Tutorial to Growing with Cfl's

jjmd said:

Doctor doctor... I have an issue, A BIG ISSUE. I have 2 plants that I started one hempy, one bubble-ponics. hempy is off the board never again, takes to long to grow. the bubble one took off twice as fast and nice bushy like a 70's playboy bunny. my issue both went to hermaphadites, YIKES. what causes this? Im cutting them up to get rid of the male parts. the only thing other than Xing them off totally. I want to avoid this from happenning in the future any ideas?

signed very mad.

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I ve had this happen with my CFL grow also BUT i have come to the conclusion that mine was due to poor genetics in my seed more than anything else.(My room temp has been avg 79 degrees with 51% humidity) Temperature and humidity seem to play a big role in CFL gardens (just as HID gardens) when it comes to Hermi's. People think since they are using cool lights they dont build up heat well they do and u gotta keep them cool. But i would seriously look at the genetics of your seed.

deh said:

I ve had this happen with my CFL grow also BUT i have come to the conclusion that mine was due to poor genetics in my seed more than anything else.(My room temp has been avg 79 degrees with 51% humidity) Temperature and humidity seem to play a big role in CFL gardens (just as HID gardens) when it comes to Hermi's. People think since they are using cool lights they dont build up heat well they do and u gotta keep them cool. But i would seriously look at the genetics of your seed.

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I have looked into it and found out that that might be the problem as well. Did you finish the grow or just get rid of it? I am looking at mine and find it neat am planning on finishing the grow for giggles and practice at reading what the plant needs. I am hoping that the female parts will at least be cool. seedy but cool.

jjmd said:

I have looked into it and found out that that might be the problem as well. Did you finish the grow or just get rid of it? I am looking at mine and find it neat am planning on finishing the grow for giggles and practice at reading what the plant needs. I am hoping that the female parts will at least be cool. seedy but cool.

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No I chopped it a 45 days it was starting to produce alot of seed so i dried it. But I also did it because it affected 1 branch on another plant an I thought I had gotten all the flowers but apparently not. I wasnt taking anymore chances. Plus I didnt have additional room to segregate it. But even tho it was 10-15 days early this is some potent ass weed cant wait dor the rest to mature.

Bye the way my seeds were from Nirvana (non-fem)
2 non viable
2 males
1 hermi
3 different phenotypes/ I still have 2 seeds left but this is just poor genetics however I do have some excellent phenotypes to choose from for cloning.

My album shows progress with other phenotypes and strains now at day 53

I used 12 CFL's equaling 410 watts which was equivalent to 1340 watts of standard lighting.

Hey quick question, im growing a medium height plant in a relatively small space, is it possible to control or influence the height of the plant by means of light placement (specifically with CFLs)? if not, or even in conjunction, anyone have any other good methods of size control?

BuddhaBud said:

Hey quick question, im growing a medium height plant in a relatively small space, is it possible to control or influence the height of the plant by means of light placement (specifically with CFLs)? if not, or even in conjunction, anyone have any other good methods of size control?

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PEACE. Not claiming to be an expert on the issue or anything in the like, I do have an answer that will give you a good idea of what is possible with the cfl's. I have grown EXCLUSIVELY with cfl's for a year at least now and I have not had an issue with height restrictions because I put the lights VERY close to the foliage. With a bit of venting the heat, you can grow very short and stuby plants under cfl's with the lights at no more than 6 inches away from the leaves at all times. As a cfl grower you will have more of a job becasue it seems that they grow into the lights every day. You will either 1) go crazy and forget about the cfl thing with all the light movement that is neccessary, 2) you will become more equipt to take on the light issue and it will get better and better with each new crop and even with the new growth stages.

The key is light placement. You also have the alternative of vegging for 2-3 weeks and then force flowering the plant. THis way you will have a better control over the height and it will be a bit quicker turn around. You have options that are unrelated to lighting which are useful as well such as LST (Low Stress Training) as well as topping and FIM (Fuck I Missed--type of topping where you only take the top 3/4 of the new growth). Couple this with the light proximity and you can grow quite well in a small area. The other alternative is to start the beans 12/12 from the first sight of a seedling, or starting the light cycle on 12/12 before they are even out of the seed hull. With the aforementioned method you wil get a bit of stretch in the begining but it is something that you can overcome with the proper potting and transplanting and it can even help to stunt the growth for you in the area that you have. THE KEY IS THE LIGHT PROXIMITY TO THE FOLIAGE.....THAT WOULD BE YOUR BEST BET....BETWEEN 3-6 INCHES FROM THE FOLIAGE TO BE EXACT!

GOOD LUCK KEEP IT GREEN AND BE SAFE

PEACE

BTW: A safer bet would be to go with AUTO FLOWER strains like the lowryder which stay under 3ft usually. but you can stunt them and get them to be 6 inches if you wanted. The yeild on the autos and the 12/12 form seed will not be anything to write about, but if it is for you personally then you wouldn't be concerned. Check the Auto AK47 which has nice yields and it is short. The deisel ryder is also a very popular strain of autos for it's potency and I believe for it's modest yield as well. Just some suggestions but look into the auto flowers and you will never have a room issue cause that is what they are made for....space restrictions

sweet, thanks a lot man, just wanted to make sure they dont shoot into the roof of my growbox -as for topping methods im goin for four colas by this method I found on here, you should check it out-used in orchards and whatnot - its called "Uncle Bens Topping technique to get 2 or 4 Main Colas"
that should keep the height down as you chop off quite a bit, and can do 4 weeks veg and get a pretty short plant
again, thanks man
peace

Can someone plase check out my thread and give me some input? https://www.rollitup.org/grow-room-design-setup/285129-grow-cabinet-design-help-needed.html

nice would be checkin back

hey there guys! love the thread! at the moment i am runnin 2x 65 watt cfl with 6500k for veg, pics attached! do you think this is a sufficient light for now! growin just bag seed for the now!

cheers from australia!

if thats 65 actual watts yes but if you got some weird ones with a 65w converted wattage

Great info for all who use cfls Dr. +rep. You said to try to stay away from 3500 to 4000 rated bulbs. I have 3 65 watters that are 4100k.
My question is should i not use them being their only 100 k over what you said to try to avoid? Are they giving my plants the light they need or am i basically wasting electricity? Thanks.

they are actual 65 watts which are equivelant to 250 watt incandescant bulbs!
do you think that i will need more bulbs in near future! as i am thinkin of soon puttin into flower in another 2 weeks!

cheers

yeah i picked one of those up last week theyre pretty sick. if those are your only plants add some side lighting they dont have to be the 65's (the one i got was like 16$) id get some like 2 42w (theyre 5-6$ at target) and like a 4 pack of 30w. or just 4 42w would be sufficient.because theyre going to stretch and theres not enough light penetration with anything under 400w and with a 400 id still use cfls for side lighting. in my experience as long as you can cool it theyres no such thing too much light

i am using 3 100 watt replacement cfl's to grow one plant. is this enough light for my baby?

meech777 said:

i am using 3 100 watt replacement cfl's to grow one plant. is this enough light for my baby?

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Are they the 26w? They will work for Veggin. I personally like the 42 watt cfl's and the 67w cfl's. Just make sure you are using the proper color lighting for the stage of growth you are in above 4500k for veg and 2300k for flowering.

These numbers tend to make my head hurt.

What watt and how many lumens am I looking for to do my clones? I am doing a "Walmart" cloner about 10-12 clones in a 1 sq ft area.
I know you don't "add" lumens.
Thank Y'all.

wow that is alot of info, new to the site and i just read ALL the posts. good shit i'm doing a 1 plant bucket mother and wall mart clone box for 6-8 clones. gunna use one 105 watt 6500k for mom and go buy a bunch of smaller cfls for the clone box. i do have a 105watt 2700k , i think i will circle it with 4 40-65 watt cfls. i'll keep ya posted as soon as i get my stupid seeds to pop :O my buddy just ordered some master kush fem seeds, will these be ok for a newbie ?

if your new to growing than you should start with an auto flowering seed. they do all the work for you. no changing light cycles for budding and they show sex about 4 weeks old so you can weed out males from females

thanks for the info dude. you gave me a guideline to use cfl's . this is my first grow with them. i'll keep you posted on how it go's and thanx again for real. befor reading this i didn't think i could use cfl's but your info explains what i did wrong with the first seed i tried

kushsmoker1981 said:

if your new to growing than you should start with an auto flowering seed. they do all the work for you. no changing light cycles for budding and they show sex about 4 weeks old so you can weed out males from females

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i am new to indoor growing but my buddy bought the seeds without my input. cant bitch too much he dropped almost 100 bucks for my little project