CFL Grow - Strawberry Diesel - Soil

[Excited2start]

Alright ladies and gents, I am here again with another CFL grow. I took a break for a little while from the site. I'm back now and ready to show you what I can do with my setup. So here we go.

What strain is it? Strawberry Diesel

Is it Indica, Sativa or Hybrid? Indica/Sativa

What percentages? N/A

Is it in Veg or Flower stage? I just put two clones under my lights two days ago. So they are going into the veg stage.

If in Veg... For how long? Two days

If in Flower stage... For how long ? Not there yet

Indoor or outdoor? Indoor in a 18in. x 18in. x 48in.

Soil or Hydro? Soil

If soil... what is in your mix? Right now I am using a peat moss and perlite mix right now. 2 parts peat moss and 1 part perlite. When I transplant them I am going to use a foxfarm ocean forest perlite and peat moss mixture.

If soil... What size pot? I am using two small pots right now and will be switching to 3.5 gallon square buckets because they fit nicely into the grow space.

Size of light? I have a 42 watt CFL 6500k 2300 lumen , a 55 watt CFL 2700K 3860 lumens, 2 tube CFLs 6500k 900 lumen Ea., 2 tube CFL 2700K 900 lumen Ea., and 2 26 watt 6500k 1600 lumen Ea. For a total of 12,960 lumen

Is it aircooled? I have three fans. I have two sucking air out. And one sucking air in. I am adding another fan inside to circulate air through the box.

Temp of Room/cab? 80 degrees

RH of Room/cab? N/A

PH of media or res? The media I am using is ph balanced at 6.5

Any Pests ? No

How often are you watering? I have watered them once so far since they have been under the lights. I am checking them tomorrow and going to see. Right now I am just using distilled water to water them. Once they get a little bigger I am going to start adding the ferts.

Type and strength of ferts used? I am doing this on a budget so I am going to be using miracle grow. I have regular and bloom booster. I figure these too should be sufficient for now. When I get more money I will invest into some better nutrients.

When my batteries are charged i will take pictures and post them. Hope you all follow and enjoi!

 

[Excited2start]

Re: CFL grow- Strawberry Diesel- Soil

OK so it has been about two weeks and the ladies are starting to really look nice. I have some new growth since I have gotten them. They were sickly looking when I first got them like the person didn't know what they were doing. So I have manged to nurse them to a dark green look versus a little yellow, like they were. Ill be posting some pics of them later today. Enjoi!

 

[jdub]

Pics? And for the same amount of $$ for miracle grow, you can get the blue planet nutrients 3 part, hit him up on here

 

[Excited2start]

Sorry guys been really busy haven't had the time to post pictures. So I have upgraded my lights. instead of having a 55 watt CFL and a 42 watt CFL with a total 6060 lumens. I switched to a 70watt hps security light which has 6300 lumens. I took it apart and pulled the ballast and igniter out and stuck them in an electrical box to create a remote ballast. I will post a link to the tutorial I found on a site similar to this one. The same tutorial is on this site, but it does not have any pictures. The pictures make it a thousand times easier to understand and do. Here are the picture i took the other day and the new ones i took tonight.

I also took a picture of the remote ballast I made from the security light

 

[MattyTrips]

looking good! sub'd for this one

 

[jdub]

 

[Excited2start]

Here is the link to the site that had the photos of how to convert a security light to a grow light. https://www.--------.org/do-yourself/8499-convert-common-home-security-light.html I found it very useful. Like i said you can find the same tutorial on here but this one has photos that are easy to follow.

 

[Psyclops]

I have noticed a lot of growers here using MG. Interesting. I'm watching.

 

[Excited2start]

So I got a MH security light as well and added it to the box. So now I have a 70 watt HPS and 70 watts MH. I wired it the same way as the HPS and it is working great. Since I now have these two lights I took out all the CFLs I had in the box. I did the math and it is cheaper to run these two light versus the eight CFLS I was running.

Between the CFLS I was running I was using 245 watts at 13,460 lumens. These two HIDs are running at 70 watts each for a total of 140 watts and 12100 lumens. I am only losing 1360 lumens and in a box that is only 1 1/2 sqft that is not a big deal.

 

[Psyclops]

Nice adjustment. How is the heat?

 

[Excited2start]

Its kind of weird I have two thermometers in the box. One is a regular one, like the ones we used in school the other one is digital. I have the digital one below the lights. The regular one says that it is only 79 degrees in the box. The one below the lights is saying the it 89 degree at soil level and 75 degrees at ground level. So im not sure, but to be safe I am adding two more computer fans to help circulate the air around the box more. Hopefully this will regulate the temperature better and keep it consistent through out the whoole box instead of hot and cold spots through out it.

 

[Psyclops]

Your thermometers sound like they have accurate readings to me. The Canopy temp is the one you wnat to focus on. 89 is a bit high but doable. The extra fans should help. good move.

 

[Excited2start]

I added the fans right after I posted this morning and it seems to have dropped the temperature down from 89 to 82 degrees. In just a few short hours it has dropped 7 degree. So I feel that I should be good now.

 

[Psyclops]

Cool Beans!!!

 

[Excited2start]

So by putting the two fans in the box to circulate air the temp stays between 82 degrees during lights on and 77 degrees at night with the lights off. I got a hygrometer to measure RH and it stays between 30% - 40%. So I am hoping things keep going well. I am going to let them veg for a few more days then I am switching to flowering. I have the stuff to build a screen to stick over it which I am going to build before I switch to flowering. Will be posting new pix tomorrow.

 

[Psyclops]

Look forward to your updated pics. RH is low for veg but if they are doig ok and you are getting set to switch I wouldn't worry about it now. But for next grow your vegging plants will reward you if you keep the RH as close to 60% as you can get it.

 

[Excited2start]

So here are the photos from the other day.
This one is really taking off. It is getting a lot taller then the other one.

This one is not as tall as the other one but it is bushier. I have put 2 inch blocks under it to help get it closer to the lights.

You can't see it in this picture. But I put the blocks under it after I took this photo. The next set of photos I post you will be able to see it.

 

[wranglerpx]

make sure you throw about a handful of dolomite lime into that mix. With a peat moss based medium it will get very acidic when it starts breaking down in about a month. Sprinkle some on top and work it into the soil if you havent dont so already, good luck!

 

[Psyclops]

Looking very nice. Nice thinking about keeping your canopy level. You may try SuperCropping the taller plant to lower its' canopy as well. This will promote stem growth as well. You may also want to consider topping a few of the larger branches as well. What was once 1 will become 2!! Kinda looks like the taller one was topped?

 

[Excited2start]

Yea did top the taller plant. I also did it to the smaller one you just cannot see it in this set of pictures. I have to go somewhere after i type this but when I get back I am going to post new pictures if the plants. you can see how I topped the smaller one as well. I have actually did it to every branch so I hope to get a large amount of bud sites. Here is to hoping.