12/12 from seed using CFL's. NLxBig Bud and many many others!

That monster 12/12 from seed thread really inspired! By page 75 of the 819 page thread I was all ready to give it a try. Mostly cos it just looks so damn easy compared to growing more conventionally.

My own circumstances favor a 12/12 grow as I have to run A/C a lot to keep temps within acceptable perimeters it can get costly. Also I have a lot of seeds I want to try and have too many really.

So my set up is a secret jardain tent inside which I have many many CFL's ranging from 23w to 65w hanging from hooks and chains from the roof of the tent. The tent will take four 6L pots with spill trays.


I'm growing in a coco chip/coir/perlite/super peat mix. Mainly coco coir with chips lining the bottom of the pot then perlite and a smallish pack of super peat thrown in for nutes for the first month!

At ceiling level (about 5 feet high) have a bathroom style extractor fan with ducting leading out of the room.
At a low level I have ducting leading to a nearby A/C unit which then blows cold air through the tube and directly into the tent.

Temps are within acceptable ranges with this set up. Below 90 degrees with lights on and about 78-80 degrees with lights off.

Have a NLxBig Bud that has broken ground with 3 more seeds underground and one more (Pineapple Express unfortunately) most likely dead due to a terminally tough seed casing that would not come off after it broke the surface. Have left it in there in case it recovers but most likely not going to happen.

Won't be any pics for another 6 weeks at least as I use this diary to keep myself reminded about various things that need to be done.

Being a second grow I'm over that 'anxious mother' stage of parenthood and a bit more relaxed about the overall situation. Also I'm probably not going to do much besides trim where necessary as it is already a 12/12 grow and that is enough new stuff already!

what did you yield from your first grow dude? and what strains? saw a couple pics

cL!cK said:

what did you yield from your first grow dude? and what strains? saw a couple pics

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Strains were Tangerine Dream, Blue Widow, Northern Lights auto and Critical + auto. Grow did not go well overall. Ended up with about 75g of bud after all the processing. Also got some pretty interesting QWISO hash and oil out of the trim saved in freezer.

There will not be any pics on this thread for another month or so. However I'll keep the thread updated for my own reminders.

Today watered the NLxBB seedling which is growing nicely. The PE is probably dead and the other seed still has not emerged yet. These seeds are a good 9 months old at least. The PE did not crack properly for example and germination in general has been a pain so far.

Got another seed to pop. 'Moby dick' Casing came off fine and seems pretty healthy. Still both at seedling stage at the moment. Took my Lemon Diesel out of the paper towel and into a shot glass full of water. Out of 5 feminized seeds I've tried so far 3 have germed only 2 successfully. Unfortunately the Pineapple Express got caught in it's casing and just could not pry it loose without killing the patient!


So for now I have 2 definites and a couple of maybe/unlikelys. Will give the maybes a few more days then it will be time to look at a couple of new prospects.


Just to recap the 2 surviving seedlinds are under CFL's in a tent on a 12/12 timer. It will stay this way for the whole grow. The only thing that will happen is that more CFL's will be added as the plants get bigger and more in number. I can grow 4at the most although may stick with 3 as it will give me room in the tent to put in a small oscillating fan.

So this the plan in general....

Soil mostly coco with chips lining the base, perlite mixed in with coir and chips and maybe 10% super peat.

Soil looks pretty good.

Fertilizer - Have a gadget called the 'fertometer' going to see how it works. Right now it shows one plant as fine and the other as needing ferts. This surprises me as there is only a seedling in there right now. Initially I'm going to use 25/5/5 at a very very weak strength in water then once they get older I'll just use the KISS routine with perhaps some more coco specific nutes from time to time.

Technique - Tent, CFL's about 10k lumens per plant eventually. Less while they are small. About 50/50 2700k and 6500k right now but eventually mostly 2700k. CFL sizes range from 65w to 23w (real wattage). Have intake sucking cool air in and outake blowing the hot air out of the roof of the tent.

Method
Will leave plants alone pretty much except for perhaps lollipoping one of them to see how it turns out.

Can't wait to see the set up. Subbed.

AllDayToker said:

Can't wait to see the set up. Subbed.

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It will be a month before I can post any pics. However not a lot to see at the moment. A couple of notes. The Moby Dick seedling has stretched too much and is almost laying down on the soil. I plan to either use a toothpick and dental floss to hold it up or re bury the rockwool deeper in the soil so it is more stable.

My exhaust fan is too strong for the space it is evacuating. The walls of the tent suck in even with the lights on and A/C sucking cold air into the tent. I've tried to modify this by moving the exhaust fan so it offsets the ceiling hole and no seal is formed. This seems to equalize the pressure a little better with lights and A/C on. When lights are off I just use a piece of thick cardboard to cover the gap between the fan and the ceiling hole.
When the lights and A/C are off there is still negative pressure. I can tell by the way the tents walls 'bow' inwards during 'lights out.'

The problem is solutions to this problem involve allowing light leaks into the tent. I may just hook the extraction fan to the lights timer and use a small oscilating fan inside the tent to crate airflow when lights are off instead.

The reason I'm having these problem is that I did not stop to work out the numbers on what would be necessary to recycle the air healthily in my tent. I have essentially just bought a bathroom ceiling extraction fan unit and put it on the roof of my tent over the exhaust hole andattached some tubing to transport the exhausted air out of the immediate area then plugged in.

Just like the subject of ballast I'm not quite ready to go deeper into growing quite yet.

A quick seed re cap

Northern Lights x Big bud - seedling sprouted. Colydens dyings now and plant looking a bit locked up. Will have to check ph on runoff next watering.

Moby Dick - Besides thew above problems it has a purple stem. Soil is showing as needing ferts but I'm holding off on feeding for now.

Pineapple express - killed by a stubborn seed casing

Cheesewreck - no germinated in paper towel so have tried just planting it. No sprout yet.

Lemon diesel - Paper towel method of germination failed. Shot glass full of water method is being tried now. May try using razor to score the casing if no results in the next 3-4 days.

Watered today. Looks like I'll have to water more often than I expected with this mostly coco mix. My fertometer showed the Moby Dick as needing nutes so I put a very weak solution of 25/5/5 in as that purple stem indicates a lack of N as I recall.
The NLxBig Bud is not doing much besides turning yellow and not growing much. I'm tempted to nute that too. Will check PH first.

Should I have taken both seedlings out of the rockwool cube before I transplanted them into bigger pots?

The NLxBB continies to yellow and not grow much. Fertometer says Nutes are ok and the finger test indicates it does not need water. The temps and RH are within tolerance. All I can think of is that the PH could be off and the plant is nute locked.
Will let it dry out then give it a good soaking and check PH.

The PH of the Moby dick is 6.5 and they both are potted in the medium. If it is not a PH issue then I'm out of ideas and will have to play the waiting game and see what happens.

Oh dear my timer broke while I was away for a few days on holiday. Not sure how long plants were 24/0 lit but turned the timer off a couple of hours late and it is finished. Was a cheap piece of crap anyway. Will buy a decent one today. Lesson learnt.

The Moby Dick Continues to flourish despite not being under many lumens while I was away. Since I could not run cold air into the tent the whole time I was away I reduced the number of bulbs drastically. The NLxBB is not looking good. PH problems persisting.

Also the NLxBB is CRAWLING with tiny winged things. Not sure what they are or how to get rid but I need to find out or the grow could be a bust.

Not going well apart from the Moby Dick really.

The PH on the NLxBB just won't come down.

Lemon Diesel did not germinate while I was away. A big disappointment. Will have to try a new one. Yet sanother wasted seed to go along with the Cheesewreck and Pineapple Express that have already failed.


Now my new gf has discovered my grow room and is asking questions. I suppose it had to happen eventually.

My new misson is to kill the bugs, get the PH down and come up with a good story for my gf. I'm thinking tomatoes!

So I have germed another. Fruity chronic Juice. A freebie from attitude by delicious seeds. Have gone back to my tried and trusted method of germing. Damp paper towel in an empty plastic jar with lid loosely on and a little water at the bottom. Cover and put in a warm, dark place.

Will see what happens.

Flushed the NLxBB with 2 gallons of water and have tried to get the PH down a bit. Will see if I succeeded in 3 or 4 days or when it is time to water again.

The Moby Dick looks ok and have added lumens to it today.

Watered Moby Dick yesterday. My fertometer said it needed ferts so I added some 25/5/5 mixture to the water. Not too much I hope. The NLxBB is not doing well with stuff crawling in the soil so I binned the soil and repotted it into a different mix. The Fruity Chronic juice had still not germed as of yesterday. Basically the plants have all the lumens they I can fit around them and a rotating fan has been added inside the tent to assist with airflow.

So far I have to say going 12/12 from seed with CFL's is not working out.

Fruity Chronic Juice has a taproot and planted in a coco/soil combo mix today.

Keep doing your thing homie I enjoyed reading your post this is my first grow and I'm nervous I'm doing everything wrong

benjamin curry said:

Keep doing your thing homie I enjoyed reading your post this is my first grow and I'm nervous I'm doing everything wrong

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Hey. Thanks for stopping by. Don't worry. I thought the same thing on my first grow too. My advice would be to stick to the basics. On my first grow I tried too much stuff when I should have been just letting the plants grow.

Fertometer shows Moby dick as being ok and NLxBB as being over fertilized. The Fruity Chronic Juice has not shown its head yet. Don't expect it to for another 2-3 days anyway so I'm not going digging around just yet!

Will let the NLxBB dry off then use a good deal of plain water. Not really a flush but a semi flush till the green light shows on my fertometer. Still trying to get the right timing of watering on my coco/soil mix. Seems to stay wet less than soil soil but more than pure coco. Hope I did not overdo the 25/5/5 water mix. The Moby dick does not seem to be growing as fast as before.

I'm a bit worried about this 12/12 with CFL's will produce dwarf plants despite my plans to use a lot of lumens to make up for it. We will see what happens...

Subbed up buddy!! Can't wait to see everything play out! I'm also looking forward to pictures of your setup..

FCJ has emerged from the soil. NLxBB is not growing as intended. May have to flush it out again. MD is growing and developing slowly. May have to introduce Co2 into the equation. Not sure how to do it right now without attracting pests.

Watered the NLxBB and Moby Dick. Moby dick seems to like nutes while the NLxBB needs less. Did something in preparation for using Co2 which is going to sound a bit nutty. Put a lizard in my tent. They are all over where i live. They eat mosquitoes, moths, ants. Basically insects and pests in general. They like light and heat. When I put my Yeast/sugar Co2 in tent the ants will come and I'm hoping the lizard will eat them for fun. If he doesn't like it he can escape through the air intake.

btw this kind of lizard is completely harmless and very very common. Also considered to be lucky. Something we can all do with from time to time.

just a quick note that the MB tests at around 6.4 ph and the NLxBB shows at about 6.1 which are both fine.

not fine is the NLxBB which still shows up as being in 'hot' soil on my fertometer. Will have to flush it out again I guess unless things get better.

The MB is showing green light and the FCJ is in such a small pot right now it is not worth measuring. Still early days for that one.

Put some dead ants in the tent today for the lizard in case he is hungry. Getting a water/yeast/sugar C02 set up going today. If any pests come the lizard will have them. Hopefully he didn't run off already!