First CFL Grow Using 30 Watt CFLs

[Smokemupm8]

Hey don and friends, just had a question, maybe someone here can help me. So I'm about 4 weeks into flower of my first grow, now I've had my plants on 12/12 but I'm reading some info that suggests cutting the light back to 11/13 or even 10/14 will increase the yield and trigger the plant to produce faster making it think its running out of time and sun. Wondering has anyone ever tried this and what kind of results did you have? Any advice would be greatly appreciated

Hey Gogreen,
So you ve had em under 12/12 for 4 weeks now, and i gather youre getting keen on smoking some of your girls goodies soon as possible But mate, PLEASE HAVE SOME PATIENCE!! Now i am not 100% on if giving her less light will increase your yield by a major amount. It may speed her up finishing a little faster yes, but not sure bout much gain.
12/12 is just the necessary amount of dark to make the plant trigger flowering hormones, so giving extra dark as said may speed her up, she wont get much stretch tho given less light during flower. Thats just my opinion mate, she is in your hands! But long as she has 12 hours of un-interupted dark she ll give you some buds
Goodluck and Happy Harvesting. SMOKEMUP

 

[Vick074]

Hey Don,
Doing as you suggested posting my CO2 questions in hopes Jondre or some other experienced CO2 users can help me out.

"Hey guys, hoping someone can help me with these questions regarding CO2.
I just picked up a 20lb tank of CO2 with a regulator and controller.
I have a 7x6x6 ft space, running 1 1000 watt HPS exhausted through a cool tube. Room scrubbed through a 3 ft canister. Room is running under negative pressure intake at the moment as I had to plug up my fresh air intake due to a huge PM infestation on the trees outside.

My question is, what intervals should I be setting my interval timers to turn on and off so I can maximize the CO2 being dispensed in the room without sucking it out through the exhaust.
A friend told me to set it at 15 minutes on/off and off an hour before lights out. I imagine I'd set my exhaust to turn off as the CO2 comes on. But how long to dispense for, and when to set timer to turn exhaust back on?
And will any interval timers available at Home Depot work for this?
Is this constant on/off'ing going to raise my temperatures too high?
Oh yeah and the room is sealed..

Any direction here would be extremely helpful as I want to get this up and running tonight.

Thanks guys, eagerly awaiting your responses"

In case anyone was wondering, I figured it out last night.
I spent 2 hours figuring out how to use and set the digital timers for both the CO2 controller and the exhaust fan.
Put the CO2 in the adjacent corner to my exhaust can, with the CO2 hose coiled up behind an ocalating fan placed low aiming up at the plants. This way the CO2 blasts up and all around the plants, then is blasted back by another ocalating fan at the other side of the room. Creating a circle of gas before it finds it's way back to where it started. Like a Carbon dioxide tornado.
The timers are set as follows:
-as soon as lights come on, exhaust goes off then CO2 comes on for 2 hours straight to give the room a nice awakening blast.
-then after their breakfast the CO2 shuts down and exhaust comes on.
-an hour later exhaust cuts out CO2 comes on for 15 minutes, then off, then exhaust back on.
-cycle repeats throughout the sunny day until 1 hour before bedtime where no CO2 is put out.
-exhaust comes on and stays on while they sleep until breaky.
-cycle repeats until buds are so big they need crutches to stand up..

Luckily I'll be around all day tomorrow to make sure I set the timers right.
I guess the only thing I really need to make sure this is going to be flawless is a CO2 ppm meter so I know what my room levels are at.
The guy I bought the system off had pretty much the same size room as I have, so he suggested what I am following through with now.
Is there cheaper CO2 ppm meters that I could buy to monitor my levels?
My journal is here if anyone wants to peep it.
First CFL Grow In Soil - OG Kush - Wiw!

 

[miwa]

I had my flowering plants under 10/14...i had nothing to compare yields with...i was just conserving elect..but later on i read that it speeded up harvest time..which it didn.t do because they were in flower 3 months...

 

[Vick074]

Yeah, that is he exact one I was looking at too.
Just hate the fact of ordering something from so far away.
Ive been looking to find something locally, but they're all over 400.00.
For that price i could buy a whole digital controller that has everything all in one!

 

[donpaul.p]

jamesthegreen, mate take a break, sounds like you need it, i went through some real bad crap when my fiance was killed but i go to the point where i was not caring for my kids properly and i had to take a good look at the bigger picture. it gave me a good kick up the back side, lifes hard, if it was easy we would all live in palaces and have fields and fields of buds, all i can add to that comment james, is you have all ready got the field of buds, so your halfway their my friend,
we will always be here, i dont get back to every journal i check in on, at last count i was following 30 plus journals, so it takes me days to get through them all, a select few i like to keep on top of, but the others end up going by so quick that i have to sit and read 4 or 5 pages, and its not a chore, i do it cuz i enjoy it, it takes me mind of things and keeps me busy, id say you need a short break or even a few day trips, have some time to yourself mate, let the world pass you buy and you just chill and let it, everything will still be their when you want it, you never know what tomorrow brings mate, things can change so quick, just take some time for yourself, its the best thing any of us can do, if we dont we wear ourselves down and burn out, then we are no good to ourselves let alone anyone else, those you care for will suffer if you dont take some time out mate, you will feel a whole lot better, plus we are all here to talk to so dont worry about things mate, it is tough, trust me i know, but theirs a point where you have to pick yourself up, shake the dust off and stick 2 fingers up to the rest of the world,

once you do that mate you will feel like a new man,

i was on top of the watering, but since my plants got bigger it was getting a pain to take them out and put them somewhere where they could be watered properly so i just watered them where they was and obviously got lazy, so im now watering as normal, ill use a 50% nute mix to flush with as they are not to far from finishing now so dont want to cause problems at this stage, the humidity was also high, so i have now got the 2 12v fans running in the top of the grow, and the bigger fan is outside the grow room blowing into the plants so the whole of the plant from the pot to the top is getting a good breeze, so this should solve the problem for now.

thanks GiGa for your comments, i need to get some tubing for my vent so the fan is doing ok for now, ill water when the top 2 or 3 inches are dry, at the moment its still pretty damp so ill give it a few days to dry,

i have found no pm on any of the buds and i have checked all over the plants.

my nl x bb is not northern lights with blueberry mate, its big bud, i have got a auto blueberry just a few inches tall, and i have also got royal bluematic, both of these are autos so trying to get some purple buds,

@Vik, av you got it all sorted now mate, i could ask jandre if you like, he seems about the best to ask, give me a shout and ill find him for you, im sure he wont mind giving his 2 cents worth.

now the flowering times your talking about, now what growers basically do is this, if you use any of these for veg, 18-6 20-4 or 24-0, then the best flower schedule would be 12-12, how ever the last week or 2 you can give it an extra hour of night, this is meant to make the plant think its coming to the end of flower so forces it to produce more trichs, not sure if it increases yield though,

but if you was using the gas lantern routine then most growers use the deminishing light schedule for flower, what this basically does is run as if the sun would, so it increases the night time slowly over the whole flowering period, now this is meant to produce bigger buds, but this is only meant to work after using glr, glr puts the plants into a sort of over drive for veg, then when you go to flower you can continue this with the deminishing light schedule, now i use glr for veg and the results are brilliant, and my plants are late in flower now, i used 12-12 for most of flowering but now i have given it 11-13, so its getting an extra hour of dark, i have noticed the buds filling out more, but this might be the normal way they grow their is no saying its the extra our of dark thats caused this, but im using 11-13 now till finish, it lowers my costs and keeps the temps down, this should stop any pm problems, i hope,

but if you didnt use glr then 12-12 would be the best to use, you could give it an extra hour of dark for the last week or 2, but thats as far as i would take it, i dont think it will finish several weeks earlier but it might knock a day or 2 off, so add up the extra hours of dark you are giving it over the period it has left to flower, so say their will be 24 x 1hour extra till the end of flower, then to me it makes sense to knock a day off the finishing time, i dont think it would make it finish any sooner than that, but i wouldnt use anything other than 12-12 for the most of flower as this is what the plants have been bread to flower to, so messing this up to much might make them go hermie,

 

[1970s Grower]

You have some gorgeous plants! ...and not a yellow spot anywhere... they are such a deep green. I don't know that I ever have seen healthier plants at this stage of flower.

Reps to ya!

 

[1970s Grower]

Sorry wouldn't let me rep you. Gotta spread some more reps first.

 

[donpaul.p]

@1970s, thanks mate means a lot, this is only my 2nd grow and im sure im only getting these results due to all the help and advice i have gotten off this site, i knew nothing at all before i came here, never heard of fem seeds and never heard of autos, but the help and advice i have gotten and still getting is helping me get the best from this soil grow, i have had problems and just getting over 1 now, but my plants still look great and they seem to have no problems what so ever. i have neglected them with the latest problem, but i think its sorted and my plants should be all the better for it

 

[grogreen]

I had my flowering plants under 10/14...i had nothing to compare yields with...i was just conserving elect..but later on i read that it speeded up harvest time..which it didn.t do because they were in flower 3 months...

I guess that's all I needed to know, our circumstances are slightly different though, I have 800 watts of HPS/MH light, and you're working with CFL's. But as the old saying goes "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" maybe I'll experiment with my next grow, same plant, same light, different light cycles then I can give you guys my feed back on the results. I'm excited to try this !

 

[donpaul.p]

sounds like a good test, my first grow i used 24-0 and then tried 20-4 due to reading that a dark period helps roots grow quicker, so i used that then i run a test with glr verses 24-0 and 20-4 and i found the glr works best with clones but my seedlings grew quicker under 24-0 but when the seedlings are past a week old they then take off and glr makes them grow quicker, so this whole grow i used glr,

 

[fish cake]

sounds like a good test, my first grow i used 24-0 and then tried 20-4 due to reading that a dark period helps roots grow quicker, so i used that then i run a test with glr verses 24-0 and 20-4 and i found the glr works best with clones but my seedlings grew quicker under 24-0 but when the seedlings are past a week old they then take off and glr makes them grow quicker, so this whole grow i used glr,

good info DP I started useing GLR just last week with my new clones. and 1 week in they have doubled in size. now I cant say that they would not have done so with another photoperiod, but I will say that it does work and I like it! so does my accountant

 

[fish cake]

I guess that's all I needed to know, our circumstances are slightly different though, I have 800 watts of HPS/MH light, and you're working with CFL's. But as the old saying goes "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" maybe I'll experiment with my next grow, same plant, same light, different light cycles then I can give you guys my feed back on the results. I'm excited to try this !

on the flower I'am currently on my schedual has been 11/13. I started 12/12 and next week I will go to10/14. seems like a natural thing to do. so its been every 3 weeks I have been cutting back.
cant say that it has cost me yeild, but the buds are getting fat
400w hps

 

[miwa]

love me some fat buds..

 

[donpaul.p]

2 days ago i put my flower schedule to 11-13, it had been at 12-12 for weeks so i now gone 11-13 to see what happens, this is what happens in nature and its meant to boost the glr, glr is usually followed by deminishing light to achieve the best results, i am not following the deminishing light schedule as such, but im reducing the daylight hours by 1 hour, ill probably leave it at 11-13 till finish unless i find out its worth reducing the light further, but im happy with the results im getting and the buds are getting fatter, but like fish cake said, is this just normal or is this boosting the buds, it would be very hard to tell without doing an exact side by side grow with clones of the same age, but keeping everything the same would be hard, but im happy with the results im getting so ill stick with what im doing

 

[grogreen]

This may be a super noob question but what is glr..? Maybe something I've heard before just not in that terminology...

 

[grogreen]

Thanks for all of your input on the subject, I'm beginning to love this place so I visited my local hydro shop and I picked up an organic product called floranectar, have any of you used this product? What'd you think about it? I was told it makes your buds taste better, and also helps your bud smell more potent, now I have a few questions about its use that I forgot to ask the store owner: would you just mix this in with your current nutes and feed all together? ( my current nutes are sensi part A and B, big bud, and monster bloom) Or feed your plants this separately? Also I'm told I'm about two weeks from flushing to prepare for harvest, and this may seem like an absurd question but because this floranectar is organic would it hurt to use a little more than what the bottle suggests? Reason I'm asking is I want to utilize as much of this product as I can within this two week period....I'm not talking about doubling up or anything, but maybe a couple mls more than what it suggests.

 

[Jimmycricket]

DPP, it is a way better way to Water, by letting it get dry, and then watering, it keeps things like what happened to You from happening, and Root Rot and Stem Rot. I think if it was Plant specific, it would have gotten Yours By Now!!! Glad You noticed it though!!! Stuff like that can certainly ruin your Day, Week, Month!!! Thanks for liking My Stupid idea of Sunday Guys, it would be something to see!!! I feel all out of Sorts of Late, Tired,Groggy, almost like a Hang Over, I wonder if it is the Heat,BTW, it is 110 Here Today!!! I do not like the Heat, but it has Never effected Me like this Before, and I ain't running around in Body Armor and an NBC suit Either!!! I just feel like I am an Un-Motivated Individual ATM, maybe I am Depressed or Some Thing, IDK.

First Sergeant's are supposed to be the motivators, not the Ones needing IT!!! I think I might Be Depressed being out of the LOOP, I thought it would Be Great, now with all the Medical Problems with Y,ETC, ETC. I just do not know??? I feel I am letting all of You Down, not answering Posts Punctually, catching up Reading, just saying simple Hellos, I am Gagging My Self Complaining Like This, Just SORRY GUYS!!! If anybody has any suggestions, PLEASE ADVISE, ROGER OUT!!! SINCERELY, JAMESTHEGREEN.

You are probably just a bit down, or feeling unsure about the future. You spent a lot of your adult life in the service. Now thats over, its time for the next chapter. However its a big change and big changes can create anxiety. Although you might feel or know that the future will bring good and be wonderful. It still is a big adjustment. You have gone from a very structured environment to one where there is no chain of command, there is nobody whom you answer to (besides Y lol). Now YOU are the General, you call the shots, you decide the path your life shall take. That change would be enough to make anyone feel a bit uneasy. Plus to combine that with the knowledge that those fond memories you have of the service are now in the past, could make anyone feel a little blue as I am sure there were some really great times.

But keep on trucking James. Right now you may be feeling a bit off. But sooner or later you will get accustomed to civilian life and being the master of your own destiny and I am sure you will embrace it. Now is just the transitional phase that you must go through.

You'll be alright James. I know it!

 

[Jimmycricket]

This may be a super noob question but what is glr..? Maybe something I've heard before just not in that terminology...

GLR is a type of light schedule where you go 12 hours light 5.5 hours dark 1 hour light 5.5 hours dark, then repeat.

 

[donpaul.p]

GLR is gas lantern routine, its an old growing method that has come back round, now normal light schedules are 18-6, 20-4 or 24-0 and anything in between, but glr is this.
12 hours of light on
5.5 hours of lights off
1 hour of light on
5.5 hours of lights off,
that then repeats, so your basically giving the plants 12-12 but during the 12 hours of dark your giving it 1 hour of light in the middle of it, what this does is makes the plant think its coming into flower so it starts its rapid growth, but by us giving it an hour of light during the dark period this prevents the plants from going into full flower, the results are good and ill be using glr from now on,
its easy to set up if you have the old analogue timer, but it does work well, and when you then go 12-12 it starts flower sooner, under glr my plants showed sex around 2 weeks from seed,
so its 12 hours of light followed by 12 hours of dark for flower, but to prevent the plants going into flower and to keep them in veg you just give the plants 1 hour of light in the middle of the 12 hours of dark period, this also keeps costs down due to the light been off longer, it keeps the heat down for the same reason

 

[GigaGrew]

thanks GiGa for your comments, i need to get some tubing for my vent so the fan is doing ok for now, ill water when the top 2 or 3 inches are dry, at the moment its still pretty damp so ill give it a few days to dry,

i have found no pm on any of the buds and i have checked all over the plants.

my nl x bb is not northern lights with blueberry mate, its big bud, i have got a auto blueberry just a few inches tall, and i have also got royal bluematic, both of these are autos so trying to get some purple buds.

is that at me? i dont yet remember having a conversation of this type, or it may have fallen into a memory hole, lol


Virtual +REPs (wont let me yet again) for that entire post tho bruv, comprehensive explination =)