Greetings fellow herb appreciators,

Ive been scanning 420 for months, and its given me the inspiration to start a grow, which i did back in October time. However, on a limited budget and in limited space at a mates house, i decided to opt to work with fluorescents. I know they aren`t supposed to be amazing, but i know from experience in the aquatics industry that they can do the job fine for awkward, spectrum fussy corals and marine algae, so i figured they would do fine for some mary jane.

And it seems they are! My setup is in a (already whitewashed) cupboard space, with maybe 5 n half foot of height, if that, and about 2 and half ft width. No ventilation, except opening the doors, although the doors themselves have small grates in. I`ll update this post with the light names and brands, tho i know one of them is an Interpet marine coral lamp.
There are two fluro`s, one has a built in light intensifier (which is basically a reflective strip on the back of the lamp that intensifies the light) and the other is housed in a metallic reflector (which is visible in the pic below). I haven`t fertilised them once, although they are growing in John Innes compost, and we have re-potted them twice now, including quite recently before the below photo was taken. More photos to come.

We couldnt afford seeds, so we opted to just bung some seeds we`d collected over the months from purchased herb. So we ended up with two Thai weed seedlings, and two Power Plant seedlings.

Here they are back on the 5th of December:
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The two tall sativas from the Thai seeds, on the right of the above pic, stretched a lot during there initial growth as seedlings, because my friend didnt immediately have a decent light source for them. But they picked up well, and there growth is phenomenal. They give off a very different aroma to the little, condensed power plants on the left.

I was under the impression power plant is a mostly sativa dominant strain, but from the looks of these little erbs, they look like they have a fair amount of Indica genetics..........anyone know?

Here they are a week n a bit later on the 16th of Dec. We have had to remove shelf here to allow for the vertical growth of the thai sativas, hence the ridiculous book piling up to house the PP`s.


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More pics to follow

A slightly closer look at the canopy, still from them on the 16th of Dec:

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So how old are they in this pic? Ya look like ya could do with a fan in there just to help move air around and also it will strengthen ya stems which look a little slender at the mo. Have ya been using stakes to help them stay upright? or are the rubber bands for another reason? Anyway interesting to see how this pans out, a mate of mine keeps lizards and he once put some plants in his attic which is dedicated to water dragons and iguanas, anyway i think the lights he uses are of a similar spectrum to the aquarium lights your using. We never really got a chance to see how they got on cos the Iguanas developed a taste for them .

This photos from the 5th of Dec again. Looking down on one of the pretty Thai sativas:

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What is the light cycle in your Aquarium Grow m8, 24/0?

Hey Zigzag,

Who can blame those Iguanas mate! I wonder if the tiny amounts of thc in the vegging plant got there little reptile brains high.....just a tinsy, winsy bit maybe?

We planted the seeds in late October, and they were sprouted and growing by Nov time. I`ll post some pics of em in mid November, when they were dinky.

And yea, the elastic bands were there because we`d recently removed some pencil supports.....and, er, we`re lazy! I reckon they liked it, bit of a fashion accessory. Or not.

A close up of one of the Power Plants, 3 weeks old (ish...maybe younger), on the 22nd of Nov:
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Ripp:
What is the light cycle in your Aquarium Grow m8, 24/0?


Hey dude, its been on the standard 18hrs on, 6 off. Vegging drills!

And for about 3 weeks while they were seedlings, we just had two of my old aquarium bulbs, which are the same spectrum, but which had been used for years in a marine aquarium, so they were old and worn. I replaced them with the ones you see in these pics mid way through Nov, and i think the growth change was quite noticeable.

I do think i need to do some fertilising though! Tho they have managed well without it.

another pic close up of the thais foliage, on the 16th of Dec (so roughly week 6):


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hello indicaotter, looking nice and healthy in there yer doing very well i must add!

I switched off my marine tank when i started growin again, too much lecky spent on hobbys. Have you got airflow in there fella as it helps ?

keep up the good work

f-h

Yo fish head,

A fellow sea lover! I cant wait to one day kick back and smoke some of my homegrown while staring at a proper big marine aquarium, under a moon lamp. Now that would be some trippy shit!!

No ventilation at mo, but they seem to be fine. Though me and my mate intend to get a small pc fan to get some ventilation going. Its the only option really, as its too small in there to fit a conventional fan.

There is a bit of 'leaf-curling-at-tip-upwards' on the smaller plants tho, anyone know what that might be? You can see it on some of the photos.....

Any updates? I'm using those lights in my aquarium right now and am getting crazy algal blooms. The target specific fluorescents seem to produce more targeted spectrum light per $ than led's too. It will be interesting to see the yield with this light. Is the pink one running at 24W and another normal 24W florescent?

Im using 4 x 30w Aquarium lighting for veg too. 2x Aqua glow - red and blue mix spectrum for plants and 2x Marine Actinic blue which is designed for coral and gives off a very pinkish light. I looked at a chlorophil production chat and specifically went for these light spectrums. I am very impressed, my growth is fast and have some incredible tight nodes. So much that I need to keep my lights higer to get some stretch for cloning.

Im only using these for veg so couldnt comment on flower.