First CFL Grow Using 30 Watt CFLs

[James 1st]

Miwa the heat wave does seem to be doing the plants some justice. I tried to mimic the heat wave by turning my fan off until 3-4 hours before lights out so the plants can think that they are outside. It's cool to do this in my house since it stays cool with the central air & all. My girl came to look at them today & she was amazed to see how much they have grown. The last time she seen them I had chopped all the big fan leaves off so the plant could use all it's energy in making the new branches & future flower sites grow more without having to be blocked or share useful energy. She was skeptical about my method at first but after today she saw that it made sense. The plants started branching off more & producing new flower sites I can't wait to get them in the bigger space so they can stretch out & really grow.

 

[donpaul.p]

@miwa, ill have a read mate, i have read conflicting info about these lights, some say its ok to use for short times as it makes firmer and bigger buds, ill have a good read im still finding out what i can, thanks for the link.

james, their are many lighting schedules to try, back in the day everyone grew plants at 18-6, now it seems you can use what ever, some people use 24 hours constant light till they flip them to flower, some use 20-4, and others use gas lantern routine which is what im using now and im getting great results with the clones and i think the seedling is not starting to benefit from glr, it was growing slow but the last 2 days it has picked up so i think glr is working also for the seedling, glr is the scedule below
1, 12 hours of light
2, 5.5 hours of dark.
3, 1 hour of light,
4, 5.5 hours of dark,
what i think glr does is makes the plant think its starting to flower so it starts rapid growth to make sure its big enough to reproduce when it gets the pollen, but by giving it the hours worth of light during the 12 hours dark it stops it entering the flower stage, i thought it may stress my auto but it never and all seems well,

this heat issue is worth looking into, are the plants growing quicker because the compost is warmer making the roots warmer, im thinking if this is the case then the plants take up more liquid out the compost to keep cool, so this then takes in more nutrients and makes them grow quicker, i have found that temps above 85f make my plants grow like crazy, im unsure if its causing any harm so i try to keep it below 85f but when i have visitors or i go out the temp goes up as i have to wedge the door open to stop the dog getting in their, when im in i leave the door open and the temp stays just above 80, but i get a lot more growth when the temps are above 85f. im not sure if this is strain related or what, the only thing i can think of is the plants get hot so drink more liquid and take in more nutes which makes them grow, but what concerns me is that some growers end up with stressed plants with the edges of the leaves curling up, im not getting this with any of my plants and im growing several different strains, possibly it could be that if the humidity is high and the plants can cope with the extra heat, my humidity is around 55 to 60 so maybe this stops the plants getting stressed due to the heat, i dont plan on keeping the temps that high, i do my best to keep them around 80 to 85 at the very most, but when i have someone round and the door is shut then it is around the 90f mark and i open the door expecting to find stressed plants to only find that they have grown loads and even my auto packs on the buds when the temps go up that high, has anybody else noticed this.

another thing is that where these plants grow the temp does go above 30deg c which is around the 87f to 88f mark, so maybe strains that are from hotter climates will grow quicker at higher temps, thats the results i have seen myself with my plants, not 1 of them shows any signs of heat stress and all grow a lot quicker when the temps get to high, im not sure where 78f came from or who said its the best temp to use, maybe its just a guide and plants will grow outside this range, ill keep checking and see how it goes, i may do a whole 12 hours at 90 just to see what happens, maybe a couple of hours at 90 is ok for the plants, but 12 hours might stress them, so if i give it a try and the plants look stressed then i can lower the temps, but if the plants grow like crazy for the 12hours then i need to start asking questions as to why this is happening and why these plants grow better with the higher temps, maybe if the humidity was lower i would come into problems, but when its high then it might give the plants enough liquid to keep them stress free during high temps.

who knows, ill find out im sure, im just uploading some pics now so you can see what i got going on,
feel free to make any comments or ask questions and ill do my best to answer them,

remember to get your entries into the contests, get your plants entered into the plants of the month contest and get some bud you have grown or purchased and enter that into the nug of the month contest, the prizes are truely amazing and well worth entering the contest, also get your nominations in for member of the month, the link is below in my signature,

 

[miwa]

Yep...different strains need different temps..depending on where it was born...some places is really hot...

 

[donpaul.p]

i think i got to agree, im growing a few different strains and they really do respond well to the higher temps, im not saying it would be a good thing all day everyday, but my plants do grow like crazy when the temps get on the high side.

right then, below is the green house seeds auto bomb, it has now got buds forming and filling out,

 

[donpaul.p]

some more of the auto

below is the monster cropped kushes, these have both ended up as monster cropped,

below is the northern lights cross big bud femenised, this was also a clone, how ever it ended up growing to stems out of the soil, it has not been topped or chopped at all, when i took the clone it was actually from when i topped the mother plant so this was a top at one point, now its turned into 2 stems, so what i have done is train the stems to opposite sides of the pot then im letting ot grow upwards, so it should end up looking like either 2 plants out of 1 pot, or it will end up very bushy, you can see by the pictures anyway how its turning out, its now growing up towards the light.

below you can see that i have used lst to make it grow both stems to the edge of the pot and as you can see im now letting the 2 ends grow up as a normal plant, so ill either end up with 2 plants in 1 pot or if the branches grow as quick along the stem then it might end up making one big bushy plant

below is the delicious fruity chronic juice femenised seedling, i love the way this plant looks, it looks like a very stable strain, its now responding well to the glr method and has now started to grow very quick, the leaves looks real good and even so hoping its going to be a decent plant when its in flower

so thats what i got going on, in the smaller veg room i have got some clones, now these clones where taken from the ak47 cross uk cherry cheese that i had in my aero garden, i decided to pull this plant as i didnt have the room and it was stretching like crazy due to the low lights levels, so i took a loads of clones n got rid of it, im not sure if its male or female, if the clones root ill put 1 under 12-12 and check if its male or female, hoping its a female as i really like the ak47 x uk cherry cheese, very nice to grow and a decent smoke when its dried.

please feel free to ask any questions or make any comments,
thanks for looking

 

[James 1st]

I have a question about the BPN. Can I start the plants on the two part grow & then start the bloom & bloom booster when it's time to flower?

 

[Xlr8]

I have a question about the BPN. Can I start the plants on the two part grow & then start the bloom & bloom booster when it's time to flower?

Are you referring to the actual 2 part or the 3 part program? If 2 part, use grow nutrients for veg, then bloom for when its time to flower like you said...

All 3 bottles of the 3 part are meant to be used throughout the grow. The amount from each bottle will vary depending on the stage, but you should still use some "bloom" in veg stage, too. There are good guidelines on their website and on bottle labels. However, the "Liquid Blue" bloom booster is only used during flower stage (again there are instructions on blue planets website or on bottle label).

Hope you guys don't mind me chiming in. Good growing so far Don Paul!

 

[donpaul.p]

no he got the 2 part plus bloom booster if i remember right, the farmers pride i think is the 2 part he got, the online guide will tell you best what to do, or even drop corey a msg at bpn, he is a top bloke and gets back to you pretty much strait away, i email him a few times asking him different things about changing the amounts and feeding schedules and he dont mind, he is all for the cannabis so will gladly answer emails relating to his products, he is the bloke to ask for such things,

if your using the 2 part then download the 2 part guide and follow it exactly, add what it says when it says, same with the 3part, dont use the guides on the back of the bottles as they are more for edible food and not cannabis, the online guide you download is the guide made for these plants, if your unsure james then pop corey an email, he wont mind. i am going to be trying something with bpn soon with 1 of my plants so i can see how it affects them, ill be doing some testing on one of the clones so i can compare it to the other clone, im just deciding what way to go with it and get it all wrote down, i think these plants can take more than im giving them so im going to change the doses slightly,

 

[James 1st]

Cool thanks!

 

[donpaul.p]

the reserva privada sour kush has broke out the soil, so day1 of veg is now for that, well i say day 1 of veg it will be the 2ltr dwc hempie so it wont have much veg, its in a small pot at the moment and as soon as i see roots in the bottom of the pot it will be going in the hempie, its only in a small pot with about 2 inches of compost so it wont be long before its in the hempie, ill probably veg for 10 to 14 days to try and beat what i got off my last hempie, now im just waiting on the afgan skunk to break out the soil

 

[miwa]

so when you transfer to 2L do you leave it in the compost???so roots are half in comp and half in water???or do you have a hole in the bottom so it drains to a res???is that 2L painted or covered making it light-proof???think i can put a hempie outside in sept and grow it til harvest ???that would be like growing an auto...

 

[SurfBuddy]

I have a question about the BPN. Can I start the plants on the two part grow & then start the bloom & bloom booster when it's time to flower?

You don't need the bloom booster till week 5, so you can start with just the two part.

so when you transfer to 2L do you leave it in the compost???so roots are half in comp and half in water???or do you have a hole in the bottom so it drains to a res???is that 2L painted or covered making it light-proof???think i can put a hempie outside in sept and grow it til harvest ???that would be like growing an auto...

mmmm hempie outside. I like the idea.

 

[donpaul.p]

ok about these hempies, at the moment i have the seedlings growing in small pots in about 2inches of compost, once they have rooted well ill transfer them into the hempie, now the bit i put the seedling in is the upside down but with the lid of the pop bottle facing down, well in this top part i fill it with compost and put the plant in, i then water from the top till the roots start coming out of the bottom of the top piece of bottle, as soon as i see the roots poking out the bottle then i fill the res which i use a big res the size of a 2ltr pop bottle with the neck part cut off, so now i have the roots growing out the top part, i then fill the res with nutrient liquid and put the top with the plant back into the res, i leave a gap of about an inch between the top bottle where the roots grow out of and the liquid in the res, i do this so the compost in the top half dont get soaked and could possibly rott the roots in the compost, so i leave about an inch gap between the open lid in the top piece and the liquid in the res, i found this worked well for me,

so basically the roots grow out the top bit and they then hang down into the res, so they have about an inch to grow in the air before they hit the liquid, i found this allows me to water from the top without the compost in the res liquid, and i found it works well, when i transplant the seedlings into the hempie ill post some pics so you can see what i mean.

my 2 seedlings the reserva privada sourk kush and the afgan kush are now both growing and about an inch high, so wont be long before it goes in the 2ltr dwc hempie.

my greenhouse seeds auto bomb is budding really quick, a lot quicker than the g13 auto, im not sure why its doing this or if the glr is making it do this, but it seems to be budding really quick, and even the difference over night is pretty amazing, its got loads of orange hairs on it now and the buds have pretty much doubled in size over the last 2 days, do autos flower quicker than other plants, i know they grow from start to harvest a lot quicker but this seems to be finishing off very quick, smells nice as well, a sort of fuel type smell, but in a nice way

 

[Easeedoesit]

I'm digging the lst on the nl x bb. i'll be watching this particular one very closely. hope she turns out for you. so you just topped another plant and that was the result? kinda curious because it looks like something i would like trying. i understand it could of been a fluke, but i would like to know what you did. hope you understand what im trying to say. TIA

 

[Smokemupm8]

that bud is the main bud off my 2ltr dwc hempie, its dry now and in jars to cure, it weighs in now dry at just over 20g so a lot less than the oz i thought, im amazed how much that bud has shrunk, dont get me wrong its still huge but was massive when i harvested it, ill be doing another 2 x 2ltr dwc hempie this time round, im just deciding what to do, what seeds to soak,

Hey mate, still some nice buds there! I had some decent cola's that shrunk to around 15 g when dry, i still have my main cola curing atm, but im just about onto smokin it Its nice stone and taste 2months cured. heres a pic of a branch that grew to abou 16g dry..

 

[donpaul.p]

thanks for the comments,

my nl x bb that has got 2 stems was a mistake, on my last grow i topped one of the branches on my nl x bb and instead of throwing it away i tried turning it into a clone and it actually grew and when it started growing it grew 2 stems out of the ground, not sure why

 

[donpaul.p]

@smokemup8, nice buds mate, av you got a journal

 

[Smokemupm8]

@smokemup8, nice buds mate, av you got a journal

Hi DonPaul, Thanks for the props! Glad to finally make your aquaintance.. No i do not have a journal on my last grow, i could start one but i am currently doing one on my latest girl, C99 x Panama Red. I only just found out her strain after days of going thru my baggy's and talking to my friend.. The journal is under the title " Northern lights x Widow-just over a week from seed to sprout" That was what i originally thought the seed was from before finding the bag im using atm, and i could only just make out the "...a Red " on the baggy but when i spoke to who got em from he was spewin cos this was one of his fave strains, and he kept no clones from last mother Im a little unsure about its growth characteristics but i do know they will grow to about 5/6 ft so thats perfect for me.. Cheers for dropping by and will chat again soon mate Hope you like my journal thus far.. Here's a pic last week -

 

[Smokemupm8]

thanks for the comments,

my nl x bb that has got 2 stems was a mistake, on my last grow i topped one of the branches on my nl x bb and instead of throwing it away i tried turning it into a clone and it actually grew and when it started growing it grew 2 stems out of the ground, not sure why

I had 6 seedlings coming up years back.. All 5 sprouted as normal, but one - was deformed, it split in two and had 2 main stems from seed!! I wasnt even gunna bother with it, but after the 5 others were moved elsewhere, i had this lonely lil plant in my yard, so i just watered her abd kept her in the sun.. and she grew to about 4 1/2 ft each stem- in a V shape and i got about 3 1/2 oz dry bud off her! And it was a purp strain X great smoke for bugger all maintenance.. I still carry the photo of her in my wallet, i was 16.. BACK IN THE DAY!! Later Don..

 

[donpaul.p]

sorry mate, not been on here much been busy with my daughter and her school plays and sports day and stuff, ill check your journal out tomorrow mate when i got more time, im just on here to give a quick update and ill put pics on tomorrow as well.

so here is the quick update.
the 2 x 2lr hempies are now in the hempie homes, the seeds had grown about 2 inches and stretched more than any of the other seeds i have done, not sure why, anyway, both had roots growing out the bottom of the small pot i planted them in, so both have been put in their new home and given their first feed of bpn goodness, so they will more than likely get a couple of days veg then got 12-12 on them.

my greenhouse seeds auto bomb is on a weird one, all the pistils have turned orange and died back to the buds, but im only getting cloudy trichs, im not getting any amber ones, i keep leaving it another day and still no change, not sure whats going on, ill see what happens over the next couple of days, i might just chop it down if their is no change, its basically stopped growing and is not showing any amber trichs, all cloudy for the last 4 or 5 days.

the other clones are doing great getting really big now, i may even flip to flower in the next few days cuz i want to clear out what i got and start again with some fresh strains, saying that i have taken clones and they are vegging in maternity ward,

a weird one for you all, i broke a small branch off the auto about a week and a half ago, i give it some rooting gel and cloned it, well i thought it would die but instead its started growing small leaves at the nodes, i thought it would just die as it was an auto well into flower, it still has a small bud on it but it is growing some new leaves at the node below the bud, chances are it will die but for now its alive and kicking.

ill take some pics and update with pics tomorrow,