How are we doin?

It seems like it was just yesterday that my four plants were just tiny, leggy little sprouts with two little cotyledons just coming out, but here it is, 4.5 weeks since they sprouted (except Plant A, which is only 3.5 weeks old), and they are well on their way to becoming big healthy plants

I just started using nutes about a week ago, and i definitely saw a huge increase in nightly growth. They are 13-4-5 plant food spikes. I also began using a humidifier about a week and a half ago, and all my plants seem to be enjoying the added moisture

Basically, i just want to see what everyone has to say about my first grow.
My only questions are:

-Would these plants be considered short and bushy? that would be the ideal result for my grow. If these aren't short and bushy 4.5 week old plants, how might i go about training/cutting them so they remain short and become bushier?

-Do these plants seem fit for flowering yet? I know Plant A is probably a bit young for that, but when i look at Plant C, i just get so excited to flower! haha

-Could i stick with the lamp I'm using now for flowering? It is using two 40 watt Verilux Instant Sun bulbs at 6500K, and they both output 2100 lumens apiece. It seems to be working a lot better than i expected.

-Any clue as to what strain I'm growing here? there were bag seeds.

Thanks a lot for all your help!

Your plants look good. Some of the stock does look a bit buried but as long as your soil is even with the top of your pot and your leaves will have room to hang over, you'll be ok.

Technically you can force flowering at any time, but your bud production (if it can support the weight of the buds) will be little.

You could stick the lamp your flowering with now in there, but it would probably be better to use either mostly or all cool lighting during veg.

As far as the strain, it's probably to early to tell.

those look nice. probably is a good bushy indica.

babygro always tells indoor people to wait at least 8 weeks before starting to flower them. they get more mature and make more bud.

hey crayola, your plants looking bushy, but really short bushy. they have to grow a bit more for sure. since the are only less the 4 weeks old they are also not matured yet, so flowering them would not give a optimum in bud and potency. and a 6500K bulb is in the wrong range of light to flower with too, for that a 2700K is far better and you will need more light/lumens too, at least one bulb per plant and those in 42W range really. and let me tell you that too, you won't get the best shit with just a few CFLs for flowering, there is a great possibility that this weed you gone get will suck badly. to flower really well with CFL bulbs you need a shitload of them, and everyone how says different doesn't give you the full trues about it. i tried this stunt and failed with it on this little misconception, well wasted 6 month of power and work.

so basically would it just be cheaper in the long run for me to bite the bullet now and get the HPS system?

also, how difficult is it to wire up the lamps to the ballast and all that stuff? cause that's mainly why i'm so apprehensive about buying one haha... i like things simple.

oh and by the way green_nobody, i don't know if it matters, but these plants used to be wicked leggy... if we're counting all the stem that they actually grew before i reburied them, they'd probably be around 6-9 inches tall...probably with no leaves and possibly dead too... lol

thankfully i listened to all of the advice from you and other members in old threads of mine, or they wouldn't be in good shape at all

well if you want to cut corners and burn your place down go with security lights as some foolish noob promote here lately.
for a few bucks more you get simple HPS set ups, even some pre-wired, but wiring isn't to difficult either

maybe check that shop High Tech Garden Supply they are fair priced, or raid ebay for some time and you may get lucky there. i bought my 400W HPS sys on ebay for 60bucks with shipping included

Crayola said:

oh and by the way green_nobody, i don't know if it matters, but these plants used to be wicked leggy... if we're counting all the stem that they actually grew before i reburied them, they'd probably be around 6-9 inches tall...probably with no leaves and possibly dead too... lol

thankfully i listened to all of the advice from you and other members in old threads of mine, or they wouldn't be in good shape at all

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uhh what now, they stretched lately on you and leaves and branches died or what happened there lately??

post a pic of them and their current state please, you finally got me confused on a higher level now

oh no no no lol i took those pics of them last night, believe me, these plants are looking great as far as i can see, very short and bushy just like you saw, and just the way i hoped they would be. i don't know if you remember posting on my older threads when i had my new setup, and my plants were only like a week old, but they only had the cotyledons and their first set of true leaves. yet they were like 4 inches tall, and they could barely stand up straight lol.

now they are nicely supported with strong stems and only lookin to get stronger haha

oh, dude you shocked me first, i really thought for a moment that you would fall into your old pattern again, killing our newborns

i remember that stretched one, and me spanking you to rebury it deeper and set the CFL lower

then its all good now

green_nobody said:

maybe check that shop High Tech Garden Supply they are fair priced, or raid ebay for some time and you may get lucky there. i bought my 400W HPS sys on ebay for 60bucks with shipping included

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alright, so i'd love to buy myself a HPS system for flowering purposes. how powerful of a lamp should i look into buying? 50W? 400W? nothing more than that lol... i would love to be able to spend less than a hundred bucks.

i checked on ebay a week or two ago and all i could find was the same brand new packages for like 125+ dollars... a quality secondhand system would be ideal for me. what should i search? i think i just tried HPS Lamp and Ballast before and the results were none too pleasing lol...

would this be a good buy do you think? i just took a look in the link you posted and found this

High Tech Garden Supply

it'll probably be another 2 or 3 weeks before i buy anything though... just doesn't hurt to get the idea of what i should be looking for ahead of time

the one above is a 150W HPS for like 94 bucks

this one is nice, it's a 250 watt HPS for 117 bucks High Tech Garden Supply

jus try HPS or high pressure light or so, don't include blast since then only commercial offers will pop up. you should go with a 250W at least i would say since the priice of single 250W and smaller is just a buck under the one of a 400W and the smaller thos HPS get the worst is there Lum/W ratio compared to a 600W one which has the best, also in heat. as i stated i went with a 400W one for my little flower room of 3x4x6ft. and don't forget that you can use those fixtures for years and years to come, so cuttin corners at this will only safe you a nickel on the short run but on the longrun you will try to bit your dig of for your avariciousness back in the days

haha alright, i guess i might as well make the better investment

just gotta come up with the cash haha... at least i have at least 4 weeks to do it

Crayola said:

the one above is a 150W HPS for like 94 bucks

this one is nice, it's a 250 watt HPS for 117 bucks High Tech Garden Supply

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basically not bad that 250W one, a hammered reflector would be even better since the mirrowed ones still creat heat spots look up what a air cooled one would add to the bill maybe since you could use more of its light since you can move closer with them i think a 400W one goes at them for around 175bucks which is actually a bargain for a air-cooled

4 weeks is plenty of time to get a extra 200bucks on side and you could even stretch it to 6 easily since your plants are about 3-4weeks old time is on your side

woo hoo! haha i'm psyched for an HPS deal and so are my plants