Flowering & frustrated

[Toxic weed]

I'm a noob and this is my first grow. I had one seed that I got out of a bag I'd bought on the street.It was some good bud though and luckily it turned out to be a female. I'm on a very limited budget so I went with the CFL grow. I currently have seven bulbs on her. I used mg potting soil for my medium and mg all purpose for my nutes. I bought a pH kit and keep it around 6.0-6.5. everything has gone good except for some nute burn early on which was fixed. She is currently going on week 5 of flowering if I've kept up with it correctly. She started flowering and was looking good.the problem I'm having is that all the budlets have remained the same size. There not growing or fattening up like they should be.I read that if you can see the stem on your cola's that something is wrong and I can see alot of stem. I also read that when it's time to harvest that 60% of the white hairs will change colors and curl in. Alot of the white hairs on my plant are already at the 60% point and I feel like it's way to soon. I could be completely wrong, this is my first grow. I know that growing with CFL s won't have as large of yeilds as other lighting like HP's bulbs but they should be doing alot better than they are. I guess my question is, am I doing something wrong or should I have more lighting during the flowering stage. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'm also feeding her flora bloom. I'm open to any suggestions,tips or information that will help my plant and myself to be a better grower.thank you.here are some pics so you can see what I'm working with.

[BuddMarsh]

Hi Toxic. I think it is the soil you are using. Read this from the GWE site http://www.growweedeasy.com/top-7-mo...-growing-myths

[Toxic weed]

Hey buddMarsh I appreciate your help and the site info. I'll use a different medium for my next grow. I found a great little hydroponics store not far from the house that carries the right materials to use. Unfortunately when I started this grow I didn't know about it and I was low on funds.will definitely make some changes on my next grow.do you think the buds on this plant will change in size at all or am I pretty much looking at what I'm dealing with

[9fingerleafs]

They're doing great. The stem thing is not true. Many strains tend to stretch like the OGs and some like the forum cookies nd cream make little compact "golf balls" like nugs.

About the "hairs" (pistils) it is not a reliable method to check maturity. Many things like wind or light or any sprayed thing can cause them to curl. Let them flower at their own rithm. I use CfLs and with only 7 bulbs I grew this granddaddy purple

[9fingerleafs]

For that plant I had two 65 watt 6500k and five 30 watts 2700k. I think they will definitely fatten up. Patience is the hardest skill to develop in order to grow great weed.

[Toxic weed]

I appreciate it. I think I'll lower my lights a little more tomorrow and yeah I believe you about being patient which is hard sometimes, I treat her like my kid or something, checking on her numerous times a day knowing there's no reason too other than just to look at her. Anyway I appreciate it man

[9fingerleafs]

You are welcome. Being so over loving is common at first. It's a good sign. After a few rounds it will be evident when they just need time keep us posted. It's looking pretty great for 5 weeks by the way. My pics are from week 9

[Toxic weed]

I appreciate it. You have some good looking girls.do you think the buds will fatten up any more

[Newf]

Welcome! I still see a lot of white hairs sticking straight so there is still time. You seem to have a lot of trichomes on the buds so even if they are not too large they are potent. Please take a look at the nutrient page on GWE as it pertains to the flowering stage. Miracle grow all purpose is N-P-K 24-8-16 which is very heavy on the Nitrogen for the flowering phase. This promotes leaf growth but not bud. You can get a bottle of nutrient specific for the cannabis flowering stage for about $15-18 or there are more cheap generic bloom fertilizers (usually will state for flowering or tomatoes etc.) with a much higher P and K to N ratio. You can even use molasses (Unsulphered) although this does not have very high P (phosphorus) mostly K (potassium). Make sure you lights are as close a possible. Your plant does not look like it had any training so most of the plants effort is focused on the main cola bud at the top which looks pretty nice, but if you want the other buds to get bigger you also need to get them light close up and a little breeze if possible. Let us know how things are going. I think you will be pleasantly surprised. Good luck.

[oldjarhead100]

buds can double in size there last two weeks, better to harvest 2 weeks late than 1 week early get a cheep microscope under 20 bucks then check the tricomes when they go from cloudy to about 50% amber their ready

[Toxic weed]

Appreciate it newf.yeah I only used the mg nutes during veg. I'm using florabloom for the flowering. Should I be using stronger watts during flowering or more bulbs

[alltatup]

Hey Toxic, I think your girl looks great for week five of flower. They tend to fatten up much closer to harvest. She's a very interesting plant: the lanky stems might be part of her sativa genetics. Get a hand held microscope (cheap ones available all over the place, like Amazon) with at least 60x magnification to look at the trichomes, as she continues to ripen.

[Canyon Grower]

Toxic, dont get discouraged or impatient. Its easy to do during flowering. I agree with 9fingerleafs wholeheartedly- so wont repeat it all here. You will get better and better as you get more grows under you belt.

[Toxic weed]

Hey canyon grower just wanted to say thanks for the information and encouragement. Will let you know how things turn out. Thanks again

[PuravidaC]

I currently grow with CFL's too. What size bulbs are you using (actual watts)? I use 42w bulbs but have found a lot of suppliers have quit carrying them. Personally I think 23w should be the minimum. You can buy a "splitter" cheap and double your bulbs to give plant more light. I keep my CFL's about 4" from plant. Need to use 2300k (color) bulbs for flower. Buds will diffently continue to fatten up. Patience, my friend... patience!! 😆

[Toxic weed]

I appreciate your help and information you gave me. I will check my bulbs tomorrow and let you know. Should I use more bulbs during flowering? Thanks again for your help

[GreenArmadillo]

Bro, those look like some very nice nugs. Strong and bulky. Can't wait to see what they turn in to over the next 5 weeks.
Keep up the love! <3

[NebulaHaze]

Like PuravidaC I also wonder how much total CFL wattage you have? What size and how many CFLs do you have ("true" wattage and not "equivalent" watts)? Light is like food to your plants, and the main contributor to bud growth is the total amount of light. With CFLs you can generally expect about 0.25 g/watt. So for example if you flowered with a total of 100 watts of CFLs, you could expect about 25 grams of bud on an average-to-good. Your buds look good to me, and the top one near the bulbs looks like it's getting chunky!

[Toxic weed]

Hey nebula,thank you for the information. I'm not sure what the wattage is but I will check it out and let you know. I currently have 7 bulbs and there not all the same. Four of them are one thing, two are something else and not sure about the last one. Is that a problem not having the same all the way around? Do you think I should add more bulbs to my grow? Thank you again for any information, I love this site and greatful that it's here.

[NebulaHaze]

It's not going to have a big effect if some bulbs are bigger than other, or if some are a different color, what's most important is total wattage and just making sure the bud sites are getting good coverage with light!

Adding more bulbs with CFLs is never a bad idea! It's very difficult to give plants too much light with CFLs unless you're using very big, high wattage bulbs Your buds look like they're still fattening up, and also I'd guess your harvest time is coming within the next few weeks. Here's some pictures of ready to harvest buds if you want to check them out!

[Toxic weed]

Yeah there's some beautiful buds in those pics, I especially like the ones with the purple leaves.my timer doesn't kick on till 6am so when it does I'll get the watts for you. It's actually week 7 since I started the 12/12 cycle but I took off two weeks because that's when she started showing her sex. Is that the right way to count my flowering weeks or do I count from when I started the actual 12/12? Thank you for your help I am greatfull for it

[alltatup]

Toxic, I always keep track of when I switch to 12/12. On my last grow, I switched when the plants showed pre-flowers. On this grow, I switched much sooner, because I know that flowering is going to take a long time with my strain. They say 14 weeks in flower for this strain, and as soon as I see buds forming, I'll assume that I'm in for 14 or so weeks until harvest.

What will tell you when to harvest are the TRICHOMES.

[GreenArmadillo]

So how many watts did you end up having my friend? :genuinely_curious:

[Toxic weed]

Hey greenarmadillo, I have 2x 19watt -5000k, 4× 13watt-5000k & 1× 14 watt. Here's a couple pics of what she's looking like now. I think she's grown a little not much though. Next grow I'm going to use higher watt bulbs but stick with the CFL's

[GreenArmadillo]

Mate, those are some beautiful buds for such a small amount of watts. You've been taking some good care of your baby. <3

Btw, you can buy 40 watt CFL's (actually you can even find 50, 60, 100, etc). If you switched all your bulbs to 40 watt CFL's you'd end up with 280 watts, instead of the 104 watts you're currently using. Did you know that would automatically almost TRIPLE your final yields? Wouldn't that be amazing!!
Also, from what i've read, you should be trying to use warm lights for flowering. So you should aim for 2700K bulbs. All the best my friend. Looking forward to seeing you reach harvest, and then smoke-ups. ^_^

[9fingerleafs]

I agree. They look surprisingly good