420Amard
New Member
Ya ever get the feeling like your ears are ringing.
Ok few things Big Craptastic Cfls
1> You always want to set your cfl on a horizontal to the plant unless your using it as supplement lighting on the sides of the plants.
2> When growing with cfls reflectors are key even a make shift beer can one is better than nothing. Basically the cfl is losing 50% of all light due to the round shape and placement of the bulbs. Even if they are a few inches from the canopy they are still losing half the light. Even with the reflectors you're losing about half the lumen out put because of the shape and the actual usable penetration.
3> Be careful with nitrogen levels in the plants because under the cfls they do not use as much nitrogen and toxicity is a real factor. Always be on the look out for clawing of the leaf ends.
4> The equivalent wattage between cfl is for the comparison to incandescence light bulbs but really doesn't mean anything in growing.
Basic plant health
1> If you're switching to flower on a 12/12 schedule you will have about 10 days before you even start to see sex those little finger looking things coming out of the node are just a sign that they are preparing to go into flower. Don't quote me on this just my thinking is that those little cover looking mofos are there to protect the newly forming sex organs from the suns uv/intense light
2> Do not switch to flower if you do not want all the plants to start to flower you will lose lots of time switching them back to re-veg and will stress them all out in doing so.
3> If you are using feminized seeds you have a 99% chance they are female and a 1% they will be something else due to light leaks, pH extreme fluctuations, even stagnant/de-oxygenated water all can turn plants hermi. If these are bag seeds and the grower didn't have males around you're looking at 75% chance of them being female, the chances of them going hermi for any reasons due to the mother being stressed are tripled, 1% of them being male. My recommendation is buy feminized seeds from a reputable seeds bank/dispensary same with soils. I would stay away from clones just because you don't know what pest come along with them.
Really female plants will pop out seeds for a few reason either they were grown to long so a pollen sac will form as a last resort, a toxicity is used to stress out the plant to form female pollen sacs (ie. collard silver being sprayed) but then the plant is still female only with female pollen sacs and no seeds found on said plant should be used because of the hermi genes of the plant and the pollen should be used on a healthy normal female.
What is the actual size of your grow are height??? This will become an issue since when you switch to flower they will stretch searching for the light for the first few weeks. A way to combat this is tying them down or topping a week to 14 days before the switch.
Lastly cfls are crap try to get a cooled hood 150w dual spectrum HPS (250w dimmable would work as well) or even a small mars reflector48 series or if you can find it a old 100 x 3w led or even a ufo. These cfls penetration is rubbish and the spread of actual usable light is horrible. But if you're set on using them diy a reflector with the lights horizontal. You can never have to many either as long as temps are good. But when you get into using the bigger cfls the cost alone is that of an led system. (I've paid $80 for a big 300w cfl with reflector the little mars reflector48s cost $100). Stay away from aluminum foil as it creates hot spots Mylar window reflectors work well for reflecting about 50-75% light and absorb heat from the bulb...
If ya want to see me results check out the test run in my signature I personally hate growing with the big cfl they need to be way to close to the plants and it's hard to cool in between them and the bulbs since it's only like 10-15cm during flower. Then the pots dry out to quick it's just a pain in the arse.
Any questions I'm around today so feel free to ask and sorry bout the novel figure I'd try to include lots of information in one post
Oh and your pot looks kinda small for the plant you might want to think of upping the pot size before you run into more problems (ie. root bound, pH issues, watering, root rot all happen a lot quicker when the roots don't have enough room...
Ok few things Big Craptastic Cfls
1> You always want to set your cfl on a horizontal to the plant unless your using it as supplement lighting on the sides of the plants.
2> When growing with cfls reflectors are key even a make shift beer can one is better than nothing. Basically the cfl is losing 50% of all light due to the round shape and placement of the bulbs. Even if they are a few inches from the canopy they are still losing half the light. Even with the reflectors you're losing about half the lumen out put because of the shape and the actual usable penetration.
3> Be careful with nitrogen levels in the plants because under the cfls they do not use as much nitrogen and toxicity is a real factor. Always be on the look out for clawing of the leaf ends.
4> The equivalent wattage between cfl is for the comparison to incandescence light bulbs but really doesn't mean anything in growing.
Basic plant health
1> If you're switching to flower on a 12/12 schedule you will have about 10 days before you even start to see sex those little finger looking things coming out of the node are just a sign that they are preparing to go into flower. Don't quote me on this just my thinking is that those little cover looking mofos are there to protect the newly forming sex organs from the suns uv/intense light
2> Do not switch to flower if you do not want all the plants to start to flower you will lose lots of time switching them back to re-veg and will stress them all out in doing so.
3> If you are using feminized seeds you have a 99% chance they are female and a 1% they will be something else due to light leaks, pH extreme fluctuations, even stagnant/de-oxygenated water all can turn plants hermi. If these are bag seeds and the grower didn't have males around you're looking at 75% chance of them being female, the chances of them going hermi for any reasons due to the mother being stressed are tripled, 1% of them being male. My recommendation is buy feminized seeds from a reputable seeds bank/dispensary same with soils. I would stay away from clones just because you don't know what pest come along with them.
Really female plants will pop out seeds for a few reason either they were grown to long so a pollen sac will form as a last resort, a toxicity is used to stress out the plant to form female pollen sacs (ie. collard silver being sprayed) but then the plant is still female only with female pollen sacs and no seeds found on said plant should be used because of the hermi genes of the plant and the pollen should be used on a healthy normal female.
What is the actual size of your grow are height??? This will become an issue since when you switch to flower they will stretch searching for the light for the first few weeks. A way to combat this is tying them down or topping a week to 14 days before the switch.
Lastly cfls are crap try to get a cooled hood 150w dual spectrum HPS (250w dimmable would work as well) or even a small mars reflector48 series or if you can find it a old 100 x 3w led or even a ufo. These cfls penetration is rubbish and the spread of actual usable light is horrible. But if you're set on using them diy a reflector with the lights horizontal. You can never have to many either as long as temps are good. But when you get into using the bigger cfls the cost alone is that of an led system. (I've paid $80 for a big 300w cfl with reflector the little mars reflector48s cost $100). Stay away from aluminum foil as it creates hot spots Mylar window reflectors work well for reflecting about 50-75% light and absorb heat from the bulb...
If ya want to see me results check out the test run in my signature I personally hate growing with the big cfl they need to be way to close to the plants and it's hard to cool in between them and the bulbs since it's only like 10-15cm during flower. Then the pots dry out to quick it's just a pain in the arse.
Any questions I'm around today so feel free to ask and sorry bout the novel figure I'd try to include lots of information in one post
Oh and your pot looks kinda small for the plant you might want to think of upping the pot size before you run into more problems (ie. root bound, pH issues, watering, root rot all happen a lot quicker when the roots don't have enough room...
