Hello My1stGro and welcome!! I am a first timer myself and have had a blast sharing info and ideas. It looks like you've got a good basic setup going, but if you don't mind, I got some tips for ya. You can check my journal as the info I'm giving you is what I have learned so far if you want more details or pics. My grow is a DWC and using CFL's so it will vary slightly since your using soil. I would recommend checking out some of COFinest and LightAddict's journals. They have helped me greatly.
Okay, so first, you need a lot more light. I have seen some very nice grows with CFL, but it does require a lot of them. I am currently running 6 for veg giving me total wattage of right at 200. Because they don't put out the heat like HPS or the others, you can have them really close to your plants. I keep mine at about 2", but you can go as close as you want, just don't make contact. I like having mine at the 2" marks cause it only requires me to raise my lights less often. I find that my plants can put on an inch overnight sometimes and it keeps me from burning the leaves. Also, make sure you have a high Kelvin on your veg bulbs. During Veg, they like the daylight(blue light)spectrum and it keeps them from stretching too much. Give you nice compact little pants with variations depending on the strain. When you are ready to switch to bloom or if you want to encourage them to stretch more, then go with the 2700K(red spectrum) bulbs. This will give you more stretch during veg so I wouldn't recommend using them until you're ready to flower. Especially if you trying to keep it on the DL. Some will run a dual spectrum setup and it seems to produce good results as well. I am currently just running 6 6500K CFL's and have had very good results. It's really up to your preference and what you can afford. I ran Y-adapters to my sockets so I can run 2 bulbs per socket. These are around $3 - $5 depending on your area and availability. I haven't fully committed to a flower plan yet, but there are some really nice options out there.
You could go with the LED Reflectors like this:
or you could go HPS like this:
Both are pretty economical investments, but I would lean towards the 400W HPS MD combo off Ebay for a start. Choose the 6" Cool Tube Reflector w/ Add on Wings and go for both bulbs. The HPS will get you through Veg and the MD will get you through Bloom. I have heard very good things about this setup and the fact that it helps keep your temps from getting to high. I am seriously thinking about doing it myself, but the holidays made Steve very poor...lol Maybe next month I can free up some cash and I can give you real first hand experience. HunterNitro turned me onto these and I have been chomping at the bit ever since. However, the LED option could also work very well for a micro grow. Won't have to deal with as much of the heat with this method either, but still need to watch that your temps don't get too high.
For Nutes my friend, I am would recommend checking out the journals of the guys I mentioned above and see what they do. COFinest has some awesome videos on his threads and give great info. LightAddict has won every award you can on here so his info is money in the bank in my opinion. DrewDrop also has very good info and a ton of experience to learn from. Those are probably the top 3 I've seen doing soil grows, but that doesn't mean there aren't others that can help. I have just had contact with those guys so I feel confident recommending them. SoilGirl also has some very good journals to look at. I spent the first month just reading before I even made my account and started a journal and was frequently drawn back to her journals.
You will also need to think about what kind of training if any you will use. For small grows, SCRoG's(Screen of Green) seem to be the preferred method. It's basically just a screen you place over your plant to hold the stems out and down to allow light to hit the bud sites directly. Once Again, COFinest is the master and has lots of videos to watch. He even has a Youtube channel that I myself am subbed to. LightAddict has a method he calls Fluxing that seems to produce some monster buds. I know him and SoilGirl both are using that method on there journals so it would be worth checking out.
Another thing you could try is some selective trimming. I say selective, because you don't want to stunt your plants. Take just the fan leaves that are on the lower branches and then any that may be blocking light. Some prefer to just bend the leaves out of the way, but I've seen some pretty drastic differences with results when done properly. There is a whole thread on just trimming before and during flower. I have been trimming mine pretty aggressive, but I have 2 plants in one 5 gallon bucket so I kind of have to to let them have room and not choke each other out.
So, to recap, you need to get more light and get it as close to the plants as you can. Go with the higher 6500K during veg and then switch to the lower 2700K when you are ready to flower. If you can get a bigger grow box or have a closet you can use I would recommend that as soon as possible. Some like to line their's with foil or white plastic. I am just using a small closet with white walls and get plenty of reflection off the walls. Some would say not to use foil if you use LED or HPS because it can cause hot spots. It really comes down to what you have available though, so work with what you got.
Next you need to decide if you want to use a SCRoG or not. If you use a SCRoG, then you won't need to train it a whole lot. If you're not using the SCRoG(I highly recommend for small grows as do others on this site), then figure out how you want to train them. Find journals where people are using different methods and use the one that best suits your setup. It may be that you use several methods and that's fine too. I haven't had any issues getting my questions answered so don't be afraid to ask. The only stupid question is the one you don't ask as they say.
You will need to figure out what you want to use for nutes. Once again, tons of journals to give you a better idea of what to use. Just make sure you have a good idea of what to look for to avoid under or overfeeding. Soil seems to be the harder of the 2 to manage I guess. Mainly cause if I over feed them I will see it pretty quick with Hydro and all I have to do is change the water. For soil it takes longer for the issues to show and then flushing can be a bit of a bear. i don't know if you've come across these yet, but I wouldn't attempt a grow without them.
These first will show what to look for when you sex them. First is female, second is male:
Next we have the PH guide and a deficiency/overage chart:
Now, all that being said, I am not a professional by any means. Most of this is stuff I have learned myself from this site, previous gardens and good old Google. You will find opinions to support every method out there and you will find a lot that don't support it. Never just take someone's word for fact. Always do your own fact checking to ensure you're getting good info. I wish you the best of luck and will keep checking in on ya. Best of luck brother!!
~K~
Great start so far!!
P.S : I NEED HELP I DON'T KNOW HOW TO SUBSCRIBE TO THREADS LOL HELP!!!
