First CFL Grow Using 30 Watt CFLs

not yet my friend, thinking about buying them bags, i think jandre posted a link to a cheap site, plus i can get them off the auction site cheap so im thinking if i get a few different sizes and try the ice water technique and see what happens, wont be just yet though i want to be able to make enough so will keep saving all the trim and little buds and use them when i got enough, well thats my plan anyways.

@teSmp, mate the ph is reading 5.8 to 5.9, thats tap water and ph 7.1 and bpn nutrients mixed in at rapid growth schedule, not tested the bloom ph yet but thinking it will be about the same, im not using ph with what i got going at the minute but i will be using ph for the next go round, so is that ph ok for soil grow or not or does it need some adjustment, and i dont adjust anything till i test the run off do i, its not what goes in i test its the run off, thats what im told to do with soil grows, not sure about hydro or dwc do i test ph before adding with hydro or do i check after its ran for a couple of hours,
 
thanks miwa, i didnt plant on testing ph at all this grow, but i got my tester so decided to test my standing tap water and thats 7.1, so tesmp suggested that after i add bpn it might not be the right ph for my soil plants, so he asked me to post the results so he can say if his theory or educated guess was right, so for my next grow and veg stage i will be using ph tester and getting it right if i can,

so the ph of my standing tap water plus 3 part bpn without bloom booster gives me 5.8 flashing 5.9, this is before its been given to any plants and just after i mixed a batch up,

so when i come to doing the ph testing for my grow and adjusting it i check the run off, do i check this after a certain amount of time, say i water till it drains out the bottom then do i let it stand for a while before collecting and testing the run off, i wont be testing the plants i have got in flower i dont see the point now their nearly done, plus they got this far without any ph adjustment so ill leave them for now, but ill be using it next time round to see if changing the ph makes any difference with my clones
 
it is mate, calibrated and adjustable, ive ordered more calibration solution as not much with it, unless their is anything else i can use to calibrate it, but i have ordered some so ill check it again when it comes, how come you ask
 
I asked because I believe my first grow was affected by ph being way off.
Part of the reason I have gone organic is that I have read if your soil is
ph'd properly to start it will act as a buffer and you will not have to worry
about ph of water or nutes.
As for testing runoff I read it is best to test the first drops of runoff not letting it sit.
That is just what I have read on the internet so if I am wrong someone please correct me.
 
thanks NLnovice, i have done this whole first grow without testing ph and its got my soil plants into flower and my 2ltr dwc hempie well into flower and i have an aerogarden running as well and this has not been tested for ph and it is also starting to flower, so i wont be changing anything for these plants, but when my clones go into veg pots and the 2 non auto plants have finished flowering then ill flip the lights to veg cycle and start my next round of grow, this time i will test ph and adjust as needed then i can compare how the ph controlled clones grow compared to the non controlled grow
 
im medicated nicely now, im trying so slow dried air dried buds that have been hanging in my wardrobe in spare room, this nl x bb is some real nice smoke, so glad i took all the time to trim as much leaf off as a could, really makes the smoke nice and smooth, i feel at peace with everything now, i also checked my trim box and removed all the big leaves that was in their that had no trichs on them, always seem easier to remove after a few days drying. anyway my trim that i got left can be pretty much smoked, its mainly small tiny buds and very tiny sweet leaf, so ill be putting this in a jar and leaving it to build up over a few grows and use it to make some very nice hash, any leaf with no trichs ill throw away and only keep the best of the trim, i have 2 boxes when i trim, the really big and crappy trim leaves end up in the trash and the good trim with all the sweet leaf will go in the other box and be dried.

so my nl x bb gets the thumbs up from me, the clone is now in a 3gallon bucket now in veg, i wont be keeping record of veg time on this as im not sure how longs its been a clone for, but ill be using this for me 2nd flower round, not sure how big i want it but it all depends how the others turn out.

the kush looks so amazing these buds are getting so fat now, the trichs are looking like its covered in snow as they are really packing in and close to each other now, it looks as if i could just peel some off on some of the buds, the orange hairs seemed to have slowed down and turned white again so not sure whats going on their, but it looks amazing, few trichs are cloudy, none orange so it seems this is going to go a while more before its finished, i cant wait looks like its going to be an amazing smoke, id say it has 3 times as many trichs compared to the nl x bb, it really does look covered, i wont get much back from it but i can tell its going to be totally amazing to smoke.

nl x bb has been drying now for few days, i think its about ready to be cured now, so ill be putting it in jars tomorrow and burping often to prevent humidity build up and im sure after a week or 2 of curing it will just get better and better
 
Yeah as I was thinking when you added the nutrients it would be just about perfect pH for hydro.. I aim to keep my hydro at 5.8 and like you said when you added then nutes it went right down to there. To answer your question is that ok for your soil, not really... If you had 3-4 weeks left on any plant you have right now I would pH it to the right amount. I know it's "working fine" but you might be surprised what getting the pH to the right range will do.. I'm sure you've seen the graphs that show what nutrients get absorbed at what pH and your quite a bit under what is acceptable for soil, 6.3-6.8 being best (6.5 would be what I would pH too). 5.5-6.1 for hydro so your exactly where you need to be for any hempy/dwc grows with your tap/nutes.

To answer your other question about what you think you should do either a 3 gallon soil or 3-4 DWC-H 2L's, I would personally do the 2L's any day. The two Purple Kush plants I just finished will get me about 1.5 ounces which is pretty good for the amount of space they take up. The larger one (DWC-H with air stone) yielded about an ounce and the smaller (hempy) yielded a little over 1/2 ounce. Putting yield aside I think maintenance is so much easier with the hydro. You dump the res out and fill it back up, so simple. To flush you fill it up with plain water. The pH comes out perfect with just mixing the nutes as we talked about up there, you don't have to worry about buying more medium, less chance of bugs in your soil area, the list goes on for me. So if it were me I would go with several 2L's with air stones, or better yet 1-2 5 gallon DWC's (for my case, less plants = the better).

edit: great job with the last pics on the other page :) I would have personally cut those longer branches off a long time ago the bottom two sets but that's just me. The main cola looks great! How far into flowering are you?
 
@ tesmp, thanks mate for the advice,

taking on what you have said im not sure what to do mate, my kush was showing orange hairs but it seems to have grown some of them out and came back white so it has not many orange hairs, also some trichs are cloudy so not sure how long i got left.

this might be why the bud is so big on the hempie, it must be the exact right ph for these to grow at their best, so my soil grows have been grown with the ph to low, so this might explain the low yield, next time i water ill check the run off, my problem is this though, i thought the kush was going to finish so i started giving it plain water with no nutes, now it seems its going to go a bit longer, could be a week could be 2, so shall i add 1 nute feed then give plain water or should i continue to feed with plain water, im watering every 3 or 4 days so could be anything from2 to 4 or 5 waterings before i harvest,

ill check the age of the hempie and let you know when i put it under 12-12 the problem is, it went 12-12 from seed so their was no exact cut off date that the lights changed so i cant really say how long its been 12-12 for due to this, i was planning on just letting them go till the trichs told me it was ready.


so taking all that in and not knowing what to do here is what i need some advice on
special kush, could have up to a week and could be more time left till harvest, should i give nutes and check run off next time i water.

i have just potted my nl x bb clone in its 3gallon home, it will be vegd in this and flowered in this unless plans change, the other clones are to small to transplant yet, but all the clones have been in veg a few weeks but this one is getting big so needed the change, this 3gallon pot will be under hps most of the time and when hps is off it will be under cfls to prevent it going into flower, i need to get my kush and the dwc hempie to finish before i can flip the lights to veg cycle, the autos im not to bothered about as they are both under 20-4 so they will be ok when the hps is flipped to veg mode,

so what should i do with the kush, and i dont adjust the ph before i feed the plants i check the run off, then say if its still to low to be best for soil how do i adjust it then, does it do this over the next time i feed or what do i do to adjust it to give my plants what they need, ph is all new to me, i have a ph tester pen and thats about it, no ph up or down, just normal household products, is their anything i can use to get the ph correct, and how do i adjust it after i have just fed the plants, do i leave it at the wrong ph till the next time i feed or do i add something and water again to adjust the ph.

sorry for stupid questions but this ph is new to me and something i have never used, but it would explain a lot, and explain why my dwc hempie is a huge bud compared to all the small buds i got from the soil grow, might be why i had slow growth during veg and this ph could solve my problems and increase my yield.

i have got to admit the clone of the nl x bb is all ready a lot healthier than the parent plant, its pretty much as big as the parent was when i flipped it to 12-12 apart from it has not side branches yet, but it seems to be growing like a monster, its giving me loads of growth, the nodes are real close and its about 5 nodes high from what i can remember so its all ready growing a lot quicker than its parent so something must of changed, something must be making this plant happier, the only difference i can see is that im using a whole lot less light on it than i did with the parents, so not sure if thats got anything to do with it, its not stretched as the nodes are very close but its grown loads,
 
Hey Sorry I don't have a bunch of time to write back right now but I can check back later. If you think you have a week left definitely continue to flush. If you think you have 2-4 weeks left I would adjust the pH for the soil grows to 6.5, it won't hurt anything in my opinion, only would help.

For your soil you still pH your nutes to 6.5 when your mixing the nutrients not after you see what the runoff is. I barely ever checked the problems because i do mini flushes weeks 3-5 and whenever I checked it was always spot on. So again, you oh before you give it to the plants. When you check the pH of the runoff periodically it should be slightly over what the pH oF your nutes are. So say 6.5 in and 6.7-7 out. I don't know about using anything else then ph up/down and personally I wouldn't use anything else.
 
k thanks mate, ill give it a try, so im aiming for 6.5 then for my soil grow, and my mix is ok as it is for my aero and dwc, so i dont need to worry about them just yet unless i go big with the hydro which i probably wont. most of my grows will be soil so id prefer to dial that in above all else, dont worry if your not round much mate, ill search around and find out what i can, ill see if i can order some ph up or down, might hit the hydro shop see how much it is their, its probably the safest stuff to use, but i did read that it only contains stuff that can be found around the home, but a lot of the stuff i read i read and take in with a pinch of salt, so ill have a look around see what i can find, so 6.5 is where i need to be with the soil and run off should come out slightly higher than it goes in.

reps mate, it let me reps you this time, thanks for the time looking over my grow mate, ill do what i can to get it all dialed in as im sure this is whats been causing the low yield and slow growth during veg, possibly the plant wasnt taking in all it should from the soil due to the ph been to low, so ill see what i can do with some ph up and see how things grow, having the clones will be a good way of comparing how this grow goes compared to the first, i dont want to be stuck with the same strains though unless i find one i really want to stick with so ill be growing others along side and possibly any i want to test will be done as hempies so i dont have the long veg time just to find out i dont like the way it looks or smells,

thanks tesmp, you have been a great help from day 1, i wouldnt of got what i got now if it wasnt for you mate, let us know if you get your new journal up, ill let you know how the ph goes over the next few days, ill try and get some ph up on tuesday when the shops open,

thanks everyone
 
DP I brought the cheap bubble bags from the auction site and I wouldn't reccomend them, The stitching is poor and you lose a lot of hash via the small stitch holes. If you can it would be better to buy just one true bubble bag and make a gumby then filter it.

your PH seems spot on, mine comes out about the same around here, 7.0-7.2PH and 200-300ppm, once you add nutes it'll drop it to around 5.6-6.0 depending on strength of mix. you will need PH up, especially since in late flower I find the bacteria makes your PH go down, not up like you would expect in veg. I wouldn't bother with the PH down unless you plan on moving to hydro soon.
 
thanks jimm, ill reps you if i can, i will need ph up thats for sure, my aerogarden and 2ltr dwc are not needing anything adjusting as it lowers it to the correct ph level for hydro type grows, but for soil grows the ph seems a little low and possibly why im not getting huge yields, but saying that i have got my nl x bb clone growing in different compost and it looks like a totally different plant, this time it wants to grow tall where as last time it didnt want to get tall it just bushed out, now im not sure if this is because im forcing a clone that was in flower back to veg or not, its under the same cfls for veg just a lot less of them, its not stretching it is 8 nodes high and about 7 inches high so its not stretching, it seems to be growing a lot better this time round compared to the seedling i started with on the first grow, i wonder if i had compost issues, i did notice the compost clump up around the roots on the g13 auto and thats possibly why it got stunted, when i changed the pot the roots was a small rock hard ball in a clump of compost with no roots growing out of it, so i wonder if that compost clumped up to much, this new compost i got seems very soft and fluffy, and not as clumpy as the other stuff, the other compost i used was clumped up in the back, as if it wasnt treated or processed properly, some bits looked like they had been squashed together into balls probably problem with the packing process, but this new compost seems really light and fluffy and dont clump together it just stays fluffy so i got it growing in that now. but it looks a totally different more healthy and faster growing plant, so i wonder if my compost was not as good as it needed to be, only time will tell, but if i start changing the ph i wont know for sure, but its growing a lot better without me touching the ph so im thinking it was compost issue.

ill be getting some ph up as it seems its the best to use as some home remedies seem to not work due to the soil acting like a buffer so id be better off getting ph up when i can, for now im using nutes and tap water as is, now as im growing from clones i have been feeding them all the rapid growth stage of the bpn feeding chart so i wonder if this is making the growth difference, is it possible that the bpn needed upping slightly for the schedules below such as growth 1 and 2, im not getting any signs of over nute problems at full strength so i wonder if its possible to up the dose more early in the plants life, ill try this with my seed and see what happens, ill feed it slightly more than the chart says so instead of mixing up a batch of growth 1 ill mix it up as growth 2 and see how that affects teh growth.

this ph is new to me so i dont have a clue what im doing so any advice i can get will help, so when i get ph up, what do i need to adjust it to, so i mix up my nutrients so i do half a gallon or 2ltr and add ph up, am i adding it so that its where it should be or do i mix it so the ph is slightly above or below where it needs to be as the compost will affect the over all ph, i have read journals where you dont check the ph 1st you check the run off and adjust over a few feeds, but if i could get it right the first couple of times and get the run off right then the plant will benefit a lot sooner, so i need to know what i adjust the ph to, my tap water is 7.1 and with bpn added at rapid growth mix is giving me 5.8 flashing 5.9, it wouldnt settle on one numbers if i moved the pen it would go up for a few seconds then back down so id say its between them numbers.

also i need some advice with my kush, about a week ago all the white hairs started turning orange and shrinking making me think it was coming to the end of its cycle, but now it seems the orange hairs have stopped showing and white hairs have come out again, their is load more trihcs as well, but when i look under microscope most of the trichs are cloudy and on the sweet leaf their are plenty of orange trichs as well, but the buds are really fat its just the pistils that have me concerned they seem to have gone back white again, it still has orange ones lower down the bud and they have died back to the bud but the ones on top seem to still be growing, should i leave it to go further or would it risk causing problems like pm, im not in no rush to harvest it and want a couch lock effect so playing the waiting game is no problem, just wondered if this is common, the only thing i can find is that some plants grown in doors wont show orange hairs due to the lights used but outdoors they will, i dont want to harvest early, the buds seem to have stopped growing now and they are really fat and covered and i mean covered in trichs, they are pretty much all cloudy and the sweet leaf and under the sweet leaf and without moving the microscops i can see about 5 or 6 orange trichs this is everywhere i look on the plant, but the pistils are still very white now after changing orange and back to white, this isnt a sign its going hermie is it, shall i just wait it out and see, like i said their is no rush if it takes another 3 weeks to finish then thats ok, but if its done id rather get it out the way so i can get the next lot off veg plants in their,

my deliciuos fruity chronic juice has broke out the soil and is now turning to face the lot,

so this is day 1 of this seed breaking soil, when do people say its starts the veg cycle so i can keep a record of this, is it in seedling stage till its grown its first set of leaves, i want to keep better records this time using herb iq as i dont know how old my other plants are or when they went into flower, i need to start keeping better records so i can compare each grow etc etc
 
@Jimm, av a look and see if these trichome bags are the same ones you got, their not off the auction site but from a link i got from jandre, but dont take my word on that it would of been someone else it was a while ago, i just saved the link as the prices seemed ok,

the ones off the auction site that are cheaper are for oil or something like that, but they are suppose to do the same job, but the price of these off this link are ok, works out to about £20 for 3, and they will let you choose what sizes you want as i all ready contacted them, never done hash making before so not sure what sizes i would need, but i was thinking of getting just the 3 different sizes i think 8 bags would be a bit over kill for what i want them for as i wont be making huge batches and it wont be for sale so i wont need to use that many bags to get some half decent hash, have a look at the link and tell me if their a good price and if they look ok, if they do ill place an order in a few weeks when i got some money saved up, i really need a new job, gota get some money in my pocket and have some spare cash, hate not having money to do anything with,

ALL Mesh 5 gallon 3 Bag Set, Trichome-bags
 
Well mate I'm not really a soil grower, I have my mothers in soil and have done soils grows as a kid but moved onto hydro back in the day after a dutch friend showed me his grow using rockwool slabs. I've added OC+ to the soil and have been giving straight tap water at 7.1PH. I wanted it as simple as i could for my mothers, I'll just repot them every 6 months.

For your hydro though, it maybe 5.8ph when you add it to the res but the next day it could be 7.1 in a small res like your aerogarden and if you check your ph inside the res I can tell you now it won't be 5.8 anymore.

I only ever use PH down from the hydro store. the PH down is Orthophosphoric Acid (H3PO4) same as in fizzy drinks and the plant uses it as food, unlike most homemade things. you can buy it bulk as a food additive. I use the 80% stuff since it lasts longer but you need to know how much to use. I find a pipette does really well for the job just drop by drop till your sweet.

I never use PH up Potassium Hydroxide (KOH), again used by the plant, since I grow hydro and the only time my PH goes down is during late flower and if I really need to I counter it with tap water. I've been told by other soil growers that 6.0-6.6 it good but I'm not sure and mine seem happy with the 7.0/7.1

The soil is easier, your using what would be considered hydroponic nutes. There's no need for good soil, you could use plain seedling sand from seed to harvest. I break up every handful of soil as i put it in the pot because it does come with almost rock hard balls in the bag and I always add perlite to coco or soil. I love the stuff, perlite should go with anything you want light and good drainage.

I'm very aggressive with my nutes, unless I see a problem on the plant I give full strength nutes + additives. If my pack says use 2-4ml per liter I will use 4ml then throw in some boosts, what ever I have really. Currently my plants are getting 3800ppm nutes+boosts following the schedule given by the company that makes my nutes.

I haven't used BPN before but there's 100's of journals here I would look at what there feeding during early stages.

I start my veg date from the day the plant breaks soil.

lastly just leave your plant till it has stopped growing, if the buds are still getting bigger it's not done, You can also cut off bud by bud. you do get parts of the plant maturing faster and it gives the lower buds time to finish.
 
and sorry no never seen all mesh bags before and I would think they would be a PITA to collect your hash since it would be stuck to the sides and the bottom unlike a normal bag.

I would recommend getting a real bubble bag. just one, then make normal gumby hash, and instead of sucking waste of top just throw in bag to catch waste, leaving clean gumby in bucket/contaner and waste in bag. Not the normal way to make bubble hash but easier and a lot more product at the end it just won't be ''full melt''
 
thanks jimm, ill check the ph in my res now and see what it says, it needs changing as its been a while since i changed it, so dont be shocked if its way off, im not to bothered about the aerogarden plant, it was a test and i had no growing medium for it so i just stuck it in a bit of sponge and cut a hole in the sponge and put some soil in their and switched it on, i never expected it to live, but it did and now i got a res full of roots, they all look a nice white colour so things must be going ok, plus its growing good as well, let me check the ph.

right just checked, now i have not cleaned the res for over a week so it needs doing, now the ph is flashing 5.7 to 5.8, is this where it should be, i have not emptied the res in a while so it needs doing, but the plant looks healthy and im having no problems with growth or leaf colour, everything seems to be going as normal with that,

so is 5.7 to 5.8 where it should be or do i need to do something to that as well, chances are i will be better of checking it after i have done a res change and let it run for a day, so thats that reading im getting in my aerogarden res
 
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