# Completely noob..lol



## omnigr33n (Sep 29, 2006)

Hey guys,
      Im just trying to grow some nice buds for my own personal use.  Im not looking to start some massive garden....yet maybe...LoL.  Right now I just want to start a constant rotation.  Please dont let them be males..pleeeeeeease.. Ive been reading a lot about it but I thought it might be better to try and get some help.
I will be posting pics ASAP.

      I have 3 plants that are each about 3-4 inches each.  This is the 12 day since germination if Im not mistaken.  I have all three in one of those big I think 2 gallon milk containers.  They are evenly spaced from each other and I am using Miracle grow moistrue control potting mix.  Should I eventually change soil to top soil or something?  Should I transplant them to seperate pots soon? Should I bury them a bit deeper when I transplant? One had actually fallen over and the leaves at the top were bent pointing sideward instead of straight up.  I have two of them on support standing up.  

      Right now I have one daylight phillips flourescent running like 2 inches from them as they grow.  However, the bulb isnt very strong.  It runs at 760 lumen at 15 watts. Oh as a sidenot.  I had to run them under a incandescent for some days before I got the flouro.  I didnt think they were actually going to germinate.  It was a surprise.
     By the way I only have one socket for the bulb.  I can also run in an extension cord into the walk in closet.  How Do I maximize this?  What is most efficient?  I dont even know what to get.  Ive been looking to get one of these bulbs:

http://www.plantitearth.com/store/product.asp?pid=285&catid=4

     Here I could use some major advice.  I know lighting is very important and I want to get as many buds as I can from these plants ( unless they are all male lol..which would really really really blow) so any recommendations?  I can read and read but I would like to hear from some actual experience.


Oh yea.. the temperature is like around 65F-75F degrees usually.  LoL..I could really use some advice.


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## THE BROTHER'S GRUNT (Sep 30, 2006)

*Well the first thing you have to do is transplant your babies. One plant per pot. When you transplant be sure to try and cover as much of the stem as possible. Second you need more light for sure. The light you have is good but will do nothing when it comes time for flowering. You need to have atleast 3,000 lumens per square foot of grow space but 5,000 would be better. You can get some 42 watt CFL's at Wal-Mart for like $8 each i think and they put off about 2,700 lumens each. Be sure they are the cool white CFL's. *


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## ROOR (Sep 30, 2006)

goto walmart for floros....get a fan on those plants 24-7 to build strong thick stems.  If they are 3-4" and falling over, no way theyll ever support bud...


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## omnigr33n (Sep 30, 2006)

Thanks for your responses guys. I really appreciate it .  I will transplant them immediately.  Im still having trouble w/ the lighting though.  Since I have one incandescent socket can I use that somehow for flourescent lights?  Do I have to buy a flouro ballast and hook it up to it?  I think it might be really easy as that but Im not too sure.  I know the more lights the beeter so Im need to make the most out of that one socket.

Can I keep them under HPS all the time or switch off?  I think some people use the HPS only for flowering but some people just use flouro's throught out the whole process from germination to flowering.  Is either way better than the other.

Are one of the choices for light bulbs good for it in the link I provided above?

How about this?  
http://www.plantlightinghydroponics.com/product_info.php?cPath=73_443&products_id=1630

                                                   OR

http://www.4hydroponics.com/clone/cf.asp

I cant decide on this issue.  Will I be able to use an extension cord to plug in the lighting? I think I might be making this more confusing for myself.


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## ROOR (Sep 30, 2006)

No...you can't use those bulbs because you dont have the proper ballast to run them high watt hps/mh bulbs....you can buy the complact flourescent light (cfl's) bulbs for those sockets you have....look for the 47w cfls for $8-9 a bulb at walmart....


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## omnigr33n (Sep 30, 2006)

Thanks man.  Wow, I was about to spend 100 dollars on something I really didnt need yet.  Ok, thats great...thats great.  So all I have to do for now is buy some good sized pots for the transplanting and get a CFL (it actually helped that you spelled it out lol) 47 watt from walmart.  The more lumens the better Im thinkiing.

Sweet, I guess while Im there I might as well get some "nutes" as people seem to call them.  I suppose as long as I dont overwater and dilute the nutes I should be ok.

Now when it comes time to start flowering, should I invest in a HPS lighting system or should I just stick to flouros for now?  Just need your opinion.

Im trying to see if anybody I know might have those construction flood lights Ive seen.


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## Mutt (Sep 30, 2006)

omniconsum3r said:
			
		

> Thanks man. Wow, I was about to spend 100 dollars on something I really didnt need yet. Ok, thats great...thats great. So all I have to do for now is buy some good sized pots for the transplanting and get a CFL (it actually helped that you spelled it out lol) 47 watt from walmart. The more lumens the better Im thinkiing.
> 
> Sweet, I guess while Im there I might as well get some "nutes" as people seem to call them. I suppose as long as I dont overwater and dilute the nutes I should be ok.
> 
> ...


 
Cool thing with the flo set-up is you can get the HPS later and add to it and use flos for sidelights. Or make a whole new cab. and use the flos for veg and donors and HPS for flowering clones. you can get a 400W HPS for under 150 bucks at insidesun that will do wonders. Its all in what you want to do. and yes more lumens the better. but it also HAS to be the right spectrum of light. Mercery Vapor floods and things like that DO NOT WORK. ONLY High Pressure Sodium, Metal Halide, Florous (cool or soft white...cool for veg...soft white for flower).


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## THE BROTHER'S GRUNT (Sep 30, 2006)

*Here is something ya might wanna check out. http://www.marijuanapassion.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2238&highlight=the+brother%27s+grunt*


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## omnigr33n (Sep 30, 2006)

THE BROTHER'S GRUNT said:
			
		

> *Here is something ya might wanna check out. http://www.marijuanapassion.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2238&highlight=the+brother%27s+grunt*



Great Post first off.  Ok so Im thinking I can get that stuff at home depot or maybe even walmart though when I go to their websites.  WHere did you buy all that stuff?  A website? If so pray tell. Can I run both HPS and fluro at the same time?

Will my buds be not so great if I just use fluoros through out? 

Here are some pictures:  Click to enlarge


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## Mutt (Oct 1, 2006)

Dude, those babies are stretchin BAD. 
You need to get some more florouscents in there. Thats just to get em through veg.
People grow with flos just fine....but its all in "HOW" they do it. Read a guide or two and float around the forum. You''ll learn a ton in a day.


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## THE BROTHER'S GRUNT (Oct 1, 2006)

omniconsum3r said:
			
		

> Great Post first off. Ok so Im thinking I can get that stuff at home depot or maybe even walmart though when I go to their websites. WHere did you buy all that stuff? A website? If so pray tell. Can I run both HPS and fluro at the same time?
> 
> Will my buds be not so great if I just use fluoros through out?
> 
> Here are some pictures: Click to enlarge


*Everything in the link you can buy right at Wal-Mart. Yes you can run both lights at the same time. You can grow some good bud with just CFL's but if ya don't have enough of them what your gonna end up with is airy light buds. *


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## omnigr33n (Oct 1, 2006)

Yea...lol I thought they were a bit stretched.  But I just got the CFL's and I think Ill be ok if I bury them a little deeper than usual when I transplant later today.  I got two 42 watt, 2600 Lumen CFLs.  

Man, I think I might have burned my retinas when I first turned them on.  No seriously, my eyes are hurting lol.


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## omnigr33n (Oct 1, 2006)

I have bought two 42 watt CFLs with 2600 lumen each.  I hope that is good enough for now.   I have to get another extender because all I can fit in is one of the two cfls but ill get the extender later today anyway.  Man, my eye still hurts from the light.  I didnt expect a flourescent to be that damn bright seriously. wow...
       I also boughtt a 10-15-10 grow solution and three much bigger pots for each of the plants.  I still hope they will be all female since I have been running them under 24 hours light.  I have enough space to keep plants in a 12-12 cycle as well so Im figuring I can get a constant flow going where Ill always have some plants flowering and others vegetating eventually.
       So my next step is to transplant each plant into their new pots.  Right after transplant, feed the pants with a diluted nutrient mix and place close under two 42 watt 2600 lumen cfl's.  I think they might have stretched a bit because all I had for 4-5 days was an incandescent.  They were reaching for it because I couldnt keep them that close to it.  I think thill will be easily corrected since I have now all what I need I think.  
       I figure Ill eventually have 5200 lumen running from cfls on 4 plants.  I hope this is good enough.   Ill also have a fan running on them 24/7 after transplant.  Any more sound advice or tricks of the growing hobby that I might need to know?  You guys have been incredibly helpful so far.


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## THE BROTHER'S GRUNT (Oct 1, 2006)

*IMHO i wouldn't give them any nutes right away. They are still young and can be easily killed with nutes. Get them about 2 or 3 inches away from the CFL's or as close as possible without burning them. You can check your heat by putting the back of your hand between the lights and your babies. Put a fan blowing on them like ya said and you should be good to go for a bit. However you will need to get more lights when it comes time to flower IMHO. *


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## omnigr33n (Oct 1, 2006)

Oh ok. LoL, I didnt know about the nutes possibly killing the plants .  PHEW~!!!!!! close one there.   Good thing I was too drunk last night to even attempt a transplant.  I did setup the new cfls yesterday and the plants actually look healthier, the stems are starting to look healthier and the leaves are pointing more upwards.

Im thinking when it comes time to flower ill get a HPS flood light in there to compliment the flouros.  I think that should be good enough.  I think Im turning into a light freak.  

Im considering growing the plants tolike 4 feet.  Should I grow them another foot just for the hell of it?

So I started on September 20th.  This is the 11th day.  

1) I am transplanting today and will be burying the stems a bit so that they can hold and grow under their weight.
2) Keeping them under two CFLs, running at 42 watts & 2600 lumens each.  
3)  Must keep them under a fan 24/7 so that there is proper circulation.  Sweet.

I will be posting new pics later tonight after transplant.


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## omnigr33n (Oct 1, 2006)

Here are my little ones. muhahahaha


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## GreenThumb (Oct 3, 2006)

omni, 
Here is a trick you might try.
To better focus your lights onto yer babies buy one of those throw-away aluminum roast pans.
Fashion it above the light bulbs upside down. It will work like a hood and you won't be wasting lumens illuminating your ceiling.


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## learnin to gro (Oct 3, 2006)

hey the way i built reflectors for my cfls.. go to Home Dope buy a small roll of aluminum flashing like 6 or 8 inch by 10 ft  hopefully you have a rivet gun if not there no too expensive.  wrap in to a cone shape predrill and rivet voila perfect sized reflectors for any cfl size if you want pics i can show ya.  also get a thermometer with an antenna  prong type attachment so you can see what the temp is where the plants are those cfls get mighty hot.    and make sure you only buy 2700k  or 6500k bulbs first for flower latter for veggie


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## omnigr33n (Oct 6, 2006)

Ok Im probably going to have to get those reflectors but do you think I should just line the walls with mylar instead?  I have a fan blowing on them constantly.  
       All three plants are about 3-5 inches from the two CFLs.  I know lighting is very important, lets see if I can wait to afford the 400W HPS.  I think I can flower pretty good under my two 100 watt 2600 lumen each CFLs for my first grow though.  Altogether Im getting 5600 Lumen already.


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## GreenThumb (Oct 7, 2006)

Without a hood think of it as wasting half of yer lumens..
When you get to flowering you'll want all that light on yer girlies..
Installing the hood (roast pan) will take you all of 10 minutes..
The mylar would sure help as well.
Good luck.


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## omnigr33n (Oct 10, 2006)

Ok so basically I should turn it into a reflecting space altogether.  Put up sme mylar and get some refelectors.  Im going to have to buy a 400W HPS soon for flowering.  Ill be posting new pics to update as the grow progresses.  Through all my readings no one has mentioned from any sort of personal experience what kinds of buds they have grown with just CFLs as lighting.  I guess Ill have to dig deeper for more examples.  But some more opinions would be greatly appreciated.


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## Sin inc (Oct 15, 2006)

Hey i started out just like you ad my babys are becoming nice  and full oyur going to need the hood it help so much some time you tell that they have been growing after 3-6 hours under a hoof for your cfl i am now runnig 1 27watts cfl and one 13watt cfl and thier dong just fine so. i amplanting on going down to a fl fixture retailer and getting a 4 blub 48'in t12 fixture each bulb runs at 40 watts each 2 cool white and 2 soft its going to run me about 6o$ so its not going to run your pockets this should beable to hold you off until you can get the right light you really want.aslo gook luck and keep up the good work


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## omnigr33n (Oct 15, 2006)

Hmmmmm.


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## omnigr33n (Oct 15, 2006)

Sin inc said:
			
		

> Hey i started out just like you ad my babys are becoming nice  and full oyur going to need the hood it help so much some time you tell that they have been growing after 3-6 hours under a hoof for your cfl i am now runnig 1 27watts cfl and one 13watt cfl and thier dong just fine so. i amplanting on going down to a fl fixture retailer and getting a 4 blub 48'in t12 fixture each bulb runs at 40 watts each 2 cool white and 2 soft its going to run me about 6o$ so its not going to run your pockets this should beable to hold you off until you can get the right light you really want.aslo gook luck and keep up the good work



Thanks for the advice. I am going to have to get two of those T12 fixtures.  I didnt get it earlier because I didnt know you could plug them in.  What a fool I be.  Im also definitely going to have to get a 400W HPS.


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## Dirty (Nov 15, 2006)

Mutt said:
			
		

> Cool thing with the flo set-up is you can get the HPS later and add to it and use flos for sidelights. Or make a whole new cab. and use the flos for veg and donors and HPS for flowering clones. you can get a 400W HPS for under 150 bucks at insidesun that will do wonders. Its all in what you want to do. and yes more lumens the better. but it also HAS to be the right spectrum of light. Mercery Vapor floods and things like that DO NOT WORK. ONLY High Pressure Sodium, Metal Halide, Florous (cool or soft white...cool for veg...soft white for flower).


 
Just curious , if Mercury Vapor lights are also HID like the Metal Halides and High Pressure Sodium lights then why wont they work ?

I got this: Metal halide lamps produce a bright white light and are highly efficient members of the HID family. The efficiency of metal halide lamps is from 1.5 to 2 times that of mercury vapor lamps. The metal halide lamp is very similar in construction to the mercury vapor lamp. The major difference is that the metal halide lamp contains various metal halide additives in addition to mercury vapor. from http://www.kwhlighting.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=L-MH

This whole lighting issue is really blowin my mind.


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## KADE (Nov 15, 2006)

It says it has similar construction... not similar composition.... and ''major difference is that the metal halide lamp contains various metal halide additives in addition to mercury vapor.''


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## Dirty (Nov 16, 2006)

Yeah , I found on another forum  board that it has to do with  the color spectrum .... I can understand that.

This stuff is alot harder than I thought it would be. Ive had better experiences growing outside and never would have thought that emulating the sun would be such a difficult or costly task.


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## KADE (Nov 16, 2006)

not really a big task! just need flouros for cloning... and a hps for the rest.


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## omnigr33n (Nov 18, 2006)

Now I have to just figure out how to use these chains and hang up the HPS bulb I got w/ the reflector LoL.


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## Dirty (Nov 18, 2006)

Im still trying to locate a cheap HPS or MH lamp. Had a plant doin pretty good and was in the early vegitative stage but have had to move it because of prying eyes and now I believe it may not be with us much longer. Have started 5 new seedlings and Im hoping to get the propper lighting in the cabinet before they suffer the same fate.

Would anyone happen to have maybe an older lighting set up they may be willing to sell for cheap?


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## Elephant Man (Nov 18, 2006)

All great advice above, mind if I jump in?  How big is the room exactly?  You can screw an outlet adapter right in to that socket.  You can get a 4' shoplight fixture at wal mart, home depot, lowes etc. for $8-10, 2 bulbs will cost $6-8 more.  Reflector is built in, and IMO they run much cooler than cfl bulbs.

Being new also, I messed around with different pot sizes, and smaller are much easier.  I have several plants that were transplanted 3 or 4 times in 30 days to progressively larger pots and they have outgrown the girls that started in big pots.  Watering is much easier, most new guys (myself included) tend to overwater, and big pots with seedlings are not very forgiving.

I like wind on my girls, little more than a breeze, 16" oscillators are great, get em' dancing.  Wind does alot more than promote stem strength, also improves ventilation, and helps with pest prevention.

Depending on your goals, and how much equipment you intend to add in there, you might want to consider a few other things before buying an HID fixture (yes you need the entire fixture and the bulb).  A few flourescents will raise your temp a couple of degrees in there, but an HID with no additional ventilation will turn that into an oven in a matter of minutes.  Any of us could help you figure what else you will need to control temps with an HID, but keep in mind you will need something.  Not sure how far you want to go with this, but if you wanna keep it simple or cheap, you can go from seed to smoke with flouros, just gonna take some calculations and couple extra weeks flower time.

Good Luck


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## Dirty (Nov 18, 2006)

Im lookin to keep it simple and cheap , the time it takes to produce some nice bud is of little concern to me. 

 The space Ive been workin on setting up is probably 3' wide X 3' deep X 6' high. I have all my new seedlings in small styrofoam cups and had even kept the first in its cup until it reached vegetative stage then I transplanted it to a 1 gallon pot . Still not dead yet but I think its just barely hangin in there. There is some new growth but the leaves at the node directly below the new growth look crazy sick. Ive pretty much given up on that one but really wish to see the new plants go all the way . Ive been watering every third day.

That 4' shop light your talkin bout ... what exactly is it? A fluro? Using just plain fluro bulbs? 

If thats the case I have a 2' fluro light fixture and had even considered using it but with all the emphasis on the HID lights I wasnt too sure if it would work.


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## Pappy (Nov 19, 2006)

I'm also growing my plants under fluro lights. I've got two going right now, and for vegging I kept them in a 2 x 1 area covered in mylar that was lit by two 40watt 1900 lumen 4-foot "plant lights." I added extra aluminum to the ballast so I could channel the extra 2 feet of overhang back into the space. That was plenty of light to have them growing healthy.

HOWEVER, whenI switched to the 12/12 for flowering I decided to purchase two additional small fluoros. I opted to just go for the 18 inchers because I don't feel I need another 4ft ballast. At just under 800 lumens each, I didn't think those little lights would have much of an effect... but all I can say is WOW!

They've only been under those lights for 3 days and they're already bushing out like mad. I know that flowering causes the plants to become a bit larger, but that much difference in 3 days just from changing the light cycle? I doubt it!

Anyway, the point of this is that enough light is fine, but alot is WAY better! My grow space is incredibly small and as a result a few lumens go a LOOONG way. I suggest you spend like $12 and get a ballast for the 4 footers if possible. It's alot cheaper than HPS and it certainly wouldn't hurt! 
(my 4 foot ballast and two plant lights cost LESS than the two 18" ones with cool white)


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## Elephant Man (Nov 19, 2006)

Dirty said:
			
		

> Im lookin to keep it simple and cheap , the time it takes to produce some nice bud is of little concern to me.
> 
> The space Ive been workin on setting up is probably 3' wide X 3' deep X 6' high. I have all my new seedlings in small styrofoam cups and had even kept the first in its cup until it reached vegetative stage then I transplanted it to a 1 gallon pot . Still not dead yet but I think its just barely hangin in there. There is some new growth but the leaves at the node directly below the new growth look crazy sick. Ive pretty much given up on that one but really wish to see the new plants go all the way . Ive been watering every third day.
> 
> ...


 
Yes, regular shoplight, regular daylight or warm bulbs.  That 2 footer will help alot.


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