away of making sense out of it and adding detail bro!
I get tired of spell check and the lot and loose my cool so I cut my advice short sometimes

 

[donpaul.p]

spell check, whats that, not something i use.
im pretty sure you knew that all ready,

 

[fish cake]

spell check, whats that, not something i use.
im pretty sure you knew that all ready,

like I care most of the time I wouldn't know if it was right or wrong or a word I never heard of before
On a side note I got sparkly stuff on me plant! the NL x BB anyway

 

[fish cake]

I also started DLS

 

[Spimp]

Good weed sir. Hope your day has found you happy and growfull.
How fast are you dropping the light time sir?

 

[DharmaBud]

yep cfls are the compact household screw in or push fit type that fit standard house lamps, the tubes are pretty similar but not cfls as such, their just fl's but are pretty much similar in type of light they put out,

i use cfls around my home and one 30 watt cfl can light a whole room pretty good, but for growing its not good enough at that distance, they say around 1ft is the max you can penetrate with cfls, the main problem is when the top of the plant is putting the rest in the shade,
i found using some low stress training to open the plant up is best for cfl grows, removing leaves is also an option to let light in, you can remove fan leaves with a stem of 2 inch or more, but the plant takes time to recover and upward growth will stop for a few days while it repairs the damage, new growth is good after using defol method but its not worth trying until you know the plants and got everything dialed in properly,

so for a first grow i would let them grow as is and just use a small amount of lst to get more light into the plant, what i do is poke holes all the way around the top of the plant pot, then i use them bendy pipe cleaners and poke them through the holes and then tie them onto the plant, i then pull branches one way or another so that its getting all the light, the more plant thats getting light means more growth and more yield,

another option with cfls is to have them above the plant and around the sides of the plants, i used to have several cfls above the plant and then hang some down the sides to spread more light about,

i use mylar around my grow room or regular flat white paint is just as good, dont use gloss paint as it dont reflect light as well, just use mylar to reflect light back onto the plant or paint but using a tent you would be better using mylar, the more light you can get on the plants the better so reflect as much light onto the plants as possible,

try and have the cfls side on to the plants, so the longest surface area is facing the plant, just hanging them above the plant means most the light is been pushed out sideways from the bulb and very little is shining downwards, so you want the most surface area facing the plants which would be the side of the bulb and not the end, that will give you the most light shining on the plants, then make something to go above the bulbs to stop the light shining upwards and have it reflected back onto the plants instead,

it will take a while to get it set up properly, it took me a couple of grows to get my room how i wanted it, then i got it sorted and ended up switching to hps.

That's what I wanted to get straight, all I am using is my 2ft T-5 HO fixture, no cfl's. Do I still try and maintain inches from the plant with the 2ft fixture? I am hoping the 6' square space I am dealing with isn't too much space for the 2ft fixture since I will not have cfl's to supplement.



Jeff