First Time Indoor Cfl, Am I Getting Impatient?

[jncoking]

This is my first grow and decided to go with a small CFL setup. I built a 3x5 cabinet and covered the walls in emergency blankets.

Lights
4- 23w 5000k cfls (1600 lumen each)
4- 23w 3500k cfls (1600 lumen)
2- 4' 40w veggy bulbs. (1600 ea)
2-4' 40w regular fluorescent (no clue)

I switched to 12/12 May 25. 4 shown sex after 2 days (smaller plants. Maybe stunted.) The others are stretching after I closed a light leak 3 days ago.

Pictures below, and advice or suggestions are appreciated. Reading this forum has gotten me this far.

 

[Seamaiden]

Welcome to the farm!

Since you're running CFLs, you may want to keep the plants shorter and thin out the material that the light isn't getting to. They look *very* healthy. I can't make out the pix where I think you're trying to show sexual organs, too blurry for me to make out.

 

[tobh]

Plants look good. How close are they to the light? Seamaiden is correct, you're going to want to clean up the bottoms of those plants. You don't want energy spent on those lower buds because they aren't going to provide you much of any weight and probably won't mature with the rest of the plant.

With your light leak, that's probably why you're not showing signs yet. Some strains are real finicky about that. Now that you've got it fixed, they should come around.

The key with CFL's is not being afraid to have the lights super close to the buds. This is the only way to get dense buds with CFL's. You can have the plants as close as 1 inch to the bulbs with good circulation going.

One Love,
tobh

 

[ShroomKing]

Another thing I have found is that plants take longer to flower under cfl lights. 2-4 weeks longer in my experience . Just be patient. Best of luck.

 

[jncoking]

Right now I would say I have 6 inches from the canopy. I have an adjustable ceiling on it would lowering them closer help?

I appreciate you alls input. I've been feeding them Maxigrow and soon Maxibloom. Growing in soil this crop, next time is Dwc.

I did notice the pics are blurry, grow box is so bright I could see the screen, lol. Took a few more pics just now.

 

[xavier7995]

Man, kudos on the CFL grow, they look nice for having those lights:) Patience is key, but yeah that is a really long time to not have them show sex. CFL's run cool, so getting them as close as possible is key, as tobh mentioned. Not really sure how much it will help with this issue, but to get decent buds you gotta get the bulbs right in there alongside the plants, not just hanging out way above like with HPS.

 

[jumpincactus]

Nice job so far with the cfl's. My neighbor just finished up a cfl cab run and I was impressed. He ran the same strain I had going and the only con I see with cfl based on his run is the bud density wasn't even close to mine but that is to be expected as I flower with 2k watts of hps so no comparison with intensity.

Most def follow @tobh advice and clean em up so they don't spend too much energy developing the lower ends. That way they will focus more topside where they are getting the most light energy. I will be watching and tagging along for your journey. Peace

 

[Seamaiden]

Right now I would say I have 6 inches from the canopy. I have an adjustable ceiling on it would lowering them closer help?

I appreciate you alls input. I've been feeding them Maxigrow and soon Maxibloom. Growing in soil this crop, next time is Dwc.

I did notice the pics are blurry, grow box is so bright I could see the screen, lol. Took a few more pics just now.

If those are all different plants, I think you've got at least two males right now. Put your finger or hand behind the parts you want the camera to focus on, that should help.

 

[jumpincactus]

If those are all different plants, I think you've got at least two males right now. Put your finger or hand behind the parts you want the camera to focus on, that should help.

I thought I could see a nutsack as well but cant be sure from this distance.

 

[ShroomKing]

For sure a boy imo in first pic .

 

[jncoking]

I'll get out the Dslr Camera it has macro option. Doin the best I can on little to no budget

 

[jumpincactus]

No worries man, easy does it and enjoy the ride!!! peace

 

[jncoking]

Would this be the beginning of my first flower, or is it deformed growth.

 

[johnnyrotten]

that looks like it could be the start of a flower but it's hard to tell...

just saw your comment about using DWC on your next grow...you may want to consider staying in soil...it's much easier and more forgiving than DWC...or maybe try hempy buckets coco/perlite...

 

[jncoking]

I've herd about hempy buckets I might try those. I have one in Dwc right now and I can see what you mean. Things change rapidly in Dwc me being new. It's hard to know the cause.

I may put it off for a while, I do think I need to goto a 600w hps or better. CFL is doing good so far but takes more time I believe

 

[johnnyrotten]

If you are able to cool the room, use a 600w but don't go bigger in that space...HPS will raise your room temp A LOT if you can't cool it...before you do anything else, get your environment under control and eliminate any and all light leaks...if you don't you will be disappointed...

It's much harder to kill a plant in organic soil than any other method...if you want to see how to grow using a small space you should check out @FlyingJStables threads...

 

[jncoking]

I'm struggling right now with a heat issue. During the day I go lights out, in the dark they stay between 85-100f deg. With lights on at might, the emergency blankets keep the room at 110-120f deg. They are all perked up and seem ok. I have to water every 2 days or they look sad.

I have to leave out of town for 4 days next week. I have to come up with a ways to cool em down.

 

[Seamaiden]

Would this be the beginning of my first flower, or is it deformed growth.

Hunnert percent boy-oh.

 

[johnnyrotten]

I'm struggling right now with a heat issue. During the day I go lights out, in the dark they stay between 85-100f deg. With lights on at might, the emergency blankets keep the room at 110-120f deg. They are all perked up and seem ok. I have to water every 2 days or they look sad.

I have to leave out of town for 4 days next week. I have to come up with a ways to cool em down.

If you are this hot with CFL's there is no way you can run an HPS...those temps really need to be a lot lower...take those flourencet bulbs out of your tent, they are hotter than a CFL and more than likely don't have the correct spectrum...

 

[jncoking]

I'm gonna do some work on it tonight. Try and get them cooler. I check on them today 2 hours after lights on temp was at 114f deg. They grew about an inch and a half overnight. Humidity fogged up my glasses,.

One set of fluorescents are Growlux bulbs the other is soft white. I'm thinking of going ahead and paint the walls flat white. My cabinet stayed the same temp as outdoors.