question about lighting and plant issues

[smokiethebandit]

Hi i have just recently put my plants into flowering and i just went out and got some new lights for the flowering they are as follows 100w equivelent CFL and actually use 26w they are rated 1750 lumens per bulb and are soft white 2700k i have three above and three below on 2 plants, and so my question is is this enough light and the right kind of light for flowering? also my plants seem sick here lately and they are very droopy towards the bottom and some of the newer growth and leaves are light green in the middle with dark green edges (wasnt getting good light at the bottom prior to tonight) have been feeding them MG all purpose plant food 1/4 strength and just switched over to MG Bloom Booster which is 15 30 15 P-K-N is that good for flowering stage i know i have heard some bad things about MG but i havent had any problems with it and this is a budget grow so i can only get what i can afford atm also i have been watering with distilled water because it is a neutral PH to see if issues were a PH issue or not but before that it was well water from the tap, one plant is about 1 foot to 1 foot and a half tall and he other is half foot tall now. i will post some pics of the setup and let me know what you think...and i will surely appreciate all the input...Thanks!!!

 

[smokiethebandit]

ok i got some more pics now 24 hrs into flowering with the new lights and low and behold more problems ugh....:rasta2:

 

[theguapo]

I'm sure some more experienced growers will pipe in but I can tell you that those bulbs are definitely the incorrect type of lighting for flowering. You want to use a HPS setup for flowering. I suggest you spend a lot of time reading through all the FAQs on this site to start; you will get a lot of useful info there.

 

[BluntMazter86]

How long did you veg them for? Im wandering because I was vegging under 1 42 watt and 1 55 watt cfl along with a 24" floro. Anyways my 2 plants are 54 days old now and only 14 in tall. I dont think it was enough light so i bought a 250 watt MH and throwed it in there with my other lights and have noticed a big increase in growth. Also your 42 watt cfl are rated at 1750/bulb so you have something like 10,500 rated lumens@252 watts. My 250 watt MH is rated at 23,000 lumens/sft but I do understand it is a budget grow. As far as I know im sure your girls will flower and your buds will be all good and tasty. You just wont be anywhere near the genetic potential of that certain strain. Ill be around to see how it turns out for you!! Good luck man

 

[SmokeyPipes]

you need more light,that's not enough,the light green growth if from lack of light,You can get some 300W CFL's for like $15 at Home Depot,pretty much going to be a waste of time without adding more light!!

 

[og_kid]

like he said get more light you supposed to have more than 100k lumens in flower sounds like alot but thats wat it will take any less will result in looser buds.

 

[dextr0]

are you over watering? Is that why your plants look all droopy?...You definitely need more light. I grew a plant under two of the 68w 2700K CFLs (the 300w equivalent Smokey's talkin about) Through both veg and flowering (even though the 2700K color is supposed to be for flowering), they worked better than expected. That said it was two to one plant. It also took alot of training (LST look it up) because of the shortage of power. I also kept everything real tight together...looks like yours is kinda wide open do you have a roof to that spot? I'm not gonna go all into reflective shit but you should look it up. Flat white paint is supposedly better than aluminum foil. Most importantly right now though you need to figure out if your gonna drop $60 on them lights....i think if LST you can drop that to three lights ($45) instead. READ UP. Good luck. Maybe someone else will drop in with better suggestions.

 

[smokiethebandit]

thanks for your help i will add more light as soon as i can but that;s all i can do till at least next month, which is a big step up for me seeing as i was using fluorescent lighting before and i have noticed little atiny white hairs and brown hairs and i mean tiny between one of the nodes i take it this is the start of of a bud? also i think i may have double posted and i have more pics due to be put up, now. I recently used a bloom booster and i think i nute burned them pretty good so i went and bought some neutral PH water (distilled water) from the store and continued with regular watering schedule with just water is this the correct procedure for flushing the soil? i was told on another forum to do it like that and the plants seem to be responding with new growth and have lost the light green color and are all almost a nice deep green also have started misting them with co2 water 3x daily as well and they also seem to like that is this a good idea? i read that it was good for them in another thread sorry for all the newbie questions but these are my baby's and i been growing them for about 4 months now and have had my ups and downs but things are starting to look better everyday btw temps are good but plants looking droopy and some leaves and new growth drying up and fallling off don't know if it is the recent nute's, the new lighting but temps seem to be good and good air circulation, only thing i can think of is the nute's oh and also i have been seeing fruit fly's around the plants and soil can these cause problems with my plants as well ? thank you for your help i appreciate it and i will keep you all up to date with pics

 

[Seamaiden]

you need more light,that's not enough,the light green growth if from lack of light,You can get some 300W CFL's for like $15 at Home Depot,pretty much going to be a waste of time without adding more light!!

I agree with this since you say you want to flower it out using CFL lighting. First thing you should know is that yes, it can be done. Second thing you should know is that it really lacks intensity. That lack of intensity is like trying to make your gasoline motor perform using rancid cooking grease--the motor is the driver of the whole shebang and it's got to have enough juice to do its thing.

In other words, light = The Driver of All Processes. Therefore, when trying to get a terrestrial flowering plant to flower, you've got to go for mimicking the sun.

You can veg just fine, if not a little sparsely, using the set-up you have. I'm not sure how well you could flower out with those, though. Color temp is ok, too, you do have some flexibility there in that you can use up to about a 4200K color temp.

 

[dextr0]

Smokie: check how this dude does his plants. If you can understand this and do it you got yourself a good grow. No need for major penetration, as all your growth will be at one level with SCROG.



Posts 2,3(pg.1),176(pg.18),181(pg.19)

The main thing I'm trien to say is if you keep them all even like on this screen you can omit the need for deep penetation...that means you just need those $45 light bulbs. BUT you also gotta get this training shit down. Ill explain anything you dont understand if your down.

 

[smokiethebandit]

well i was going to add 6 more of those cfls think that would be ok would be like having 6 300w equivelent cfls right (from my understanding 300w cfl = 3500 lumens right) if im not i'm mistaken, then that would mean that 6 more of the lights i have would put me at the same lumens as 6 of the 300w bulbs this should put me @ a total of 21000 lumens is this going to be enough light being that they are being grown in a tight space? also i have been noticing fruit flys is this a problem?

 

[smokiethebandit]

yeah im down for sure gotta get these things flowering

 

[smokiethebandit]

alright im down and just an update i have them in flowering now 2 days looking a lot better droopiness is gone and light green leaves greening up i got some bloom booster and added a little too much and burnt them ugh.. so i am going to flush with PH neutral water for this weeks feeding cycle twice daily, you think this will be good enough or do i need to do it more often? , but already i am seeing a big difference since starting on this flushing schedule. also on a side note i have started to see what looks like a gnat's or Fruit Fly's is this going to be a bad thing or not ? i appreciate all of your help , btw i am getting 6 more of those lights to go into that room that should help alot too. also am going to start nute's at 1/4 strength this time after flushing good idea? figured just to see how they respond. and leave myself some room to dial it in

 

[Seamaiden]

I get what you're saying, totally. Control that canopy, don't try to get the lights to do something they can't (penetrate through the canopy like HID lighting), work with it if that's what you're gonna work with. Great idea/approach.

 

[smokiethebandit]

would this work?

hey here's a question and promise not to laugh but it crossed my mind that if i used a string of all red xmas lights together the little bulb kind wouldnt that help to add lots of red spectrum light to the mix could it work or even help? this should get some very interesting answers and im looking forward to hearing the reply's.

 

[dextr0]

my bad smokie i didn't see you had less then 10 posts...i hate that. Anyway Fruit flys...i personally dont know anything about them. How you know their fruit flys though? As for the Christmas lights i dont think you'll get enough wattage at all for it to make any difference. I really have no idea on Lumen's as i pay no attention to them right now, maybe someone else will chime in on the subject. I do however have the 68W Cfls from Home Depot and have used the 65w (? I think) also. So i do know they work and they work good for what your trying to do if you keep them tight and low. As far as using more little ones instead of the bigger watts...do your thing. I didnt like it because i had to keep readjusting all the little lights not to mention finding all the light sockets to work them. I have a good link on hooking up all them little lights together and just using one socket if your intrested.
"What are compact fluorescents and how can I use them for growing?"
http://www.growery.org/2814/What-are-compact-fluorescents-and-how-can-I-use-them-for-growing

Oh i would not flush all week...a flush is a one time thing. When you start using your nutes again start at Half strength. Look up how to do proper Flushing as i just do my thing. I hate dealing with deficiencies and really just keep growing and hope for the best. I'm not advising you doing that either. Right now I'm kind of on a hiatus because I'm B-R-O-K-E!