CFLGrow's Soil, White Widow, CFL Stealth Growbox Journal - 2010

[Barry Manilow]

BlueDog - that was an awesome post! Thanks

I put 12 seeds - 4 White Widows, 4 Master Kush, and 4 'White Widows' (that I'm unsure of) into ziploc bags with paper towel and water. This morning, the first 8 were all germinated. The sketchy seeds haven't popped. But those 8 all went into beer cups with holes drilled in the bottom, 30% perlite topped with a soil/perlite mix. I've got two 4' fluoros going 24/7 right now, and misting them twice a day.

If anyone wants to critique this approach, feel free

I'm also on the last stretch of finishing up my sexy little grow dresser... but I bumped into an issue. I wanted to run 10 lights in series on either side of the dresser. But when I run even two CFL's in series, they start to flicker. Does anyone know how to easily run a parallel wire for all of them?

This is the a diagram of the top of my dresser (with O's being the light fixtures):


______________________
| O O O O O- - -O O O O O|
| - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - |
| - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - |
| O O O O O- - -O O O O O|

Because they ring the whole roof of the dresser, series would've been really nice. I could just loop wires from one fixture to the next. I don't really want to split the main power cord 20 times...

Any suggestions?

Hey cflgrow! I've got a bunch of pre-soaked seeds in mini-hempies too right now, doing just what you're doing but on an 16/8 cycle. I haven't seen anything definitive on 24 being better so I'll give the plants and my electric bill a rest.

I don't know anything about electricity, can't help you there. I'm kind of afraid of it sad to say.

I tried to calculate my load, I'm pretty sure that it's fine. But this is an old house and doing anything too crazy makes me nervous.

I only have lights that are in fixtures - some regular ones that I had around or found good deals on - and lots of clamp lights with reflectors from home depot & wally world. I have lots of space so that's good.

Here's hoping that both of us have some cute little seedlings breaking soil in the next few days... and then 8-10 weeks from now...

 

[cflgrow]

I'm just heading out for Canadian thanksgiving... terrible timing - all twelve seedlings have been planted, and three have already popped out of the ground

Oh well. They have plenty of perlite in the bottom, and I've soaked them down. Hopefully they'll survive my three days away.

I'm also stoked to say that my grow dresser, grow cab and grow room are all done! Once the girls start growing, I'll weed out (no pun intended) the weak ones, and start growing full speed

Cheers!

 

[Barry Manilow]

Happy Thanksgiving! Hope everything's great when you get back.

 

[funnystyle]

 

[cflgrow]

Alright everyone!

The pictures today come from my cell... so they're blurry and lame, but such is life. They get the point across

I came home from the holiday, and had 10 seedlings stretching for the lights! I was expecting half of them to be duds by this time, so 2/12 is pretty good They're looking pretty thin and lame... but I'm pretty sure that's because I only have two 40 watt fluoro's over top, and no fan. They're just growing as tall as possible right now.

Do any other people have input on lighting times during seedling phase? Or do I just start them on 18/6 from the get-go?

 

[Growheart]

Yeah you want to get a fan on those tiny tim's to thicken up their stems... The foundation is everything! At this stage even the tiniest PC fan would do it...

 

[cflgrow]

Well, nothing is going as planned now, but that's just perfect

I took the grow dresser and grow cab, and put the both into the grow room. Kind of a waste of all my 'stealthiness'... but whatever. You can't be too careful, and I get to keep all my lights, fans and timers together.

Instead of keeping the top four hardiest plants, I'll probably just grow all 10 survivors. That means more lights... right now I have a grow cab with 6 23-watt lights, a grow dresser with 10 23-watt lights, and a 400-watt HPS lights. That's 768-watts for 10 plants. I'm leaning towards adding another 12 23-watt CFL's.

Does anyone have any input on HPS? I just kinda stumbled across the 400-watt... so I haven't done much research on them. Also, between the 400 watts of HPS and the remaining 600 watts of CFL, can you guys give me any input?

I plan on switching from 6500's to 2700's during bloom... any other tips?

 

[cflgrow]

Hey guys! Since switching from two 40 watt fluoro tubes to ten 23 watt CFL's and adding a high powered fan to slow stem growth, they haven't moved in height. But they're still ridiculously flimsy.

I was expecting a few inches of growth by now... any clues as to what's going on? Or is this normal?

Basically, in the first three days they shot up to around 2" - 4"... all with super thin stems. They all have two sets of leaves. Is there any way to encourage thickening? They're a couple inches away from the CFL's, and it's a high power fan that's shaking them

For little seedlings that are otherwise perfectly healthy, is 2"-4" with two sets of leaves normal at the one-week mark?

 

[LetsBeBuds]

That’s where about I am. I am two weeks in with one plant under a T5 2x4 and the plant is almost 3" from seed after 2 weeks in a red cup in FF. My stem is thin so I have been turning my fan on more to maybe beef it up. Hope the grow goes well. Good luck

 

[Barry Manilow]

Hey guys! Since switching from two 40 watt fluoro tubes to ten 23 watt CFL's and adding a high powered fan to slow stem growth, they haven't moved in height. But they're still ridiculously flimsy.

I was expecting a few inches of growth by now... any clues as to what's going on? Or is this normal?

Basically, in the first three days they shot up to around 2" - 4"... all with super thin stems. They all have two sets of leaves. Is there any way to encourage thickening? They're a couple inches away from the CFL's, and it's a high power fan that's shaking them

For little seedlings that are otherwise perfectly healthy, is 2"-4" with two sets of leaves normal at the one-week mark?

It sounds like the extra light is working, they've stopped stretching. They'll keep growing, don't worry. And the stems will be fine as long as you keep a fan on them at least part of each day. I run the fan on the same timer as the lights.

 

[funnystyle]

ummmmmmmm is it oscillating? make sure them stems dont be rockin too much.... i think thatll only stress it....... hmmmmm..........

the cfls was a good move. theyll get way more lumens this way and start bushin out! make sure you do keep em like 1-2 inches away........

oh yea BlueDog......... i keep my fan on 24/7....... i just do it the mother nature way....... never take that wind away muahaha..... i dont think they mind, plus i think they keep some bugs away.... some seem to thrive in the dark!

and Letsbebuds haha i dont think you should be crankin that thing up too much! you should just let a slight breeze hitem enough that the stem rocks back just a little.... you can stress em, wind burn, knock em over, and basically make it even weaker. take it slow my man. put that baby back to spinnin low!

 

[Barry Manilow]

ummmmmmmm is it oscillating? make sure them stems dont be rockin too much.... i think thatll only stress it....... hmmmmm..........

the cfls was a good move. theyll get way more lumens this way and start bushin out! make sure you do keep em like 1-2 inches away........

oh yea BlueDog......... i keep my fan on 24/7....... i just do it the mother nature way....... never take that wind away muahaha..... i dont think they mind, plus i think they keep some bugs away.... some seem to thrive in the dark!

and Letsbebuds haha i dont think you should be crankin that thing up too much! you should just let a slight breeze hitem enough that the stem rocks back just a little.... you can stress em, wind burn, knock em over, and basically make it even weaker. take it slow my man. put that baby back to spinnin low!

I guess there could be too much wind but my first grow was mostly outdoors. Even when they were little they'd be out in really strong winds, thunderstorms etc, didn't bother them a bit.

 

[funnystyle]

haha yeaa i remember that i think! about the thunderstorms and rain and all that haha. you were tryna collect all the rain water right? saw all those buckets and stuff outside hahaha...... sick grow btw

i guess youre right about them being able to handle the wind, but im guessing plants react diff outdoors? strong outdoor winds to indoor plants just doesnt really go together imho..... eh i kinda wakd and bakd..... sorry if im ranting.....

 

[cflgrow]

Well, I appreciate the input.

I'm not sure why, but my girls just don't look like most that I've bumped into on this site. I mean, it seems odd to me to have 4" of stem with no branches (most now have two to three sets of leaves, but they're all stacked at the very top of the plant).

I've seen pictures where the plant starts low and just keeps adding leaf set after leaf set. Node spacing is under an inch, it seems.

Any idea how to get that, as opposed to what I have now?

The good news is that the leaves are expanding... as I said, two to three leaf sets, and some of the leaves are pretty wide and long

 

[Barry Manilow]

Take a deep breath and relax, it will all be ok! It's hard to learn, but the less you worry about and try to do for your plants the better they'll actually do.

I just had 3 seeds pop, 1 on day one and the other 2 the next day. I wasn't ready for the first seed so I just stuck it near a light but not under one until I got things ready.

That seedling stretched close to 2 inches in that one day! I don't know if you can tell from my pics, but it's now twice the size of the other 2 that came out under a bright close cfl just a day later. As soon as they had enough light, they don't stretch. Right now most of their energy is going into growing roots.

 

[Growheart]

Haha, Bluedog says it right my man Cflgrow. Take it e-Z smoke a J-ski and just come onto 420mag and read stuff to distract you from the slow recovery haha.

The fan is definitely helping as long as its not blowing them over, they are getting used to the breeze and building up strong roots and soon a thicker stem. Also try and visualize whats going on in the rhizosphere (roots environment) - those roots have to grow big at first then the plant catches up.

 

[SkooterClowns]

Well, I appreciate the input.

I'm not sure why, but my girls just don't look like most that I've bumped into on this site. I mean, it seems odd to me to have 4" of stem with no branches (most now have two to three sets of leaves, but they're all stacked at the very top of the plant).

I've seen pictures where the plant starts low and just keeps adding leaf set after leaf set. Node spacing is under an inch, it seems.

Any idea how to get that, as opposed to what I have now?

The good news is that the leaves are expanding... as I said, two to three leaf sets, and some of the leaves are pretty wide and long

Hey CFLGrow...I wouldn't worry too much about the growth above the soil because you can be sure the roots are developing below the soil and that's the most important thing at this stage. If you get a chance put up some more pics so that we can have a look.

 

[cflgrow]

The masses clamor for pictures, so pictures they shall receive

(To be honest, I feel like a new dad who just wants to share pictures of my babies with eeeeveryone...)

Anyway, here are the girls and the dresser

As you can see, I have a few minor problems... really low humidity (38%), a few girls who are lying on their sides, and the long, thin stems I mentioned earlier. But all in all, things are well

Any input/thoughts are welcome!

 

[Growheart]

38 is a bit low for veg, make sure you keep misting the plants as many times as possible at this point keep them nice and moist and the misting will raise humidity in the grow space as well - just be careful with those wires in there!

BTW very nice grow box don't know if I missed the pics of that earlier in this thread.

 

[cflgrow]

Hey Growheart! I have the wires hooked up to marrettes, and the whole box is running through a GFCI. I have a built-in fire alarm and fire extinguisher, just in case

The humidity is proving to be a consistent problem, though. I mist three times a day, have ten open cups of water on the bottom shelf, and still can't get above 40%. The box is made of wood, so what options do I have available? Also, it has really good ventilation to the basement, so whatever I put in the box will soon be vented out. Any tips?

As for my girls, the growth rate is amazing now that the roots have set Some of the have four sets of branches stacked within half an inch! How soon should I be switching over to larger pots? When I do, I won't be able to use this cab anymore. Can I last another few weeks in these beer cups?