Newbie flower day eight pic - comments appreciated

C

chazmania

Well-Known Member
hello all:

i'm a relative newbie and my girl is in the flowering stage day eight - she's been under fluorescent lighting throughout the entire grow - mix of tube and cfl - does she look ok to you?

thx!

flower_day_eight1.jpg
 
Looks darn healthy to me! Do you have a shot of the whole plant?
 
I think it looks just fine. Nice and green and healthy for only using CFL's and flourescents. Give the experienced growers time to find your question and I'm sure they'll let you know if there is anything they see that would be a concern, although I see nothing that would. But, this is my first grow too. :-)
What strain is it? feminized or not?
Take care
 
cannafan said:
I think it looks just fine. Nice and green and healthy for only using CFL's and flourescents. Give the experienced growers time to find your question and I'm sure they'll let you know if there is anything they see that would be a concern, although I see nothing that would. But, this is my first grow too. :-)
What strain is it? feminized or not?
Take care
Click to expand...

hi Canafan:

Sorry for the delay - thanks for comments. Interestingly enough - I'm not certain about the strain. It's bag seed and may have come from a lone seed I found in a recent batch of Blue Dream/Sour Lemon. In terms of sex I just plain lucked out. This being my first official grow I started only one plant and prayed to the Gods of Ganja that it would be a female. My prayers were answered!

Do you have any ideas as to what kinda strain it may be? My girl and I think it may have some Grand Daddy Purple in it. We're excited and can't wait to harvest! I'll post a few more recent pics - she's really taking off.
 
I added the last picture to demonstrate additional lighting arrangements. I find hanging T12's vertically on microphone stands ideal - again easy to arrange as needed. If going this route I strongly recommend using the heavy cast iron bases as opposed to the tripod legs the latter require much space and are somewhat rickety.

I have four vertical T12's on this girl :-)
 
Looking good! I haven't a clue on how to identify strains by just looking at the leaves yet. I posted a question on my thread to see if one of the seasoned growers can pop over and maybe help you on that.
Keep up the good work. :-)
 
hi, welcome to 420 mag, i came here from a link posted in another journal,

your plant looks great, cfls and flourescents work well, i used them in my first grow and still use cfls now for seedlings and clones, i find cfls keep the node spacing very tight and the plants seem to love cfls and grow well under them, problem is light penetration is very poor,
i was using lots of 23 and 30 actualy watt cfls, so the cfls need to be kept within 2 to 6 inches of the plant at the most, if you hold your hand against the bulb the slowly lower it away you will notice that after just 2 inches the light drops off in strength by more than half, so as the plants get bigger you need to use lights down the side like your doing now,

also the sides of cfls give off more lights then the ends of the bulb so always make sure the cfls are side on to the plants, also making a reflector pays off as it directs the rest of the light back on to the plant so make sure you got mylar on the walls or their painted flat white, i used like tinfoil trays to make my reflectors out of, bought a load of this oval shaped trays that was made of thick foil, then i made reflectors from them, but cfls work and work well and i always start my plants under cfls for 2 or 3 weeks before i put them under the dual spectrum hps, i switched to the 400 watt dual spectrum hps as i was running around 400 actual watts with cfls so made sense to switch as im not getting around 55,000 lumins compared with less than 1000 lumins per cfl, so im not using more power as watts are about the same, all i do now is have a small cupboard with 3 x 30watt 6400 kelvin cfls in it and i start my seedlings and clones under that,

the 6400 kelvin cfls are for veg their the blueish light or white light, the 2700 kelvin cfls or the orange light is the flower stage lights but a mixture of the 2 is the best option, for veg you want a 3 to 1 ratio or even 2 to 1, so 3 x 6400k and 1 x 2700k for veg, then the opposite for flower, just use more of the one suited for each stage but throw a couple of the other spectrum in just so it helps with both spectrums,

but i got to admit you got a pretty big plant considering your using cfls and fl, cfls are best suited for scrogs or lst type grows as you can keen an even canopy and this helps get the most light to the buds, but if you use side lighting then its possible to grow big plants which is the method i used at first when i first started growing, so your doing a good job with your plant as it looks great,

i had a quick flick through your journal but not read it all yet, are you using any nutrients yet?

as for the strain its impossible to tell, if you know the seed is from that bud then you can safely say its that strain, but if your not sure then the only real thing you can tell is if its indica or sativa, now by looking at that plant id say its a mixture but its certainly more indica that sativa, sativa is more a daytime smoke such as jack flash and bay 11, indica strains are more skunk and cheese type strains, so to me id have to say your plant looks 60 to 80% indica but the upwards growth suggests their is some sativa in it as the leaves dont look like a 100% indical plant.

but well done on growing a plant like that, looks great so your doing a really good job, any problems we are here to help, sorry i cant be more help with the strain but their are thousands to choose from, possibly 10s of thousands to choose from, so knowing the strain is pretty impossible without some background info on where it came from,

i take it you have not taken clones form this plant, what i would do is if the buds end up looking really nice and its been a really good plant to grow then when you harvest it leave just a few of the buds on the lowest branches, you wont be getting much bud off the bottom 2 sets of branches, you might on the edges of the branches but at the bottom and inside the plant you wont be getting much bud so what i would do is harvest the plant and leave the bottom 2 sets of branche on so you have like 4 branches on the plant, cut the end buds off so you have 4 short branches at the bottom of the plant after harvest, then if its a nice plant and you want to grow it again then if you leave them branches and leaves on you can then put the plant back under a veg schedule and it will go back into veg around 2 to 3 weeks after you change back to a veg light schedule,

you end up with a monster cropped plant which means 20 to 40% increase in yield next time round, so as long as your leave some growth at the bottom, i usually leave the bottom 4 branches on the plant and leave the fan leaves on as well on them branches, i harvest the plant and the buds at the ends of the bottom branches but then i leave around 3 or 4 nodes on the bottom branches so the plant has got somewhere to grow from, then put it back under veg schedule then it will go back into veg in 2 or 3 weeks, this then lets you grow it again and next time you could take clones from it or if you really wanted to get it in seed form then i can talk you through the process on how to produce your own fem seeds of that strain, as you dont have any male seeds or male plants the only option is to produce your own femenised seeds which means all the seeds will be female every time you grow them,
 
Wow, I learned a ton of information on that post as well! Isn't he amazing? Explains why he has that MOTM title!:thumb: I sure hope I get some female plants out of my current grow, I'm going to try that super cropping as well as cloning.
Also, one thing I was going to check on is whether you have a fan on your area. I will check your pics over again, but if you don't have one you should put at least a small fan to cool things off and get air circulation on the proud momma. :-)
 
donpaul.p said:
hi, welcome to 420 mag, i came here from a link posted in another journal,

your plant looks great, cfls and flourescents work well, i used them in my first grow and still use cfls now for seedlings and clones, i find cfls keep the node spacing very tight and the plants seem to love cfls and grow well under them, problem is light penetration is very poor,
i was using lots of 23 and 30 actualy watt cfls, so the cfls need to be kept within 2 to 6 inches of the plant at the most, if you hold your hand against the bulb the slowly lower it away you will notice that after just 2 inches the light drops off in strength by more than half, so as the plants get bigger you need to use lights down the side like your doing now,

also the sides of cfls give off more lights then the ends of the bulb so always make sure the cfls are side on to the plants, also making a reflector pays off as it directs the rest of the light back on to the plant so make sure you got mylar on the walls or their painted flat white, i used like tinfoil trays to make my reflectors out of, bought a load of this oval shaped trays that was made of thick foil, then i made reflectors from them, but cfls work and work well and i always start my plants under cfls for 2 or 3 weeks before i put them under the dual spectrum hps, i switched to the 400 watt dual spectrum hps as i was running around 400 actual watts with cfls so made sense to switch as im not getting around 55,000 lumins compared with less than 1000 lumins per cfl, so im not using more power as watts are about the same, all i do now is have a small cupboard with 3 x 30watt 6400 kelvin cfls in it and i start my seedlings and clones under that,

the 6400 kelvin cfls are for veg their the blueish light or white light, the 2700 kelvin cfls or the orange light is the flower stage lights but a mixture of the 2 is the best option, for veg you want a 3 to 1 ratio or even 2 to 1, so 3 x 6400k and 1 x 2700k for veg, then the opposite for flower, just use more of the one suited for each stage but throw a couple of the other spectrum in just so it helps with both spectrums,

but i got to admit you got a pretty big plant considering your using cfls and fl, cfls are best suited for scrogs or lst type grows as you can keen an even canopy and this helps get the most light to the buds, but if you use side lighting then its possible to grow big plants which is the method i used at first when i first started growing, so your doing a good job with your plant as it looks great,

i had a quick flick through your journal but not read it all yet, are you using any nutrients yet?

as for the strain its impossible to tell, if you know the seed is from that bud then you can safely say its that strain, but if your not sure then the only real thing you can tell is if its indica or sativa, now by looking at that plant id say its a mixture but its certainly more indica that sativa, sativa is more a daytime smoke such as jack flash and bay 11, indica strains are more skunk and cheese type strains, so to me id have to say your plant looks 60 to 80% indica but the upwards growth suggests their is some sativa in it as the leaves dont look like a 100% indical plant.

but well done on growing a plant like that, looks great so your doing a really good job, any problems we are here to help, sorry i cant be more help with the strain but their are thousands to choose from, possibly 10s of thousands to choose from, so knowing the strain is pretty impossible without some background info on where it came from,

i take it you have not taken clones form this plant, what i would do is if the buds end up looking really nice and its been a really good plant to grow then when you harvest it leave just a few of the buds on the lowest branches, you wont be getting much bud off the bottom 2 sets of branches, you might on the edges of the branches but at the bottom and inside the plant you wont be getting much bud so what i would do is harvest the plant and leave the bottom 2 sets of branche on so you have like 4 branches on the plant, cut the end buds off so you have 4 short branches at the bottom of the plant after harvest, then if its a nice plant and you want to grow it again then if you leave them branches and leaves on you can then put the plant back under a veg schedule and it will go back into veg around 2 to 3 weeks after you change back to a veg light schedule,

you end up with a monster cropped plant which means 20 to 40% increase in yield next time round, so as long as your leave some growth at the bottom, i usually leave the bottom 4 branches on the plant and leave the fan leaves on as well on them branches, i harvest the plant and the buds at the ends of the bottom branches but then i leave around 3 or 4 nodes on the bottom branches so the plant has got somewhere to grow from, then put it back under veg schedule then it will go back into veg in 2 or 3 weeks, this then lets you grow it again and next time you could take clones from it or if you really wanted to get it in seed form then i can talk you through the process on how to produce your own fem seeds of that strain, as you dont have any male seeds or male plants the only option is to produce your own femenised seeds which means all the seeds will be female every time you grow them,
Click to expand...

Hi donpaul.p

Thanks for the warm welcome to 420 magazine and taking the time to comments on my efforts. I especially appreciate your suggestions.

As it turns out I'd been reading your first journal Using Cfl's, Cfl's Work - and it definitely shaped my thinking on using them. I may have ID's the strain - as my girl reminded me that we found a lone seed in an ounce of a hybrid - it consisted of sour diesel and something else can't remember at present.

Sorry I didn't create a journal for my first grow. I did a lot of research beforehand. I loaded up on tube fluorescent lighting and CFL's and kept them 2 - 4 inches from the plant at all times. Since reading your post I decided to add some LED's to the mix (using stainless steel doggie dishes as reflectors). Man, what a HUGE difference. I feel like Mr. Miaga moving lights every other day but hey it's a Labor of Love and I'm pleased with the results.

In term of nutes I'm using All Purpose Water Soluble Miracle Grow (1/4 of the recommended amount). I've fed her twice during vegging stage and once during flowering stage thus far. It seems to help a great deal.

I wanted to share another picture - this from Day 20 of Flowering:

Flower_Day_20.jpg


She's definitely coming along :-)
 
Hi Cannafan:

Yup - I've got two fans running 24/7 in my grow room. One is a Holmes Blizzard oscillating fan the other is a stationary Honeywell Vortex fan. There's no issue with air movement :-)
 
lest anyone doubt the power of CFL's - here a couple shots of my baby girl Skunk #1. She's just now entering Week 3 vegging state:

Skunk_1_-_Week_3_Closeup.jpg


I love daisy chaining the CFL lamps - eight lamps - one plug. The top light is an LED I picked up after reading donpaul.p recent post:

Skunk_1_-_Week_3.jpg
 
Things are looking great. Nice circle of life....er....lights. LOL Keep up the nice work!:cheesygrinsmiley:
 
cool,

things look great, nice flowering plant on the last page,

trust me cfls do work and work very well, i always start my plants under cfls, they give the tightest node spacing and the plants get uv from cfls as well so they do actually benefit from being under cfls, only downside is pentration is not good, hold your hand agains the bulb and when your 2 inches away the light drops off lots,

if i wasnt using so many watts i would of stayed with cfls, but i was over 400watts in cfls so made sense to switch, but i dont start seedlings under hps as they tend to stretch a lot more, a couple of weeks under cfl then they go under the hps to bulk out a bit.

i think a scrog set up would be perfect for cfls, a nice even canopy means you can get light to the whole plant, letting the plants grow tall means you need plenty of side lighting, i 10 x 30 watt cfls above the plants and the rest was 23 and 30 watts down the sides.
just remember 6400kelvin for veg and 2700 kelvin for flower but its best to have a mix of the 2 for both stages of growth.

the sides of the bulbs give off the most light but you would need to build your own reflectors as theirs no fittings that mount the bulb sideways.

but your plant looks great, seem to be growing very well, just go easy on the nutrients as mg can be very hot for these plants, their might be something on mg if you look in my sig below but it all depends if its the same mg product, but by the looks of it the plant seems to be doing fine and certainly isnt being over fed,
have some reps
 
looking good, looks like some very nice frosty bud, going to be very nice at harvest
 
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