CFL growing questions

[420kingw]

Good evening fellow growers,

It's my first time posting here, as well as my first time growing, so I basically lack any kind of experience. I stumbled upon a great guide to grow using CFL lights (http://www.growweedeasy.com/cfl-coco...coco-coir-grow), but I've got a couple of questions I hope you could help me out with.

So first off, the guide I'm going to follow says it's recommendable growing Northern Lights with this method, and lucky enough, before I found the page I bought some Northern Lights seeds. The thing is it's Northern Lights Auto. Should I do anything differently because of this?

Secondly, I'm kind of confused in how much light I should use. When discussing the budget, the guide says 'Estimated total cost or growing five plants', and says I should use two daylight CFLs and then 3 soft white CFLs, but if you scroll down a bit, it says I should use that number of bulbs PER plant. So I really don't know how many to buy exactly.

Thirdly, I bought a 7 liter pot (1,84 gallons), but the photo in the guide (http://www.growweedeasy.com/sites/gr...heavy-buds.jpg) seems to have a much bigger pot. Should I keep the 7 liter or buy a bigger one?

Lastly, the guide also links a plant training guide (http://www.growweedeasy.com/cannabis-plant-training) and advises that on autoflowering plants I should use the 'bending and securing method', but within those methods, there are many. Which one would you advise me on using?

Thank you so much for your time and hope you guys could help me out

[Green75]

The more the better...she is talking minimums..

[420kingw]

Very nice. Thank you! I will make sure to check the links

[DW2]

Welcome 420kingw,
As to your questions;
First - I have never grown an auto period plant, my growing experience is, so far, only with 'bag' seed that I had saved over the past few years, so I can not give any advice on that.

Secondly - I use four 55 watt (250 watt equivalent) CFLs, two at 2700 deg K and two at 5000 or 6500 deg K. I use DWC and have two reservoirs, each with the 220 watt lamp set up. I have had up to four plants under the lamps at a time.

Thirdly - Since I do hydro, I can't say for sure, but from what I've seen posted by soil growers, the containers seem a little small. Most use three to five gallon containers to allow ample room for the roots to grow.

Lastly - I do use the LST method of training the plants to 'lay low' and product as many colas as possible. With the lower wattage setup that I have, the topping or manifolding adds extra time to the grow, not to mention additional stress to the plants, so on the current grow, I'm only using the LST method.

The bulbs That the article refer to are probably the standard household 100 watt equivalent or 23 watts actual current usage (5 X 23 = 115 watts per plant). You can grow with less, but it will take longer it get there.
Good luck with your grow and here's what my set up looks like (no laughing now!)

[420kingw]

Pretty nice grow op you got going there! No laughing because mine won't be nearly as good as that. Thanks for the info! I do think I'll buy a 3 gallon pot and those CFLs

[Tersky]

Welcome. There are a few tips i would give.

Auto's - These are seeds that have the ruderalis gene. This forces flowering after about 2 weeks. Non-auto's are what is called photoperiod dependant. This means that they will stay in the vegetative stage until you change the light cycle to a 12/12 cycle. It is different than regular non-auto seeds for that reason. Autos tend to have smaller harvests because they only spend a few weeks in veg.

Light - I have used cfls and continue to do so for seedlings ect. I was confused on how much light was needed but read on GWE something that put it into perspective for me. Light = food and typically (depending on skill level) you will see a quarter to half a gram of bud PER watt. This being so if i have 160 w total of light on my plants i might get 40g to 80g of bud. My opinion is for at least 150w per plant.

Pot - Recommend at least 3 gal pot for final pot. 5 is better.

For references checkout Green75 grow journals. He has done several. I hate to just say do some research but that's what i did. GWE has most of this info somewhere in the site lol

[420kingw]

Thanks for the info. I'll buy the 3 gallon pot since it's an auto and won't grow as much.

[rockman]

Hi 420, congratulations on starting a grow! You're going to learn so much! I grow autos indoors under CFLS. As Green and others have mentioned, the more light the merrier, and I would agree. I'm using 8-100 watt equivalent bulbs on my current grow (you can see pics on my journal). I took other's expert advice on the forum to train this baby to be low and wide, using topping and LST to pull the branching down. Also have removed many leaves along the way (again something learned here), and at 36 days from sprouting, it's looking mighty fine to me. Keep up on absorbing as much relevant info as you can, cause you'll be so thrilled when you succeed. Good luck to you! 🌱

[420kingw]

Nice! Will be sure to use LST. SInce you said you grow autos wih CFLs, do you think a 3 gallon pot will be enough? I bought the 7 liter one but looking at the replies and other posts it doesn't seem so. My auto won't grow very much (since it's an auto), so maybe 5 gallons is too much? Any other tips for growing autoflowers?

[rockman]

Pot size has been a discussion on a few other threads. I am growing one plant at a time, and don't mind at all using the 5 gallon smartpot, especially when I see how completely it gets filled with roots, even with my autos. Until someone proves to me that cannabis would prefer to be potbound, I will continue to give my babies the most soil (or coco coir) that they can use. Many growers say 3 gallons is enough....again, I am not cramped for space and will stay at 5. Just want to emphasize again that using techniques to keep the plant low and wide have really made my current grow so much easier, especially when it comes to surrounding it with CFL light fixtures. Before I did this style my autos got huge, and I was constantly moving lights up and away from the plant. Great harvests, but more work. I feel the harvest from my trained grow could equal or surpass the others...time will tell. Hope this helps, and again, you'll be loving the ability to grow your own soon! 😊

[9fingerleafs]

I'm building my upgraded cfl light. Is for a half a squaremeter area. With 16x 30 watts 2x43 watts and 2x65 watts bulbs. So 20 in total. As many as I could fit along with 4x 3inch Home Depot fans.

[rockman]

That sounds awesome 96! Looking forward to seeing that megalight setup! 🌻

[9fingerleafs]

I'll definitely post some pics when it's done. The Holliday season got in the way but in gonna get back to it soon. None of my seed have sprouted so I don't have sny hurry yet

[Tman72]

New to the Forum and first time grower. My question, Is there a differance between the white and the yellowish Cfl lights when using them for flowering?

[Horace Kemp]

Yes surprisingly http://www.growweedeasy.com/cfls under color spectrum ,will be where that information is for knowing which CFL when.

[Tman72]

Took alot of reading and searching but I found it. Thanks

[Drew]

Hello all, I have a question for anyone that can help, I've been using CFL with little success or at least not the results I'm looking for, anyway I have an opportunity to buy a BML Spyder led 1000 which was selling for about 2000$ pluss but it's now discontinued so they are willing to sell me a brand new BML 1000 last one for a reduced price of 750$ orrigannaly they were offering me the 1200 for 1400$ , but told me they made a mistake and it was the 1000 led for 750$ since they made that mistake, my problem is I can't find one video or one review on the 1000 only the 600 and 1200 ? Any suggestions would be appreciated. Sorry for the book version of my ?