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Offlinechucklehead
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AutoFlowering Kush Ryder CFL Grow Mini Grow Stealth Grow (COMPLETE) * 1
    #336453 - 12/26/09 01:45 AM (14 years, 3 months ago)

I'm not expecting miracles here.  Really any level of success is better than I've done to date.  Any help is appreciated.  If you spot any pitfalls right away please let me know.  I realize the CFLs are not optimal but HID bulbs are not an option inside a minifridge.  It would just be an oven.

This is not my first attempt at growing but it is my first attempt to take it seriously.  My previous attempts failed probably for a variety of reasons.  I think it's important to learn from my mistakes so listing the things I think I did wrong seems sensible.

1. Used an Aerogarden and had no idea what I was doing.  Figured it was just plug and play and use the nuets they gave me with the kit.  That resulted in plants that would start pretty well then flop over and die all of the sudden.  So I started some plants in the aerogarden again and then transplanted them to soil.
2. Used some very cheep seeds and bag seeds sometimes.  Also bought strains that didn't match my needs or set up. 
3. Left my plant to grown on the floor in a wide open space where it got knocked over, lights fell on it etc.
4. Very poor set up with lighting unstable etc. Basically CFLs stuck in Shop Lights clipped to a metal rod.
5. Used Miracle Grow Soil.  For autoflowring plants with short lifespans I have no idea if this even matters. 
6. Simply didn't know enough about what I was doing.
7. Was very neglectful as this was not my primary hobby so care was not a priority.


The set up.

This time I've constructed a grow chamber.  I saw someone else posted this as a grow chamber so I stole the idea and ran with it.  I picked up a fairly large mini fridge. 

It is about 30inches tall by 17 inches deep and 17 inches wide inside.

I removed the motor and cooling coils.  I took out all of the shelves inside as well as the control dials etc.  I used a drimmel cuting bit (actually about 6 of them) to cut two holes in the back of the fridge(one high one low). I mounted a powerful fan to the top hole. 




  I then placed strips of velcro tape horazontally on each side about three inches appart going up the sides. 

I then put velcro tape on the back of a power strip.  I am plugging my lights straight into my power strip. 

So as the lights need to get higher I must move the power strip up to a higher velcro strip.  I mounted a few more power strips in the back and top of the chamber for wireing purposes and wired the whole thing to a timer with a manual override.

Currently the lights are run 24 hours a day.  I lined the inside of the fridge with reflective mylar.  Then tightened up the light leakage on the front with duct tape and added a lockable latch on the door.


  Also I had a dehydrator die on me a few days ago so I took it apart and the fan still worked on it when I wired it straight to power.  So I put that fan in the grow box also because it really moves the air around. 


Lots of light leakage on the back and no carbon filtering yet.  As it stands now I've tested the number of lights I can run without getting the heat above 90F.  I can run 5 26W CFL at just about 87-88F, 3CFL will run at around 80F.  I have a mix of daylight 6500K, bright white 3500K and soft white ??00K.  At some point I'm going to have to start carbon filtering and that is going to reduce air flow and as such mess with my lighting level potential.  I think the answer to this is regretabley to add more holes and more fans in the back of my minifridge or get a more powerful fan like a small squirl fan.  The squirl fan is the more likely scenaro but still I then have to build a filter on the outside of my minifridge which sort of takes away from the idea of stealth.
   


I bought three beans of Afgan Kush Ryder.  Once again I think I've ordered something that doesn't quite fit my need.  That need is the smallest plant I can grow and the easiest plant I can grow.  I think I should have ordered lowryder#1 or #2. Suggestions are welcome here and if you can include the seedbank where I can get them I'd appreciate it.

The first start in soil.


I started two of those AKR beans.  I don't think it's going too well. One looks like the root tip dried out.  The other fell over. I beleive I didn't put the seeds in deep enough.  Here is what I did.  I filled two 3 inch pots with Hoffman Seed Starter that I had placed in a bowl with some distilled water and squeezed several times to ensure the soil was just below field capacity.  I then made wells in the center of the damp-soil-filled pot about as fat around as my pinky finger with a screwdriver.  I then filled those holes with course grade vermiculite.  I had already germinated some seeds in distilled water and placed them root tip upward about .5cm down using a pair of tweazers.  I now beleive that should have been 1-2cm down.  Then I coverd them in vermiculite and misted heavily with distilled water.  Then I put a sandwhich bag over top of the pots to keep the humidity high.  So the one that fell over it looked the the main root tip bent badly.  I propped it back up and tryied to burry the root a little better with more vermiculite and some soil.  I remisted that soil and am hoping for the best.  The little plant is still standing upright after 24 hours and the first node looks dark green right now.  The other seed hasn't quite left it's shell entirely yet.  I doubt it's going to make it.  The root is very thin and spindly and it looks like it has dried out a bit.  I reburried the root in more verm and misted heavily again.  I am not holding out much hope.

Some general concerns.

I have a lot of air flow and my RH is below 50%.  I'm fearful that my soil is drying out too fast and I'm afraid the little seedlings are going to wind up dried out.

I'm not sure when to introduce nuets, which ones, in what amount, and what brands I can get locally that would work well.  I already have blood meal and bone meal and gypsum.

Thanks for reading this long ramble and thanks in advance for the assistance. 

:bigblunt:
C.H.


Edited by chucklehead (02/19/10 08:39 PM)

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Offlineclosetgrower
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Re: AutoFlowering Kush Ryder CFL Grow Mini Grow Stealth Grow [Re: chucklehead]
    #336525 - 12/26/09 09:21 AM (14 years, 3 months ago)

Recently at home depot I saw HPS bulbs that were screw in size and below 100 watts. This may be a great option, although the bulbs are kinda pricy so it depends on how much you're willing to invest.

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Offlinechucklehead
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Re: AutoFlowering Kush Ryder CFL Grow Mini Grow Stealth Grow [Re: closetgrower]
    #336612 - 12/26/09 01:25 PM (14 years, 3 months ago)

Quote:

closetgrower said:
Recently at home depot I saw HPS bulbs that were screw in size and below 100 watts. This may be a great option, although the bulbs are kinda pricy so it depends on how much you're willing to invest.



Yeah I've seen them over there and I've seen the kits on eBay.  At this point it isn't about the money.  I can afford a good light set up but I don't have much space.  I'd love to build a full size grow room but there just isn't room for it.  As such I'm keeping it a mini grow.  In a mini grow with maybe 4.5 cubic feet that is poorly ventilated and highly insulated I would imagine that an HID would be a fire hazard.  I've been running CFLs and they run the temps up in that box quickly.  I am limitted to 5 26W CFL max before I start getting to around 90-92F.  That only gives me like 15k lumens.  Am I misguided in thinking the ONE HID bulb even in the 150W range is going to put out way more heat that my 5 CFLs?  If one HPS bulb isn't going to put out as much heat as 5 26W CFLs will I'll switch in a heart beat. 

Another limitting factor is odor.  I don't want this project stinking up my house.  I am assuming that one or two plants that only get 2ft tall max (hopefully more like 10-14 inches) aren't going to make the house smell like herd of skunks.  With a little carbon filtering I'm hoping to keep the smell under control.  Am I naive for thinking two very small plants won't smell up the house?


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Offlinechucklehead
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High on Poppy Tea and thinking about stuff. [Re: chucklehead]
    #336746 - 12/26/09 06:52 PM (14 years, 3 months ago)

I know I'm not supposed to bump my own thread within 24 hours but I want to keep records of some of the changes I just made.  Some of the numbers I've worked out and some of the thoughts I'm having about changing the set up.

1. I took the seed shell off the sprout that is lagging behind.  I'm pretty sure it's dead.  The root is looking a little brown.  I think it's rotting. 

2. The soil is drying out rapidly because of the heavy air movent inside the chamber and I think because of the extreme drainage of the soil. 

3.  I just read that once you see the first set of spikes you should give the plant some nutrients.  Well I'm a little behind on that but I just added some Shultz 10-15-10 Plant Food Plus Micronutrients.  I diluted it to less than 1/4 strenght and really only put a little in there.  Tomorrow I'll hit it again but after that I will do plain water for the next tree waters.  Then back to the nutes.  I need to pick up another water bottle for just water vs my nutes bottle.

4.  I removed the two florecent bulbs in the front of my chamber.  They aren't needed anymore so they are just in the way now.  I'm going to try to keep it as clutter free as possible.  I'm probably going to mount a bracket inside the camber for the extra cage fan and run it on a seperate timer.  It's nice because the heavey air turbulence makes the plants wiggle all the time.  However it has a couple of issues.  One is the motor on that fan gets hot and adds to the heat in the chamber.  Another is that it would totally shread a plant if one ever fell over onto it.  So I think I'll put in a bracket of some kind and mount it to the bracket somewhere high in the chamber.  I'll probably use an L bracket and gorilla tape.  Not super classy but it'll get the job done.

5.  I'd like to have more air flow so I can use more lights.  I could make the lower hole bigger.  I think that will help air flow a lot.  Another choice would be to wire up a small computer fan to blow into the chamber right in front of the lower hole.  The upper fan blows outward.  That might help.

6.  I would also like to reduce wire clutter.  I think I'm going to have to drill a hole or two through the chamber large enough for the plugs.  That might reduce the clutter.

7.  The dimentions of the chamber are 1.96 square ft and 4.9 cubic feet.  Right now I'm only running three lights.  That comes out to 78W.  That is roughly 6000 lumens.  That's 3000 lumens per square foot.  According to this http://www.growery.org/2796/Cannabis-growing-guide#A15 I may be over doing it with the light already.  So maybe I don't need to do so many mods to the box as I thought.


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Offlinechucklehead
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Re: High on Poppy Tea and thinking about stuff. [Re: chucklehead]
    #337034 - 12/27/09 12:43 PM (14 years, 3 months ago)

Dropped my last Afgan Kush Ryder bean in some water ten minutes ago.  I'm fairly positive the other plant is dead.  It hasn't shown any signs of growth at all.  On the up side my one good sprout looks like it's going to make it.  The top of the soil is drying out fast with the heavy vermiculite and the extreme airflow.  I just misted it to keep it from killing the roots.  This may be a mistake since the roots seem to be growing sideways instead of down.  Maybe I'll let it dry out a little more next time.



I bought 10 Nirvana Short Rider regular beans last night.  I wanted something inexpensive for practice.  That way my screw ups will cost me less.  I'm sure the germination rate wont be as good as maybe another breeders might be but that's ok by me. 



I'm going to try to run 3 plants in here.  Initially I was only going to do one but I think if I maximize my space usage I could get 4 plants in there.  For now I'm going with three and see how that goes.


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Offlinechucklehead
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Update [Re: chucklehead]
    #337778 - 12/29/09 09:50 AM (14 years, 3 months ago)

The last Afghan Kush Ryder bean cracked open yesterday I waited until this morning to plant it.  The root was about 1/16th of an inch.  I put two inches of vermiculite on the top of my soil pot.  So basically I have 2 iches of seed starter soil beneath 2 inches of vermiculite.  I moistened the pot with 1/4 strenght of Shultz 10-15-10 Plant food.  I burried the bean about 1 inch deep. 

Update on the only success so far.  I think I'll call it AKR#1.


I sniffed the plant AKR#1 today.  It isn't distinctly pot like yet.  It does have a very light smell to it though.


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Invisiblecoda


Registered: 04/20/08
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Re: Update [Re: chucklehead]
    #338337 - 12/30/09 09:27 PM (14 years, 2 months ago)

You said you may need to add in more fans?  How's the overall airflow in your cabinet?  Stale, hot, air may be affecting you right now.


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MFDoom666: sobriety kills my buzz every time.

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InvisibleMuggles


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Re: Update [Re: coda]
    #338377 - 12/31/09 01:34 AM (14 years, 2 months ago)

Where did you find those lightbulb sockets? That's inGENIOUS! Forget wiring up a bunch of bases...

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InvisibleHarry_Ba11sachM
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Re: Update [Re: Muggles]
    #338391 - 12/31/09 03:06 AM (14 years, 2 months ago)

I did something kind of like that with a tri-splitter and a couple of Y-sockets to get 4 CFL's in a small area like that.
only about a dollar apiece at almost any hardware store



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Offlinechucklehead
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Re: Update [Re: Harry_Ba11sach]
    #338642 - 01/01/10 09:04 PM (14 years, 2 months ago)

Quote:

You said you may need to add in more fans?  How's the overall airflow in your cabinet?  Stale, hot, air may be affecting you right now.




I think it's good now.  It wasn't ever stale.  The big problem was I couldn't run a lot of bulbs without the heat creeping up on me.  I could only run 5 CFLs and still be ok on temps.  What concerns me is I haven't added any kind of carbon filters.  Once I do that the air flow is certainly going to be inhibited and then I'm boned.  But where there is a will there is a way.  I had to move the mini fridge to my basement today because relatives are coming for an overnight visit.  Since I had the mini fridge in the spare room it had to be moved to the basement.  Well, once in the basement I had the reverse problem.  The temps weren't high enough.  So now I'm running 8 CFL and 2 of those 18 inch floro grow lights.  The 18 inchers put out a lot of heat.  So when it comes time to filter the air flow I'll cut back the lights starting with the 18 inchers since they have the lowest wattage and highest heat output.  I'm thinking I may do that sooner rather than later.  I have no idea if altering the light levels downward would harm or stress the plants but better safe than sorry right?

I wish I didn't have to filter the air at all but I've had a plant that was a foot tall and not flowering before.  I could smell them when I walked into a room.  I'm guessing that two 10-14 inch flowering plants are going to be strong enough to stink the place up.  Now that I think about it I should probably get an ionizer too.  I have one of those HEPA filters that have a carbon filter on them.  I wonder if that would work.  Probably not.  Though it does clean the smell of pot smoke out of the air pretty well.

The air movement is really good.  I have to water my plants daily.  At first I thought I was maybe overdoing the watering but when I would pick up the pot it would be feather light.  When the plants were running in an environment with higher end temps and lots of air movement add to that the soil is super loamy with lots of perlite and vermiculite they were bound to evaporate their water rapidly.  I have the white fan on a timer now to run for 6 hours and stop for six hours at a time.  My aim here is to cut back on the watering and still strengthen the plants by keeping them wiggling from the air movement.


Quote:

Where did you find those light bulb sockets? That's inGENIOUS! Forget wiring up a bunch of bases...


 

Thanks.  I get those little plugs at walmart.  They are in the isle with the lights.  Usually they are hanging on a little peg.  Like Harry said they are about a dollar.


Now for a little update.  I'll get the camera out tomorrow but for now just words.  AKR#1 is coming along.  The first set of 5 spike leaves have started to develop.  She's stretching out a little bit I'd guess she's about 2 inches.  Her color is going to a lighter green.  I haven't given her any nutes for a couple days.  I'm thinking I'll give her a little plant food tomorrow.  I'm going to stick with a 1/4 strength solution until she gets a little bigger.

AKR#3 my latest seedling finally broke the surface.  So I took the plastic bag off the top of her and she's exposed to airflow and light now.  The humidity is around 60% so I'm fairly comfortable with doing this. 

Humidity could eventually become problematic as I have very little control over humidity in the chamber.  It goes up and down between 40-60% I've read higher humidity can cause molds on the buds.  I have no idea how I'd control this.  I'm a fungus guy I've always worked toward higher humidity in the past.  I've never tried to control it downward before.

Pics tomorrow.

Thanks for the help everyone!
C.H.


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Offlinechucklehead
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Re: Update [Re: chucklehead]
    #338756 - 01/02/10 08:41 AM (14 years, 2 months ago)

Pics as promised



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Offlinechucklehead
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Update [Re: chucklehead]
    #341981 - 01/06/10 10:12 PM (14 years, 2 months ago)

Ok there have been a few changes since the last update.  For one my timer for my lights burned up.  It actually started smoking and the side of the case started to warp and melt.  I'm damn glad I was home when it happened.  Yikes!  Sooooo take care the wattage you try to run through a digital timer I guess.  By removing the timer I dropped the temps in my grow chamber by 10 degrees F.  So now I'm down in the low seventies.  Time to add more lights and get some more timers which I'll run seperately this time.  So each cord of 78W will have it's own timer.  More clutter but fuck it I'm going to get to put at least two more lights if not four in there so I'll be over 300W and around 23000 lumens. 

The lights are running 24 hours a day.  When I pick up the timers I'll run them 20 hours on and 4 off. 

AKR#1 is coming along nicely.  She's getting close to the lights I moved her away from them but the lights need to be moved up one level in a day or two.  Her stalk is all green now.  It had reds and purples in it before.  Also the stalk has thickened considerably.  This is the best looking plant I've ever grown before.  There are sets of leaves under the bigger leaves.  I've never had that happen before either.  I'm supposing that is a good thing but I don't know.  I'm still feeding her daily and giving her 1/4 strength plant food.  It appears she likes it.  When I touch her leaves they feel oddly plastic like and dry.  The leaves are a little curly and not so much flat.  Over watering maybe?  I'm starting to wonder when she needs transplanted.  I'm thinking about the time I see roots coming out of the bottom of the pot.  AKR#1 is so compact I can't see any evidence of sex.  I don't want to break the plant so I'm not bending the leaves around too much.  I know it's supposed to be feminized and all that but I've just been calling it a HER because I'm wishfully thinking.  One more thing.  I've never seen leaves with a frost to them at this early a time in a plants development.  Granted it's a very light frost but still it is there.

AKR#3 is looking a little spindly but so did AKR#1 at first.  I'm going to cut her back on the nutes and go to strictly water for a bit longer.  Her stalk is still purplish.  Also I found one yellow circle near the center of one of the spike leaves.  I looked inder the leave and saw no evidence of mites or maggots or anything.  I did however have a gnat fly out of my grow box today so that concerns me.  I didn't catch it so I don't know what kind of gnat it was but it was very black.  It wasn't a phorid, which is good. Those little bastards explode in population in no time.  Man I hate those things.  Anyway here are some pics.



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Re: Update [Re: chucklehead]
    #342946 - 01/08/10 04:46 AM (14 years, 2 months ago)

:rockon:


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Invisiblecoda


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Re: Update [Re: GoldenCapAttack]
    #343904 - 01/09/10 07:53 AM (14 years, 2 months ago)

Sounds like you got a shitty timer.  300 watts is nothing.  I run my 600 watt light, one squirrel cage fan, one inline fan, and one oscillating fan off of one timer.


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MFDoom666: sobriety kills my buzz every time.

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Offlinechucklehead
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Re: Update [Re: coda]
    #344016 - 01/09/10 11:41 AM (14 years, 2 months ago)

:shrug:
Regarding the timer I guess so.  It was like $20 at Walmart.  I bought it quite a while ago so I'm not certain.  The timer I'm using to run the one fan is retarded now too.  It won't keep the time it keeps resetting itslef.  It only works as an on off switch at this point which I have to run manually.  I'm going to ditch that too soon as I get done studying today.  I was actually going to get a bunch of those really basic dial timers.  If that's not the way to go could you recommend a timer that would be better please?

Regarding the lumens, first let me say I'm not trying to argue I'm trying to understand so that I do this right.

Why is it that adding more lights does not equal adding more lumens?  My perception based on what my eyes detect is adding more lights adds to the brightness.  Does more brightness not mean more lumens?  Also (and this is just my vague recollection of High School Physics) I thought light was esentially the emition of photons.  So if X photons are striking the surface of a plant from one light.  If I add two more lights for a total of three lights would I have 3X photons striking the surface of my plant?  Is there not a relationship of photons to lumens?  Found this link.  I haven't read it yet.  I'll study that later.  I have home work to do.
http://www.sunmastergrowlamps.com/SunmLightandPlants.html
http://www.ini.uzh.ch/~tobi/anaprose/recep/practicalPhotometry.pdf


I'm running 26W CFLs the lumens vary as do the Kelvin based on the type of CFL.  Some or the 6500K Daylight CFLs, some are bright whites 3500K cfl and some are the soft white CFL at 2700K I think.  I don't have the numbers on the lumens handy.
Quote:



This chart is from the Complete Cultivation guide.
Lamp Type        Watts  Lumens per bulb    Total efficiency
Fluorescent Bulb 40      3000  400 watts = 30k lumens
Mercury Vapor    175    8000  400 watts = 20k lumens
Metal Halide    400    36000  400 watts = 36k lumens
High P. Sodium  400    45000  400 watts = 45k lumens





I had assumed that there weren't any 400W Fluorescent bulbs (perhaps incorrectly).  So adding bulbs would add watts and therefore add lumens.  Or put another way if one bulb equals 1900 Lumens ten equaled 19000 lumens.  Evidently not.

Found something else interesting at
http://www.gardenscure.com/grow-guide/

Quote:



Lighting Forumlas
To correctly determine the best lighting for your space there are several things that you have to know. At this point, a couple of definitions are in order. The amount of light emitted by one candle that falls on one square foot of surface one foot away is called a lumen (lm). The amount of electricity flowing through a wire is measured in watts. Watt (W) hours measure the amount of watts used in one hour. A kilowatt/hour (kWh) is 1,000 watt/hours (Wh).

Lumens Per Square Foot
To determine how many lumens per square foot you have, find out the square footage of your space by multiplying the width and depth. Divide the lumens available by your square footage. This will give you lumens per square foot. For example, say your space is 3 feet deep by 4 feet wide, for a total of 12 square feet. The total lumens available from your light(s) is 45,000 lumens, which means you have 3,750 lumens per square foot.

How Much Light Do I Need?
Technology has advanced so much in the last 15 years that we are constantly refining the process and updating what we know works best for growing. Current theory holds that the minimum amount of lighting needed to sustain growth is around 2,000 lumens per square foot. Mid range is around 5,000 lumens per square foot. Optimal is 7,000 to 7,500 or higher lumens per square foot. How Many Watts Do I Need? The general rule of thumb for providing light for an area is a minimum of 30 W per square foot. 50 W per square foot is optimal. You can determine the proper lighting for your area by using this formula: Watts x Square Feet For example, say you have an area of 10 square feet and a 30 W. That would mean you have a 300 W per square feet minimum. Also, remember that fluorescent’s are weaker and emit less light than an HID. This means you will need 5 times the amount of wattage to equal the output of an HID. So, 30 W of HID would equal 150 W of fluorescent’s. This is why it is advised to provide a minimum of 30 W per square foot for HID lights and a minimum of 150 W per square foot for fluorescent’s. This is all important because the light intensity will directly affect the quality and yield of your crop. If you have less than optimal lighting your yield and potency will be reduced and buds will not develop as dense. This point can not be stressed enough. You must have the right amount of light for your space to grow high quality bud.





At this point I'm getting confused. 

Bottom line it for me.
Does adding more CFLs help my plants?


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Invisiblecoda


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Re: Update [Re: chucklehead]
    #344019 - 01/09/10 11:52 AM (14 years, 2 months ago)

I recanted that part of my post because the more I thought about it, the more I realized I had no concrete proof either way.

http://www.growery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/344012

So i started that thread.  Hopefully we can get a solid answer to this question.


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Offlinechucklehead
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Excitement and Fear [Re: coda]
    #344280 - 01/09/10 08:00 PM (14 years, 2 months ago)

Well today I discovered little white hairs on the top of AKR#1.  So for that I am excited.

Also I found that she was looking more droopy that ever.  For that I am fearful.  After a few searches I found that it was probably due to over watering and too much nitrogen.  I've got her in a 3 inch pot that dries out daily.  I see some tiny roots on the bottom of the pot but they are very whispy.  I water daily with 1/4 strenght plant food but daily watering is perhaps causing build up of nutrients in the soil.  I'm not sure if I should just cut back the water to every other day and just let her be dry every other day or if I should just cut out the nutrients or both or neither.  I'll post in the Doctor forum and see what folks say.



AKR#3 is coming along nicely but she's starting to show the first signs of curl and droop.  I don't water her daily because she doesn't dry out daily.


Maybe I need better plant food.


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Re: Excitement and Fear [Re: chucklehead]
    #344286 - 01/09/10 08:05 PM (14 years, 2 months ago)

any room for bigger pots in your grow chamber?


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MFDoom666: sobriety kills my buzz every time.

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Re: Excitement and Fear [Re: coda]
    #344330 - 01/09/10 08:33 PM (14 years, 2 months ago)

Yep I can put two 1 gallon square pots in there.  I'll have to move my white fan but that shouldn't be a problem.  The pots need drilled out and I'll have to rig something to let the drainage work right i.e. get some space between the bottom of the sqaure pot and the bottom of the minifridge.  I have some aluminum pans with corigate bottoms I was thinking about lining that with a plastic garbage bag or something.

I'm a little nervous about the soil for transplanting.  Folks are pretty fussy about that around here.  I've got some options there but I've never seen Fox Farms soil at any of my nurseries or lowes.  What are the key points to picking out a good soil?  Can I just get something 'organic'?  Should I pasteurize it when I get it home?  Should I order some High Mountain Compost or Mary's Compost?  I never actually considered them for growing weed.  Heh I always just thought of them as mushroom substate.


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Re: Excitement and Fear [Re: chucklehead]
    #345310 - 01/10/10 06:44 PM (14 years, 2 months ago)

Well I repotted AKR#1 today.  I used ferti-lome's cactus mix.  It has sphagnum peat, perlite, limestone, and sand.  I added a very small amount of vermiculite.  It seams like it'll have good drainage. 

As usual AKR#1 was bone dry again today after a solid soak yesterday.  She had a super root ball.  Just about every last bit of soil came out of the smaller pot in one piece.  The roots were all around the edges of the container.  I can't believe she had such a root system with such a small plant.  I put her in a one gallon container with nine 1/4 inch holes in the bottom.  I used straws with drink stirs stuffed in them to suspend the new pot from the bottom of the grow box.  I've relined the bottom of the grow box with an aluminum pan that I lined with a plastic garbage bag.  This will allow me to water inside the grow box and trust the plants can safely drain excess water.  On the subject of water.  After transplanting AKR#1 I gave her a good soak.  That container can really soak up some water.  I was shocked.  I watered her with about eight times as much as I normally give her and the water never drained out.  I picked her up to check the weight for reference. 

I moved the lights over AKR#1 up one level (about three inches).  I'll do pics in a couple days.  There isn't much to see.  She's a litte more droopy today than yesterday.  I suspect she'll be a little grumpy about being moved.  If marijuana acts like tomatoes at all when they are replanted she probably won't show many signs of growth for a few days then she'll take off like a shot.

AKR#3 now has first set of 3 spikes.  Second set just barely starting to form.  Water for a few more days and then she'll get some food.

Side note, I still haven't got my seeds from Attitude yet.


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