My First Grow using CFL's

Hey guys, I decided I'm sick of spending mad money on bud and decided that it would not only be rewarding but also fun if I tried to grow my own plant. I am starting with 1 plant with bagseed from a decent bad. I am not so much expecting a huge yield from these plants as much as I sort of just want to learn how to grow. BTW I am growing in my attic

Heres my setup.
- 1 growbox, about 1.5' by 1.5' (made from wood as the frame and sheetrock as the walls that have been painted white for reflection
-2 16 watt 1000 lumen each floro lights (may get rid of these since they don't fit well in the box
- 3 27 watt 1500 lumen 6500k CFL's w/ reflectors.
- generic store brand potting soil (hoping to cut some corners for prices but should still work fine)
- 24-8-16 NPK nutrients, will SLOWLY add these in during vegging but not a main priority. 1-2 weeks into flowering I will switch to 5-15-15 NPK nutes or something similar but I am going to be scarce on the nutes.
- 3 40 watt 2600K 2500 lumen each CFL bulbs (will install during flowering) will also probably get more bulbs
The plant is still in its starter cup and has sprouted, but don't have pics of that right now. I plan on keeping the vegging short and flower early. I'm giving the seedling 24/0 lights right now and will probably keep that through the entire veg until I switch to 12/12 on flowering. I plan to start flower once I get about 4-6 nodes and when I have an established root system

Here are some old pics of the grow box, BTW, the lights are much closer to the plant now, I have cut holes out of the sheetrock in the side and the CFL bulbs are sticking into the box from the outside all around the plant. Works nicely and I will get some more pics when I get ahold of a digi cam.

whats your spectrum of the 15 watter 1000 lumen fluors?
and that box will be alittle to small imo

what if after all ya hard work it ends up male?thats why you should really grow atleast 4 plants if your using regular seeds to give you a much better chance of getting a female,,,,,peace

agree.. that would suck if it grew balls lol

mrskitz said:

what if after all ya hard work it ends up male?thats why you should really grow atleast 4 plants if your using regular seeds to give you a much better chance of getting a female,,,,,peace

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Way ahead of you, got 2 other plants sprouting right next to the window sill

Roullette said:

whats your spectrum of the 15 watter 1000 lumen fluors?
and that box will be alittle to small imo

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Standard spectrum

standard spectrum? wtf is that?

plants have 2 different types of chlorophylls. chlorophylls a and chlorophylls b. one uses a bluer spectrum (vegging) one uses a yellow to red spectrum (flowering). good to have bluer for vegging an have a 6500K cfls and a 2700K to a 2100 spectrum for flowering. mixed spectrum is good for flowering.

blue simulates the sun during a spring time for growing and red simulates the sun in fall flowering .

Roullette said:

standard spectrum? wtf is that?

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It says 83.3 CRI (Color Rendering Index) for fuller spectrum lighting.

I figured just a standard floro lol. I guess that makes no sense.

it could be a mix spectrum whic is good but its gonna be sitting in the middle of blue an yellow. your gonna want a yellow to red spectrum, that fluor is gonna give you a shit yield


True power of lighting.

peep this wrote it a few days back

Roullette said:

it could be a mix spectrum whic is good but its gonna be sitting in the middle of blue an yellow. your gonna want a yellow to red spectrum, that fluor is gonna give you a shit yield

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Well I stated in my first post that I have some 40 watt 2500K CFL's that I will install later for flowering.

Besides those two 16 watt floro's I have 3 27 watt 6500K CFL's. Those are the correct ones for vegging correct?

As of right now the 1 plant is getting ~6000 lumens of light. That should be more then enough correct?

yea those are great for vegging. there a bluer spectrum then an MH but alot less PAR rating then an MH tho... im a full fluor grower and happy with the results.

Roullette said:

yea those are great for vegging. there a bluer spectrum then an MH but alot less PAR rating then an MH tho... im a full fluor grower and happy with the results.

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Thanks for all the help bro. Yea I understand how much better MH and HPS lights would be but I figure I'm only going to be doing 1-2 plants at a time and I don't see a point in using them. If I was doing 5-6 plants I would definitely be going with HPS and MH though. Also CFL's are a nice break on the wallet along with the power bill

The way I see it is just marijuana is a plant, it can't be to hard to grow. Give it light, food, and water and try to keep optimal conditions and you should be having yourself some banging bud.

the only difference with HPS is PAR and spectrum.. the plant uses 90% of light to grow 10% nutes to grow. hps is better you will get a higher yield.. possibly a higher trichome. over all HPS for the win.. but you can get sick buds from flours with a low heat signature out put... looks like your shits in an attic and your better off with flours due to low heat out put cause that attic is gonna get to 100-130 degrees in the summer which will kill your plant your gonna want to get some sort of air cooling in there if your summers get to 80-90 during the day

Roullette said:

the only difference with HPS is PAR and spectrum.. the plant uses 90% of light to grow 10% nutes to grow. hps is better you will get a higher yield.. possibly a higher trichome. over all HPS for the win.. but you can get sick buds from flours with a low heat signature out put... looks like your shits in an attic and your better off with flours due to low heat out put cause that attic is gonna get to 100-130 degrees in the summer which will kill your plant your gonna want to get some sort of air cooling in there if your summers get to 80-90 during the day

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Yea right now it gets to about 50 degrees outside in my state and around 65-70 in the attic. Although it is 40 outside right now and probably 55 in the attic, I hope my plant can pull through this. I decided to start growing now because it would be optimal temperatures in my attic right now. So far an attic grow in the summer is out of the question since like you said our summers in NJ get to around 100 degrees sometimes

yea.. im not to far from you and summer are the same.. 55 degrees will most likely kill your babies tho

my boy had 9 white widows in a room 63 degrees and died.. they were about 1 week old.. and this ahappend about 3 weeks ago..

Roullette said:

yea.. im not to far from you and summer are the same.. 55 degrees will most likely kill your babies tho

my boy had 9 white widows in a room 63 degrees and died

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Should I bring the cup to my room right now? It's about 70 in here.

BUT the lights do provide some heat in the box, I need to get a thermometer to see what the temperature in the box is, because it might be higher then in the attic itself

absolutely.. there a tropical plant there gonna want to be 70-80 degrees.. its just gonna help them get started.. what i would do in your situation. is put a thermometer in that box build a top for it let it sit for a day or two and check the temp if its about 65-70 throw them in there with the top on that grow box.. the lights may heat the box enough

yup your just answered my reply

I just went up into the attic, it is fine. I can sit up there more then comfortably and when I stick my arm in the box it feels slightly warmer. It is probably in the 70's in the attic. My baby has been growing strongly also. It just peeked its stem out of the soil yesterday and already its a good 1" tall