First CFL Grow Using 30 Watt CFLs

Re: first cfl grow using 30watt cfls

give me a few hours, my kids are asleep n if i turn the lights on ill wake them up its 3:00am where i am so ill post some when i get up of my arse and stop watching tv and speaking to yous lot on here, keeps my busy just the way i like it, keeps my mind in the right place so been on here helps me loads,

my temps where cold, i had my temp gauge resting on top of my pots but i took the temp gauge just out the way a bit and it dropped to 58f possibly lower, but as my temp gauge was out of the line of the fan i wasnt getting a proper temp reading, so when i put it closer to the fan and where the fan was blowing on the plants i soon realised it was to cool for the plants, so the fan is unplugged and the cfls are warming the room up a bit, its upto 75 at the moment, could go slightly higher, but i can always open the door a bit to vent out slightly and let fresh air in, but so far so good,

the stem was to thick on my plants to lst them properly, so what im doing now is lst all the side branches and every day i move the point its tied to on the plant further up the stem to keep up with growth and running the side branches strait out instead of letting them grow upwards has given me loads of growth at the nodes on these lower branches, im not expecting miracles with this first grow,

ive just added another light into the veg room so its sort of work in progress then once ive seen what results i get with this setup then ill change things to improve my grow and yield,

i need to keep it basic, if i got screwed over with hydro set up or massive lights then ill be in front of a judge for cultivating with intent to supply and i just dont need that so if its basic at worse i can got done for posesion and cultivation, but keeping it basic lowers the risk and i would be ok.

ill take some pics in few hours and post them on here, ive stacked up loads of video and cd boxes to raise my berry bomb and my auto, the auto has picked up loads and is now growing a stem instead of growing the leaves at soil level,

ill keep an eye on temp for about an hour then it should be good till morning.

ive added some of the baby bio nutes till my gifted bpn products turn up, im adding my nutes at full strength and i see no signs of over nuteing so it looks like its ok, possibly the nutes could be a bit stronger or higher dosage, but been as i got bpn on the way i dont want to over do it, so ill water now till the bpn stuff comes and probably flush the pots before i add bpn cuz i dont want it to react with what ive been using.

my humidity is at 50%, this is good i think, im going to re-arrange my lights tomorrow and spread them out more as they are now to close together now the plants are spreading, so ill sort the lights out tomorrow and add this one i got today,

then i need to think about making a small carbon filter, need a good guide though, ive got a couple of packs of activated carbon, and a tub i can use, just need to find out what fan to use, such as can i use a 12v computer fan to scrub the air with, will it be enough to stop the small, my veg room is 3ft by 3ft by about 8ft high, not sure how it works out in terms of fans but thats what i got, im only using bottom half of cupboard but the whole cupboard will be smelling as its not devided,

thats as far as i have got, ill post pics in few hours and update on the new growth, so fingers crossed ive got it sorted and growth has begun again
 
Re: first cfl grow using 30watt cfls

teSmp said:
Yeah temps at 58F are to cold man! You need to find a way to keep them warmer when the lights are off. Also I never really worry about fan leaves shading to much while in veg. I kind of only think about it when they're flowering and blocking bud sites. If you want the light to get to the whole plant evenly, then you should LST!
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I'm pretty sure teSmp is probably right but, I just wanted to add that in the outdoors I have temps go below 58 often, early in the season. In fact we had a cold snap this past week that got down to 49 and those crazy autos I've got outside never slowed down.
 
Re: first cfl grow using 30watt cfls

i see that many different answers when it comes to chopping leaves back, even one statement i read from an expert grower who wrote a book stated to chop off any leaves that are longer than 4inches but not including the stem, but i have not chopped ive tied the leaves out the way and all growth is now getting light.

the good news is my plants are all growing again and quick now as well, ive added one extra bulb and lowered the lights again closer to the plants, it seems the temp did affect the growth, either that or the fim i messed up, anyway im happy with the growth now it all seems good, temps are back up to around 75 to 80f but the fans still off some venting often by opening the door, ive been spraying the plants as well to give them a bit of water on the leaves, all seems well, my topping attempt has worked really well and the top of the plant now looks really bushy and both tops are now level and are now the top of the plant, just uploading the pics so ill be posting them shortly,
 
Re: first cfl grow using 30watt cfls

10042012_014_.jpg[bid bud on the right and nl x bb fem on the left]
 
Re: first cfl grow using 30watt cfls

For your carbon filter, you need somewhere to vent the air, so you are going into the territory of a slightly more sophisticated set up.

Why don't you just grow basil in the room and or around the house. No one will be able to determine the smell of the weed, from the smell of the basil. Cheaper too :)
 
Re: first cfl grow using 30watt cfls

oops, done it wrong, one sec

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Re: first cfl grow using 30watt cfls

i live in flat, but how ever my grow room use to be a drying cupboard for clothes, so it has an air vent in the top of it that i have blocked off, i could possibly vent it out through their, as long as the smell was gone due to this vent being in all the flats so i dont want to pump air out through the vent if its going to stink other flats out, so i basic carbon filter would be enough to filter through this vent, ive got activated carbon so im thinking if i make a filter that pushes the air through the carbon then at the end of the filter if i had a piece full of smelly dried flowers like pot pouri or what ever its called, the coloured dried flowers that stink, would that be enough to prevent the smell going into other flats??
 
Re: first cfl grow using 30watt cfls

picture 1. big bud on the right and northern lights cross big bud fem on the left
2 big bud side growth lower branch
3 and 4, is big bud from the top and you can see how the topping has given me two main tops
5 6 and 7, is the nl x bb femenised, new shoots at top of main stem where i done the topping after the fim method didnt work, either i done it wrong or these plants to respond well to the fim method, since topping the growth has been a lot quicker

pic 8, is the g13 poisen dwarf auto
9 an 10 is the berry bomb.

the plants are wet as i have sprayed them,

i have also been soaking seeds for about 4 days in paper towel method, i had 4 seeds and none have sprouted so far, added another 3 seeds into the paper towel, possibly paper towel was 2 wet, so made sure its only damp this time, i had no problem with the seeds before these and had 100% sucess so to have 4 seeds and none of them have sprouted seems strange, possibly bad seed stock, or slow to sprout, ill see what happens over next few days with the seeds, the seeds are for my 12-12 from seed experiment.
 
Re: first cfl grow using 30watt cfls

thanks for the link mate, but im in europe, i have no problems making one and i have all the equipment except a pair of tights to filter through, ive got the activated carbon, 12v fans could use one at either end of filter to push and pull the air through, i have also got a tub that is fatter at one end than the other, so the lid is bigger than the base of the tub, just need some guide on how i go about building one that will work
 
Re: first cfl grow using 30watt cfls

i hope so mate, thing seem to have picked up, the only concern i have got is with my auto, the seed sprouted and i put it in the pot to grow, but it barely broke the soil and when it did it grew the seed leaves and not much of a stem, not its about 1cm above the soil and growing a tiny set of next leaves, im not sure if it is slow due to it been an auto or if i have got a dud seed, but its still alive and it just looks tiny compared to any other plants i have grown, i know its called poisen dwarf so maybe its gona live up to its name,
 
Re: first cfl grow using 30watt cfls

Looks awesome donpaul you got some bushy lady's :) I would only spray them down like that when the lights are off, the lights will intensify on the water droplets and you could get some spots on your leaves. I'm not sure if this applies for all lights but it's recommended on HID's I know for sure. Wheres that BPN at brotha?
 
Re: first cfl grow using 30watt cfls

thanks for the advice mate, im just checking the tracking number again now, i know it was clearing customs where i am and that was on sat so ill just check again now mate, its been bank holiday here today so like a sunday we got no post or deliveries, so im hoping it will be here tomorrow or the day after, i know its in my country and was clearing customs, so fingers crossed for tomorrow, cant wait, my plants will love it and ill love the results.

my plants are bushing out a lot now and the topping has given me a lot better results than the fimming and topping is so much easier to do, so i raised the pots closer to the lights as it looks like growth has started again since the topping and temp rise, so all been well my plants should really take off.
 
Re: first cfl grow using 30watt cfls

donpaul.p said:
thanks for the advice mate, im just checking the tracking number again now, i know it was clearing customs where i am and that was on sat so ill just check again now mate, its been bank holiday here today so like a sunday we got no post or deliveries, so im hoping it will be here tomorrow or the day after, i know its in my country and was clearing customs, so fingers crossed for tomorrow, cant wait, my plants will love it and ill love the results.

my plants are bushing out a lot now and the topping has given me a lot better results than the fimming and topping is so much easier to do, so i raised the pots closer to the lights as it looks like growth has started again since the topping and temp rise, so all been well my plants should really take off.
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Right on and yeah the big ones are definitely ready for some nutrients! Let me know about the tracking :) I'm glad you lowered the lights back down, I don't really like the idea of forcing them to stretch. Short and bushy is always nice :) especially with CFL's.
 
Re: first cfl grow using 30watt cfls

this is the msg on the tracking, not sure what to make of it, i think its saying that its been passed over to the postal service in my country. i think thats what it means anyway, i know the msg i got on saturday was that it was clearing customs so it must of cleared and been passed onto the postal service in my country, so fingers crossed it will be here tomorrow by my normal postal service, here is the message i get on the site, ill double check i entered the right number mate,

Delivery status information is not available for your item via this web site. A return receipt after mailing may be available through your local Post Office.

i think this is telling me its no longer tracked by usps as its been past over to another courier which should be my local post office, plz tell me thats what its saying, i think if it was still with customs or usps then their would be some more info stating what was going on,
 
Re: first cfl grow using 30watt cfls

im hoping so mate, my nutes are on the way, hoping tomorrow or the day after as its been a bank holiday so no post since sat, i know my plants can do with it, i thought i had a problem with slow growth but think i have solved that problem by topping my plants and raising the temp, and they really have started growing at last, so i can add the nutes and watch them really take off, im sure their in rapid growth now, so nutes will only boost that, im hoping to go to flower when the plants are a ft high as im using cfls'

you know you said use the smallest cfls i can get, do you mean lowest wattage, is this something to do with the watt/lumin ratio, ive got my plants veg under 30watt 6500k cfls, but for flower ive got 2 30watt 2700k cfls to go above the plants but ive got as many cfls as i like of the following, from 8watt upto 20watt 2700k cfls, so can pack as many in as i need to, ill make sure the whole plant is lit up from the top and all round the plants, this way im hoping to rule out low light levels lower down the plant, plus keeping them small and bushy i should be able to get enough light coverage, i also put my lights back earlier after adding another, and when i put the plants back in i didnt notice that one of the fan leaves on the big bud was resting on the bulb, now i didnt notice this for about 4 hours or so and the plant was not harmed and the leaf looked totally fine, i moved it out the way just to make sure, but as far as i can tell the plant wasnt affected by this in anyway.

do any cfl growers, know if its worth me having any 2700k bulbs in the veg room, and is it worth me having say 1 or 2 6500k bulbs in the flower room, am i going to gain anything, or am i just wasting money.

i have how ever read that when using cfls if you have a 6500k bulb in with the flowering bulbs then this causes the plants to flower and also grow, not sure if this means stretch or not.

so i just wanted to ask am i best sticking with strictly 6500k for veg and 2700k for flower.

my flower room is set up and ive got 2 x 30watt 2700k cfls in their all ready and ive also put a 4000k 26watt cfl in their as well, will my plants get anything from this 4000k bulb, or am i just wasting electric
 
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