100w CFL Grow: Results
Dinafem Critical+ Harvest Day
After a close peek at the trichomes with a 20x magnifier, I decided it was time to harvest these hundred-Watt beauties. Honestly, the DG x AK cross could have gone another week or 10 days, but I had the free time at that point. (Please note that this was about 10 days ago now, so I have dried harvest weights available below.
So now the payoff: What did we get for our gardening efforts under 100 Watts of CFL lighting? Read More…
100 Watt CFL Grow / Update#8: Catching up – Marijuana Pants Near The End Of Flowering
One Month into Flowering – Dinafem Critical +
Thanks for tuning in again, and my apologies about not sticking to weekly updates as I had hoped to do.
The plants are actually now harvested, and I am surprised at the results. You’ll soon see that 100 Watts (or a hair more) of CFL lighting can make you a rather happy home grower. But I digress… We first need to catch up with some pictures from last week showing our two plants in the final weeks of flowering. They fattened up nicely, although the Double Gum/Afghan Kush cross kept itself well hidden in a wreath of dark green leaves.
The above photo is from a little over 2 weeks ago – showing the Dinafem Critical + plant at four weeks of flowering. Below are some more pictures from last week (Nov 9th) at about 6 weeks into flowering. Checking the trichomes showed a lot of milky heads and even a few browned (oxidized) trichomes, so the time was coming for harvest this week.
Here are some pictures of the Critical + plant last week:
Not bad for an easy home grow/hardware tore/CFL grow! Be sure to pick up our ebook for all the right tips on getting these kind of results at home!
The DG x AK cross could have gone another week or more – the buds just weren’t quite as developed as the Crit+, and she looked like she wanted to make yet another stretch up for the sky! That’s how it is with some Sativa hybrids (the Double Gum genes) and crossbred plants are always unpredictable:
Up, up and away… the DG x AK cross-bred plant wants to keep going.
Alright – next week I will post the harvest photos. Be sure to come back and see what this project was able to produce! The Dinafen Critical + pictures above should give you a hint…
Best Regards,
Glenn Panik
[Author and Medical Marijuana Grower Glenn Panik’s “How To Grow Cannabis At Home: A Guide To Indoor Medical Marijuana Growing”, is available on iTunes book here, or for the Amazon Kindle . You can also order the ‘stealth title’ of our information-packed ebook for the Kindle here. Protect your privacy!]
What Do Marijuana Plants Look Like After 3 Weeks Of Flowering?
Here are some pictures from an LED Grow that we have running parallel to the 100 Watt CFL Grow that I have featured in recent posts. I thought it might interest readers to have a comparative peek at how buds look after 3 weeks of flowering under LED lamps compared to how they look after 3 Weeks under 100 (or so) watts of CFL.
I haven’t attempted to color-correct the raw images here – the LED lamps tend to create a psychedelic-looking deep red/purple light, whereas the CFL 2700k bulbs are more typical of what you’d expect in a room (soft white).
First of all, for those of you following our 100 Watt CF grow, here are pictures of the Dinafem Critical + (first) and Afghan Kush x Double Gum cross (second).
Dinafem Critical + after approx. 3 Weeks flowering.
Afghan Kush / Double Gum cross, after 3 Weeks Flowering.
The AKxDG has recently made a more Sativa-like turn (despite the early indications of Indica-dominance due to the wide leaves), growing taller and leafier at the top, and with buds along the stem, instead of a dense cluster at the top. The Critical + plant is doing very well under the CFL lights, and promises to be an excellent producer under low-wattage conditions.
The following are shots of an LED grow (multiple 125 Watt lamps are in use) where we currently have an African Sativa land-race strain that has been flowering for just under 3 Weeks (started them just after the 100 Watt CFL grow plants):
LED Sativa Grow, approx 3 Weeks flowering – Bud Closeup
LED Sativa Grow, approx 3 Weeks flowering – One Plant From Above
Although LED lighting may be too expensive for the budget home grower, I feel that the added expense may be worth the upgrade over the long term. The buds under the LED lamps show healthier, more robust growth in a slightly shorter period of time – compare the fullness of the buds, and density of pistil growth to the above CFL grow pictures.
On the other hand, the startup costs for the CFL grow are next to nothing compared to an LED lighting rig! Stay tuned and we’ll see what the CFL plants look like next week as we start the 2 week (or so) countdown to harvest time.
Best Regards,
Glenn Panik
[Author and Medical Marijuana Grower Glenn Panik’s “How To Grow Cannabis At Home: A Guide To Indoor Medical Marijuana Growing”, is available on iTunes book here, or for the Amazon Kindle . You can also order the ‘stealth title’ of our information-packed ebook for the Kindle here. Protect your privacy!]
100 Watt CFL Grow / Update#6: What Should A Marijuana Plant Look Like After Two Weeks Of Flowering?
Dinafem Critical+ 2 Weeks Flowering
After two weeks of flowering, the two female plants in this grow are looking great – lots of white pistils, and calyxes beginning to thicken at the bases. This is really a low-maintenance part of the grow. The light schedule is 12 on/12 off, and the plants are getting alternating waterings of plain water and our “Sweet Jane Molasses Drink” (see the next upcoming post for the recipe and why molasses is a great fertilizer/soil booster).
The lights are switched to 2700k bulbs, and I must note that the total wattage is in fact up closer to 150 Watts at this point. The most efficient CFL 2700 Watt bulbs I found for this “homestyle” grow are 33 Watts each. I replaced four 25 Watt 6500k bulbs with 33 Watt 2700k bulbs, for a total of 132 Watts of lighting. This is “cheating” in a way, since I wanted to stick to around 100 Watts, but I felt it was more fitting to keep two bulbs on each plant instead of reducing the lighting during flowering, which would be a bad idea. If you are running a similar low-wattage grow, I suggest you err on the higher side for lighting during flowering, as this is critical for bud formation.
I know some comments will come in to the effect of “Why don’t you put them under 250 Watts HPS for flowering!? You won’t get fat buds under CFL bulbs!!” Well, why not put them under 600 Watts then? Or just outside in the full sun? Well, that’s not the point of this particular grow journal!
I know there are a lot of growers out there who would like to use hardware store supplies, and keep their power consumption down for various reasons. This journal is here to show what someone growing under these conditions can expect if they otherwise follow proper growing techniques. The above photo is the Dinafem Critical+ plant, and the following photo the Afghan Kush / Double Gum crossbreed. Both plants are now 8 weeks old (give or take a day or two) and have been flowering for just over two weeks.
Afghan Kush x Double Gum, 2 Weeks Of Flowering, Close On One Cola
If you are looking to reproduce this kind of grow (or a larger home grow), then you should pick up our eBook along with the various grow materials you will need – in fact, the book will help you prepare your grow so that your plants will be healthy, happy, flowering plants in just two months, too!
Be back soon with more,
GP
[Author and Medical Marijuana Grower Glenn Panik’s “How To Grow Cannabis At Home: A Guide To Indoor Medical Marijuana Growing”, is available on iTunes book here, or for the Amazon Kindle . You can also order the ‘stealth title’ of our information-packed ebook for the Kindle here. Protect your privacy!]
100 Watt CFL Grow / Update#5: How To Recognize Male And Female Marijuana Plants Early In Flowering
I must first apologize for the long pause between posts. All the plants have recovered nicely from topping, and have now been under 12/12 for one week. (For those of you unfamiliar with the trade jargon, “12/12” is short for “12 hours of darkness, 12 of light” – the requisite light conditions to bring maturing marijuana plants into the flowering phase.) It is now time to see if we can determine which plants are male, and which are female. Male plants will be removed and composted in this case, I have enough pollen to last for a long time, and want to focus attention on producing the best possible buds on this low-wattage grow.
If you have been following these posts, you know that two of the plants were our own hybrids; a male “Double Gum” plant crossed with an autoflowering female. The autoflowering trait is recessive, and it turned out that neither plant was autoflowering. They also both turned out to be male, as we will see in a moment. Read More…
Can I grow marijuana from bag seed / street seeds? 5 Reasons to buy seeds.
For the budget grower, or in a place where you can’t legally order seeds, you’re probably wondering if you can grow marijuana from the seeds found “in the bag”. It is, hands down, the most common question I get from those considering about growing their own. The answer is yes! But…
There are a few reasons that someone looking to grow their own would want to buy seeds from a seed bank/dispensary/head shop/etc. Let me start with the positive and tell you why this will work, and then tell you the downsides, and you can weigh it out for yourself. Read More…
How To Top / Trim A Marijuana Plant To Keep It “Short”
Looking for the terminal bud on a sativa-dominant marijuana plant.
One of the problems faced by home growers is the daunting prognostication of the height your plants may reach! If you have chosen a Sativa strain (or even a sativa mix), you may be looking at the potential for the plant to reach 6 to 8 feet in height (growing conditions permitting) by the end of your grow. Yipes! That’s just a teeny bit bigger than my grow cabinet…
Autoflowering strain growers take note: Don’t top/trim your plants – they won’t like it, and don’t need it. They’re on a tight growth schedule, and most varieties won’t reach more than 3-4 feet tall.
The particularly tricky part is that Read More…
100 Watt CFL Grow / Update#4: What Should My Marijuana Plants Look Like After 3 Weeks?
Today I would like to give you a before/after view of the 100Watt CFL grow cabinet. It’s useful to have a watermark with which to compare your grow progress.
Be sure to check out our Ebook here on itunes if you need help with all the details for starting your home marijuana grow (lighting, enclosures, choosing seeds, soil, watering and fertilizing schedules, transplanting, trimming/topping, and much much more). Now, on to the entertainment –
The first image is from a previous post, just a few days into seedling life:
In The Nursery / Under 75 Watts CFL 6500k
And this is how the plants look today, after 3 weeks Read More…
Marijuana “Tolerance” Laws On The Move – Are The Feds Taking A More Relaxed Stance?
Pot plants in the backyard of a Northern California home. It is not clear how much the federal government’s policy shift will affect marijuana operations in the state. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times / May 15, 2012)
Could it be that the relaxing effects of marijuana are drifting about the continent, and finally permeating the thick walls (and heads) in Washinton? We still have a long way to go, but it looks like the Feds may be poised to accept that a consenting adult can consume cannabis if they see fit. Kudos! Read the LA Times article here.
If you would like to read the exact wording from the Deputy Attorney General James Cole, then you can download a PDF of the memo here – DAGMemo8-29-13
100 Watt CFL Grow / Update#3: Two Week Birthday of Crossbreed Plants
Here’s a short post to show you the plant progress under 100 Watts of 6500k CFL lighting. The third photo is of the Dinafem Critical+ plant, which (as noted in previous posts) is a few days older than our cross-bred plants, which sprouted two weeks ago today. We have culled one plant, and now have five in the grow cabinet. Of these five, we hope at least three will be female so we can show you each plant type all the way to harvest under 100 Watts of lighting – a very budget-friendly marijuana growing technique.
First, here is the Royal Queens Seeds “Royal Automatic” x Sensi/White Label Double Gum cross. There are two of these plants, and they are the most vigorous of the lot. If they turn out to be Autoflowering, they will be very impressive indeed!
Royal Queen Seeds “Royal Automatic” Crossed With White Label “Double Gum”, 2 Weeks Old
Next up is a Sensi Seeds/White Label “Double Gum” cross with Read More…
Cannabis Growing 