Got a dutch? GROWING AND GROWING AND.....

Well, it's been a rough ride but I finally got a LITTLE something going. Here's some catch up info. I started 2 seeds, a Skunk #1 and a Grapefruit Krush. The grapefruit was a sad little plant that for one reason or another wasn't impressive, it got the chop. However, my skunk is looking nice, roughly 2-2.5 weeks into flowering, showed sex about 4 or 5 days ago. Roughly 12-14 in. tall.

Little about my poor man setup.
I'm running 5-40 watt CFLs around my skunk (with plans to add 1 or 2 more for the lower branches). I used seemores light fixture style, the planks of wood used for the fixture are smaller than the pieces he used. Other than that, the walls and floor are lined with poly and the plant is chillin' on the floor. Oh, I also have 2 6 in. desk fans and 1 12 in. oscillating fan.

Nutes/Soil.
For the soil I'm using a local nurseries brand of organic soil.
For nutes I'm using Happy Frog all-purpose, will be switching to something a little more proper for bloom next feeding.

Had a pretty bad pH fluctuation at the beginning, but they both survived, 1 was just a better plant than the other. New plant will be started 18-20 days before the skunk finishes and so on. Pictures will come when I get off work, can't promise great quality.

Pistils are popping up everywhere. This plant got TALL, a lot taller than I wanted. I don't have my tape measure but I feel comfortable saying we're right around 20 in. I made 2 light fixtures so right now I'm thinking of the best way to work that one in, mainly to get a bulb on each side of the plant for the lower branches.

Going to try and get some decent pics for y'all real quick. All I have to work with in the camera department is this shitty webcam built in my laptop. But, fuck it. It's something.

First picture is the light fixture. Has flaws but not going to fix em' til my next grow.
Second is just a picture of the plant after I watered.
Third is me trying to angle this damn thing to get a picture of the plant from the top.

Conclusion: I need to catch my bills up then invest in a good camera.

Looking good!

Growing is the addictive part of weed. I think I enjoy the growing more than the smoking.

Maybe I just have ADD and it keeps me focused.

Hardly seems like enough light but evidently it is. ha! I'm runnin' a 4' staggered kelvin (3-6KK) 6 bulb CFL (my first grow) and was lookin' @ em' this mornin' wonderin' if that, was even enough...

Fortheloveofgreen said:

Looking good!

Growing is the addictive part of weed. I think I enjoy the growing more than the smoking.

Maybe I just have ADD and it keeps me focused.

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Thank you! Finally some interest. I haven't been able to offer RIU much entertainment due to me always having to move. But yea growing is addicting, I enjoy both equally. But yea thanks and keep checking back. Or if you have any tips/advice to offer, always welcome.

mjrf1 said:

Hardly seems like enough light but evidently it is. ha! I'm runnin' a 4' staggered kelvin (3-6KK) 6 bulb CFL (my first grow) and was lookin' @ em' this mornin' wonderin' if that, was even enough...

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Well I have a total of six on one plant, all 40 watts (2600lm/ea). 4 above the cola and two kinda off to the sides. Now, it is not enough to achieve good buds off the bottom part of the plant but that's pretty much my fault. Actually, I'm considering chopping off all the bottom growth so the plant can focus it's energy on the buds that are going to matter.

I'll find my measuring tape tonight and get the size of my plant for you. For CFLs though, I'd say 18-22 inches would be the max of how tall you want your plants to be.

Thanks for coming by, try to have some more pictures for you all tonight.

Well, just turned the lights on. Still have a gnat problem I failed to mention before. Pretty bad too. Unfortunately, the neem I have isn't working for this one so I'm going to get some fly paper for em when I can. Along with that comes some sort of deficiency. My guess is not enough P-K. And again, unfortunately for me, I don't get paid for another week.

"For CFLs though, I'd say 18-22 inches would be the max of how tall you want your plants to be."

Say what?? Based off what?? I have 3 beautiful ladies that are ALL well over 2' and are in week 2 of flowering & look amazing...

mjrf1 said:

"For CFLs though, I'd say 18-22 inches would be the max of how tall you want your plants to be."

Say what?? Based off what?? I have 3 beautiful ladies that are ALL well over 2' and are in week 2 of flowering & look amazing...

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Based off the fact that CFLs have very limited penetration. Now you can have as big a plant as you want, but considering we're all in it for the bud (and the love of the plant), you want as much and biggest buds possible. For that to happen with CFLs, the best way is to keep your plants short.

Now you could grow your plant as tall as you want, but then there's the burden of more lights/exhaust. Or, you could go the route of vegging longer and use training techs. But, keeping your plant short by limiting your veg time gets you your bud faster as well as easier to work with. A bigger plant doesn't mean more bud.

Tell me more about your setup. Or drop by with some pictures when you get a chance.

Lights got turned on about 20 minutes or so ago. Crystals are building up very nicely, wish I could get a few close up shots. The smell is starting to come in as well, awesome. No noticeable changes other than that. Expecting the buds to start bulking up here soon, hopefully. But, for a grow that wasn't planned ahead of time, at all, I'm not going to complain.

On the bright side, I'm already planning for my next grow.

Gotcha. It's my first grow so it's really nothin' too special. Just a basement closet 5'W x 2'D but I was fortunate to get 3 females goin and had em' outside since they were strong enough to bear the wind til' I thought of my neighbors or passersby might see so, I moved them in doors into 6 ga. pots. Then I thought of using a 4' 250 watt, 6 bulb, T8 with, a polished reflector to fill the space perfectly and might be a good alt. to 3 MH lights, as well as, a cheaper way. I keep them well ventilated 24hrs and just started the 12/12 cycle. Since the 4' aquarium bulbs are $23 ea. @ Petsmart and not available @ HD, I opted to go with a staggered Kelvin bulb config. (2) 3100, (2) 4500 & (2) 6100 to try and create the spectrum frequency. I also cut a BUNCH of fan leaves off right after the girls started to flower and don't know if I regret it or, not. They look really good but I do wish I could afford the 3 MH lamps to hangin' down on each plant instead to give them the intensely bright light I guess they need during "bud time". ? Don't know much about the best light needed during this so, guess I'm stickin' with the CFL's. I'd really like to posts pics as many do, I'm just too skitzed about them getting tracked..lol but I would love to post some and get feedback from all of the experts on here.. It's funny though, the "runt" as it were, which has the least amount of leaves on her, seems to be producing the best buds so far, more dense and the THC bubbles on the hairs are bigger. She has the least amount of leaves on her. ? Is this attributed to the lack of energy she's having to spend on the leaves?..
btw, I really pressed my luck and transplanted these girls into bigger pots 3 TIMES too! No more though of that, obviously;

I only remove growth at the bottom that aren't available to receive that much or any light. Unless you're topping or something. Some people say 1 gallon of medium per each month the plant is alive. Others can make it through a whole grow in a 20oz bottle. I tend to go with 3 gallon.

And as far as growing with CFLs, just look on this forum. Great ideas, nice grows, examples of what not to do. Find a little of everything. I'm making alot of changes before my next grow. Just hope I can get it together before this one finishes.

Don't be afraid to post pictures either. Just make sure you have nothing personal in the picture and you're fine.

Well just a little update. Nothing too big yet, of course. Buds that are receiving good light look fantastic for being 3 1/2 weeks into flowering. Guessing anywhere from 3-4 weeks to go. Going out Monday to get something more proper for the rest of the flowering period, cutting out the all-purpose. More to come Monday, including more pictures but sadly, same quality.

Damn...June was the last time I was here? I'll be honest, I got busy..forgot I was doing a journal. Well, just a little info. about the last grow, it didn't get as much attention as I planned on giving it, barely any at all. Only pulled slightly under 17 grams . The cola weighed in around 8 grams. But, movin' on....

But, before that, congrats to Colorado and Washington state. Hope the feds don't get a hard-on for y'all.

Anyway...for we who still need to be stealthy, I'm trying my hand at my first PC grow. Just want to know a few things before I start it up. Mainly on ventilation because I want to run 4-40 watters and I know that's gonna bring some heat in that small of an area. Measurements: Front to back 17" x 8" wide x 20" tall. As far as fans, I have 2 PC fans set up as exhaust now, got one more smaller PC fan..I'd have to check if I have more..still a working process. I also have two 4" desktop fans that I can mount somewhere inside, possibly either angled up towards the light to KINDA keep the heat up and away from the plant..OR..I can mount one where the drives used to be and the other where the power supply was. That would bring/blow some cool air through the bulbs and pushed toward the exhaust.

Anyways...setting up ventilation for the first test run tonight is the objective. Any tips or suggestions are encouraged.

Well...still having temp. troubles. 85+ is not what I want. Going to be switching the fans around, try a few things to see if I can get that to around 80 max. Any helpful tips would be great. If I cant get the temps. under control, I'll probably drop a bulb and turn it into a veg box. Be back in a few days to let y'all know.

OK I left off attempting to get a PC grow up and running, didn't happen. Heat was too much and my PC fans weren't strong enough to take it on. So...back to the closet.

And in here, running another Skunk #1 already a seedling with first true leaves, 4 days old. I also have a Emerald Jack in for germination now, been roughly 15 hours since placed there.

Soil: Organic blend from local nursery.
Added extra perlite.
Nutes: Happy Frog All-Purpose - veg
Happy Frog Bulb Food - flower

Plants are in old milk/water jugs, the water source will be from the tap. Water will sit out for 24 hours and if I can find my aquarium pump I'll be using that as well.

Problem/s: And here's the bad. Right now I have 4 bulbs 23-27 watts over the seedling, there's that many right now mainly to check and solve the heat issue. Anyways the temperature rose to 77F overnight last night. My issue is I am going to be switching to 40 watters and I want to have about 7 or 8 of them going for the two plants (maybe 3?), and at the rate of 2 degrees per bulb we're looking at 85+. Any tips...I have to be semi stealthy which means I can't use any loud fans or I'd set up one of my inlines.

A little bit more about my set up.

We're gonna call this the "tape and reuse grow" because thats pretty much what I did. I taped a few pieces of old black/white poly back together and made a curtain to hang in the middle of my closet, don't have exact measurements of the area but by eyeing it, roughly 2.5x2.5x6 area. I have an oscillating 10 in. fan in there now, have two 4 in. fans I plan to put in as well.

**I opened one of the closet doors and pulled back the curtain to see a 5 degree drop in temperature, took roughly 45 mins to get there (77F - 72F). This ISN'T possible to do all the time though.**

About to change out the 20 watt bulbs for the 40, other than that...not much to report. Going to test out 6 of the 40 watters with a 3 liter bottle full of ice to try to keep things cool as well as raise humidity..yesterday the humidity dropped to 20 for a short period, usually stays around 30%.

Haven't checked yet this morning, but I don't think the Emerald Jack has popped yet, ANYONE ever grown this out? What about other Emerald Triangle strains?

If I can find my roommates camera charger I'll be able to take better pictures for y'all, if not all I have is my crappy cell phone and webcam.