First Time Grower - Soil and MG

Not saying you wrong Dr.redwhite, you are right with the flowering part, but I used them when I had no budget and they kept making my plants super tall and skinny. I'm just speaking from experience. They did OK during flower but just OK. They are completely the wrong sort of light for growing really, just seen 2 other people use them not on here, seen them first hand and they did the same as mine used to do, just end up tall and skinny.
Also they are mega hot and you need good ventilation for them. For the price of them why not get a hefty 250w CFL in which ever spectrum you choose like this one.
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After swapping from halogen to cfl my plants started to look like everyone elses, big bushes. IMO and Experience halogen are pretty crap compared to what is out there for the same price. But as always thats just me. Look into my album the beggining pages with tall plants are halogen, the bushy beasts are big CFL's
 
Be very very careful with a halogen light. Those produce a ton of heat and it can be really easy to literally cook the plant. Just start well back and watch closely for signs of heat stress. Just an alternate idea as well, there are several diy cfl fixtures in diy section of this forum. It's very possible to make a 6 or 8 bulb compact flourescent fixture for under 20 bucks.
 
Yea i think that's what i'm going to do. Since i'm growing in my closet it would be pretty hard to ventilate. I do like the CFLs and that's probably what i will stick with so i can keep the lights as close as possible
 
It is true the Halogens put out a lot of heat and make your plants look "stretchy" but you will get no better bang for the buck than the 300 watt version. I used one in a 5x5 closet with a normal height in the winter and back then had no ventilation but it worked well enough. There were no big CFL's that I knew of back then and few small ones. I found out that the big CFL's don't last long on a timer, make a lot of heat and are more expensive as bulbs than a complete outdoor Halogen fixture. I found that on plants that are mostly indica the stretchy look opened them up a little and they made big buds. I did notice the light spectrum seemed to really bring out the resin also. You can tell if you have the Halogen too close as the leaves will get a somewhat wrinkled look. I also side lighted with 2 4foot shoplights and this may have alleviated some of the stretching out issues. After 4 grows using the Halogens I got a job with a crew that tore down buildings and scrapped out the metal, I collected an awesome number of HPS and Metal Halide lights in 400 watt and never looked back. I dropped the Halogens but still use CFL's for seedlings and early veg stage. Anyway just a thought, it was my solution when I was dirt poor in Washington state circa 1985.
 
Oh yeah, I added the Halogen at the third week of 12/12, this cut back on the stretching a lot. I looked at your album JBC420 and the old pics with the Halogens seemed to make pretty nice buds. What I didn't like about the Halogens was that the brightness was hard on the eyes. I just shortened the time they were on to 10.5 hours and visited my plants just before the light came on or just after. This made the plants finish a bit sooner too.
 
Yea i went to lowes and saw some 150 watt cfl bulbs and a three light light fixture. I can get all for about 80$ and then ill make a hood out of something. But i am going with cfl because my closets running a high temp as it is with the flos that are in there and any extra heat would be to much. I might use the shop lights as side lights as well
 
Don't get me wrong, I use CFL's still. They may last 10,000 hours for you but my luck just wasn't that good, especially with the 100 watt versions. Might have been the timer, don't knowfor sure. I have very good luck with the 26 watt CFL's and have two running right now. I am surprised your having heat issues with one 4 foot fixture and two 40 watt bulbs. In fact the larger CFL's will put out more heat than your 4 foot shoplight does but best wishes on your success.
 
Its not due to the light, but since the cfl doesn't put out heat and the room is still running a high temp then i for sure can't add a light that does produce heat. As for now i will be building a hood for a three light fixture with swivels and using 3 150 watt cfl bulbs. I have no way for ventilation unless i can find so kind of thin wide vent. I watered without nutes yesterday b/c i previously burned them and they seem to be doing fine. The ends are beginning to turn up now so i think im going to have to do some more super cropping. Any opinions? Is it possible to train the base in a circle? or similar?
 
Ok so its been 14 days in 12/12 and I'm pretty sure I've got 2 females. My camera is on my phone which is why they suck. I took about 90 pictures and these are the best i could come up with.

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Im going to try to find a camera and put some better pics up, but those should do for now. Ill also be building a bigger cfl light, in over the next week or so. So i will probably just update the pictures when i get it built. thanks for stopping by and checking them out.
 
Miracle gro seems to be doing you right. You might consider a soil flush to remove any built up salts before you actually have a problem with it. Have you replaced the 4 foot shoplights yet?
 
I appreciate you fellas stopping in. Here are some picture updates. They were watered last Sunday and i didn't get back from thanksgiving break until Friday so they went a week without being watered. Overall I think they are doing pretty good. I watered without nutes Friday to avoid shock and fed them today. not too much longer.

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