J's 1545W CFL Test Grow - Multi Strain - Wilma

[donpaul.p]

looks good mate, loving the pics, i wish i had a decent camera, well i got a decent camera but cant seem to get the right leads for it, its just wont charge, but then someone brought it from me off their holiday so possibly they got scammed, looks like a real nice hd camera and video cam but it just wont charge, it has a usb charger on it but wont charge when plugged into laptop im wondering if it would charge off one of those powered usb hubs that plug into the mains, ill have to get one,

your better off with the new timer than fixing the old one it might happen again, i didnt know the old analogue ones could stick like that, ill buy a few spares just in case it happens to me, so it is worth checking the on and off times every so often to rule out this kind of problem

 

[jimm14]

The timer was old and full of hair/dust, used for many many grows, It's just a simple switch inside and the lever had got bunged up. it's now my pump timer (just incase it fails again) and I brought a new one for the lights.

Bonus pic of one of my smallest clones (toppings) from last week lol.

 

[donpaul.p]

amazing, i had some like that, i though they was not worth cloning as they was the size of yours and shorter but on the way to the bin i came across my rooting gel and thought well what if they can be used as clones, so i tried it and most clones, i was amazed as 2 of them where bits that broke off when tying branches down and the others where tops i had taken off lower branches, i was amazed they lived, but you done the same and got the same results, shocking i know, but it works, i wonder if smaller clones like that grow roots quicker due to having less leaf and stem,

 

[jimm14]

The fastest growing clones were ones about a inch bigger then that one, they grow long roots 3-4 days ago. The bigger stemmed ones took longest to root. last one left after the small one above is a chocolate haze cutting that still only has nubs and one root but it was very thick stemmed.

On the other hand the bigger cuttings transplant better, with sometimes no yellowing at all from cutting it from the plant to putting it in the system.

 

[jimm14]

Such low stretch with the CFL's, It seems they just bush out with these high power CFLs when you have them close without burning them. I've raised them up about 2ft for the plants to promote stretch now, They are just now starting to work on vertical growth.

So anyone planing on using CFLs for the first time I would recommend letting your seedling stretch a lot then lower your lights to bush them out, or you get close nodes with masses of leaf growth.

For some reason the pineapple express and the LA diva are slower to grow then the other seedlings, and now they aren't enjoying the high ppm feed (some clawing and stunted growth) So I have taken one of the pineapple express seedlings for a mother, It's now alot happier sitting in coco with veg feed in my clone room.

The cheese has grown fast and was big enough to get a cutting for another mother, So will have a pineapple mother and a cheese mother.

I want to put my new mothers into bonsai mode in 3ltr airpots (Instead of my 2 pot DWC) I want 4-5 smaller mothers so I have 4-5 strains going at once in the same room. anyone know a good soil I will only have to feed when I want growth? Also whats a good fabric to use for a wick? I'm guessing cotton would rot and nylon wouldn't get enough water to the roots?

Thanks guys

 

[donpaul.p]

i had exactly the same problem with cfls i tried everything to try and get them to stretch i used only 6500k cfls then added a load of 2700k cfls and even tried raising the lights, but all my plants wanted to do was bush out, if you look at my journal i have just put the latest pics up and my plants look like they have been under a scrog due to the even canopy of buds in flower.

my question was this, does raising the light giving them less light cause them to grow more and stretch or does this slow down growth so does having the cfls mean they are going to grow more, it really does seem that cfls cause very little stretch, when i first came on the site many growers told me i would get slow growth and loads of stretch due to using cfls, but all my plants had very little to none stretch using cfls, so if you want really bushy plants then use cfls, raising them about 1 ft away may cause them to stretch but i never raised them that much to find out, but what i have done the last few days is try putting one of the plants i have in veg under the cfls on a window sill and after 2 days the plant had stretched loads just buy been on the window sill, i know this is not possible with all people due to the risk involved but i really couldnt find any way of getting the plants to stretch using cfls, even when i switched to flower and had the plants under only 2700k cfls i still was getting know stretch at all, i was so amazed but im hopin the lack of stretch is only a good thing as all my bud sites are even and if you look at my 2 plants in flower they look like they have been under a scrog when in fact they have been under only cfls, they was topped and fim'd but i did all i could to try and get them to stretch

 

[jimm14]

The people that told you cfl's would stretch didn't have enough power. Clearly these CFLs are more efficient then I expected, and using HID you put the light as close as you can without burning. when you do the same with CFLs (what are alot cooler + can be closer) the plant has no need to stretch.

When plants know there a strong light source that they aren't in they stretch to it, it doesn't slow growth, it speeds it up to a point but they then change node spacing and make leggy plants.

I think with the CFLs I have 2ft Is the point of stretch, below that the plants are very happy to bush out.

Next time if I started from seed again the first week I would have it as close as possible (I hate stretchy seedlings) then move it near 2ft for a nice rate of stretch though veg.

This grow is teaching me more about CFL then I thought... I thought I would use it just like HPS but get less dense bud at the end. They need moving a lot higher then you expect to gain stretch and the plants dont grow to the light they get so close then are happy to uniform up there growth then start on leaf production.

I'm early in this grow so stretching them out isn't going to be bad, just a day of 2ft light height has the plants packing on height! I've popped my head in your grow a few times now but you seem to have it covered, good luck.

 

[donpaul.p]

exactly the truth mate, they seem to like cfls, the more powerful lights like mh and hps are further away due to the heat but i was using 23 watt and 30watt cfls and you could hold them in your hands without any problem, so my plants where basically just below the bulbs so possibly this is why i got very little stretch, but im happy with the results, ive got very bushy and even plants, so who ever says you cant grow plants with cfls need to read some of these journals and the jokers that say cfls make the plant stretch obviously have no clue about cfls, either that or they tried growing a plant under a cfl bulb that was in a light fitting on the ceiling and the plant was at floor level, either that or they have never used cfls and just hating them due to the low wattage.

but i and others are proof that cfls do work and they really dont make the plants stretch who ever started that roumer off need to start reading some of these journals and see what cfls realy do produce, ive seen more stretch under a mh than i have under cfls

 

[Electricthom]

Great CFL info guys. Now I know why my little plant is so thick and only 9" after 45 days. LOL. gonna raise them lights a little. The nay sayers had to be using minimal wattage or T8 tubes. They said to get CFL's close because they create stretch, so I did and shorty is proof they are wrong. Given the right wattage and spacing CFL's will do way better than we knew.

 

[donpaul.p]

its true, possibly the older tube cfls did cause stretch but technology has changed in the last 20 years, and now the plants seem to love cfls that much that they dont produce any stretch at all and just makes them bush out,

i have finally found a way of getting the plants to stretch, under cfl they just wont stretch i tried raising them to 8 inches above the plants and after 4 or 5 days i still got no stretch so i took one plant out the veg room and when it was light ie when the sun comes up and just before it starts getting dark, and placed it on the window sill, now ive been having very little sun and i only get the sun in the morning, but i decided to try the plant near the window, not on a window sill but on a shelf about 1ft away from the window, so when it got light i put this 1 plant near the window under natural light, even though it has been very cloudy outside, well when it got dark i placed it back under the cfls to keep it in veg, i repeated this for 4 days and the plant stretched and started looking really good, then i put it back under cfls when i was pleased with the height then it slowed down upwards growth and started filling out, so i recon if you done this over say 6 weeks you would end up with a huge bushy monster.

so something like this, for 4 days take the plants out of veg room and into a normal room in the house where its only getting daylight, leave the plants out until it starts getting dark then put them back in veg, repeat this over say 4 days then place them back under cfls for say 7 days, then repeat the process, by the looks of it the plant would end up been a tall bushy monster and would possibly end up looking like an outdoor plant, now the problem with this is cfls dont penetrate far so unless you was going to flower under hps then i wouldnt advice trying to grow a monster like this, but if you say done it once or twice so the plant could gain some height then im sure the end result would be very good indeed,

 

[donpaul.p]

@ electricthom, im not sure if you have looked at my journal but if you look at my latest pictures you will see how my plants turned out, looks like they been under a scrog, but they was just grown under cfls and im very pleased with the results

 

[Electricthom]

I most certainly did. Sweet how even they grew. Mine is not even with top ones yet but I had tied the lowers down to get them out into the side light. I've been pulling info from every Journal I read and I'm learning. They got a new home today and more light so I will let her grow how she wants from here out. Just waiting to see how your tiny auto finishes, I would like to try some autos soon too.

 

[donpaul.p]

my tiny auto has grew slightly, my other auto looks like a normal sprouted plant but the leaves look short and stubby ill put pics of that auto up tomorrow, the plants i got in bud now are only 3 nodes high, i was struggling to get them to grow taller due to using cfls so clearly cfls do not cause the plants to stretch, all i did was topped the plant so it give me 2 main stems growing up instead of the one center stem then instead of letting these grow upwards i kept pulling them down and outwards till they got to the end of the pots i poked loads of holes in the pot at soil level and poked 30cm pipe cleaners through the holes and hooked it round branches and kept pulling everyone back down, i didnt just pull them down i pulled the sideways out of the way of other branches so my plant was getting light into all parts of growth, i did prune a few leaves but not many but the growth at the nodes on each branch was sometimes shaded by a leav on another branch so i pulled the leaves off and the nodes started growing quicker and grew up towards the top of the plant to get more light, so every couple of days id take the pipe cleaners off and tie them branches back down, now i didnt lst like most others where they bend the whole plant over cuz my plants didnt respond well to that instead i topped them and the 2 shoots that became the tops got tied down and trained outwards so thats how i got my plant so even, when these plants have finished flowering ill grow one clone of each of the plants and let them grow naturally that way i can find out if i got more of a yield by lst and topping or if leaving the plants alone gets more of a yield, but thats my next grow, its just something i want to do to try and find out what gives back the most.

im also growing some seeds not and their small plants now and i put some under 12-12 from seed and some are under veg 24-0 i have also done 2 x 2tr hempies as well to see what i get back of them, so i can compare the 12-12 from seed to the 24-0 then switched to 12-12 the reason im doing this is that plants wont start flowering till they are mature enough around 4 weeks, most growers switch to 12-12 after 4 weeks so im trying to find out if going 12-12 from seed produces more or less than the plants that have vegd for the same period, the plants are all the same age so i can compare the yield their and decide if its worth the 4 weeks veg or not,

 

[Electricthom]

Who wouldn't mind a little savings on the electric bill too if 12/12 turns out decent results in the end.

 

[jimm14]

Right, I dont know if you guys know but I've been looking into bonsai mothers. Normally I would use DWC for my mothers but I want to keep atleast 4 mothers that won't fit in my ~DWC.

So today I took the plunge on some west+ soil (50%peat/50%woodfibre with added nutes) and found some OC+. I'm hoping I won't burn my mother but also won't need to feed them over there life time, just repot them every 6months.

My bonsai mother mix ended up being 1Part perlite 4parts West+ soil and 2g of OC+ per 1ltr pot. Seemed like a nice airy mix.

I won't be feeding the plants other then water, I've used 1ltr round pots for now and when I can afford it I will be using 3ltr Airpots and fab up some sort of wicking (I'm sometimes away upto 2 weeks and cant get someone to water each day). Only have a pineapple express mother potted up so far...

I also throw the sour diesel and super haze seeds in the same mix for more mothers, The super Haze seed looks dead but I'll see what happens.

 

[donpaul.p]

hey jim, just checking your journal now mate

it would save on electric as well so it would be good to see what i can get in return, if its a good return then ill use it in future, another thing i want to try is taking a clone 12-12 from day one, but been as the clone will be the same age as the mother then chances are the yield would be affected and would be less than going 12-12 from seed, going 12-12 from seed or cutting would mean i can get more pots in the grow room, so if the yield is decent then i could put a load more in for the 12-12 from seed and if that got me enough yield and lasted till the next grow then it would mean i wouldnt need 2 grow rooms, but im along way off that yet and dont want to rely on that as my only source until im sure the yield is worth it

 

[donpaul.p]

i read that many journals i have to keep going back through the pages to remember who is growing what and doing what, guess thats the problem with loving these plants and keeping up with so many different journals.

i think are pots are the way to go with mothers as it would stop them getting root bound due to the roots dying at the air holes so it should keep it a lot healthier, the other option when people keep mothers is they reduce the root mass every so often so they can then keep the mother in smaller pots without going into bigger pots each time, so if it gets a problem them cut the mother back a bit say after taking a load of clones then pull it out the pot and reduce the root mass by cutting it away then repot with new soil and the plant will then start growing healthy again and wont be root bound and will also grow new roots so should end up with an over all healthier plant, its not as easy when your growing in soil to chop the roots but it can be done and should keep the mother plant going ages

 

[jimm14]

Today I decided the canopy was way too dense and making some of my tops yellow as they was hidden. So I had a good trim up and removed any branches that wasn't to my liking, Thrown in the cloner, of course..

Pre-trim

WB1

WB2

WB3

WB4

WB5

CH2

CH3

CH4

Critical auto, ugly thing.

Cheese, Been topped and has 4 tops on the way.

Waste.

Trimmed.

I left out the LA Diva/pineapple express since there very small atm.

I know some won't agree to removing so much leaf this early but I've always removed light blocking/useless leafs with no problems.

The white berry clones are really putting on hair and small buds now. 11 days into flower now.

 

[jimm14]

I know it's only been a light-out cycle but check out how the plants are now praying to the CFL gods.

And a few inside view of buds on the way.

 

[jimm14]

Seems like CH#4 Wasn't happy with the timer misfunction last week and has hermied out. It's strange it's the only one in the tent, ch#3 has heavy female flower, ch#2 i'm still undecided on, I thought it was male last week but kept it around, it did have a few claw looking balls but it could have been new leafs. CH#1 pure male and is at home outside in my garden, CH#4 has joined him. So I'll have some pollen, some hermie pollen and maybe some hermie seeds but i doubt it with how little female flower is on the plant before she turned.

All the clones (WB1-WB15) are in full flower with no sign of hermie, the two autos haven't shown sex and the cheese/pineapple need a few week till they are mature enough to flower.

Any how here is some pics of hermie, unless someone know different.