Dirt to Dank: A New Beginning...

So... It appears I was a bit hasty in my last post--having had almost just transplanted the gals into a new home just days prior, my last post felt as if the plants might be ready for flowering quite soon. But I think they still have a bit to go before I "switch" them, as they say; i.e., put them into flowering by changing their light schedule from 20/4 to 12/12.

And here they are after transplanting them into what I thought might be their final homes, but, we will see how it goes.

Sexy Time...

I guess I've been blessed: either I just got lucky, or these buddies were "feminized" straight out the bag... (If you'll remember, I grabbed all these seeds for this grow from sacks of commercially purchased cannabis. Because of that fact--and maybe someone can help me with this--it most likely means these seeds are from a plant that itself produced seeds--something considered undesirable in the world of cannabis cultivation; usually a sign of "weak genes," or other undesirable traits. I guess we'll have to wait and see...)

But all these "guys" so have been, well, girls... (Keeping my fingers crossed!!)

Anyone unfamiliar with cannabis cultivation may not be aware of how modern, sinsemilla (Spanish for: "without seed") cannabis cultivation operates. Whereas, in much of the past, I'd say, oh, anywhere before the nineties, pretty much--I'm sure someone could say much better--but A LOT of weed had "seeds," right? From what I've read, this was because folks simply did not know (or, maybe were too stoned to care ;) that A) there even were "male" and "female" marijuana plants, but that B) if the males were permitted to pollinate the females, this is what caused the females to, instead of focusing on producing flowers, or, "buds"--the actual product we as consumers are looking for--instead they make seeds!!

So time went on and know we kill all the males (go figure).

And here are the Ladies, in all their glory (this was right before watering, so they look a little droopy lol)

(The sponges are to increase humidity. The gals are about 6 weeks old in this picture :) About another week or so and they'll be ready to be switched to flowering!!

I'm not gonna go over how to actually sex the plants--it's all over the internet if you want to find it.

To CFL or Not to CFL?? It's a Matter of Spectrum

I did want to address one other small "question" or concern, rather, that I have seen crop-up surrounding cannabis grows, and this is over "whether or not CFLs can produce acceptable yields." I've read multiple people on both sides, argue for and against CFLs across from whatever other forms of lighting, HPS, LED, what have you.

Just browsing a bit earlier, though, I was amazed at how few growers seemed familiar with the concept of utilizing different spectrums of light during the different stages of their grow: specifically, using "cooler," (5000K - 65000K)"blue" light during vegetative, and "warmer," (< 2700K) "red" light during flowering. This was something that was stressed by the man who taught me my first grow, so I have always incorporated it into my protocol. How this relates to CFLs is, just earlier today I was reading of a grower who was complaining about the yields from a CFL grow--but he used a 2700K, RED light bulb for the entire thing!!*.

As opposed to this being a testament to the ineptitude of CFLs, it's actually further proof of the significance of how light spectrum can make an influence!! My first grow, using CFLs, and following the above-outlined philosophy regarding light spectrums, I pulled in a respectable 1.5 ounces from one plant. I think I ended up with about 8 compact florescents surrounding the plant at the end there--at about 1300 lumens per bulb, that's somewhere in the ballpark of over 10,000 lumens total. I hope to have at least that much for my four buddies currently growing--so Imma need to up my bulb supply here soon lolz!

Next time I'll be discussing the HUGE MOVE!!! (I have been blessed with being able to move to a bigger, better growroom--which I will be documenting in my next post!!) And also talking about other issues regarding CFLs, and WATER--namely, the significance of using certain types of H20... But, till then...

Thanks again for stopping by!!

Here's DJ Short, saying "Goodnight," and playing us an exit-tune scrigiggity-scgrigga-scratchity-scratch