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I'd really appreciate any flowering advice for my fist grow...


Top dawg, Barney's feminized 5 pack (25€). Managed to get three, healthy looking plants growing in my window box in Amsterdam. Started late and cropped em once early on to increase yield(?).

Option 1, leave em to it.

Option 2 (advice from growshop), to avoid flowering in damp October, cover them with bags at 8pm and remove at 8am (daily!)

Option 3, Find space inside to flower them under lights, but the lights will have to very DIY, as funds are limited.

Thanks in advance!

Kushy

Three out of five, not bad but should be better because they are feminized. Strain perhaps? Onward....

- How old are they?
- How big are they, read how many internodes?

I'm not sure if you would be happy with the results of growing in your window box. Let me explain...
- Can the flower box sustain a 4-6 foot plant? Three 4-6 foot plants?
- Depending on when you started, there may not be sufficient natural light to maximize the plants potential. Indoors, a plant requires 12 hours of light to flower for a period of 7-10 weeks for Indicas and 9-12+weeks for Sativas. I think at this point your options are limited.

Option 1: Leave em to it.
You would have to pay close attention to the temperature and the amount of rain/moisture. If the temps drop below 15C/60F and in wet conditions, watch out for mold, not to mention that cannabis doesn't respond well below these temps.

Option 2: Cover with bags from 8-8 daily.
A good idea, if you started flowering in July. As mentioned above, is there sufficient time remaining to fully flower the plants given that beginning September 26th (<4 weeks from now) there will be <12 hours of daylight per day? http://www.jgiesen.de/daylight/

Option 3: Flower under lights.
May be your best bet for maximum results, although the funds situation may be a bit detrimental to the cause. You can flower using Flo's, but the yield will be substantially lower than HID's.

Given the above, you do have reasonable options. The question is or should be - what do you want or expect to gain, as in quantity and quality? I recommend you buy/procure a dual-ballast 250w HID with a Son-T-Grow multi-purpose bulb. A little searching, maybe look at e-Bay or similar, the cost should be around e150. All things considered, this minor investment will pay great dividends in the form not only in bigger harvests, but quality as well. As a side benefit, the more you harvest, the less you have to buy.

Good luck.

Many thanks D.U.R - You're like a real Uncle to me!

The beans started sprouting mid-May but no sign of life from two of them.

Plants are now in the region of 2 foot tall but they are quite bushy and have two main collas due to my cropping experiments (one has three). They are in coco/soil mix, in 10x10x10 inch - cube shape pots (don't remember the capacity).

Some hairs are forming but it sounds like they still have a ways to go for flowering so perhaps 'bagging em' will at least start this process now. However, the daily ritual of 8am bag release is not so appealing due to my nocturnal life style

Sadly, lights would have to be cheap florescent tubes at the moment but still, I wonder weather this could increase yields over option 1!?

I will definitely price up the kit you mention as this is something I'm going to want to do again, I have no doubts. It's extremely satisfying getting to know what these plants are really about!

K

You are welcome.

Yeah, not all beans sprout, and even those that do can fail, as if I need to remind you. Sorry. 3/5 still works. That's three girls that will develop into lovely ladies, all things considered.

Sprout in mid-May, now they are two feet tall and bushy, with some hairs forming. Sounds like they can be placed into flowering whenever you want. Just regulate exposure to light, 12/12.

By cropped do you mean topped, as in cut off the main cola? I did that once and was somewhat disappointed in the results. I compared the cured weight to one that I didn't top and the difference was almost 40%. Maybe I did something wrong but I don't think so. The highest branches became the defacto colas, but they would have grown out regardless. The main cola is where the heaviest concentration of bud is located, so given my experience, I don't top or crop. Again, I could have done it wrong.

If you do use Flo's or CFL's, I highly recommend using bulbs high in the red/yellow color spectrum. The blue/white spectrum is optimal for vegetation, stay away. As for whether this would increase your yield over option 1, IMHO, yes. To increase your chances, but a bit of a pain in the ass, you could do the following: Place the plants outside in the AM, and when the daylight begins to wane, bring them inside and put them under the lamps until 12 hours of light are achieved. I call this the Combi-light effect. Just made it up. This would also benefit your nocturnal life style as well.

If I may make one correction about the HID system. If you eventually decide to acquire an HID system, save up for a 400w system, cost between e200-300. This is, IMO, the minimum wattage (read Lumen) that will provide the highest return on investment, all things considered. The 150w and 250w systems are fine, but the results will be significantly lower, only speaking from personal experience. Others may very well have fared better.
In addition, buy a switchable ballast, one that can be used for both MH and HPS bulbs. Buy a Son-T-Plus bulb or similar which can be used throughout the entire growing process. In case the bulb fails and you find yourself low on cash, just buy the bulb that matches the stage the plants are in - MH for veg, HPS for flowering.
http://www.head-nature.com/seite?id=HVSn8Pdx&wg=4069
http://www.head-nature.com/seite?id=HVSn8Pdx&wg=4070

Happy farming.

Yeah HPS and other hid have there pros but also there cons pros yield , cons heat , safety , extra costs fans filters etc you would still have to go down that rout with cfls etc but if you only want percy to smoke and not to have more than you can smoke i would go with cfls very cost effective my friend is using a 125w red spectrum for flowering and im very surprised with the results !!

I agree with Cisco on the cons of HID's, they do put out some heat, not to mention the heat from the ballast, and the associated costs for purchasing equipment to maintain the temps, which in turn can create more noise.

In the long run, and in terms of return on investment, CFL's and Flo's can't touch HID's, even the 150w. The not so secret secret is in the amount of Lumens. While CFL's and Flo's offer an amount under 10K, HID's offer 50,000 plus at 400w.

What's the deal with the pics? Are these grown using a CFL light setup? Any details of the plant at the time of the photos - strain, how long it has been flowering? I see it's Sativa dominant, the leaves give it away. Not sure if I would use anything but HID's to flower Sativas mainly because they require considerably more time to flower than Indicas, which means more electricity usage, which means a higher electric bill.

By comparing yields, one can determine which lighting system is more economic in the long run. My greatest one-plant yield using a 400w HID system was approximately 190 grams. The same harvest yielded approximately 590 grams, from 5 plants. When working out the cost, I estimated that I spent less than 0.50 Euro Cents per gram. I don't think CFL's or Flo's can come close, or can they?

Regardless, it's the end result that ultimately matters.

That plant is bag seed vegged for months on a windowsill till he got a 125w cfl its 5wks into flower !! of course yield will be more cost effective with hid but not everyone can run these type of lights ! and i really believe you can get some amazing results from cfls , and if your growing your OWN PERSONAL smoke and not having to deal with shady types then i thing it should be applauded whatever method you go down yield is not everything !! unless i suppose your a commercial grower ? And only cost effective over yield does it cost more to run a cfl ? i dont think so well of course you get a bigger yield so more money saved/earned on weed but running costs ?