About had it with CFL's & Sativas!

[Deacnbleu]

I've been growing mainly afghanis under cfl and transferring to hps for flowering with great success. Three attemts to grow a sativa doms, (AK47, First Lady & Jack Herer) are really pissing me off. Extremely high leaf to flower ratio and pencil eraser size buds.
My current Jack Herer is taking up to much space and tiny buds at 8 weeks into flowering while my afghani skunk is ready to harvest.
Any thoughts?

 

[LEDman]

Hehe, I feel you. LST is the way with CFLs and low-powered LEDs, in my opinion. Penetration is always the main problem, so keep your bud sites on the same level and you should be fine.

Or maybe you're using the wrong CFLs - have you looked into T5-HO fixtures? There are a couple of journals on this site with excellent results.

 

[Jango]

Yeah that would be my first question is what type of cfl's are you using and how many and how close do you have them?? There are LOTS of growers who have great success using them, myself included.

 

[Deacnbleu]

 

[Deacnbleu]

My fixture is homemade, 4 - 24" T-5's surrounded by 8 of the CFL bulbs that are equivalent to 100 watts each. The fixture is adjustable so I keep it 4 - 6 inches above the plants. Big enough to cover 4 plants but I usually do 2 at a time.
Afghanis do very well under them, sativas not so good.
Maybe it's just the sativas are pissin me off?

 

[TorturedSoul]

I've been growing mainly afghanis under cfl and transferring to hps for flowering with great success. Three attemts to grow a sativa doms, (AK47, First Lady & Jack Herer) are really pissing me off. Extremely high leaf to flower ratio and pencil eraser size buds.
My current Jack Herer is taking up to much space and tiny buds at 8 weeks into flowering while my afghani skunk is ready to harvest.
Any thoughts?

Taking plants who's ancestors evolved to do well near the equator and/or mountains & highland plateaus, and placing them in a closet lit by artificial light is an imperfect situation.

More light. More intense light. Try throwing an open MH in with the HPS for the last couple of weeks of flower. Consider using a scrog setup so that as much of them as possible receive maximum illumination. Try for phenotypes that have a longer flowering period.

 

[GrowGSL]

I have found Sativa's do well under led for flowering. Although it could just be because they usually take longer to finish so they do have more time to suck up light.

 

[The303Stoner]

some sativas take 3 to 4 months to flower. heat could be the issue for the strain having trouble or give that plant a bigger pot. I like a 1000w bulb for flowering.

 

[SourSkunkD]

a scrog w/ cfls and t5s seem to work best

 

[Deacnbleu]

One of my latest White Widows, vegged under CFL's & currently flowering under HPS, is producing some nice colas after thinning the lower branches. (Cloning those little babies!)
Two other White Widows in smaller pots but grown under the exact same conditions are crappy looking. I think The303Stoner has a good point about using bigger pots, those sativas like their own space I guess.

 

[The303Stoner]

Hey guys I am new to this forum and I want to let everyone know that I am in the business of selling LED lights, including LED grow lights. I have read all the complaints about people getting ripped off, especially by those 225 LED panels that sell for $20-50. The people that sell those panels are really misleading you because even though the panel has 225 diodes assembled in 15 rows by 15 columns, the diodes themselves are 0.06watts each for a total wattage of 13.8watts. You will not grow anything under 13.8watts.

LED lights have many cost saving advantages and are an extremely efficient way to grow indoors, but you have to get the right ones. Costs should be $2-3/watt and you should have a total of 300watts or more with either 1 light assembly or a combination of 90watt, 120watt and so on. If you get about 300-400watts of LED lighting, you can replace a 1000watt HPS or MH system. You will not need a ballast and you will not need to vent the heat from the light as LEDs emit a near zero heat signature.

The reason 300-400watts of LED lighting can replace 1000watts of HPS/MH is because LEDs grow lights are concentrated on the light spectrums needed for vegetating and flowering, the blues and reds. An HPS/MH light is white light and has ALL the light spectrums, so all the extra colors that the plant does not need are wasted electricity and heat. LED technology allows you to dissect white light into the wavelengths that are needed and only use those for photosynthesis.

Cheers,
Ethan

most everyone on here knows this info its out dated