Nivek's Need to Know Nature - First Grow Journal - 2015

Subbed Nivek. As a past bonsai enthusiast this one is interesting. Love the raisable light system. Brilliant adaptation. That's some sweet training you have going there as well.

Tulip has an amazing thread on CFLs that I'd recommend. It's what I've used as the basis for my own grow, which is clicking along with amazing ease.

https://https://www.420magazine.com/community/threads/cfl-light-tutorial.111680/

The basic plan is 100W per plant, and the 23W bulbs turn out to be the most efficient lumen output. Your shooting for at least 10,000 lumens over square foot. Do feel free to exceed that. I'm growing two autos and as of today I have surrounded these bushes with 390W total - ten 23W bulbs split between six 2700 lumens and four 5000 lumens with four 40W 2700 lumens used as canopy lights (2 over each plant). That means I'm flooding these beauties with 23,200 lumens. It's important with CFLs to always have a mix of spectrum. The only exception to this is with seedlings, which aren't a concern for you.

To get really dense buds with CFLs you should work out some way to get some serious side lighting as well.

I laughed right out loud when you mentioned the grandkid's parents not understanding. I share that frustration and need to practice stealth with a child who should know better.

It will be fun to watch you work through the challenges. I like your style.

:Namaste:


Edit: flat Ultra-white paint on that light panel will give you better reflective properties than the foil. Worth a thought. Love the grow space.
 
Canalchemist said:
Addictive isn't it, more fun that a barrel of monkeys. The final product is awesome but growing is half the fun, having your own is very satisfying. I recommend saving one of those supe lemon hazes for this spring outdoors. It will blow you away. Under the sun does not compare to under lights. And with all that root space you will have a stellar yield.
Click to expand...

chemist, funny you should mention that. not the monky part, tho that is funny too. the outdoor part. oh, and the addiction part, that too. I grew my first real plant ever to maturation, or close to, last summer in a garden of our house which we just newly bought last spring. to make a long story longer, that is where this addiction arose from. it was six feet tall and I had to hide it with ladders and a squash plant, it worked tho,and I plan to grow another outside this summer. with my newly aquired super cropping techniques and your suggestion of using a lemon haze for just such a purpose I think I can grow a beauty.

I am already excited, we just happen to live in possibly the most fertile location in all of Canada. seriously. some might argue, but they know nothing, because they have not grown a garden here. if they did they would know. I have four lemon haze seeds left and can clone, and timing might be just right for cloning my lemon baby three weeks into its flowering, great thot, thanks, cheers, niv
 
Good stuff, start a compost pile as well if you haven't already, really read up on composting for Cannabis specifically, there are things you can do for the compost to make it better for your lemon haze. Topping and Super cropping works great outside. Try to watch the sun now where it hits your property through out the day, imagine the sun higher in the sky casting shorter shadows. Where the sun hits for a minimum of five hours a day. This is the very least amount of light if you can help it. Keep it short and bushy, I have seen people hang fake flowers on there plants and people don't give a second look. Of course it's a bit different when they start to stink the place up.

Anyhow like Sue said what a wonderful use of the CFL lights, there is quite a following of people who use them exclusively and do very well, Sue seems like a great source for CFL info, and she is also very sweet as well.

Anywho, research some diy home products that double as nutrients, you name it, its been tried.
 
sheesh man, we might be the same person chemist. I almost mentioned in my last post about how well things grew around my compost, and, I did try some compost tea on my first indoor plant but got scared of bringing badies into my lab, so I stopped. but what great food for thot, thanks. another door opens eh? great stuff, cheers
 
sue, thanks so much for the very kind input. I have already started looking at the tutorial. although I know what lumens are and also how many lumens my cfls have, I have been thinking watts, not lumens. another door. so many..

the kids, yes, a whole other story, which I would love to chat about,, tomorrow. running out of powe
 
too cool chemist, thanks. you know, in 40 some years of smoking, I am not sure if I have ever had the real deal, the whole nine yards, and now days, I am convinced the growers do all they can to take every bit of goodness off of those/my buds before it ever gets to me. I do remember some Thai pot back in the seventies, maybe that was 8.5 yards

but even though I still have yet to get a plant right to the end, it is the smell that captivates me. I have one plant, my first indoor plant, poorly grown, but within a week, though it just keeps going and going, within a week of fully mature...maybe...and the smell is wild. I jst can't wait to get it dried into a jar and open that jar in the morning and stick my nose in there and inhale............ oh my...

think I had an accident,, oops.

cheers, nivek
 
sue, thanks so much again for joining me and assisting me in my new adventure. I will be a lmens guy in no tme, promise, though other priorities exist as well.

I have a messa lights in a very small space and I am starting to become concerned about safety. I would love to hear your take on that. things like loaded power bars, cords galore, hottish bulbs and possible less than code electrical connections. and other things I have yet to think of or be informed of.

I actually started another thread just yesterday about such things. can I link that thread to my journal I wonder?

the foil ceiling was maybe not such a good idea. I did my veg room white and I guess I just had to be different with the flower side. I have no doubt I will be modifying the panels tatally soon enough. they will be white.

gonna leave the kids thing alone for now. silly kids. always were. now with silly spouses they are double silly. maybe it's exponential and they get four or eight times sillier. as their parent, it's obviously my fault. cheers, nivek

edit,,one more thing, please, you said you use all 23 watt bulbs, yes? how do get such a variety of lumens from them? am I reading something wrong?
 
I've never paid attention to the lumens on the bulbs I buy. I just make sure their 23 watts and check the kelvin rating on them. Some will be 6500k, 5000k, 3000k, and 2700k
 
I can see your point peyton. to expand ones knowledge is always good, because it is thinking in a different language thinking lumens, so useful for that. however, other than that, I really can't see any other information included in thinking lumens over thinking watts,, if the formulas are both accurate, for lumens and watts, the outcome gives the same info. but what do I know, everything is for a reason, someones reason.

five weeks into flower, wow, gonna do me one, in four weeks, cheers, nivek
 
nivek said:
sue, thanks so much again for joining me and assisting me in my new adventure. I will be a lmens guy in no tme, promise, though other priorities exist as well.

I have a messa lights in a very small space and I am starting to become concerned about safety. I would love to hear your take on that. things like loaded power bars, cords galore, hottish bulbs and possible less than code electrical connections. and other things I have yet to think of or be informed of.

I actually started another thread just yesterday about such things. can I link that thread to my journal I wonder?

the foil ceiling was maybe not such a good idea. I did my veg room white and I guess I just had to be different with the flower side. I have no doubt I will be modifying the panels tatally soon enough. they will be white.

gonna leave the kids thing alone for now. silly kids. always were. now with silly spouses they are double silly. maybe it's exponential and they get four or eight times sillier. as their parent, it's obviously my fault. cheers, nivek

edit,,one more thing, please, you said you use all 23 watt bulbs, yes? how do get such a variety of lumens from them? am I reading something wrong?
Click to expand...

Let's try that again. As soon as I hit post without first copying I knew it was a mistake. :laughtwo:

Most of my lights are 23W, but I do have two 40W bulbs over the top colas of each plant during flowering. They give off 2600 lumens each. I use predominantly 23W bulbs because they are the most efficient, although I've found that the increased lumens over the canopy help to frost up the plants. I grow autos, so those 40W bulbs replaced the original 23W cooler bulbs in week six of my grow. On page 17, post #253 I shared the original lighting plan. It's been modified as I adapted to real world challenges.

Those 390 watts I have in my closet are less than the equivalent of four 100w lamps and give off less heat than incandescent bulbs would be giving off. So I think of it as having four lamps in there. Two small fans keep the heat under control, although it's not very hot at this point. Years ago my husband had a Tillandsia collection and we installed a breaker dedicated to the lights for that grow and for his work bench. This is the breaker I'm using for my grow lights and my husband (a trained electrician) assures me that even after we install the fan and scrubber we won't be overtaxing that breaker.

I have the lights, fan and timer spread over four different power strips and those that aren't directly plugged into the wall are plugged into heavy duty utility extension cords. I do my best to keep it all tucked out of the way, neat and clean and to keep water far away from electric. Using the SWICK watering system means I do very little drench watering (just for teas and such). It's a nice fluid system that works smoothly for me.

Yes, you can link that thread to your journal. Here's the link to instructions to do so, if you need it.

https://https://www.420magazine.com/community/threads/how-add-links-signatures.83917/

Hope this helped. If not, ask away.

:Namaste:
 
I have seen people growing with CFLS for as long as they have been on the planet, and the ones that do it right the results are down right impressive, granted not in the same running as a HID but still, if you get all other variables dialed in things can go very right indeed. The biggest thing I see with CFL growers is creativity, you can really stack lamps when you buy all those socket doublers and outlet plugs with sockets in them, add some power bars, and they pull very few amps. And they are very under the radar.
 
sue, sue per info, gotta say. you know, silly me, when I read 40watts I imediately thought lower power, incandescent maybe, goof. I get it now. I do have some mixing of colours going on, I will check into that as things progress.

might I ask, do you have any where in your electrical systems, anything home built or maybe mickey moused and would your trained electrician husband be OK with the fact that you did? anything home built and would it be to code. not judging you, I promise, just want some facts maam. there are insurance and liability issues and all kinds of good stuff, that, btw, I notice these issues do not get much airply in this site, though I have not looked at all hard.

I had to look up tillandsia

and I will look up, swick, I like the sound of it without even knowing what it is but if it makes watering less time consuming, I am in, tho I love the personal time with each of my green friends and I think its important to them as well.

thank you for the great reply, it helped, cheers, nivek
 
so, lucky me,, tonight I am picking and hanging my first ever indoor plant, and I took it near all the way through. that was so amber. it is there and I need the space, to renovate.

I also have two cats in the yard,, oh, oops,, they are in my studio with me actually,, but I do have two newly put to flower clones of unknown lineage and two teenage clones doing ever so nicely and even one baby clone three and a half weeks old and doing well as well.

and that should be enough to make anyone happy, but there is even more,,,,three, count em, three newly sprouted sprouts from all over the world, afghani, lemon hazeland and delahazeland too. all happy as can be. photos soon, camera recharging, but I too excited to wait.

smokin the hopium that all is well with y'all too, cheers nivek
 
nivek said:
sue, sue per info, gotta say. you know, silly me, when I read 40watts I imediately thought lower power, incandescent maybe, goof. I get it now. I do have some mixing of colours going on, I will check into that as things progress.

might I ask, do you have any where in your electrical systems, anything home built or maybe mickey moused and would your trained electrician husband be OK with the fact that you did? anything home built and would it be to code. not judging you, I promise, just want some facts maam. there are insurance and liability issues and all kinds of good stuff, that, btw, I notice these issues do not get much airply in this site, though I have not looked at all hard.

I had to look up tillandsia

and I will look up, swick, I like the sound of it without even knowing what it is but if it makes watering less time consuming, I am in, tho I love the personal time with each of my green friends and I think its important to them as well.

thank you for the great reply, it helped, cheers, nivek
Click to expand...

Nivek, the cords the lights are hanging from are homemade by my husband, so they're jury rigged. None of it has been inspected and I'm pretty sure having that many lamps hanging in a closet would be concerning to an inspector, should that unlikely scenario play out. However, my husband is the one who wired in the circuit that serves this grow and he did so with the landlord's blessing and financing and the landlord was in no rush to call in an electrical inspector when that job was done four years ago. I've been careful to keep bulbs away from each other, the plants and any walls to keep safety first. All said though, should there be a fire in this building I suppose it wouldn't be pretty if they came in and found the grow. It's a risk I'm willing to take. I've done my best to limit the dangers because we live here and I want us to stay alive.

The best source for the SWICK can be found by googling "Noobwannb's Self Wicking Smartpot ghetto setup". The information she shares in the first page is priceless. Yeah, it was hard to let go of that control and time with the plants, but they have appreciated it so much it was worth it. I still spend time just sitting and watching them grow. You have to give them love time. They grow better when they feel the love.
 
the plant I am harvesting is the first clone I ever did, of the plant I grew outside last summer. I did everything wrong with growing this plant, first indoor plant, classic over fert, s cropped three weeks into flower, next to no lighting, what else, I was mean to it. but it flowered and is now, I would say two percent amber, close enough for me. oh, and I picked over half of it a month ago thinking it was done. wastage and marijuana abuse.

and I be piken er now, cheers

the plant I gre outdoors did not mature to the stage of the one I am picking, henceforth, the smell of this being picked one is brand new, and,,perty nice indeed, cheers
 

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