KJ's T5/CFL 1st Time Grow

K

KarlJay

Well-Known Member
Hi all!
Here's my setup:
Started with clones about 4~6" and overdriven T5 [8 bulbs] and 2 300W CFLs 2700K
Using small pots and coffee cans.

About 2 weeks in repotted to 3 gallon pots, added 2 new fans and 16 new 100W CFLs.

Lights:
22 100W CFL
2 300W CFL
8 T5 overdriven [5400L] (homemade/WalMart modified)
18/6 On/Off

Nutes/Additives:
Start:
PH Down
1st Week:
GH CaMag
2nd Week: (Today)
GH Micro
GH Bloom
GH Gro

Watering is about every 3 or 4 days

Soil: MG for 1st 3, FFOF after that

Strain: Mr Nice Guy x 6 / Rascel OG X 5 [11 plants total]

Made a few mistakes at the start, No PH tester, MG soil, someone else crushed the rockwool thinking he was releasing the roots :( , RH WAY too high 70+, broke 1 branch. But they all survived.

So here's some pics, right now the tallest is 2 weeks old and about 13+ inches tall.
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Re: KJ's T5/CFL 1st time grow...

The 1st 3 pics are at/near the start [about 2 weeks] The last 3 pics are today. I was doing LST but stopped when I moved to the 3 gal buckets and will restart LST soon.

Looking to go to a 7 Gal bag/bucket in about a week and might start flower in a few weeks depending on the size.

Also, I'm wanting to start another round of clones in a few days, probably a total of about 20 plants.

This is my 1st try at this!
 
Re: KJ's T5/CFL 1st time grow...

Everything looks healthy, but a couple of observations. First, your plants look a little stretched out. If you can stick your hand in between your light and your plant without your thumb and pinky hitting both a plant and your light bulb, you need to get your light closer to your plants if your using fluorescents. Second, your soil looks pretty damp. You may want to think about backing off the water a little. If your not giving your plants a chance to dry out and get some O2, your gonna get root rot.
 
Re: KJ's T5/CFL 1st time grow...

Great Eye! I should have mentioned that they were pulled out for watering, that's when I took the pics :) ... they were just watered.

I have them about 1~3" from the lights and just started more side lights yesterday so I hope to get the tall skinny ones to go wide in the next week by using LST and side lights.

Before the the pot upgrade [coffee cans to 3 gal] I was tilting the lights to make a dome of light (more on the sides) they were very close to the tops.

Maybe I need to get the LST strings back on real soon?
 
Re: KJ's T5/CFL 1st time grow...

I didn't post all the pics, but the 1st 3 pics show the ones from the 1st round. The second batch are the tall & skinny ones [last pic] and will be 2 weeks tomorrow, and that's when I ditched the MG soil for the FFOF.

I didn't show all of them, two got heat damage but recovered and 1 got VERY bushy, she's as wide as she is tall!

Here's 2 that didn't do as well:

This one lost the top and went out from the sides:
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Re: KJ's T5/CFL 1st time grow...

Here's the bushy one, she was part of the 1st round, so she's actually 2 weeks 3 days.
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And here's the overdriven T5s with the 13+" under it. The overdriven T5s are 4' long modified WalMart lights and there's 8 bulbs there. Down the center is 16 100W CFLs and 2 300W CFL hanging in the center, with 6 100W CFL clipped on the sides of some buckets.
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This is that same bushy 7" plant from above, sitting under the lights:
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Re: KJ's T5/CFL 1st time grow...

Notice the T5 lights have 4 cords per set, each bulb has it's own ballast and 4 lights are mounted to 2x4s with a power strip on the top. The last pic shows one of the clip-on lights with a 'Y' holder 2 100W CFLs so I can position them as I want.

The center 16 CFLs are in a bathroom light that holds 8 bulbs with 'Y' adapters to make 16 bulbs down the center sitting on bricks so I can adjust as needed. Only problem with the 16 light strip is that I can't "clock" the adapter so I'll have to make a swivel for them.
 
Re: KJ's T5/CFL 1st time grow...

wyrman said:
WOW, do you need that many watts of lighting? I might have to buy more cfl's.
Click to expand...
I'm using the 'equivalent' wattage on the CFLs. CFLs have two watt numbers, the actual and the equivalent. I the actual watts used is 23. The more important number is the lumens and they are 1600 ea for the 100W and 3900 for the 300W

So the Lumens would be:
22 x 1600 = 35,000 CFL
2 x 3900 = 7,800 CFL
8 x 5400 = 43,000 T5

Total 86,000
and I'm setting up 1 more T5 set for 21,600 more for a total of 107,600

Most grow rooms want 100,000 lumens so that's what I set as a target.

The other concern is the I don't think CFLs are very good unless they are CLOSE to the plant, VERY close

Also, I'll probably move to some larger buckets, I'm thinking about 7 gallon and that would force me to spread things out and make lighting more of a challenge.

One other note, I'm trying to get a lot of side light, CFLs should work well for side lights, I'm trying to force the outer branches to rise to the top and see if I can get a large level canopy.

How many CFLs are you running?
 
Re: KJ's T5/CFL 1st time grow...

Hey KarlJay,

Just came across your thread and seen you also have a Raskal OG! I just picked a 2 day old last night from the dispensary for my first grow! I also wanted to try the T5 set up but I had already invested way too much in my set up. I am also using foxfarm soil! Im mixing a bag of happy frog with the ocean mix with an extra load of perlite at the bottom for a good filtration.

I have two clones that are younger and three that are about 6-8" tall also, Im thinking that should be about average because it is a clone of a plant, and it does look like it is getting quite bushier! But then again im quite new aswell. I picked up my plants last night and threw them under 450W MH when i got back for about 4 hours and they literally jumped 1/4 overnight when I measured this morning!!!

Hoping to see your plants strive and yield ya a nice chronic sack!!

Happy growing KarlJay!

-CA215 :peace:
 
Re: KJ's T5/CFL 1st time grow...

Hey and thanks for the response:) I'm currently using 8-100 watt (equivalent) cfl's,
KarlJay said:
I'm using the 'equivalent' wattage on the CFLs. CFLs have two watt numbers, the actual and the equivalent. I the actual watts used is 23. The more important number is the lumens and they are 1600 ea for the 100W and 3900 for the 300W

So the Lumens would be:
22 x 1600 = 35,000 CFL
2 x 3900 = 7,800 CFL
8 x 5400 = 43,000 T5

Total 86,000
and I'm setting up 1 more T5 set for 21,600 more for a total of 107,600

Most grow rooms want 100,000 lumens so that's what I set as a target.

The other concern is the I don't think CFLs are very good unless they are CLOSE to the plant, VERY close

Also, I'll probably move to some larger buckets, I'm thinking about 7 gallon and that would force me to spread things out and make lighting more of a challenge.

One other note, I'm trying to get a lot of side light, CFLs should work well for side lights, I'm trying to force the outer branches to rise to the top and see if I can get a large level canopy.

How many CFLs are you running?
Click to expand...
 
Re: KJ's T5/CFL 1st time grow...

8X100 should be good, how many plants? I have my bulbs very close to the plants, usually 1" if I can. I also try to get bulbs in between the plants so that they share the light, but the pot size tends to get in the way. I assume you got the bright white (5000K) not the soft white bulbs (2700K).

I also use wood blocks to raise the plants as needed for better light control.
 
Re: KJ's T5/CFL 1st time grow...

CA215 said:
Hey KarlJay,

Just came across your thread and seen you also have a Raskal OG! I just picked a 2 day old last night from the dispensary for my first grow! I also wanted to try the T5 set up but I had already invested way too much in my set up. I am also using foxfarm soil! Im mixing a bag of happy frog with the ocean mix with an extra load of perlite at the bottom for a good filtration.

I have two clones that are younger and three that are about 6-8" tall also, Im thinking that should be about average because it is a clone of a plant, and it does look like it is getting quite bushier! But then again im quite new aswell. I picked up my plants last night and threw them under 450W MH when i got back for about 4 hours and they literally jumped 1/4 overnight when I measured this morning!!!

Hoping to see your plants strive and yield ya a nice chronic sack!!

Happy growing KarlJay!

-CA215 :peace:
Click to expand...

Those sound like some nice sized clones! Careful with the 450W MH, don't want to burn them. I haven't tried the Happy Frog, but I'll be looking into it. ... keep us posted!
 
Re: KJ's T5/CFL 1st time grow...

Hey KJ yeah I got the 6500k and then 2700k for flower,, no plants as of yet soon though,,I hope!
KarlJay said:
8X100 should be good, how many plants? I have my bulbs very close to the plants, usually 1" if I can. I also try to get bulbs in between the plants so that they share the light, but the pot size tends to get in the way. I assume you got the bright white (5000K) not the soft white bulbs (2700K).

I also use wood blocks to raise the plants as needed for better light control.
Click to expand...
 
Re: KJ's T5/CFL 1st time grow...

Many growers (including me) mix the 2700K and 5000K+. I've seen 70/30 for veg and 30/70 for flower [5000K/2700K] So you'll need a few extra bulbs to switch out but the results are supposed to be better. I haven't got many opinions on my growth rate yet, but it seems to be great and they certainly happy, so I guess I'm doing something right :D
 
Re: KJ's T5/CFL 1st time grow...

Update: I'm at 2 and 3 weeks. The 2 weeks old batch is now 17" and tall/skinny, where as the 1st batch is 3 weeks old and 1 is tall/bushy 1 is short/bushy and they others are in between. I just trimmed off a bunch of fan leaves and 2nd watering with new GH nutes / 3rd watering with new 3 gal buckets.

Few Pics:
The tall ones reaching 17" at 2 weeks 2 days, not very bushy.
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... And the Bushy one, staying short, going wide...

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The fan leaves trimmed:
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Update: cut some fan leaves, started LST again [1st LST since repot to 3 gal], 3rd watering since GH 3part nutes [this watering is NO nutes, just PH balanced water]. Tallest is about 18/19" and stalks are getting real thick. The last watering I cut fan leaves of a few and they showed no ill effects.

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This is my Quality Control personal, she inspects everything :D
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I also notice that several of the solid purple stems started to become 'striped' Purple/Green ... I don't know if that normal or not, but I started CalMGic because I thought the purple was from MG def. They all seem healthy and growth seems great (1st time, so I don't know)

If someone can give me some clue about when to go into flowing, I was thinking 2 more weeks, which would be about 4~5 weeks Veg.
 
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