First CFL Grow - Northern Lights x Purple Kush - Interested?

[Easeedoesit]

Strain: Northern Lights x Purple Kush
Characteristics: Indica
Number of Plants: 1
Plant Stage: Vegetative (15 days since germination)
Type of Grow: Indoor
Medium: Soil (Miracle Grow Potting Mix)
Pot Size: 12" round, 14" deep
Lights: 2 CFL bulbs right now (52w, 3220l, 13,000k)(total light). Will be adding 3 (26w, 1750l, 2700k) CFL's
Lighting Cycle: 17/7
Is it Air Cooled: Intake and exhaust fans, plus an osculating fan
Temperature: Steady at 80 working on getting and keeping it around 75
Any Pests: No Pest
How Often are you Watering: So far every 3 days
Type and Strength of Fertilizers used: not using any yet
Size or Square Footage of Room: 2x2x3 (feet) (LxWxH) height doesn't include room for lights

Now that we have all of that out of the way, let me say howdy. I'm new to the whole growing thing. I have been doing alot of research the past 6 months and decided to give growing a try. So far i think i'm doing pretty good. I do have a concern about how my plant is growing tho. It's growing out instead of up. It got about 4" short, and stopped growing vertical. But is growing out. Not worried, because the plant is green and overall healthy (in my eyes), just curious. Any input and suggestions are greatly appreciated. I will post pics as I take them. TIA

In these photos, my plant is 14 and 15 days young

 

[GreeenFingers]

I'm Subbed

Nice job I'm doing something similar myself.

 

[Easeedoesit]

Any suggestions on nutrients? Going to be starting by the end of this week.

 

[TaylorMade420]

subbed

 

[Easeedoesit]

My seed germinated on May 31st. That night i planted it into a Dasani water bottle. The next day this is was i saw.

This is day 2 and 3. I happy for the rapid change. Kept checking on it every 5 to 10 mins it seemed like.

Day 4. Had to re-pot my seedling. the roots were so tangled up in that Dasani bottle.

These are photos from day 5 thru 10.

I will post pics for days 11 -13, and also days 16 and 17 (14 and 15 already posted). Thanks for checking my grow out. Any questions, suggestions, and comments are welcomed. TIA

 

[donpaul.p]

subd, great start to a journal with plenty of pics, as for nutrients, the only 1 brand i can recomend is bpn or blue planet nutrients, if your in the USA then you cant go wrong with bpn products, many growers on here use bpn and it gives amazing results every time, its been designed for growing cannabis the owner has made his product and updated and written a feeding schedule using his products, you can feed the plant as soon as you see the first set of new leaves growing, so thats how soon you can use bpn, if you was looking at getting bpn then id go with the 3 part plus bloom booster, when i used bpn for the first time i was so shocked how quick my plants changed from growing slow to growing really quick, im in the UK so had no chance of getting bpn, but some kind person on this site offered to pay for my bpn and delivery, so i was so shocked when it turned up, i have used it ever since and am saving up for the next time i need it, i have enough for another 2 or 3 grows so it goes a long way, plus its cheaper than other brands and works amazing, it really is what plants need

 

[Easeedoesit]

So I heard and read that having different spectrums of light is good for your plant. Kinda makes sense being the sun isn't just one spectrum. With that being said, I added another cfl bulb (26w, 1750l, 2700k). Any suggestions or comments on doing this? My only concern is heat. 2 bulbs put out a fair amount of heat for my small setup (even with the intake and exhaust computer fans I have). 3 sounds like a challenge.

 

[donpaul.p]

with cfls their is some sort of ratio that people follow, the 6500 kelvin bulbs are for the veg cycle and the 2700kelvin bulbs are for flower cycle, how ever it is best to mix these up, the 6500 or 6400kelvin depending where you live are for veg and keep the plants very small with tight nodes, i found it kept the plants really small when used on their own, i could not get my plants to grow taller they kept bushing out, so i found mixing them up with a ration of 3/1 is the best method, so for veg you would have for example, 3 x 23 watt 6500kelvin or daylight cfls to 1 x 23watt 2700kelvin soft white light, so working on 3 to 1 basis, how ever a 50/50 mix will work as well, so i think as long as you have more 6500 k for veg then you should be ok, but for flower i would use mainly the 2700k cfls as they will produce less leaf growth and will give you firmer buds, but i would still have 1 or 2 depending on how many 2700k or what watt you are using with the 2700k cfls,

 

[Easeedoesit]

with cfls their is some sort of ratio that people follow, the 6500 kelvin bulbs are for the veg cycle and the 2700kelvin bulbs are for flower cycle, how ever it is best to mix these up, the 6500 or 6400kelvin depending where you live are for veg and keep the plants very small with tight nodes, i found it kept the plants really small when used on their own, i could not get my plants to grow taller they kept bushing out, so i found mixing them up with a ration of 3/1 is the best method, so for veg you would have for example, 3 x 23 watt 6500kelvin or daylight cfls to 1 x 23watt 2700kelvin soft white light, so working on 3 to 1 basis, how ever a 50/50 mix will work as well, so i think as long as you have more 6500 k for veg then you should be ok, but for flower i would use mainly the 2700k cfls as they will produce less leaf growth and will give you firmer buds, but i would still have 1 or 2 depending on how many 2700k or what watt you are using with the 2700k cfls,

Your reply sounded like what I have read and what I was told. Thank you for sharing that with me. Very helpful.

 

[GreeenFingers]

Usually the balanced ratio is; (based on 3's)

Veg: 2 blue for every 1 red

Flower: 2 red for every 1 blue

Mixed spectrum is supposed to be much better for the plant as it does not only need red light to function properly.

While the red spectrum packs on more mass the addition of blue light through flower is reported to increase the Quantity of the resin and the Quality of the THC produced. The addition of UVB is also noted to greatly increase THC quality as the theory is that the plant produces more resin to act as a sunscrean to protect itself from the UVB rays as the trichomes refract the light. They are the same rays from the sun that give you sunburn ha ha.

Hope this was somewhat helpful Easeedoesit

 

[Easeedoesit]

with cfls their is some sort of ratio that people follow, the 6500 kelvin bulbs are for the veg cycle and the 2700kelvin bulbs are for flower cycle, how ever it is best to mix these up, the 6500 or 6400kelvin depending where you live are for veg and keep the plants very small with tight nodes, i found it kept the plants really small when used on their own, i could not get my plants to grow taller they kept bushing out, so i found mixing them up with a ration of 3/1 is the best method, so for veg you would have for example, 3 x 23 watt 6500kelvin or daylight cfls to 1 x 23watt 2700kelvin soft white light, so working on 3 to 1 basis, how ever a 50/50 mix will work as well, so i think as long as you have more 6500 k for veg then you should be ok, but for flower i would use mainly the 2700k cfls as they will produce less leaf growth and will give you firmer buds, but i would still have 1 or 2 depending on how many 2700k or what watt you are using with the 2700k cfls,

Just peeked in on my little one before lights outs, and since i added that 2700k bulb (a few hours ago), i finally noticed some upward grow. I will take and post pics tomorrow. Thank you for the VERY helpful advice.

 

[Easeedoesit]

Usually the balanced ratio is; (based on 3's)

Veg: 2 blue for every 1 red

Flower: 2 red for every 1 blue

Mixed spectrum is supposed to be much better for the plant as it does not only need red light to function properly.

While the red spectrum packs on more mass the addition of blue light through flower is reported to increase the Quantity of the resin and the Quality of the THC produced. The addition of UVB is also noted to greatly increase THC quality as the theory is that the plant produces more resin to act as a sunscrean to protect itself from the UVB rays as the trichomes refract the light. They are the same rays from the sun that give you sunburn ha ha.

Hope this was somewhat helpful Easeedoesit

Very helpful. Thank you for breaking the ratio down too. And for explaining the whole plant protecting itself from sunburn. This is the kind of knowledge i was hoping to seek. How and why a plant do what it does. I appreciate the info.

 

[Easeedoesit]

My new under-growth is coming in, but it's not getting too much light due to the bigger leaves. Any ideals how to solve this issue without adding more bulbs? TIA

This shows the new under-grow i'm talking about.

Top view of plant on day 17. Trying to show how the new under-grow isn't getting any light.

 

[GreeenFingers]

Try Low Stress training your plant, tie it down slightly sideways and it will expose all the branching sites that the light isn't reaching

 

[Easeedoesit]

Try Low Stress training your plant, tie it down slightly sideways and it will expose all the branching sites that the light isn't reaching

I appreciate the response. I read up on lst. Being that my plant will be going thru a stressful situation, what are your thoughts on adding nutes? Should I start when my plant recovers? Can I start nutes while training? TIA

 

[GreeenFingers]

Why, what is the stressful situation that the plant will be going through ?

I'd recommend only using a fraction of the nutrients recommended, I'm using BioBizz Fish Mix at the moment, the recommended dose is 5ml per litre so I'm only using 1ml per litre just to see how they get on. Next week I will think about increasing the dose to 2ml per litre if they seem to be reacting well

Start off at a very mild solution and build your way up from there and you should have no problems at all.

If you have any more questions ill be happy to lend my 2 cents

 

[Easeedoesit]

Why, what is the stressful situation that the plant will be going through ?

I'd recommend only using a fraction of the nutrients recommended, I'm using BioBizz Fish Mix at the moment, the recommended dose is 5ml per litre so I'm only using 1ml per litre just to see how they get on. Next week I will think about increasing the dose to 2ml per litre if they seem to be reacting well

Start off at a very mild solution and build your way up from there and you should have no problems at all.

If you have any more questions ill be happy to lend my 2 cents

What I meant by stress is bending and pinning parts of the plant so other parts could get light. Guess I was too focused on the stress part of lst. Lol and your two cents is more like 5 to me. Keep the info coming.

 

[Easeedoesit]

So I started lst today. Here are a couple of pics. Comments, and suggestions are welcomed. TIA

 

[donpaul.p]

nice lst, you will notice very quick how the node growth starts growing, as soon as the top of the plant is lower than the nodes it seems to send all the growth to the nodes, so very soon you will have loads of shoots growing and these will then become the top of the plant until you want to untie the lst, what i also did was lst the side branches as well and got them to grow towards the edge of the pot, that gave me an even canopy all over,

 

[Easeedoesit]

nice lst, you will notice very quick how the node growth starts growing, as soon as the top of the plant is lower than the nodes it seems to send all the growth to the nodes, so very soon you will have loads of shoots growing and these will then become the top of the plant until you want to untie the lst, what i also did was lst the side branches as well and got them to grow towards the edge of the pot, that gave me an even canopy all over,

Thank you for the compliment. Yeah, i didn't know what to do with my fan leaves when i did this. I read that people just cut them off. Well i don't believe in butchering plants until harvest time. So i decided to tie them all down (as you can see in the following pics). Should i have tied them down separately, or is this ok? TIA.