Inquiry?...First Grow

Hi I'm new to the forum and was hoping someone could help me out with some questions I have. I am growing 2 clones that got given to me and are about 5 weeks old now. I am using CFls as they are the best for my budget and am combining it with low stress training. I am using two 6500K and one 2700K. What I was wondering is when I should flower them (they are on 24/0 now). Should I wait till they are close to the shape I want them(circle)? Thanks alot, awesome community!

Technically, you could flower whenever you want. Especially since you say the plants were already 5 weeks when given to you.

You are definitely going to need more lighting for flowering (adding more lights and vegging for a few more weeks would not hurt). How big are you plants right now? How long have you had them under those lights? A lot of things can determine when is best (for you) to flower. What's your grow area like? Are you worried about stealthness? If you aren't, and you have a large grow area, I would veg them for another 2 or 3 weeks under some more lighting (see if you can pick up 1 or 2 42w 2700k lights and then maybe a few more ~23-26w 6500k lights.) With two plants, you will want a lot more lighting than you currently have for good results.

As far as LST goes, feel free to start it now and then continue through early flowering. After a few weeks into flowering, I wouldn't put any more stress on the plant so it can put all of its energy towards producing fat buds.

I think I answered all of your questions. But yeah, get some more lighting, veg for a few more weeks and start your LST. You should be fine! I encourage you to start a grow journal as well, so you can ask any questions you have while you're growing.

Welcome to RIU.

I did a SOG grow, my very first grow, it was what I read up on. I had 6 plants, in a rapid HYdro system with feeder tubes, and I started 12/12 at two weeks. I got three females. After 9 more weeks of Flowering, I got about 3 ounces from my three small plants.
Then I met a Grower-Mod on here named fdd2blk. He is highly opinionated, and He knows his Growing too, he's a soil man, and leans strongly toward HID lights and frowns upon CFL growing. He is probably the most knowledgable SOIL grower here or anywhere.
He taught me something very important back then. That it is not logical, or wise or smart to make babies have babies and if you start plants FLOWERING at an early age, that is what you are doing, making babies have babies. It is much wiser and smarter and better to let you babies become women, or let them mature first, before you force them to make babies.
Consider a ten year old child, that is not an adult, getting pregnant and having a baby. Not only does it really stress the child, the new baby will be premature, deformed, and probably just messed up. Let that child grow up and mature first, then let the adult have a baby. Same theory applies to pot. Let that plant be a maute adult first, then 12/12 it.
Now I get an average of 3 + ounces per plant, after VEGGING 5 weeks in HYDRO.

FDD is doing some pretty nice plants 12/12 from clone these days...

Roseman said:

I did a SOG grow, my very first grow, it was what I read up on. I had 6 plants, in a rapid HYdro system with feeder tubes, and I started 12/12 at two weeks. I got three females. After 9 more weeks of Flowering, I got about 3 ounces from my three small plants.
Then I met a Grower-Mod on here named fdd2blk. He is highly opinionated, and He knows his Growing too, he's a soil man, and leans strongly toward HID lights and frowns upon CFL growing. He is probably the most knowledgable SOIL grower here or anywhere.
He taught me something very important back then. That it is not logical, or wise or smart to make babies have babies and if you start plants FLOWERING at an early age, that is what you are doing, making babies have babies. It is much wiser and smarter and better to let you babies become women, or let them mature first, before you force them to make babies.
Consider a ten year old child, that is not an adult, getting pregnant and having a baby. Not only does it really stress the child, the new baby will be premature, deformed, and probably just messed up. Let that child grow up and mature first, then let the adult have a baby. Same theory applies to pot. Let that plant be a maute adult first, then 12/12 it.
Now I get an average of 3 + ounces per plant, after VEGGING 5 weeks in HYDRO.

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i concur with that. vegging for longer with produce much more healthy plants and bigger yields.

AGSteve said:

i concur with that. vegging for longer with produce much more healthy plants and bigger yields.

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So I am better off veggin for longer. And to clarify when I got the plants they were about 2 weeks and are now 5 weeks, I have been LSTin them for about 1.5 weeks and it seems to be working great. About more lights I plan on buying two more 1500 lumen 6500k cfls today as it's pay day. Then when it's time to flower I am going to get some more 2100-2700K bulbs.
Also a few of my leaves are looking like a pretty motley crew, anyone have any ideas as to the reason? Any help appreciated, and how do I attach thumbs? Thanks alot!

Ok so I posted some pics. I have 2 26W 6500K 1600 lumen bulbs and one 13W 2700K 900 lumen bulb for a 1.5sq foot area is this good for veg or is the optimum lumen/sqft more than this. And my plants arent flowering so I don't know what is with the leaves? Also I have had them on 24/0 since birth would it be beneficial to their psycological development if they had some dark(18/6 or so) or should I keep em 24/0 till flower. Thanks alot for the help you guys rock!

Chillums said:

Ok so I posted some pics. I have 2 26W 6500K 1600 lumen bulbs and one 13W 2700K 900 lumen bulb for a 1.5sq foot area is this good for veg or is the optimum lumen/sqft more than this. And my plants arent flowering so I don't know what is with the leaves? Also I have had them on 24/0 since birth would it be beneficial to their psycological development if they had some dark(18/6 or so) or should I keep em 24/0 till flower. Thanks alot for the help you guys rock!

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personally i've always 18/6 but i don't think there is a great deal of difference. the brown spots are generally down to nutes and/or ph. if its only on the older leaves you shouldn't worry to much.

edit. just looked at the pic. are you giving them any nutes yet?

No I'm not giving them any nutes. But the original guy that had them put in to many and they had nutrient burn, could it be left over damage from that?

Chillums said:

No I'm not giving them any nutes. But the original guy that had them put in to many and they had nutrient burn, could it be left over damage from that?

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it could be. are you testing ph of soil and water?

Those look pretty good to me Sometimes you just get that varigated colouring, I certainly dont see anything to suggest PH imbalance on those plants yet personally, at least nothing I'd worry about.

Longer veg = better yield generally speaking I agree. Talking of maturity, remember these plants can be revegged/reflowered numerous times if you want to reach full maturity its well worth doing in my experience.

If you care to take a look at my thread below you can see my two plants vegged for just over 2 weeks before flowering to give you some idea of what you get with short veg. 6 weeks veg will vastly improve on that

Good luck, theyre looking good. Nice training.

No I'm not testing any pH. They both starting showing their form today lil white hairs! Sweet! And Phoenix you saidd in your other thread that when LST'ing you should cut the strings sometime when flowering, when? Thanks alot!