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mhbound said:
I suggest you just buy a CFL lamp with a refelctor...You got do that for the same price as buying all of that and get away with less lights...Of course higher wattage.

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I'm going to disagree with this, as its always better to have more light sources covering a wider area than to have just one light hanging in the middle, especially with CFL's. Light intensity on CFL's is pretty low and their light is only effective for growing only so many inches away, so having lots of lights covering the whole surface of the canopy should pay better dividends in yield, especially when you're doing a micro-grow and want to keep the plants from stretching for light in the first place. Of course, the higher wattage you go with across the board, the better.

Rasjeph, there shouldn't be a way to overlight them, at least not with CFL's, as long as they aren't too close to the bulb to cause the leaves to dry out and burn up. Having a good fan blowing across the canopy will help keep them closer to the bulb, as well as help give your plants plenty of fresh air. They'll need as much CO₂ as they can get. You might have to start thinking about ventilation and also taking care of the odor, but with a microgrow, ventilation should be covered by hooking up some computer fans....

When you go to the shop, you can look for any kind of coco-specific nutrients. These will usually have an A and a B bottle. Grab some PK 13/14 too, you'll want that for flowering to help boost your yields. That might be easier, but if you get something like the General Hydroponics Floranova series, its like three bottles (1L each should do you for a good while with your size grow), which allows you to adjust to give each plant what they are asking for, and there are well-established feeding regimens for pot plants already on the net for those nutrients. You're right about needing to make sure coco doesn't dry out. Its usually good to flush once or twice a week, which means to water without nutrients, in order to help keep the chemistry in the coco balanced.

Keep us updated man, and more help to come.

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Dr. Penguin said:
I like to let my seedlings soak 24 hours in a glass of water

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OK man, I'll give that a shot I suppose Is it good to apply heat? I have them on that shelf above where my lights are and it keeps everything nice and toasty. Kinda wish I could crawl in there haha.

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Sirius said:
First things first, really glad to see you giving it one last go!

Let's try to get you going. Germinating five seeds is a good idea, 'cause you can hope for at least two females, although there is always the small chance you could get one or two. It doesn't matter though 'cause the gaps in space can be filled in by training them from the beginning. More on that when you're ready.

Starting them off from 12/12 should work for you, especially since you're looking to keep them small and since you are using CFL's. About light spectrum, you'll need something near 6500k for the first while, until the buds start to form, then switch over to 2700k. The first is mostly blue spectrum light, and the latter is more red light for the buds to develop. My guess is that your cacti probably have red light right now...

26watt CFL's should have enough intensity individually, but of course you'll need as many bulbs as it takes to keep an even distribution of light to all areas of the plants. Keep the bulbs as close to the the seedlings as you can without burning them, usually just a couple inches. The downfall of CFL's is that their light doesn't penetrate very deeply, because it has much lower intensity than stuff like HPS. If they aren't getting enough of the right kind of light, the plants will stretch, which is especially bad if you are doing a micro-grow (which you are, search marijuana micro grow on Google if you want to find good info or grow journals to read in the meantime).
You're already on the right track with knowing to keep them horizontal.

The only problem you're going to have, especially with choosing to grow with coco (which is easy and very rewarding if you have what you need for it), is the nutrients. You'll really going to need hydro-quality nutrients, or you'll just be punching your fists against brick walls. The good thing though is that you can always get a moneycard from Wal*Mart and order some bottles online, as long as you don't have someone living with you that their finding your mail would be a security concern. You'd also need a way of adjusting and reading pH levels of the water you give them, especially with coco over soil. Again, coco is easy, but you just have to have the right stuff (still going to want pH management stuff and good fertilizers with soil though).

The good news on that, though, is your seedlings won't need fed for close to a couple of weeks, so that gives you some time to get that in order. About $100 should be enough to cover shipping of the nutes (I recommend General Hydroponics), some ph adjuster (most sources of water will need to be adjusted down, so a bottle of pH- should be all you need), and a cheap way of measuring the pH.

Just make sure to keep them right up by the light and to keep the coco moist but not wet, make sure its well-draining. About pot size, for what you'll be doing, you'll probably want to transplant them into something near a gallon in size.

Gotta jet man, good luck and I'm sure others will chime in to help too.

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==The Recipe==


(All Products are GenHydro,pH at 6.0)
(All measurements are per gal.)
6ml flora micro
9ml flora bloom
5ml Floralicious (during week 3 of a 4-5week,24-on,veg cycle.)

Week 5,transition into flower-6.0 pH h20 at <100ppm


Based on 63 day 12/12 Flower Cycle:

Day 1-14
6ml micro
9ml bloom

Day 15-21
6ml micro
9ml bloom
7ml Kool-Bloom Liquid (0-10-10)

Day 22-28
9ml Bloom

Day 29-35
9ml Bloom
7ml Kool-Bloom Liquid (0-10-10)

Day 36-52
9 ml Bloom

Day 50-63 (Flush)
6.0 pH h20 at <100 ppm

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Something like that should be a good base to stick to. I'm sure the bottle has general info too. Haven't tried GH Flora out yet myself so I don't have any notes. The main idea is to start with low concentrations of nutrients and then to gradually increase them. Much better to watch for signs of deficiencies than to overfertilize. Any questions, feel free to ask.