HighGrades Wardrobe Multi Strain Grow - CFLs

[HighGrade159]

I just found out the reflector which arrived only takes E40 and the 125W CFL I wanted is E27... That means I have to get a 200W again and my temps will be slightly higher than they need to be. Well it's ordered anyway, hopefully should be here by Monday.

Logic tells me I need to work on my air movage...

 

[Goshawk]

Hello HighGrade159 how is your plant doing? I hope it is much better. It does look like a combination of heat stress and nutrient burn. If you haven't already done it you may want to flush her and just give her water with no nutrients for awhile. After that I would switch to a fertilizer that is low in nitrogen and higher in Phosphorus. Iguana Juice Bloom is a good one and then just plain water the last two weeks...........

 

[Electricthom]

Hey now HighGrade159, looking good so far. I to want to try autos for speed til I get set up enough. From what I understand though they do veg for the first 2-3 weeks then flower like crazy so I think some 6500K CFL in the beginning may give a bit more growth in the first weeks.

 

[HighGrade159]

Hello HighGrade159 how is your plant doing? I hope it is much better. It does look like a combination of heat stress and nutrient burn. If you haven't already done it you may want to flush her and just give her water with no nutrients for awhile. After that I would switch to a fertilizer that is low in nitrogen and higher in Phosphorus. Iguana Juice Bloom is a good one and then just plain water the last two weeks...........

She's looking slightly worse for wear right now and besides from the heat burns there is definetly a nute problem. The lights have been raised now and since the blowage of my 200W CFL the temps are perfect in the grow box. I've started flushing her since the last watering, how long does the flush take?

Also thanks for product advice! I've been quite puzzled whilst looking at different nutrient products but I've taken your advice and ordered Iguana Juice Bloom. I should have planned my grow better a bit better in regards to nutrients. I'll have it perfect for my next grow though!

Hey now HighGrade159, looking good so far. I to want to try autos for speed til I get set up enough. From what I understand though they do veg for the first 2-3 weeks then flower like crazy so I think some 6500K CFL in the beginning may give a bit more growth in the first weeks.

I think autos are great for beginners and if your setup isn't quite up to par because of their versatility. Yeah I desperately need a blue spec CFL as my vegatating ladies havent grown at all really since the Dual spectrum CFL blew. Well I have another dual spectrum in the post but hopefully in time for my next grow I will have at least a 300w LED.

Pics will come up once I switch my lights off in about 15 mins.

 

[SmokzAlot]

I see a great effort by all to help you, and of course your part being the most important with hands on. Keep learning and growing, it's all good from here across the pond.



HAIL

 

[HighGrade159]

The help has been great! Reading various journals gives a lot of insight also.

Bubblelicious Day 30

Damaged areas of leaves seem to be slowly regenerating

Little Cheese Day 30

60 Day Wonder Day 32

Pakistan Ryder Day 3

Group Photo!

 

[HighGrade159]

Hey fellas a quick update,

My supplier contacted me saying that the e40 125w 6500k CFL was back in stock so I've got that coming on Monday/Tuesday. I have absolutely no 6500k lighting right now for my plants but they still seem to be growing in height! My Bubblelicious grew almost two inches over night which I was supprised as I didn't expect it to gain anymore height during the flowering stage - clearly my first grow

I'll put some pictures up tomorrow morning for you guys. The Bubblelicious's main cola is really starting to thicken out now and a really zesty aroma is starting to seep through which is awesome. I can't wait for the other girls to start flowering!

Im glad I chose the right forum to sign up to, awesome community here!

 

[HighGrade159]

Sunday update! Seems like all the ladies have started flowering now, the lack of decent vegetative lighting seems to have really stunted their growth but they are pulling through. The Buublelicious's health problems continue, seems like one or two more leaves are now starting to discolour. I halted the flush once I realised the plants would die with no nutrients once its complete. I finish I flush when my Iguana Bloom arrives. Her buds seem to be ripening however and she's making steady progress albeit looking pretty messed up. I'm a bit concerned about how leafy she is getting and its effect on the buds lower down on the plant as they seem tiny compared to the upper ones receiving good light. Is it safe to remove or tie down certain leaves to help the lower buds?

Here's some photos for today

Bubblelicious Auto Day 32

Little Cheese Automatic Day 32

60 Day Wonder Day 34

The Pakistan Ryder is coming along nicely also. I should have quite a few goodies in the post tomorrow ie. 125W CFL and Iguana Bloom - I'm very excited!

 

[HighGrade159]

Another update - not much has happened since my last update. The 60 Day Wonder has started flowering and about 5 inches it's certainly not going to be a big yielder lol. CFL hasn't arrived, Iguana Bloom hasn't arrived so not much has changed.

Some photos

Bubblelicious Auto Day 33

60 Day Wonder Day 35

Little Cheese Automatic Day 35

This plant seems to have developed two tops and one protruding side branch, a bit strange no?

Until next time

 

[HighGrade159]

18th of April Update

My 125W Blue CFL which is replacing my 200W dual spec CFL arrived yesterday which I've hooked up to my reflector. It's amazing how much of a difference a reflector can make. I can visibly tell that more light is reaching the plants and not just lighting up the grow box walls! The girls are getting taller also so its all good!

The plants are still no way as big as I expected them to be but I've put this down to the followng:

a) Poor medium, I'm using 50% decent soil with added JI and 50% budget potting soil. For two of the girls I had to use 100% budget soil... There's probably poor aeration amongst other things.

b) The CFL were too low during the vegetative stage which I'm pretty sure hampered it's vertical growth. Also I focused too much on 2700k lighting and not enough on 6400k lighting. I had a 200W dual spectrum which provided 100W of 6400k for 3 plants which is 33W each and 8x30W +100W from the dual spec of 2700k. The dual spectrum CFL also had no reflector at that time which didn't help in the slightest.

c) Wrong choice of nutrients for the stage that the plants were under. Sounds quite stupid really - because it is They needed to be flushed weeks ago and when my Iguana Bloom arrives I will do just that.

d) Other miscellaneous errors such as small pot sizes or not packing my soil tight enough. My soil level seems to have dropped by about an inch on my Bubblelicious and 60 Day Wonder.

I shall rectify these mistakes next grow for sure and I'm sure I'll get better results. Hopefully I'll have a 300W LED in time for the next grow, in fact I will make sure I do. My yields wont be great this time round but I'll just enjoy whatever I yield, hopefully it will be some dope smoke!

I'll post some pics tomorrow, but untill then

 

[HighGrade159]

Another update - Things are going nicely since the last update 10 days ago. I flushed/leeched all plants and then topped them up with some organic base fertiliser. The leech seemed to do wonders for my Little Cheese which has almost doubled in size since 10 days ago so thanks Goshawk for the tip! The Bubblelicious has continued to show nutrient problems with its leaves after the flush, albeit the progress seems to have slowed and the buds are starting the thicken out nicely! I dont think there is much I can do to save it, I'll feed water for the last two weeks in order to flush.

Some picture, excuse the bad focus at times my hands aren't as steady as they were once...

Bubblelicious - Day 42

60 Day Wonder - Day 45 featuring Marley the cat!

Little Cheese - Day 42 (Right at the back)

I think I'll chop the Bubblelicious and 60 Day Wonder at around 60 days. The 60 Day wonder is comically small with just a single small cola hah, it won't yield anything worthy of two months electricity but I'm hoping the others will!

 

[HighGrade159]

I need some help guys! I checked my grow this morning to find my Bubblelicious Auto not looking too well. Her upper leaves are turning yellow and she's pretty much shrivelling up. I had previously flushed her and it seemed to help initially but she's gone down hill pretty quick since. I've read that leaves can start going yellow when they're finishing flowering but this girl is only 46 days old!

She is getting frosty but I can tell she can get a hell of a lot more trichomes as she still has a fair few days to go. SeedFinder.eu says:

"Flowering: Automatic flowering
~63 days (From seedling to harvest.)
Only female seeds."

Any ideas on what I should do? Any help would be much appreciated!
HG

 

[seagem]

Just reading on your post. There is a thread somewhere in this amazing maze of information that tells what the cfl ranges are If I can find it I'll send it to you. One more thing you might want to consider is the vapor's from painting. Some here have said it's not good and cause the bad room effect. I'll see if I can find that as well.

Living in UK Im not sure if you have a place to purchase portable clothe closet? In my Berry Bomb grow (see signature) in process I got way to ahead of myself and germed 10 seed's. 2 did not pop thank god, I hung cfl's from the rack and used a 4" portable fan pointing right on the plants until 2 1/2 weeks ago when they outgrew the closet. It can conceal the plants very well. The inside is white but breathable which helps in turn for fresh air circulation. In order to black it out I just draped a black blanket over the unit. Worked very well.

Anyways, Glad to see new 420 members.

Happy growing.

The length will be 2.3ft and the width of 1.8ft, that should give an area of 4.14sq/ft if my calculations are correct. I take it that translates into a minimum of 207W for the box?
It's not the biggest of spaces but it will have a height of 5.1ft, I am actually wondering if I even have space for 4 autoflowers with those specs?

And yeah with Jeff I planted the seed way too shallow with the taproot pointing semi-upwards, kind of on side. I noticed its odd position but I thought I'd avoid moving it too much and let nature take care of it.

Hopefully within the next week I'll have this MDF box finished. I take it that painting the insides white is good idea?

Thanks for all the advice guys, I'd still be looking perplexed at shriveled up Jeff wondering what I did wrong if I hadn't signed up to 420 Magazine this morning!

 

[seagem]

hey seen you posted for help. On the sites top link's go to Grow Room, How to Grow Marijuana, click then scroll down until you come to Nutrient Deficiencies & Sick Plant Symptoms. There are several step's to take you through so read them all. If you cant figure out from that then submit another thread for help.

Hope this helped. I dont know anything about the flower process yet. Im still in veg.

 

[seagem]

Here is some info on lighting and spectrum's and a nice set up for lights. You can adjust to your size of space.

Watts have nothing to do with light or growth. Watts measure how much power a light fixture uses to produce light. You can tell how efficient a light bulb is by looking at watts. A 23 watt CFL produces as much light as a 100 watt incandescent...even though the incandescent has more watts, it's useless. See what I mean?

What you care about is light...more specifically, light energy. That's what plants use during photosynthesis/growth. Light is measured in lumens. In my experience and reading, lumen amounts per sq. ft./sq. m. look like this


2000 lumens sq. ft./21500 lumens sq. m. = Absolute minimum for growth. You won't get much from this, especially after the plant has grown a bit. Not really enough to flower well.


3000 lumens sq. ft./32250 lumens sq. m. = Pretty Good growth. Enough light for the entire light cycle, although your yields may be lower.
4000 lumens sq. ft./43000 lumens sq. m. = Very good growth. Once you pass around 3500, growth rate and ability goes up fast.


Over 5000 lumens sq. ft./53750 lumens sq. m. = Optimal growth. Dense growth in all stages.


Keep in mind that using reflectors, using mylar or having flat white walls, and keeping your lights close to your plants keep you fromwasting lumens. It's not just about having light, it's about getting the light to your plants. IMO, people ofter overbuy lights. This creates more light, but the light isn't always hitting the plants. And that creates more heat and ventilation issues, which causes stress problems.


That's why it's still impossible to tell anything about growth or yield based on just lumens. A guy that has an HPS that is too far away from plants that have no walls near them and no ventilation may get poorer results than a grower with CFLs that uses reflectors and has a couple of lights under the canopy in a well-ventilated spot.


HPS lights are often said to generate more heat than CFLs. That's not really true...it's just that they are more efficient at producing light, and there's a smaller surface area on the bulb itself for the resulting heat to dissipate. That means more ventilation. But the higher amount of lumens per watt means you use less power and get greater light penetration through your canopy. Still, I'm a believer that well used CFL's can give you great grows with less ventilation and heat issues. If you're in a small to very small area (less than 4 sq. ft./.25 sq. m.), I'd consider the advantages of CFLs in that way.


But HPS is more efficient. A typical 250 watt HPS bulb/unit will produce about 27,000 lumens. I've seen people use a 250w in a 3' x 3' room and get good results. That's 9 sq. ft. which = 3000 lumens a sq. ft. (Really, a 250w HPS is better in a smaller area.) to give you an idea of the difference in efficiency of CFL vs. HPS, think of this.


23w CFL = 1600 lumens = 69.6 lumens/watt
30w CFL = 2000 lumens = 66.7 lumens/watt
40w CFL = 2600 lumens = 66.3 lumens/watt


compared to


150w HPS = 14000 lumens = 93.3 lumens/watt
250w HPS = 28000 lumens = 112 lumens/watt
400w HPS = 50000 lumens = 125 lumens/watt
600w HPS = 90000 lumens = 150 lumens/watt


So you can see that HPS is more efficient than CFL...and as you get into bigger HPS bulbs, it becomes a lot more efficient. There's also fewer hassles with multiple cords and saved money on your energy bill. If you've got a big area and/or you can deal with the heat and ventilation, HPS is the way to go in flowering. Still, I'm a believer in small HPS lights and combo HPS/CFL grows...if you've got a 2' x 2' room, you can use a 150w HPS and 4 23w CFLs from Wal-Mart and get a terrific grow with very few heat issues.

 

[HighGrade159]

Hey seagem, thanks for the info. I actually abandoned this grow just a week ago and harvested my Bubblicious Auto which was on the verge of death anyway and got some okay smoke from it. I've decided to move away from a cupboard/wardrobe setup and buy a grow tent which will go in my loft which is a lot more discreet and manageable. I'll also have more space which is awesome and a proper ventilation system. I've also made the switch from CFL to LED and the difference in heat signatures is incredible to say the least.

That coupled with the UK climate being so cold (the nights are freezing!) I'll be hoping to get some good purpling from the Berry Bomb I've just started germinating, and the other coloured strains I'm germinating.

I've decided to use Sannies Bio Range of nutes for this grow, the buffer tabs do all the work in maintaining a correct pH and feeding the plants till week 3-4 flowering . I'm hoping this organic method will prevent the return of ill and diseased plants in my grow room.

If anyone wants to check my new journal here's the link!

Mods please feel free to move this to the abandoned section.

Peace!