My First Grow - CFL 3 days from flower

So I've been a big fan of this site for some time, mountains of endless information. Sometimes I will sit up for hours in reading through journals and informative posts, it's a beautiful thing. I've wanted to grow my own since I was 16 (about 5 years) that's when I really started to learn what it was all about. Now that I've settled into my new place I've decided it is a good time finally start. It's been 39 days since I planted it as a seedling and it has given me all kinds of problems ever sense. but what can I say, it's like my child.. my beautiful weed child lol. Anyways, I've come across so many problems that I finally decided to start a post of my own. But mainly because I really want to share this with someone! and I figure, who better than a community of people who are as passionate about the sticky green as I am

I'll start with the Basics:
Closet grow, Bag Seed(Maui Wowi)
Planted 39 days ago(Friday Dec. 3rd) Vegetation began 37 days ago(Sunday Dec. 5th)
Current
104w(4 lights) 6500k CFL, 26w(1 light) 2700k CFL all horizontal
22" tall x 16" wide x 15" deep box that I built out of some plywood I found by the dumpster
1 x 120mm computer fan(exhaust) above the lights, 2 x 80mm computer fan(intake) on the right side facing the closet door.
Walls and the light fixture are covered with mylar.
FFOF soil and nutrient trio(Big Bloom, Grow Big, and Tiger Bloom)
Water every 2 days and feed it nutrients every other watering(Full str. Grow big 1/2 str. Big Bloom)
General Hydroponics PH up down.
3 QT pot with 1/2" of perlite in the bottom for drainage(I read it on here and thought "why not?")
Temperature stays between 80-85F during the day, 70F at night.
Humidity varies from 25% at times to 55%
18/6 light cycle
Start LST tomorrow, Wednesday Jan. 12th(I have a few questions about it)
Starting Flowering on Sunday Jan. 16th(can't wait to find out if its a girl!!!)

Some things for the Future:
I ordered 1 more 80mm fan and 3 more 120mm fans. I will use the new 80mm and one or two of my current 80mm fans to blow on the lights, and add the 120mm fans for intake and outtake when I add the new Flowering lights.
Hoping to expand the box, got a sheet of plywood to use.
I have a 125w 6500k CFL grow light but I don't have a Mogul socket
Going to order a 125 or 200w 2700k along with a Mogul light socket in 3 weeks
I'm going to buy the items for a home-made carbon filter on Friday.
I'm going to buy filter covers for all the intake fans to keep out dust.
And I'm going to get weather stripping for the door.(most likely make-shift)

Now the Problems:
Day 15 It started growing sideways and the leafs were touching the ground(turns out I planted it sideways and the stems was in a L shape)
Day 17 It began to droop like crazy, it was in a party cup with Scott's potting soil.(did not have PH up down at this time or FFOF)
Day 20 The lower set of fan leafs started to wilt and die starting with brown spots and yellowing.(still no PH up down or FFOF)
Day 23 FFOF finally arrived and I transplanted right away into a 1 1/2qt pot, cut off the first 2 sets of dieing fan leafs, and tied a string to pull and support it straight up.(UPS delayed my order 9 days)(Still no PH up down)
Day 27 It was doing so much better by this time, lots of new growth and was looking like a palm tree. But the new growth on the side shoots was still a shade of yellow, and the new growth at the top of the plant was a shiny shade of purple(still no PH up down)
Day 30 I over watered her a bit not paying attention to how much I was adding(very stoned )
Day 31 It seemed it had repaired itself but the new growth was wilted.(PH up down finally arrived, seller ran out of stock for the holidays and refunded my shipping turns out my water was around 9.0 )
Day 37 (today) It is a bush! Working on its 11th node! The first 2 sets of side shoots are super big and the rest of them all all crunched together! I transplanted her into her final 3qt pot yesterday. All of the new new side shoots are growing very funny, some are sideways, some are lopsided with bigger leafs than the other. Its strange, I'm pretty sure its because of the lights? The upper fan leafs are also sideways, I'm a bit confused. This morning it was fine but when I got home from work the top fan leafs were sideways and droopy?!

And here are my Questions:
I'm going to start LST tomorrow or the next day(depending on how moist the soil is, I've read that if its still freshly watered the stem is easier to snap) and I was wondering how I should do it.
Should I top it? Is it too late? Every post I've read on LST have topped their plants, the thought kind of scares me.
Should I cut off the fan leafs on the side that will be laying down?(I've read that this is a good thing to do so that they are not in the way) One side of the plant has smaller growth pretty much from bottom to the top so I'm going to lay that side down.
Should I cut off the lower massive shoots to re-rout the energy of growth to the upper shoots?

Anyways here are some pics from its life (the last pics are the funny growth)
Any and All information or advise you guys have to offer will be greatly appreciated! +rep(if I can) for all valuable information!!! Feel free to ask ANY questions, I'll be happy to give more details. Thanks and happy smoking!

From here on are pics of the odd shaped and twisting growth:

Sounds great, tons of info! One problem though, your pictures aren't working! =( Try getting them up asap, can't wait to see your progress. Feel free to stop by my thread if you're interested =)

can't help too mich w/o pictures, try to fix those links

don't be scared to top, its not that hard and has great effects when size is an issue for your plants. But do so before you start flowering; its best not to stress the plant too much once you've entered the flowering phase.

Hey P10p and mgrady3! Thanks for stopping in. I re-uploaded all the pictures and added a few more of the funny growth that's going on with it. P10p your girls look awesome, it makes me wish I had started LST sooner. Its growing so fast I'm afraid it is going to outgrow its box if I don't do something soon. Think I may top her tonight if I can build up the courage to lol.

how close are your lights, the twisting may just be from the foliage moving to get maximal light coverage.
You want to keep the cfls nice and close to your plants, 2" is plenty of separation especially if you have good air flow.

You have all your lights above the plant, you could try adding some smaller cfls on the sides of your plant to promote light penetration to the side growth of the plants. Though in a PC case stealth grow this isn't easy.

look at a few posts/threads about topping, its not a big deal, then just go ahead and do it!

otherwise they look good! healthy, not skinny and stretched, no obvious nute deficiencies; good work. go ahead and top those ladies (presumably/hopefully since its bagseed)!

give yourself at least a week between topping and when you want to enter flowering. You want to give the plant time to readjust and let the new growth begin. There will be a growth spurt/stretching a week or so into flowering so you don't want that to coincide with the plant just starting new growth.

as far as the trimming goes, you are growing in a limited space, and it seems to be good that your plant is bushy. If you cut the side growth you may end up getting a plant thats too tall for your container. Some LST can help fix that, but if it were me, I'd try to promote the side growth as much as possible.

also consider this:
you have a 4:1 ratio of 6500K to 2700K lights
when you flower you'll want to flip flop that. 2700k are better for flowering

Thanks mgrady +rep for all the info! I'm going to buy a 125w or 200w 2700k mogul grow light soon after I start to flower(shooting for Sunday) so I hope that bad boy does what it is supposed to! I'll also add some smaller CFL's to the side because I know I will be able to fit them around the big light. I was thinking about adding more lights to the sides with the current set up but I don't know how I can fit them in there yet... when my fans come in I wont have a problem putting more in it. The lights are usually around 1/2" from the top of the plant(I have it stacked on books to get it closer) and I havn't had any problems with burning, they stay pretty cool. One day I came home from work and one of the fan leafs was completely hugging the light, it had slight burn on its tip but nothing serious!

So I started some LST just about 10 min ago! Woo my heart was racing, just hoping not to hear that 'SNAP' but it went well!. It bent over real nice, I also chopped off the 3rd set of fan leafs(they were dieing from the PH trauma a few weeks back) and one of the first nodes that just didn't get enough light and was tiny. All the others are massive, I'm going to bend her a bit more tomorrow and start to wrap her around the inside of the pot. I decided not to top, its my first grow and I'd rather just leave it alone!
Anyways here are some pics of the mini monsters fresh LST!

Top that girl, you'll be glad you did.

I did some more LST today, tied the top down a bit more and anchored the side shoots to the side with paper clips to open up the canopy a bit. I'm posting a picture of the top shoot that has a hole growing in on of the leafs! It's also on one of the very new leafs you can see it in the picture.. can anyone guess as to what that is?!?

Hey Smokebomb, I'm not going to top this one because I'm flowing on Sunday. I have 3 more Maui Wawi seeds and a massive Grape Fruit seed that I'm going to do a few different methods of topping and LSTing with. Looking forward to them sense I have all the stuff I need for a better grow!

lookin' great. now way more of your plant is exposed to the light, she'll be happy.
cheers mate and here's to a good harvest

Thanks mgrady, crossing my fingers for a girl!
I'm giving it it's last feeding of full str. Big Bloom and 1/2 str. Grow Big in about 10 min. Next watering will be on Sunday when I flush it for it's first day of Flowering, I cant wait! I'm going to buy some unsulphured molasses tomorrow to start adding to its watering cycle(tsp per gallon every watering or every other). I'll start adding that the first watering in its flowering cycle(probably Tuesday or Wednesday).

Hey guy's, so it's Sunday and it's time to put my baby into Flowering. I swapped the lights last night with some 23w 2700k bulbs. I was able to add 2 more to the current design of the box for a total of 6 2700k bulbs and 1 6500k bulb. My goal is to get 8 2700k and 2 6500k bulbs. I most definitely need to add some side lighting ASAP. I was going to try to add some last night but I accidentally destroyed 2 of the 8 bulbs I bought lol. The temp has been great all day, I knew the soft white bulbs run cooler but I figured that adding 2 more would keep the temp around the same. Turns out the box has dropped 7 degrees down to 77 degrees.. that's a good feeling! It was going to bed at 12am and waking up at 6am during the veg cycle and now its going to bed at the same time but waking up at noon 12am-12pm.. did I do that correctly?!
I also put together a DIU carbon filter made from 2 mesh pencil holders, a thin sock, and activated carbon for a total of 20 bucks. I still have half a container of carbon left to refill when necessary. I got the Idea from Wolfman Zen https://www.rollitup.org/do-yourself/101248-best-diy-ez-walmart-carbon.html
I will be adding that on sometime tomorrow or the next day, I did a test run with it today on my current exhaust and it worked wonderfully, my 140mm computer fan was able to move air through it well although I could hear some stress coming from the fan so I'll double up the fan with my 120mm or just wait for the other 2 120mm fans to get in and double them up.. not sure yet.

Anyway here are some pics of the bush, new light setup, and the carbon filter. Please feel free to leave me any comments, questions, or concerns!! I would really like to here what you guys think, good or bad!

Alright I know this sounds crazy, but I discovered pistols on two different sites coming out of little tear shaped growths that are all over the plant yesterday.. yeah thats right the first day after its first 12 hours of sleep! I didn't think that could happen so I checked again today and sure enough the hairs have grown longer and I can see little hairs poking out of several more of the tear shaped growths!! I'll post some pictures, I couldn't get my camera to focus in on the site but if you look closely you can see the hairs next to the stipule, I'll try to get some better ones as soon as possible.. has anyone heard of happening before?

Hey freebird,

Congratz on entering the world of growing! Its evident you have done lots of prior reading. Don't worry about making mistakes you'll learn a lot by making them. But good luck man!

I would think that if it was all ready mature enough then yes u might be able to see them that fast. I would just keep checking not only for the white hairs but for some balls on them also (hermie). But as of now u sound golden good luck and great grow.

Kingkannibus said:

I would think that if it was all ready mature enough then yes u might be able to see them that fast. I would just keep checking not only for the white hairs but for some balls on them also (hermie). But as of now u sound golden good luck and great grow.

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I second KingKannibus. Some strains will show pre-flowers if left in veg long enough.

ZenithXalaga said:

Hey freebird,

Congratz on entering the world of growing! Its evident you have done lots of prior reading. Don't worry about making mistakes you'll learn a lot by making them. But good luck man!

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Hey Zenith thanks for checking out my girl! I have most definitely come across several problems throughout her life but nothing that doing some research on RIU couldn't fix.

Kingkannibus said:

I would think that if it was all ready mature enough then yes u might be able to see them that fast. I would just keep checking not only for the white hairs but for some balls on them also (hermie). But as of now u sound golden good luck and great grow.

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I was actually reading about that last night on a couple of forums here, I didn't realize that if left in veg long enough some strains will show there sex before entering 12/12.. pretty cool stuff. I've been checking her for hermie parts like every hour lol, nothing but lady parts so far.. one of the parts has what appears to be some extra large pistols that look a little folded inside.. not sure exactly what it is but I'm keeping a close eye on it.

She is growing like crazy, I flushed her with a molasses/ph'd water solution 2 nights ago and it seems like she loved it. I cant wait to give her her first dose of flowering nutrients. With how much water she is drinking I will probably get to hit her with nutes by tomorrow night before she goes to bed(seems like she responds much better when I feed her an hour or so before lights out). I'll post some more pics for you guys the day after I feed her for a progress update! Thanks for checking it out guys and happy smoking!

The worst thing you can do as a CFLer is not top your plant, from my experience. So it looks like you're off to a great start.

My advice is to not chop too early. You always want to chop early...just say no.

Kudos!

Congrats on the female. She looks amazing from the top view. I really want to do a grow like this. I cant wait to see what you yield off that.

qwerty0260 said:

Congrats on the female. She looks amazing from the top view. I really want to do a grow like this. I cant wait to see what you yield off that.

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Thanks qwerty!
There are several things that I wish I had done differently but it just makes me look forward to future grows.

I fed her flowering nutes tonight for the first time, about 3/4 strength FF Tiger Bloom and full strength FF Big Bloom. Can't wait to see what it looks like in the morning... anyways I'm baked outa my mind I'm going to watch 30 Rock . I'll post up some pics tomorrow!