First CFL Grow Using 30 Watt CFLs

from what ive read and told autos flower due to age and not lighting schedule, so it should flower under 24-0 and also under 20-4 and even 12-12. the best grow method ive read about is having it under 20-4 due to the fact these plants do need some dark to promote flowering, if i new they grew under 24-0 for sure then i would of used that to get the best growth and size i could,

it was sold to me from herbies as g13 poisen dwarf auto regular, so its not femenised, i struggled from day 1 to get it to grow and when it sprouted it had no stem at all and the leaves where growing at ground level, but the last 2 weeks it started growing and now ive noticed the pistols showing me its female, i kept looking in case it was male as i didnt want to pollenate my plants in flower.

what im doing at the moment is when the hps is on for its 12 hours of light i have the autos under that, but just before it goes off i put it under cfls 6500k 30 watt x 4 and leave it under them till the hps comes bak on, i was running at 20-4 overall but i have now left the cfls on 24-0 as i have clones under it and also another auto, so my thinking is if an auto wont flower under 24-0 then in theory it should keep growing until i change the lights back to 20-4, how ever im not sure whether to let it finish under 20-4 or try getting it to grow under 24-0,
 
Me, I'm a junk food fanatic w/ a sweet tooth. Salt & Vinegar potato chips w/ french onion dip, cheese puffs, bannanna pudding, vanilla ice cream smothered w/ hershey's chocolate sauce...umm-um good...individually, one at a time that is. Throw it all in the same big bowl though and those scruptous morsels turn to crap soup. The sweets lose their sweetness, the chips lose their crispness, the condensed cheese powder dissapates & the dip simply rots and reeks. Probably why they've come up with dinner plates, salad bowls & desert dishes to keep different courses separate to optimize the dining pleasure.

But I digress........

:)
 
you lost me,
 
I think you're trying to do to much at the same time in the same place. Yes, even in flower a mixture of spectrums can be a positive. But, I doubt going to solely 6500 blue for an additional 8-12 hours after running the 2100k hps for 12 would be a positive. The reason why I asked 'bout the lighting on the dwarf was because I think you're seeing pre-flowers. You probably have the Hermie somewhere buy his/her self flowering already. Since the dwarf probably, given these past 7 weeks, isn't the advertised Auto you thought you'd be getting & you don't expect much from it anyways...why not toss her in w/ the Hermie. Even if she was an auto flower, the odds of getting auto flowering seeds wouldn't be as high as you probably were thinking. However, she probably can give you some fem, semi-dwarf seeds from your hermie.

Get her prego and grow a few moms from her down the line. Clone them en masse, utilize that 400 watter you just got in conjunction w/the probably tiny stature of her future offspring in a 1 ltr SOG that will probably go by super fast w/ a nice 'lil total harvest.

Get a couple of them 6500k cfl's and the clones outa the flower chamber and off by themselves. Following along your journal, you'll be having a seperate veg area anyways sooner or later (if not already.) Clones are low maintenance & don't need much light, lumen wise, anyway. Actually, too much close light prior to rooting is likely a negative anyways.
 
Hiya . . . Nice journal mate very long and helpfull been scanning through it and wanted to ask what ferts you plan to use for flowering ? I am also from the UK struggle to find all those american products but i do have some of that Baby Bio do they do this for flowering plants too? What do you plan on using to flush your plants and how long before you cut them down? Are you making some butter with your leftovers if so you got any tips?

Thanks dude :)
 
Hey donpaul, thanks for the info on my journal. I had planned on drenching my plants but I will take your advice and let them dry for awhile. As for nutes, I have been using off the shelf stuff - MG tomato plant food (18-18-21) during veg, then when I went to flower I was trying orchid bloom booster (11-35-15). After reading through alot of the post about problems and all the other journals I read I started looking at some of the more popular organic stuff, i.e. BPN, FF, Bonticare etc. I really wanted to switch to BPN but they are always out of stock on the items I want. I also have concluded that the nute/fert I am currently using may be way to much for our type of grow even though I had also read that MG was okay. What I also think is that I do have more than one problem going on, 1. nitrogen burn, 2. lock out from over fert ( I am a noobie), 3. poor pH control. I had not thought about over watering or root rot but guess that is also possible, but my buckets do drain a lot, I'd say close to 75 - 80 % and the top of my soil is usually alittle dry when I water and I use the second nuckle approach in addition to the dry top layer, but NOOBIE that I am I may not be doing that rite either. So I am investing in a pH tester for my soil and water, plus I am going to get a moisture meter as well. May even get a TDS meter because I may also try a hydro later and want to be able to check and adjust ppms. Don't think that the TDS is a bad ideal for checking nutes before adding to soil either. I normally get my water through a faucet Britta filter and let it stand for a day or two, my pool test kit shows the pH of that to be right around 6.8 and if I check it after the orchid bloom is added the pH drops even more, somewhere below that, my color scale doesn't go that low but the color is a shade or 2 lighter than the lowest I have. What do you think about using 3 part pH test strips? I really do appreciate all the input and advice, anyone else reading this please chime in with any comments, all comments are:welcome::thanks: my journal can be found here (hopefully I get this right. My First Grow - White Widow & Unknown From South Florida . There are quite afew pic as well so pls look and offer any advice. Sorry this post is so long, just trying to give as much info as possible.:peace: out brothers and sisters:lot-o-toke:
 
@ jamthe3, thats what i was thinking mate, and probably will end up doing as long as the hermie starts giving pollen at the moment it has the hairs and the small sacs starting at the nodes but nothing big enough to open and give pollen, i dont have the hermie in the same building as my other plants so it would mean moving the auto over to where the hermie is, my hps is dual spec so does produce some of the 6500k range needed for veg growth, i have been putting a couple of plants under the hps for the 12 hours and under a mixtuer of 6500k and 2700k cfls for the rest of the time, im running at 24-0 for the plants in theory, well basically the cfls are running 24-7 so i just move the plants i want to move just before the hps goes off, so in theory it will give them the extra growing time, but i tell you what im getting, i have 2 x 2ltr hempies growing and another ak47 x uk berry cheese in another pot 12-12 from seeds, and the plants that have gone 12-12 from seed are getting bigger and have more nodel growth then the plants under 24-0, i know their meant to stretch under 12-12, but im not getting much stretch im just getting crazy growth.

if my hermie catches up and this auto is only showing preflowers then i may try get some decent auto seeds, but would they be decent, would i end up with a load of shitty plants, you may be right it might just be pre flowers and it may start growing all of a sudden, but when its getting on 7 weeks or older i think the chances are its in flower as they flower due to age and not size and lighting schedule, so unless it starts growing a bit more ill try and cross it with the hermie, the hermie is the big bud#2 and this plant has grown like crazy, not in height but in width its just so packed with growth it would of gave me a good yield, but ill see how far it goes and if its ready to cross with the auto.

ill answer the other posts very shortly,

a quick update on my plants in flower, ive been out all day today, and i just got back before the hps switched off, and i looked at the plants and they have exploded with buds, their all over the place, ill put some pics up tomorrow so you can have a look they really have exploded with buds, i should get a nice yield, check my pictures tomorrow and see what you think, well tomorrow for me is in about 8 hours time, so keep a check and let me know what you think,

i have got a seperate veg area, in fact i have 3 cupboards that are 3ft by 3ft and floor to ceiling high, im using one of these cupboard to flower, but at the moment im using the cupboard under my fish tank for my clones and seedlings, so i am using a seperate veg room, i have got mainly 6500k cfls abut a couple of 2700k cfls in their for the extra spectrum as i was only using 6500k and was getting little stretch so i added a couple of 2700k in the last hour or so, this veg room is running 24-7 so lights are constant, i got in their my clones, and also a ak47 x uk bc that im going to veg for a while because there ak47 cross look amazing plants, really good strong plants, ill put some pics up of them as well, my 2ltr hempies are ak cross and ive also gone 12-12 from seed with one, but ive got 3 in veg and also clones from the flowering plants, so they will grow out and depending on the smoke i may mother one, im still planning on taking clones at day 21 or just after to try this super cropping i have read loads about, wont take many just 1 from each plant. but when my veg cupboard gets to small i can use one of the bigger cupboards where i have no height issue, but now im using the hps im trying to cut down on electric costs so using only a few cfls just to keep the plants ticking over, i have also got an ak47 cross in my aero garden, never tried growing like that before so giving it a shot and its working so far.

@ msbonez, your not by anychance the bones from cwood are you, doubt it but thought id ask
thanks for coming over and reading my journal, yep it sure is getting long but not as long as some others i pop in on, but thanks for coming over, i got lots of posts as i ask lots of questions and it helps imrpove my grow, before this grow i new very little so it shows how far i have come from day one, now im in the position where i can try and offer help and advice where i can, so feel free to ask any questions here as their are load of top growers checking in on my journal so feel free to ask away and im sure you will get the answer you need.
i was using baby bio during veg stage but my plants seemed to be very very stunted and got very little growth so to me it looked like the baby bio was lacking something these plants needed, i was very lucky that a grower on here called teSmp saw me struggling and noticed how impressed i was with bpn nutes, and he offered and did pay for the products and paid for delivery to me in the UK, he and another grower who is no longer on here chipped in and paid for my bpn products and after a couple of weeks i got it through the post and been using it ever since, i would say withing 2 days of using it my plants exploded with growth and really took off, so i cant really help with ferts, possibly some kind of tomato nutrients would be best, during veg you want nutes high in the N part of NPK and during flower you want the P higher than the N in the NPK rating on the nutes. you need to make sure the nutes you use are for edible food like fruit and veg as some are for flowers and could make you ill,
with bpn products ive been using at full strength as its geared for these plants so works wonders, but any nutes for fruit and veg i would start at half strength and keep checking for nute burn then slowly up the dose until you find a level your plant likes,
the best tip i could give anyone is dont over water your plants, they really dont need it, i was over watering at first as most people in the uk who grow plants know they like wet soil, well these plants dont, it needs to pretty much dry out between watering, so its best to water once every 3 or 4 days, my 2 plants are full in flower now and im watering every 4 days wiv full nutes and my plants are fine and not showing any signs of stress,
if you had the money i would say go for bpn (blue planet nutrients) products, but to get it to the uk your looking around $80 so about £40 all together if i got the conversion wrong, i got 4 bottles, grow,micro, bloom,bloom booster and the size of the bottles will last me 3 grows i would of thought, but im saving up for when i do need some more as im totally amazed by the results,
im sure someone here will be able to give you better advice on nutes than me, in the past i have used miracle grow but that was 9 years ago and i got great results with it and ended up with a 6ft plant and a huge yield, but that was 9 years ago when i vegged a plant for way to long, try the garden center and get something thats geared towards fruit and look for something higher in N for the veg stage, and flower you want low N and higher levels of P, this should be labled on the side of the bottles,

can someone jump in and offer some advice on nutes, also check his journal and see what advice you can give, im trying to give the best advice i can but i can only say so much as im not as experienced as most growers on here.

someone should jump in and offer some advice, keep your journal updated with pics then when you get into any problems theirs plenty of info for us to go on that can help us help you solve the problem,

im not to sure when to flush myself, its something i have never done in previous grows as i just planted a clone i got and grew it without knowing much and it survived on a liquid miracle grow we just mixed in watering cans and it grew the plant and gave good returns, but i will be flushing this time, some say you really dont need to as long as you stop using nutes and just water with water for the last couple of times, im not planning on making any butter, im planning on keeping all the trim and making some of my own hash with it, ill buy some of the mesh bubble bags for about £10 each and get say 2 with different size micron holes and use the cold water and ice cube technique to get me some hash to smoke, but ill be saving my leaves and branches till ive got enough to get me a decent amount of hash, as you are aware of the crap thats sold in the uk that has all plastic bits in it and its pretty crap unless you get some decent squidgy black, so thats my plans for the trim thats left over.

if you got anymore questions just ask and im sure someone will jump in and help if i cant, plus the more journals you visit and make yourself known then growers will come and check your grow out just like i did, but if you dont put yourself out their then most people will never know your their unless they come across you like i did, but the problem i got now is im subd to that many journals its hard to keep up, plus i been having problems with the fone line and its only just been fixed so im back on line now and trying to update and catch up.

if all you have got is baby bio then it does work i may have had problems with low temps and that could of stunted my growth, i certainly didnt have any problems with it and i was using it at full strength, i wouldnt use it on very young plants unless you was using it at a quater the strength but i was using full strength and sometimes a few drips more and my plants showed no signs of over nute, but baby bio is more suited to the veg stage of growth, you will need something else for the flower side of it
 
What up don! :) i uploaded some new pics of the White Russian! :) ohh btw i started my Big Bang Auto! but shh its gonna be a big surprise i got the forum up but i didn't rly talk about it yet ;) You and deege and who ever is looking here
 
fuck me, that was a long one, i got a bit carried away,

@PreStonedDAV, looking at the nute your using for veg id say its not the best, you would need to find something that was higher in the N part of NPK, the only nute i use now is bpn and after using it my plants exploded with growth so if you get the chance get some, the reason it says its all out of stock is due to corey been away on holiday, so as soon as he gets back it will all be back up on the site again so shouldnt be to long now,

from what i have read you have soaked the soil to wash the nutes out, well it is best to add something back to the soil but only a very weak mix, say mix the nutes up at a quater the strength and just add a small amount to each pot, not loads so it runs out the bottom, say half a litre or a pint, this wont drench the soil but will put some nutes back in the soil once you have done this let it dry out for at least 3 days, the best way to check when your pot needs watering is to fill a pot of the same size up with the same compost and leave it dry then all you need to do it pick the pots up with the plants in and compare the weight, when the pots are the same weight then its time to water, the roots need air so they do need the soil to dry out between each water, any nutes you buy from garden centers i would use at half strength then over a few feeds slowly bring it up till you think the plants still look ok, as soon as you see signs of nute burn add less next time, dont keep washign the soil out this will cause more damage than good, so if you have washed them out and some very week nutes then leave them alone for a few days, they should go easily 3 days or even upto 5 depending on temps and humidity, also what temps are the plants at or was you the one with cold temps, ill come back over and have a look.

im not sure about super thrive so someone else can jump in and offer advice, the reason i posted comments on your journal is to try and get you the help you need, when i started on the site i new nothing, but now you have posted something on my journal im sure some of the top growers who check in on mine will come over and give you some advice, i have met loads of top people on here and got loads of advice and im sure they wont mind doing the same for you and help you try and get over the problem your in.

someone may jump in and say something different to me and give you better advice but i would add some nutes at a weak mixture but not flood the pots, then totally leave them alone for at least 3 days before doing anything else to them, as for switching back to veg it depends how long you are in flower, it can make them go hermie messing the lights up, but so can stress, so its up to you, you could go back to veg and wait till the plants are more healthy before going back into flower, ill come back over to your journal and remind me of your grow, its gets confusing when i check in on this many journal, but when i came across yours and another grower who i just replied to i noticed you could do with some help and advice like i did when i first came here, and now look at my plants, im amazed at what i have ended up with so ill do my best to give advice and guidance and try and get it all back on track for you, im sure their will be plenty of people coming over and checking your journal out now you have come over to mine, many top growers and regular members are here so check their journals out also and im sure they will be over to check your soon, ill be over on yours to remind myself, but your more than welcome to post any questions you like on mine, i got loads of help and advice and even someone was kind and generous enough to pay for me to get my hands on some bpn products all the way over my side of the world, ill be over shortly and have a look
 
you called mr mud pie, on my way over mate, im very intrigued, any chance you can check these 2 journals out from this page and my last page, their 2 growers who have been having a few problems and could do with some better advice than what i can give them,
 
you know im always intrigued, the auto even more now
 
@PreStonedDAV, its a good argument about the time schedules, some people swear by 24-0 others by 20-4 and 18-6, but then their is another schedule called gas lantern routine, this is supposed to give the most explosive growth but i did a small experiment from seed,
i done the following, glr, 24-0 and 12-12 from seed, all these where in seperate grows under same lights and fed and watered the same and the temps where the same and i found that from seed glr didnt really impress me much, when i started out this grow i was using 20-4 and switched to 24-0 as i was told it would give me more growth, and for a while i thought it did but i had temp issues etc etc, but the way i see it is each to their own, i mean the plants i have now got under 12-12 from seed are bigger and have more nodel growth than the plants under 24-0 people say they stretch under 12-12 but im not getting loads of stretch im getting loads of growth all over, but in my flower room im using a dual spectrum 400watt hps so possibly the extra 55.000 lumins is causing the growth spurt.

but id say cost wise if you was trying to save money then go with 18-6 or 20-4, people argue that the plants grow more in the dark so do need dark, others argue the plants dont need any dark, the only reason my veg room is 24-0 is because ive got clones and auto in their so trying to get the clones started and keep the auto growing as much as i can before it goes to flower, but if i didnt have the clones id either go with 20-4 or the gas lantern method, which is ok to do if you have an analogue and not digital timers because the glr routine is like this, 12 hours lights on, 5.5 hours lights off, 1 hour lights on, 5.5 hours lights off, so using the glr method it would keep the energy costs down also, but normally plants flower under 12-12 but by giving it the extra hours light in the middle of the dark period tricks the plants and keeps it out of flower,
now the reason glr works in my oppinion is due to this, when you switch the lights to 12-12 the plants pack on the growth to get ready for pollen and seed production so the plants start rapid growth to get taller and make themselves the best they can to either produce pollen or flowers to catch pollen so the plants start rapid growth to get to this stage as their not ready for it yet so this gives the rapid growth, but instead of the plants going into flower the extra hours light in the middle of the dark period tricks the plants and stops it going into flower, so the plants are in rapid growth due to responding to the 12-12 schedule but adding the hours light in the middle of the 12 hour dark period prevents the plant going into flower.

now when i tested this i found that glr from seed is not giving the best growth rate i had bigger plants under 20-4 but if i had of carried on with the glr method then i think the plants would of started to switch to rapid growth as they got older and mature enough to start showing sex around 3 or 4 weeks, someone else will jump in and help you hear,

when tests where done 18-6 was found to be the best schedule to produce the most roots in the shortest time and the more roots the better the plant and over all yield, but under 24-0 the plants are meant to grow quicker but without doing a test from start to finish i couldnt say, but what ever schedule growers use they will say its the best method so i would say use what you thinks best and what suits you best, the difference i dont think is that drastic for any of the methods, they will all produce results and if one produces more growth than the other then its not that much to be worrying about, so i fretted about the schedules but found i was worrying over nothing so as long as the plant is getting light then you will be ok, so dont worry to much about the schedule, each to their own and each grower who uses different schedules will argue theirs is the best,
 
when my clones and my auto is at a size i think is ok then ill switch to 20-4 and then when my autos have finished ill try the glr method from start to flower and see how my clones react and compare the results to the results im getting now, you could always do the same, try one method and check the yield then try another, but the only thing i can say for sure is that everyone who uses glr from start to flower says it is the best method and produces the most growth, so if your using any other method then i wouldnt worry to much as the end result is not that different for each schedule, but now i have grown and in flower and i think 1 auto of mine is in flower even though its a micro minature dwarf, not sure why as my other is growing like all the other plants, but its in flower so when thats done ill wait for the other auto to flower, i bought them to check yield and decide which way to go in future but ive also got 2ltr hempies growing and seeds 12-12 from seed and also vegging the same strain to compare yield, so the same strain i have got some seeds 12-12 from day one and ill veg the same strain for 4 or more weeks and compare the yield, that way i can decide if its worth having any veg time at all or do i get the same putting seeds under 12-12 from day one, and at the moment the seeds ive got under 12-12 from day one seem healthier and have a lot more growth than the ones under 24-0
 
no probs thats what where here for, to share and learn and improve to get the best we can out of these plants, so many different growing methods and styles so theirs loads of stuff to learn and pick up on, and if we have any problems or questions then their is plenty of people who i now call friends that are willing to help and guide where needed
 
my clones was under 20-4 and each clone had a clear plastic cover that fitted over the plant to create 100% humidity so i had that sorted, you gota remember the clones i have got now are ends of branches where i topped and 2 was ones that broke off when i was tying branches to get more light, some was less than 1 node high but lived and are all growing, i think i lost 2, but now they have grown a new set of leaves their under 24-0, i think as they have grown new leaves at the main shoot they must have roots else they would have wilted and died, the ones that wilted went limp after 2 days and leaves fell and rested on soil the others didnt even show signs of slowed growth, and the one had a small bud on it and its started growing as well, so im wondering if the one with the bud on it will work the same as super cropping, most of the so called clones now have outgrown the covers i was using and only 1 is still using its cover and thats the one with the bud on it, but its alive and growing and when it starts growing a bit quicker ill leave the cover off, all are misted 2 or 3 times a day and i kept checking leaf condition and i could tell withing a day which ones had a fighting chance and lost 2 but all the others seem healthy. not even the leaves showed signs of stress,
 
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