Grow Questions

[newGrow]

Hey guys..im new to this forum but I wanted to say this looks like a great site and community..alot of great threads about growing techniques. Everybody seems eager to help out and share there knowledge.
Iv yet to try growing and wont be able to until either summer or august..depends on certain situations. But until then im just researching and trying to plan out how im gonna do this. So im hoping maybe you guys could answer a one or two questions.

1) I cant decide between the strain I want to go. Iv narrowed it down to northern lights or white widow. I dont want it to be to smelly, ie stealth closet grow. So small space just for 1-2 plants. And again im a first time grower..I already kno northern lights fits all that..but I just really want white widow because to be frank the pictures iv seen of it look amazing and its supposed to be more potent. I dont want to waste time growing weak bud.

2) Im going for CFL light set up. How many bulbs do you think i would need. And do i really need two sets. 1 set for veg and 1 for flower?

3) How long does an indoor grow normally take from germ to harvest? I understand that you can control the time it takes to a certain extent. Im hoping to get atleast an ounce from 1 plant.

[xave420]

it can take 3 months if u want it to. you can veg it for a month and then turn the lights to 12/12 and flower it for 2 months. but the longer you vegetate it with 24/0 with light it will get to size u want then u can decide when u want it to start budding.

as for your cfls you want 6500k for the beginning because it gives out the blue spectrum that the plant needs in its early growth then you want to change the color temperature and buy 2700k or lower lights for the red spectrum which helps budding /flowering phase

you want atleast 6000 lumens for one plant for it to produce a nice head stash u may get more than an ounce depending how long you vegetate it for.





good luck

[SweetJane]

Hey NewGrow

I am growing with six 43 watt CFLs. I did get the blue spectrum bulbs for the veg cycle and the red spectrum bulbs for flower. I figured since I was using CFLs I should give them every opportunity in their life. I keep my lights within three inches of the plants, lowered the lights from about a foot away as soon as they were mature enough to handle it. I grew from seed, took clones, thank god they are thriving because starting from seed is a bitch. I killed more seedling than I care to admit, glad it was only bag seed, but it still bugged me that they died. Ultimately I ended up with two males, and three girls. I consider myself very lucky. I hope I don't have to start from seed again any time soon. At least until I can afford to order some 'real' seeds. Starting from seed is a major PITA, in my opinion.

I don't think I am going to get an ounce from any of my plants, but I could be pleasantly surprised. They are 4 weeks into flower, I would be happy with 1/2 ounce from each.

You should check out this kid on youtube, search for SSLICKK1. He gets some mouth watering results only using CFLs, his videos are really fun to watch. He grows all designer strains. Warning-- you will get jealous lol

Hope this helps, ask me anything. I'm a noobe as well but I'd like to think I did my homework. Now is the time to put theory into practice as they say Good luck on your grow, you will love it once every clicks.

[Bdogg]

1. Both good strains. Whit Widow can get pretty smelly though. So I'd go with Northern Lights if that is a big consideration.

2. What kind of CFLs? I mean, flowering with flourescent lighting will never produce huge yields. Your are going to want more of a blue spectrum for veg and a red spectrum for bloom.

3. Your flowering period is gonna be around 7-9 weeks depending on the strain. Before you flip to flower your veg period can be as long or as short as you need to to be within reason. Just remember that once you flip to flower your plants will continue to stretch so plan accordingly according to the amount of space you have.

[BigIrishDoode]

with cfl you should probably go with northern lights, or maybe a nice autoflower strain like Himalaya blue diesel,red dwarf,cream caramel auto, are nice and quite powerful, the reason i say autos is they tend to be shorter, you cant really screw up the light cycles,
they flower based on age, not photo period, for a first grow, it would save some stress and $ you wont have to have a timer necessarily ,and some go from seed to harvest in as little as 7 weeks,and cfl's work well with small plants, or a nice indica dominate strain would serve well, with low stress training, topping etc to control height , you need to keep cfls within a few inches of your plants,, heres some links to help you learn all you need to get going and beyond
how-grow-marijuana
forum-posting-guidelines.
welcome to

[newGrow]

okay thanks alot guys..so now i know il deff be needing to sets of lights. So about the northern light smelling. I mean its just gonna be 1 plant and i was gonna put this in my closet to help with the smell.

Buy Bad Air Sponge All Purpose Odor Neutralant & More | drugstore.com

SO how bad would it be ..i can handle my room smelling a bit..but I cant have people in the whole building smelling it you kno?

and il look into the auto flowering...but idk something about that doesnt seem natural to me..i think i would rather go with a regular strain thanks for the info though.

XAVE you say to veg with 24/0 ? i thought it was something like 20/4

I wish i didnt have to do CFLs..it would be nice to get decent lights so i could have some amazing yields..but I dont want to be spending more then 200 for this thing.

[newGrow]

@SweetJane:

thanks for the info about slick..cant wait to watch those videos later when i smoke hhaha. So is starting from seed really bad? i didnt think that would be the hard part haha. Is it just hard to germinate..or do seedlings have a bad time surviving?..and do you have a grow journal or pics up i would love to see how your girls look :D

[BigIrishDoode]

theres nothing un natural about autoflowering many,many plant species do that and the way it happens with cannabis it the common strains are crossed with a less common species of CANNABIS called cannabis ruderallis, , in fast there are five species i know of,indica,sativa,afganica,hemp and ruderallis,
the reason it seems odd is the rudys are typically called ditch weed,and are low in thc, therefore ppl have avoided them, but with advancement in breeding technique in recent years, some very potent and delicious strains are available, in fact im growing one thats a high times winter cup winner 1st place indica "cream caramel automatic" at first i felt the same way about the autos, but i did some research, and my opinion changed, i think they are quite handy and deserve a place at the table of modern cultivar , i sure wish i had some back when i had only cfl and a 2x2 space to grow in, rather than the stretchy sativas i fought with trying to keep small and very long flowering times 15 weeks will try anyone's patience! so even if you decide on a lanky white widow, or a sometimes long flowering northern lights strain, its surly up to you,i wish you luck and fun in growing! and please dont think theres anything un natural about the tough,disease/pest resistant often misunderstood autos, those little guy will most likely surprise you!!

[newGrow]

alright thanks bigirishdude you convinced me to look into it haha.. and btw hope u partied hard for st patties day! i know i did haha.

[newGrow]

^^also still hopin to get my questions about smell answered :D

[SweetJane]

@SweetJane:

thanks for the info about slick..cant wait to watch those videos later when i smoke hhaha. So is starting from seed really bad? i didnt think that would be the hard part haha. Is it just hard to germinate..or do seedlings have a bad time surviving?..and do you have a grow journal or pics up i would love to see how your girls look :D

Starting from seed was bad for me, your mileage may vary. (hopefully!)

I just grew from seed I have saved over the years from seedy weed. I also didn't know how to store my seeds properly until I started reading up on growing, so that may have been an issue for me. The seeds I used are probably not as vigorous as seedbank seeds. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!

I built my own carbon scrubber from a Panasonic Whisper bathroom fan. I found the instructions on how make one online. The model I bought is Panasonic FV-08VQ5 Whisper 80 CFM Ceiling Mounted Fan, cost me 75 bones. You can find the instructions on how to convert this type of fan into a carbon scrubber online. It has worked out very well for me, I still get a wee bit of odor, but only in the room I am growing in. I am also a renter, so odor control is also important to me. I am growing 3 smallish plants in a grow tent, they are 5 weeks into flower and they are getting fairly smelly. The fan wasn't difficult to convert at all. I'm a gal with a few tools, if I can do it so can you!

[SweetJane]

I want to add: I think, if I understand all this correctly, if I hooked up a fan controller it would probably kill the smell. This fan runs at a pretty high rate of speed. From what I understand, all these fans work better at odor control if they are dialed back. That also goes for the traditional inline fan, from what I have read.

I also can't vent outside, it would be too obvious.

[SweetJane]

theres nothing un natural about autoflowering many,many plant species do that and the way it happens with cannabis it the common strains are crossed with a less common species of CANNABIS called cannabis ruderallis, , in fast there are five species i know of,indica,sativa,afganica,hemp and ruderallis,
the reason it seems odd is the rudys are typically called ditch weed,and are low in thc, therefore ppl have avoided them, but with advancement in breeding technique in recent years, some very potent and delicious strains are available, in fact im growing one thats a high times winter cup winner 1st place indica "cream caramel automatic" at first i felt the same way about the autos, but i did some research, and my opinion changed, i think they are quite handy and deserve a place at the table of modern cultivar , i sure wish i had some back when i had only cfl and a 2x2 space to grow in, rather than the stretchy sativas i fought with trying to keep small and very long flowering times 15 weeks will try anyone's patience! so even if you decide on a lanky white widow, or a sometimes long flowering northern lights strain, its surly up to you,i wish you luck and fun in growing! and please dont think theres anything un natural about the tough,disease/pest resistant often misunderstood autos, those little guy will most likely surprise you!!

Thanks for the info. This is the first post I have read that speaks highly (no pun) about autoflowers. I am now very interested in trying one or three out when I can afford to buy some beans!

[BigIrishDoode]

i dont think you'll be disappointed with the autos, smell from 1 small plant should be manageable with some air fresheners, try ozium you can find it in most auto parts and big stores that start with a w and end with a t for a name, also i have had good luck with an air purifier that has a negative ion generator built in, there are some strains that have low to no odor while growing, i hear blueberry, from my experience all the ones im growing are low odor so far, some i hear that are very strong are the ak's durban poison, skunks, most seedbanks will mention it in the description if its one way or the other,.. good luck and have fun

[BigIrishDoode]

Thanks for the info. This is the first post I have read that speaks highly (no pun) about autoflowers. I am now very interested in trying one or three out when I can afford to buy some beans!

your welcome!! theres a few growers here that love them, granny420 grows them and makes her own feminized seed to offset the often high cost of buying them, you cant beat a plant that will go from seed to harvest in 7-10 weeks and give you as much as an ozzy, im growing out my first batch now follow along if you like