What do ya think? [Qs included]

I've a growing space of 40"x18"x9.5" (HxDxW) and am planning on growing 2 NL plants (for personal use). I'll be using t5 fluorescents but I'm not sure about flowering. I'll keep them 1-2 inches away from the plant during vegetative state but what about when flowering? Do I still keep them 1-2 inches or raise them to the top? Also, because the grow space is so small when should I begin flowering? They grow 50% more when flowering, right? Or does that depend on too many variables to comment on?

Sorry for all the questions but I don't want to jump in the deep end without knowing what I'm doing

Thanks,
S.

I'm growing under 3, 4 foot flourescent fixtures each with 2, 40w )coolwhite) bulbs! not the right type fir flowering but...
You must keep flouros 1-2" off plant tops all the way thru harvest! it is a pain, but they grow best when that close, any more and they stretch.
figure on 50-75w per plant, ort about 2-3000 lumens per square foot. you start with cool whites for vegging and switch over to warm whites for flowering. See? it can be done. I am into my 16th day of flowering under these samelights. every day I must adjust them to keep them always 1-2" off plant tops. I use cuphooks in my side walls with rope tied with half-hitch (an adjustable sliding knot) so I can raise or lower my lights easily. cheap and easy. In the last picture you can see how close my shelved plants are to the lights. actually a little closer would have been better. these are about 3" away!

they'll grow 2-3 times larger during flowering, you flower after b=vegging. depending on strain, vegging takes about 1-2 months post later with pics.
usually when the stems stop growing exactly opposite each other and begin to come in ion a stagger (not right across fron each other) rthen you can put them into 'flowering. flowering is a 12/12 light schedule

Faralos...if you can move your lights, try arranging the plants by order of height and tipping hte light. this way, you dont end up burning one plant to get the light closer to the others.


Im jealous of your grow space. I dont have that much space or the lights but im makin it work!

Thanks for the all the info. Some nice plants you have there, how long were they vegetative?

If I start off with big enough pots do I need to transplant them?

Im jealous of your grow space.

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I presume your not talking about mine?

yes you still must transplant. (my space is 4x4x8 it's an unused closet in an UNHEATED basement where I currently reside!) (long story!)
your cupsare fine, in a few weeks you will see that your roots have filled up your containers. transplant then. you can go right into 1-2 gallon pots, but try not to go any larger. it's tough for a little plant to get the proper nutes and water if it is in a huge container! when you start to flower then you can transplant them into 3-5 gallon pots. vegging usually takes about 1 month. I vegged for two, 'cause of my crappy cool whites, they took forever to grow under them! I also prune alot of the lower leaves since I'm going for a 'SOG' (sea of green) that's why they look spindly. ( I have three mason jars stuffed full of leaf trimmings from these babies for later hash making!)
so I am into my 16th day of flowering. I hope in about 1- 1 1/2 months more will do it. i am also using a sugar/yeast (c02) setup and am using molasses. Molasses during flowering makes the buds stickier with resin and makes the weed sweeter tasting, too.

and don't worry when I took the pic I had just entered the room, they have all been sorted by height and are now doing fine all 5 females from 20 baggie seeds! sigh... those odds sucked...

If you're set on flowering under only the tubes then go for it, but I can tell you that you will get much better results adding some hps light. They sell 70 watt ones for like 50 bucks at lowes, and that with a couple of tubes would be fine for 2 plants.

Just for comparison, not knocking on it, but if you compare those pics above that are day 16 flower to my pictures which are at day 11 of flowering, I have 150w hps, a couple of tubes and a few CFL's. I think it is well worth the investment into HPS

Compare the buds

Will a 2 gallon pot even fit in my area (9.5 inches)? What's the diameter of such a pot roughly?

@matman444,

hps produce alot of heat (I think) and with such a small space that could be bad. I was hoping with the fluorescents I could ventalate the room by just opening the door a couple of times a day.

You could get a 2 gallon pot in there, it would just depend on the shape, they have one that are short and wide, whereas you would want want tall and thin.

Instead of soil could you use Bark Mulch? I believe its high in nitrogen

I am in debt to about 6k. when i get out of debt, I'll purchase better lights. Tell ya' what all you people who knock my lighting system, just send me $50 and I'll get one. until then, this is what I use, it works, it's just a little longer grow time. I've been growing for about 30 yrs. but this is my first time indoors, so I am new at this too. flourescents were free (they lit my basement!) so I used them. they are (hold off on the snickering) cool whites, too, go ahead bitch at that, too while you're at it. Every time (and i mean EVERY time) I post stating what lights I use I get the old lecture, hid's are better cfl's are great, blah,blah... Yes, I know I'm not a kid, I'm in my 40's and have been growing over half my life. sorry, but I'm losing my patience over this. I have a working setup! Sure it ain't great, butit works, and that's good enough for me. I figure too, after growing with flouros (in an UNHEATED room with my dehumidifiers exhaust (75 degreesF) heating the room I can grow anything! I also used miracle gro, another no-no, amnd I use a cheap-ass c02 setup and molasses. theyare growing, yeah, I'd love to get a seed- to- harvest time in a month like everyone else, but it isn't gonna' happen w/ flouros.oh, well, time I have. money I do not.

Thats pretty funny, I dont think he meant anything by it but i can see where there can get annoying. Next time you should just lie and say you have a 1000 watt hps.

What just happened?

I was just explaining why I can't use them. If they work for you, fine. I'm new at this and I figure you know what your doing so I was just bouncing ideas off of you, thats how I learn .

use 3l coke bottles.

Seachmall said:

What just happened?

I was just explaining why I can't use them. If they work for you, fine. I'm new at this and I figure you know what your doing so I was just bouncing ideas off of you, thats how I learn .

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dont worry mate, youll get there, just takes a few mistakes and a bit of time.

crazy-mental said:

use 3l coke bottles.

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Instead of the gallon? We don't have 3l coke bottles over here, biggest you can get is 2l

I use 2 liter bottles, I can get 3 ltrs. but then that's alot of sugar and yeast! 2 liters is fine really depends on size of your space.

I was looking at my grow space again and I think I was being fairly optimistic before. Its only 9.5" wide which is very tight. I was looking at other peoples plants and they were at least 11" when flowering started. Is there anything I can do to keep the plant thin (which is not good for budding right?)?

I just remembered that people grow in PC cases so 9.5" should be fine. I'm so confused right now, can anyone give me any advice regarding growing is such a small area?