First CFL Grow Using 30 Watt CFLs

well my mom just got back with my kids, so ill have the camera again tomorrow onwards, i think you will like the pics though mate, i really dont think ill get much off each plant, if i can get between a 1/4 and 1/2oz per plant then ill be happy this time round, i think next time round ill try different compost, something was stopping my plants gaining height, now the clones of the same plants are growing quicker and taller than the parents did, but their in smaller pots, so either its compost issue or im better off growing from clones so i havnt got the slow start up from seed, but i still want to plant more seeds next time round and will be soaking some as soon as i get ready to harvest these, im thinking ill get more off the nl x bb just because the buds are longer but the special kush is just short fat solid buds, but not as many of them, guess thats what you get from buying cheap seeds me thinks
 
im nearly all mended, it looks like i had 3 absys in the same place, 2 have gone and had my puking for 2 days, but the last 24 hours have been all good, now i just got small absys left and no tooth ache which is the best bit, i hate tooth ache, so i can go dentist as soon as its gone.

thanks for all the kind words, i was really suffering, but im hoping this small lump is not getting bigger and it is actually going away, so all been well i should be ok in a couple of days,

as for the plants.

special kush, this is really packing on the trichs now and the buds are getting really fat, not much height to the buds they seem very short and fat and have a few orange hairs on each bud but not many.

nl x bb fe, this plant is now on its last stage me thinks, all the buds are covered in orange hairs, all the white hairs have started to die back and shrivel up into the bud and they are all pretty much orange now but not 100% so give it a few more days, trichs still look clear from what i could see with the x60 microscope,

ill update the rest tomorrow,
i forgot my moms camera so got no pictures till monday, but here is a crappy video from my phone, you cany see much but gave it a go, the 1st minute is the special kush, the 2nd minute is the northern lights cross big bud femenised
 
its not good news, it seems my face is not finished with me yet, swollen and hurting all over again, not as bad as it was, but still pretty bad. just wish it would go away now,

i just checked my plants, the nl x bb looks like all hairs are now orange, they do look less orange under the hps but when i move the plant out into normal light its all orange, ill check the trichs in a bit and see what they are looking like, most was clear yesterday but ill check again today, ive read a few harvest posts and some say harvest when their turning cloudy like say 50%, others say wait till some turn orange then harvest, with the nl x bb im not wanting a huge couch lock with this, i want a decent day time smoke, im going to get a bigger yield off this than the kush so would like to use this as best i can for a daytime smoke and ill possibly let the kush finish a bit late so it gives me my bed time smoke, until i can find a nice combination ill be trying several strains till i get the right one, if you have any harvest tips like when best to do it, morning, afternoon, just before light comes on, just when it goes off, when to harvest due to trichs colour for a daytime smoke, not looking for couch lock affect with this, some would be ok, but prefer the kush to be my bed time smoke, as its produced a lot less than the nl x bb.

i got my ph tester yesterday so i can now start testing the res and run off, my tap water is running at 7.1 ph so what ever that means, im not up on all this ph stuff yet, ive read its best not to check the ph of the liquid you put in the plants but to check the run off, and check the res of the plants growing in solution
 
donpaul.p said:
its not good news, it seems my face is not finished with me yet, swollen and hurting all over again, not as bad as it was, but still pretty bad. just wish it would go away now,

i just checked my plants, the nl x bb looks like all hairs are now orange, they do look less orange under the hps but when i move the plant out into normal light its all orange, ill check the trichs in a bit and see what they are looking like, most was clear yesterday but ill check again today, ive read a few harvest posts and some say harvest when their turning cloudy like say 50%, others say wait till some turn orange then harvest, with the nl x bb im not wanting a huge couch lock with this, i want a decent day time smoke, im going to get a bigger yield off this than the kush so would like to use this as best i can for a daytime smoke and ill possibly let the kush finish a bit late so it gives me my bed time smoke, until i can find a nice combination ill be trying several strains till i get the right one, if you have any harvest tips like when best to do it, morning, afternoon, just before light comes on, just when it goes off, when to harvest due to trichs colour for a daytime smoke, not looking for couch lock affect with this, some would be ok, but prefer the kush to be my bed time smoke, as its produced a lot less than the nl x bb.

i got my ph tester yesterday so i can now start testing the res and run off, my tap water is running at 7.1 ph so what ever that means, im not up on all this ph stuff yet, ive read its best not to check the ph of the liquid you put in the plants but to check the run off, and check the res of the plants growing in solution
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sorry about the relapse don. sure hope you get this fixed soon! as far as harvest I have harvested in the morning, but Iam a morning person not sure if it realy matters. as far as a motivational high I would go with the 50% cloudy. anyway like you said about the kush let it go. also you can take a sample bud and quick dry it to see if that is what you want. as far as the ph thing goes you got this far without it. so I wouldnt f^@k with till your next grow. no sense trying to experiment now:circle-of-love:
 
i here ya mate, i just got it through the post and had a quick play with it, i wont be using it on any of what i got growing now, my aerogarden is doing great and now in flower, my 2ltr dwc hempie is well in flower and really budding now, and ive not used a ph tester or ppm tester at all, so im not going to start rocking the boat now, they might be used to what solution their in now and have grown to that mixture so if i changed it i might mess it all up, i think its best to use them when i start fresh with new grow,
ill check the trichs when i can get up, i checked last night and only a few where milky and some clear still so ill check them in a bit and see what its saysing, not sure if the buds in the middle of the plant and lower down are ready yet but i can always cut off the buds that are ready and leave the rest to finish off over the next day or 2
 
yeah the only time I would worry about your ph now is if something doesnt look right. altough 7.1 is just a little high if they look good then they are probably happy and used to their enviroment. my last harvest both from same bag seed,I chopped one at 50% and the other I let go 2 more weeks. I think the 50% buzz was more to my likeing but the buds came out kind of airy but I still got 2oz out of her. I think that I am going to try a 2liter grow seems like everyone is happy with it and it looks easy too:thumb:
 
cut your plants just before lights on..thc build up doing the dark and start degrading when light hits them...good to put them in dark 24 hrs before cut...cloudy trichomes produces a up high..amber produces a down high...also a sign that thc is degrading...i'll sure be glad when that tooth is gone...
 
tell me about it, ive felt like pulling it out myself but been warned of blood poisening, the weird thing is, before it swelled up and i had tooth ache it felt loose, now its not loose and feels ok, but either way i aint going through this again, and if that means losing a tooth then so be it, its right at the back of my mouth, but id be happier when its gone, the sooner the better,

thanks for advice on harvest ill reps you all if it lets me, not checked trichs yet, if i was going to give the 24 hour dark period then id need to take it out the grow room and put it somewhere else so not sure if thats good thing to do as temps would be different.

now this dark period, i was reading a journal a while back and it had a link about some info regarding this, it done i think 3 tests from the same grow, all clones, one was harvested just as the lights where about to come on, one was harvested just after the lights went off, and one was left in dark for 24 hours before it was harvested, when it was dried and cured and tested all levels of thc and cbd where the same and it made no difference to the quality or strength of the smoke, ill try and find the link.

i have read that loads of growers give it the dark period before harvest, even a few give it up to 48 hours of total dark as this gives the trichs time to really bulk up, i have no clue either way whats best, ill check the trichs shortly and see what its saying, if its ready then its ready and ill harvest it in the morning just before the light comes on, i got to admit the plant always looks fattest just as the light comes on and it seems to have more noticed trichs in the morning, so im not 100% myself so dont feel up to anything now, so im hoping that in the morning ill be feeling better, i need to be my daughter has got a dance competition tomorrow to raise money for charity, she only 5 and does street dancing, tap dancing, ballet, troop, she is brilliant at it, her mom was top dancer as well and was backing dancer for singers and tv shows, so she really does take after her mom, the teacher teaching her used to dance with her mom and was taught at the same time as her mom so its nice to have that extra link with her, but she loves it so who am i to stop her, cost a fortune in clothes and shoes and hotels, but it puts a smile on my face and reminds me how amazing my little girl is, my son is into fencing and rugby, i dont mean putting fences up, woudlnt trust him with a hammer at 7, but her loves sword fighting so he does that once a week, so very active kids n i do my best to keep up.

so tomorrow is busy day, looks like i may harvest in morning if the trichs are ready then got to go to dance show, and looking like the elephant man should be fun, plus the dance is to open some beer festival, and chances are i wont be drinking looking like this, loads of old friends will be their and my kids moms friends will be their so will be good to catch up, stressful day but ill plough through the best i can.

ill look at the trichs shortly, ill try and take the case off my fone and see if i can get the lens close to the microscope and take some pics, i struggled the other day doing this, but if i tape the scope onto the phone i should be able to use it to take pics,

thanks for all the info
 
Easy Donp man,
Things looking great man, little behind mine but still really healthy. Mine is only 25 days into flower and bigger buds but only half way done in my eyes, so how can yours nearly be ready??

Hold out Donp man. Dont do what most do, me included and chop because you want to smoke it. Hold out them extra 2 weeks!!!! Let them calyx's swell!!!! :high-five:
 
i here ya mate, my kush is no where near ready and both went to 12-12 on same day, has only 1 or 2 orange hairs per bud, but the nl x bb fem has got loads of orange hairs, all the white pistils have retracted back to the bud and is all getting orange all over now, you may be right, i just looked at the trichs and i only saw a couple of milky orange trichs on the whole plant, most where lightly milky and the heads of the trich are mostly standing up strait but others are starting to wilt so to speak, but not all are 100% milky yet, and only a small number are milky orange, im not wanting a couch lock with this plant though so wont be waiting till their all orange but the kush will be pushed as far as i can, its only been the last few days that the hairs started turning orange, so ill see how it looks tomorrow, im not in any rush to harvest to get a smoke, thats not my plan, i just want to get the best i can from these plant, so ill harvest when they are ready, ill hopefully have the camera back tomorrow after my kids show, so ill try and take some pics and let you see what i see, you could be right i could have 2 weeks left, or i could have days left, i really dont know, ill put some pics up before i do anything, if i saw loads if milky orange trichs then i would harvest tomorrow, but im only getting 1 or 2 per leaf per bud and still some clear trichs, mostly turning milky, ill take some pics and you can have a look, i think i have a window of about 7 days to harvest at the right time so i can leave it at least a week with no chance of ruining quality, ill do my best to put some pics up tomorrow, my fone couldnt take them
 
OK ill chime in on the harvesting :D So I give my plants 36 hours of darkness before chopping. Also i never judge by the hairs, always by the Trichs. Personally I wait til about 10% amber tirchs on most of my buds. From the reading/research I have done is...

Clear Trichs=immature and not at full potency, produces a much more head and euphoric high
Cloudy= Mature, and peaking in thc potency, most balanced high and from what i gather is the intended high of the particular strain.
Amber=Thc is degrading in to CBN, sedative/couch lock and harder crash.

So harvesting at all cloudy with scattered amber(about 10%) would in theory mean peak potency.

Obviously harvesting a little earlier or later allows us to manipulate the high some, ie if you want a sleep time med let that shit go amber as hell! LOL

Just my two cents.

And harvest in the am right around when lights are coming on is best, one thing i like about putting it in darkness for a while is i can then harvest at any time during the day LOL.

And again I am still learning good harvest techniques, this is just what i have gathered so far.
 
thanks for the info bigpappa, ill reps you if i can, the plant that i think is very close to ready will hopefully be more of a daytime smoke as it looks more sativa than indica when growing, so id prefer this as my day smoke, the kush ill leg go as long as i can so i got a night time smoke, that is till i find the perfect strains for both day and night smoke, i got 2 kids so dont want to be on my arse all day when i got my kids to look after, but when their in bed and its me time, i want to relax and unwind and try and get some sleep so then something to help with that would be good,

so taking in all ive been told, to give this the daytime smoke i want i am best harvesting when all the trichs are clouds and very few going amber, and for the kush ill let them go as amber as i can, so ill keep an eye on it over the next few days, ill have another looks tomorrow, i really dont feel up to doing anything at the minute, just not well enough, thanks for the info everyone, ill give you a shout when i come to harvest the nl x bb, if it takes another week then it takes another week, but when i looked their was cloudy trichs so ill check it each day, thanks everyone
 
I agree with Pappa, I think what your looking for will be cloudy and just a few amber popping up in the mix..

For pH, I agree don't change anything for any of the plants that are just about to finish. But I do think if you have soil ones that have a month or longer I would pH their nutrients, if they're hydro I wouldn't bother. And here's why... Since your tap is in a decent spot to start with when you add the nutrients and test it will come out in the hydro range of 5.3-6.3, so no pH up/down needed. However, when you take the same nutrient mix that is say 5.6 and you give it to your soil plants they aren't going to be getting a ton of nutrients out with that low of a pH. Just my thoughts anyways :)
 
thanks teSmp, so my city tap water added to the nutes is ideal for hydro, but the ph will be on the low side for my soil grow, possibly why my plants have grown really slow during veg, ill leave the plants i got now its not worth messing with, next round ill check ph and get it to where it should be and see how i go from their, il try get some pics up later.
 
donpaul.p said:
thanks teSmp, so my city tap water added to the nutes is ideal for hydro, but the ph will be on the low side for my soil grow, possibly why my plants have grown really slow during veg, ill leave the plants i got now its not worth messing with, next round ill check ph and get it to where it should be and see how i go from their, il try get some pics up later.
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tap water for hydro is not a good idea..plus Always check PH after adding nutes..hydro grow is real delicate..i don't know about your tap water but mine has chorine and minerals in it...i use reverse osmosis water in my hydro..
 
Wow..
It took awhile to get thru but it was well worth it. What a great journal and grow.
First, I hope you are feeling better and have your tooth under control.
As I read what you have been going thru lately I was impressed and thankful that you took
the time to respond to my journal while you were doing your elephant man impression.
Your love for your plants and more importantly your kids is incredibly evident.
I have learned a lot from this grow and have used a few things to help my grow.

A few pages back you asked about low odor strains... This was a big concern for me as well
since we seem to have similar living situations. I chose Northern Lights for it's low odor, indica bushiness,
and end of day relaxing and sleep inducing characteritics. So far I have had no odor problems but I am just
two weeks into flower. Will let you know if this changes.

My thought on your vent at the top of your cupboard,
Why not use one of your fans to draw fresh air into your cupboard thru that vent.
This would ensure no smell going into the other flats thru that vent.
Force the smell into your own living space and deal with it in your room with incense, carbon filter, air purifier, etc.

Keep up the good work and much luck for the rest of the grow and your health.
 
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