First time Hydro Grow, CFL indoor. (PLEASE HELP!!)

[CAM3RON27]

Hey everyone! my name is Cameron and i recently went ahead and got a new mmj card so i have decided to start a little hydro grow.

I made a trip down to the hardware store and put together a hood for 4 CFL bulbs. from what i have read, the 23w 1600 lumen bulbs are the most efficient to use because they have the best watt to lumen %. these are the kind of lights i will be using for now, and are the daylight 5000k. I have also read that for every cubic foot of grow space you have, for max potential calls for about 5000 lumen. so with the 4x1600 lumen bulbs i have i figure that makes 6400 for the light itself. heres what it looks like so far, i may add more lights on with it i just need some feedback.

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now yesterday i went over to the hydro store and picked up a nice little hydro set that can do up to 15 plants. right now im working with 4 but i might add another two in there in the next day or two. the strains i have currently are, Alien Kush, Space Berry, Skywalker, and the small one i got from a place in Rosemond, she was the last one they had, and i really wanted one at the time so i just got it, but basically i have the 4 23w cfls over these 4 clones. should i add more light? and when should i do it? heres what the set up looks like so far...

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i got them all planted today and the hydro system set up and working great with a timer to control when and how many times a day they will feed. this is also something i really need some advice on...how often a day should i water? and for how long? right now i have it set to water 4 times a day every 6 hours for 15 mins. i timed how long it takes from the time it starts filling, till the time it is fully drained and it is about 23.30 mins. takes about 3.45 mins to fill the top tray, and about 5.30 mins to drain after watering. and here are some pics of the babys,

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and for now ill leave you with this link to a video of the room

and i also want to include that i do have a nice little fan circulating the air and keeping the temp down. all help will be greatly appreciated and i will continue to post my progress as they come along!

 

[vaporedout]

yeah keep that fan goin on em, it will help strengthen the roots, also try and get that light closer to the smaller ones, other wise theyre gonna stretch, and your pics arent working.... good luck!! ohh btw im no hydro grower so i cant even begin to try and tell you whats good for hydro.

-vape

 

[lifewater42]

Yeah your gonna need more light my friend. Fan leaves will begin to shadow your lower sets and the lack of intensity of the lights expansion will cause stretching and slow productivity. Double up for veg ASAP and try and get a few 250 to 300w cfl for flowering if you continue that route. #2cents

 

[CAM3RON27]

Sounds good I will plan on doubling up my lighting ASAP. I really need someones opinion on watering sceduals for how many times a day and for how long. I'll get my pictures fixed today but the vid pretty much shows what I got going on for now! Thanks again guys.

 

[CAM3RON27]

hey guys checking back in with some new pics from today, and the ones from yesterday that didnt work the first time. ill start again with the home made light i made for around $40.00.

and here is what the whole set up looks like from yesterday,

and now for the pics from today with the extra two cfl lights i but in for the shorter plants. i am still planning on adding two more to the other side for a total of 8 23w 1600 lumen 5000k cfl's.

i also bumped the waterings up to every two hours for 20 min water cycles during the daylight hours of 6am to 12pm. while the plants are sleeping between 12pm and 6am they will not be receiving food. everything seems to be running smoothly and i can tell that the taller two are already ready for some topping, but i am going to wait till friday so they can settle into there new containers.

i got some X Nutrients ph down today because the tap water at my house is at a ph of 7. so i added the down and now have a nice ph of between 5.5-6.0. also got some RapidStart root growth nutes to get those things exploding. and lastly, Floralicious. here is my feeding schedule that i will be following.

thats about all i have for now, please leave me feedback on what i can continue to do to better my grow, thanks again! 3RON

 

[CAM3RON27]

hey whats up everyone, just checkin back in on day 4, got all 8 of the 23w 1600 lumen cfls in there and everything is looking good on the new growth and lookin healthy, i got a thermometer/hydrometer for room temp, water temp, and room humidity for 22 bucks works great and you can check the highs and the lows for the day.

i will be topping the four bigger ones today, (friday) and the first flush will be on sunday.

heres my line up of nutes i will be using for this round

i will check back in on sunday after the flush and toppings so everyone can check out the progress and i will continue to keep workin these things toward getting moved into a nice big grow tent under some 600w lights. few weeks from now we should be lookin pretty good! once again any help would be great, being that this is my first true attempt ever. i've helped in gardens for years but never started my own. wish me luck!
3RON

 

[Toone]

If you wanted you could add maybe 1 or 2 more lights but i use to had the exact same setup that u have now just about 2 weeks ago and the only thing i messed up i vegged to long and by the time i flowered there wasnt enouph light covering the plant (thats why i flower now with hps) besides your using hydro and nutrients so itll probly be better and bigger that what i had go ahead check out some of my old videos youtube.com/highlifetv420

 

[CAM3RON27]

hey everyone, week ones over and i just flushed them yesterday but here is a few pics showing the new tops after being topped, and also the new growth on the smallest little guy. getting a ppm meter tomorrow because right now im just hoping my nutes are right. but everythings looking good tonight im gonna cut back the watering a little bit because they look a little droopy so that should help out!

from now on im going to try and do about a weekly update on everything and at least a short video to show whats going on, but until then, stay growin my friends. 3RON

 

[Intense]

How close do you have those lights? The plants are looking a little stretched. CFLs should be as close to the plants as possible, say a couple of inches from the leaves.

Are you planning on flowering with an HPS? You will get better results.

 

[CAM3RON27]

the cfl's are within inches of all the plants, they look a little stretched because i bought these as clones and they were already a pretty good size when i got em and they were already real stretched like that, the new growth is filling them out now though and i am topping the bigger ones to keep them short and bushy. i also finally got my ppm meter today and found out that my water was a little high, after some adjusting its now down to about 350-370. im pretty sure this is going to greatly help these girls grow and get the proper nutes they need.

also, yes i am planning on moving these into a full grow tent with hps lighting in about 3 weeks. they will have everything they need to finish there flower cycle and produce some nice budz!

 

[CAM3RON27]

hey everyone, this pretty much finishes off week two, i ran into a beetle problem of some sort, that was frusterating i think they came in 5 out of the 6 plants i have. a few of the leafs look a little light from over flushing them i think. i used one of those bug foggers and it seems to have taken care of the beetles for now. also changed my water to the ro water from walmart, its at about 6 ppm which is a lot lower than the tap water from my house, so now with my ppm's meter the ph tester and everything else im able to get my water perfect and the plants seem to be loving it. ive also dropped the waterings down to 4 times a day while the lights are on. even my smallest plant has roots all the way to the bottom of the pots now so pretty happy with the progress. planning on leaving these guys in veg for about another month. maybe longer if they look like they could use some more time.

anyways, heres a pic of all of them, may look a little over watered due to the recent flushes but all the new growth is still looking very green and very healthy.

and heres a picture of my little girl, this is the blueberry fire that has almost caught up to my skywalker plant. all kinds of bushy new growth and i have my money on this one being one of the best plants in the end!

 

[tedsprogz]

You might find better results from side lighting with the cfl's. they make reflectors with clamps that you can articulate however u want. I had great Veg success with them. i've always used t5's or t12's for over head and used cfl's for side light. also try LST'ing it'd help out a lot. Good luck!

 

[CAM3RON27]

yo everyone, checkin back in on the end of week 3, and beginning of week 4, i think im going to leave them in for another 3-4 weeks before sending them into flower... they definitely have a ways to go still but showing all kinds of new growth. heres a top view pic of all of them, i dont know if you can tell or not in this one but my littlest one, the blueberry fire, has now passed up my skywalker. pretty cool watching it catch up everyday...

heres a little vid too from yesterday i think...the tops are growing out nice there almost ready for number 2, but i think im going to wait a few more days for that. let me know how they look!

ooh also one more thing, i got a cool mist humidifier for the room, its been helping keep the room temp down and keeping my humidity in the 70% range which is a big improvement for them! thanks again,
3RON

 

[CAM3RON27]

just wanted to throw these two pics up too the tops are really turning out well so far,

 

[Luke OReilly]

Have you considered using LED grow lights instead? By using just one 209 watt LED grow light over that plants you would see twice the growth rate and nice health bushy plants. From what I know about light spectrum's the CFL light offer very little usable light to your plants.

 

[CAM3RON27]

i have considered led grow lights, but they are a little out of my price range, i know i really could benefit from led growing. im not planning on them staying under the cfls very much longer and i am planning on putting them into a 4x4 grow tent with a 600w hps, and the whole set up. the only problem is that i live in the desert and already have to fight the high temps...so i might have to look a little more into going led to help keep temps down, thanks for the input...if you know where you can get the best deals on them shoot me a link!
3RON

 

[Luke OReilly]

Check out my website, if you find something your interested in I can give ya a good deal.

 

[sky high]

You need to go through logic/get an OK from logic if you are going to do business/promote your business here @ the Farm....even as a signature.....

Otherwise, your time here will be >very< short.

jus' sayin'....

s h

 

[Luke OReilly]

Ok, thank you for the heads up. I will not do that any more.

 

[CAM3RON27]

Hey everyone! Today is one month since I got these goin and I did a little video of the progress,

I'll get some pics and things up later too but check this out for now and give me some positive, shit even some negative feed back lol either way I appreciate the help!
3RON