My Closet Grow - Feedback Welcome

[SmokeMyGrass9]

I started these plants April 6th and they have been under 24 hours of light since in Fox Farms Ocean Forest. I have 9 Heavy Weight Fast & Vast Auto, 4 Dr Krippling Incredible Bulk, 4 Afghan Regular, 2 Sensi Star, and 1 World of Seeds Strawberry Blu. From a first time grower I'm not too sure how I'm doing and would love some feed back. Thanks . ( I couldn't fit all of the plants in the shot so let me know if u want close ups of any plants)

 

[Antics]

They look small for almost a month old.

I assume these were started from seed?

What kind of lighting are you using? How far is the light?

 

[SmokeMyGrass9]

Yes started from seed. I did keep the lights about a foot away from them which I noticed caused them to stretch. I'm using 3 150w soft white CFL bulbs. Now the light is about 4 inches away

 

[Antics]

150 equivalent?
Or 150 w actual wattage used?

And what color temperature?

 

[SmokeMyGrass9]

150 W equivalent and I'm not too sure what color temp, it just says soft white

 

[Antics]

Ok, you might hate me for this...

The bulbs are 23 watts. CFLs are discussed (and all grow lighting really) in terms of wattage used, not the equivalent number. That number is so people can replace incandescent bulbs with a CFL of similar brightness. Since Incandescent bulbs cannot effectively grow plants, the equivalent number is useless for our purposes, so ignore it completely.

6500K is usually the most common color temp used for growing in Veg. And 2700K for Flower. It sounds like your bulbs might be around 4000K or so, thus not being the most ideal spectrum for Veg.

Next, lighting is way below what I would recommend. This you might really hate hearing, but you need more light, and I do mean a shitload. You're using about 75 watts now, give or take a few watts. I usually suggest 100 watts per plant in Veg, and 150 per plant in flower, in small grow spaces with smaller plants.

Now this is another animal entirely. You have 20 plants going. You would probably get a better yield using those 3 lights focused on 1 plant, than you would forcing 20 plants to share.

Another good guideline for CFL lighting is to use 30 watts per square foot in Veg, and 45-50 watts per square foot when you flower.

A trained plant will usually take up a good 1-2 square feet for a shorter 5-6 week Veg time, which means you'll get better results by adding another 525-1125 actual watts of light for Veg.

When it comes to flower, you're looking at 925-1925 more watts needed.

Right now, your best bet would be to look into HID or LED lighting if you want to keep them all growing to their fullest potential.


And definitely, definitely read this: How to Grow Marijuana Everything You Need to Know

 

[SmokeMyGrass9]

I'm planning on moving them all into a much bigger location with MANY HID bulbs around them. I'm hoping to bring plants outside to continue my grow once the temperature gets better. With these changes do u think my plants could recover and if so how much? Thanks again

 

[Antics]

If you Veg long enough, you can get them almost back to normal. You can't fix any stretching, but they can grow normally and produce a decent yield.

Usually for the first 1-2 weeks 1 bulb is good for 1-2 plants.
Around the second week, 1 bulb is better per plant.
3-4 week I use 2 bulbs per plant. If you train them a bit, you can continue using 2 bulbs for up to 5-6 weeks. Just add bulbs as they get wider.

Read that page I gave you too. There's a lot to read, but It has a ton of info to help you make this first grow a kickass grow.

Usually my bulbs are always 23w CFLs.

 

[SmokeMyGrass9]

Thanks I appreciate all of the advice.

 

[Antics]

Sure no problem

In a nut shell, when a plant isn't receiving light that is close enough and/or strong enough you'll see a plant that stretches upward with a lot of space between nodes, and the plant won't produce side branches that grow real far out from the stem.

I have also seen overwatering cause the short, stunted branch growth too.

 

[Dota2]

Idk how long you can vege them considering they are autos. Best thing to do is place them outside, cut, gently the bottom of the plastic cup, or get them out of thous cups and put them directly in the ground, would be good if you had some soil. Another thing is, autos don't like being transplanted and thous cups are to small.

 

[SmokeMyGrass9]

I can't place them outside, I live in lower Canada and the temperature drops too low at night

 

[Antics]

Idk how long you can vege them considering they are autos. Best thing to do is place them outside, cut, gently the bottom of the plastic cup, or get them out of thous cups and put them directly in the ground, would be good if you had some soil. Another thing is, autos don't like being transplanted and thous cups are to small.

Good call. I totally missed the fact that they were autos.

 

[SubNoize]

Seems very common for people to underestimate the number of lights you need for a cfl grow. I know I did. Thanks antics for explaining that in an easy way.

 

[Antics]

Seems very common for people to underestimate the number of lights you need for a cfl grow. I know I did. Thanks antics for explaining that in an easy way.

I underestimated it myself as well when I started. So many people do. On my last CFL grow, I was using 14 bulbs, 361 total watts, on two plants. And yielded a little over 3 ounces.