Forcing them to flower

Indoor , Northern lights Fem. 9 - 11 weeks old … OK , my NL girls arent showing any signs of wanting to flower. They are 20" tall and looking really healthy . Every article I read on this strain says… “This strain is both autoflowering and feminized. Northern Light Automatic is great for growing indoors but can also been grown outdoors in most climates. The plant starts growing and producing flowers almost immediately, and is ready for harvest in only 9 to 10 weeks from planting the seeds.” Budget grow with MG and CFL’s … I am using 4 lights per plant @ 16w for a total of 64 true watts each plant … And before anyone makes a comment about the cfl lights , here is a pic of 1 JUST grown with CFL’s ! And forced to flower . Seed to flower.

producing .75 oz … Mine are about 10 weeks now, 20 inches tall and I’m wanting to change them to 12 -12 … I’m figuring if that little guy produced almost 1 oz. in that small container, with mine being in 5 gal. pots I should get at least 2-3 oz. And I am adding 2 more true 100w lights to them for the sides. Any thought on me forcing them at this age ???

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You can flip em now
And the strain is either regular, feminized , or auto flowering depending on which seeds you ordered
They are great growers and heavy producers if you treat em right
As far as your lighting goes I would try and get as manny cfls on it as you can
I built a cheap 8 bulb cfl fixture for about 60 bucks with stuff I got at home depot but it was only used for supplemental lighting

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Cfl’s are fine for veg, but once you get into flower you’ll find they lack the intensity to get those big, dense buds we are all after :v:

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Thats what I have now … I bought the zip line sockets and put splitters on them , giving me 4 lights on each plant … After the lights , sockets and zip cord , im at about $120.00 for 4 girls … I know you all might think thats cheap , but for me being on a fixed budget , its groceries for 3 weeks , lol

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Given this being my first time growing anything , I am happy with how they are turning out … Like I said , I’m going to add a true 200 watts more at a total of 264 watts for them … Not being a commercial grower and just having them for just me , I will be happy just getting 2 oz. off each girl … Next time I should be able to provide more lighting as long as I start saving now , lol Stupid question tho … With me changing them over now, how long , including dry time should it be before I can actually have some smoke ???

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Nothing wrong with that brother
I loved my cfl fixture but noticed a huge difference when I upgraded
Your plants look healthy and happy

Hey @bluethumb I tagged you in on a thread that should answer most of your questions and even give you some direction too
Generally 3-7 days dry time and then a 30 day cure is best

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This is the new configuration I am going with to make raising the lights easier. I added the 2 flood lights and they are 120 watts each. Again , I know its not the most expensive set up but am wondering if adding the 2 floods will help with the flowering stage. ??

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Flood lights are not that great of light to use tbh. You can get some cheap a19 14w led bulbs and pop the diffuser off and those work really well also.

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Like this ??

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can you tag me as well, always looking for harvesting info to read through.

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Incandescent floods are okay for flower. They have a lot of red in them: 2700 K color temperature. They just produce lots of heat and cost about five times as much as CFL or LEDs to run. With 200 watts, you might want to cut your grow area down to four square feet.
Also you said feminized in your first line and then auto later. They are different strains. Feminized are photoperiod plants that you need to force into flower with 12/12 lighting and TOTAL darkness during the dark period. Autoflower plants don’t care about the light period. 18/6 is fine.

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They are Fem. The confusion that I think you are talking about is what I cut and pasted from the article I read. It states there are the 2 breeds … The point I was trying to get across in that article was the part … " is ready for harvest in only 9 to 10 weeks from planting the seeds." … After reading what Aolelon posted , I removed the floods and put in 2 regular 65 w incandescent bulbs … I thought the floods would be better because they are 125 w each and I’m not worried about the electric or the heat due to the cool air being piped in. 1 person says no to floods , the other says they are fine , lol :rofl::rofl:

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There’s an absolute ton of knowledge on this forum and a lot of people who have clashing strategies and thoughts. @dbrn32 is an amazing contact to chime in on lighting questions. He might be able to help you out.

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The floods you have do produce a little of the spectrum that plants can use but they are woefully inefficient and the amount of usable light to watts consumed just doesnt make them a practicle light source. Stick to the leds mentioned above or even try to find some flourescent tubes,Flourescents are not overly efficient but the spectrum they produce is perfect for plant growth.

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Cool set up similar to my first fixture build


Your plants seem happy too
Good job

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Yup absolutely

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Nice build, but you need a lot more CFLs for something that size. They will veg okay, but you really need to use a bunch for flower or you will get small wispy buds. Like maybe 6 more sockets and 12 more CFLs. Those are 23 watts at most and you need about 50 watts per square foot. Cool white is good for veg but you really want warm white for flower.

I would try to leave anything incandescent out. It’s not that you can’t use them, you just really don’t want to.

I like the suggestions about using a19 or a21 bulbs with diffusers removed. They’re about as good as you can get in household conversion stuff. If you look real hard, you can even find some warm white high cri options that will give you a little boost in photosynthetic efficiency. If you’re limited to cfl’s, the higher powered the better. And try to use cold whites for vegging and warm whites for flowering.

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100W Equivalent Soft White A21 Dimmable Warm Glow LED Light Bulb … HD has 9 left … I can afford 8 of these… Will this work ??