First Time CFL Grow

Hey everyone, after using this website for information on perfecting my first grow setup I figured I'd contribute back to the community with a journal.

Some information on what my current setup looks like:

Started my seedling in a solo cup of FFHF under a 150w 5000K CFL. For my 3 gallon pot I'm using a mix of perlite and FFOF. I have FF grow big, EJ Bloom, and EJ catalyst as my nutes for the duration of the grow.

Planted my germinated bag seed into the solo cup on 3/29. It sprouted the next day and went under the light. Didn't take these pictures until last Saturday, a week after it sprouted. Noticed on Friday my first true leaves starting to droop and the leaf tips turning brown. Figured it was overwatering but after looking under the cup there were roots coming out of the drainage holes and I transplanted immediately, there was a large root ball at the bottom of the soil with thick roots growing up the side, so I think I caught it just in time. Right now it's on no nutrients just tap water, next watering I plan to begin using 1/4 str EJ catalyst to supplement the FFOF soil. I haven't seen much about EJ catalyst being used so it's a little bit of an experiment to see how the plants react to just catalyst with the FFOF. I understand FFOF needs no nutes until 3-4 weeks in so the catalyst is the only nute I plan to use so far.

Check out my pictures and let me know how it looks for a first timer. I plan to do weekly picture updates so I hope someone will stick around to watch my first grow!

I too am trying my first shot with a CFL grow. I'll be watching yours to see if we make similar progress. Happy growing

Looks good man, you're doing fine.

Alright and I'm back for my week 2 update! Growth exploded after it rooted to the FFOF soil. Right now some roots are peeking out of the drainage holes in the bottom of my pot, not sure if this is a problem but we'll see in time.

I began using my EJ catalyst with my watering cycle this week. I only have a 1QT water container right now so I mixed a 1/2 cap of the catalyst in with a quart of water and let it sit over night. pH tested at exactly 7.0. When giving it its first watering it took up 2 QTs, 1qt with the catalyst 1qt tap water. The plant seems to be responding well, it has started to smell stronger and no signs of nute deficiency/proficiency so I'm planning on a full cap with my next watering.

Some branching has started on the lower nodes, is this normal? Should I keep these smaller branches? They just seem to be getting in the way of the larger fan leaves and cluttering up the plant, but since this is my first try I haven't been too eager to start trimming. On the topic of trimming my first true leaves have started to form more brown spots, should I trim these leaves or just let them wither and die off naturally?

I FIM'd the plant on Wednesday and am already having signs of new growth, which seems ahead of schedule for a typical FIM. I plan to LST the new growths rather than the whole plant, since I didn't fill the pot to the brim with soil and am regretting it since I'm missing out on the space needed to LST in.

Anyway, that's all for this week. Let me know if anyone has any comments!

4/20 update, if anybody is keeping an eye. Transplanted today to the final container, a 5 gal smart pot. Didn't notice my newest fan leaves from last week were too close to the light until they got partially burnt by the heat of the light, as you can see in the attached pics, solved the problem by making sure the light isn't too close and having a light fan constantly blowing at the top of the plant to keep it cool. Starting LST to optimize light exposure to all branches.

Trimmed some lower leaves that were dying off. Don't think it's pH or nutes since it was only the completely shaded lower leaves turning a dried out, light green. Hoping to get some new root growth in the 5 gal before sending it to flower next week.