first indoor grow

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ForcedInduction

Active Member
hey guys, well i'm finally able to start my first indoor grow, i've been waiting a long time!

i don't have much money so i'm keeping it simple.

the seeds came from some pretty decent bud i had over the summer. they are already growing very well!

i will be using fluorescent lights throughout the whole grow. (i'm broke)

heres the bad part. my space is very limited, they can't be any taller than 2 feet...

ventilation isn't a problem. i have that set up pretty good.

i've been doing LOTS of searching and finally decided to join up.

this isn't my first grow, a few years ago i had a pretty decent plant (outdoors)
it was in a pot and about 5 feet tall.
i got around 3-4 ounces of some really nice bud from it.

any tips and suggestions would be great!
i've already learned alot about LST and bonsai methods. i don't want to have a screen, i'm trying to keep it as simple as possible.
i'm sure i will have to trim them a lot as well

i'm thinking about moving them to milk jugs when they outgrow the cups, but they might be a little tall.. maybe half a milk jug?

anyways i attached some pictures. this is after 2 days..
24 hour light

also how long should i keep them in veg?? 24 hour light
i want them to be as small as possible before switching to 12/12 for flowering

thanks guys
 

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EpyxN

EpyxN

Active Member
First you want to blackout those cups :) you dont want any form of light to be able to get to the roots since light will kill them. Also get them lights (if there all cfl) within 1-2 inches from the tops of your plants, this will reduce stretch and tighten inter nodal space. I personaly go with 24/0. some swear by other combo's though. Darkness = stretch in my eyes :p

What kind & how many cfl's are you gonna use?

do you have any more dimensions? :p ?x?x2'

How many plants are you going to flower in the space?

with a 2' height limit your options are going to be very limited and time consuming :p unless you plan on cloning or break down and snag a screen to use :p
 
Z

Zath906

Member
I think what guy up there is trying to say is that by using clear cups your allowing light into your soil and that is going to start causing you problems.
 
Anubis1

Anubis1

Member
How are you doing, hope you don't mind I subscribed to your thread. I too am new to indoor growing, I have one plant that i just started. I did grow one plant about 7 years ago and it did well but i messed it all up while it was starting to flower. So I hope i can learn a bit from your experience. I also have a buddy who is pretty knowledgeable and he is just starting up again.. Thanks again and i will be in touch to share...
 
dopewear

dopewear

Well-Known Member
hey forced, welcome to RIU and congrats on the first grow... for starts like everyone said black those cups out, light will hurt your roots, aswell get some reflective material on those walls prefferably mylar which you can find at a local hydro store and some hardware stores, avoid tinfoil because it'll cause hot spots and burn your plants... what kind of CFL's are you using for vegg you'd like a high watt 6500k or "daylight" bulb and flower a 2700k high watt bulb. because your using CFL's they dont get that hot not as strong as any HID so you should have them only about an inch or two above your plants... anyways keep it up ill scribe and jump in from time to time.
 
F

ForcedInduction

Active Member
thanks guys i will get the cups taped up asap and take some more pics. right now i have 2 cool white CFL's and 3 30W warm white CFLs and 1 14W CFL. i also have 2 extra 30W bulbs
i'll get the dimensions up soon

i'm trying to find some type of reflective material, but i'm broke so i'll see what i can find lol

right now i have 5 plants growing. we'll see which ones turn out to be female. i will try and keep as many as i can!

i want to keep them in the cups as long as possible. maybe even keep them in there for their whole lives?

let me know what you giys think. thanks for all the feedback! :)
 
dopewear

dopewear

Well-Known Member
hey forced no reason you cant keep them in there their whole life you just might want to look into a scrog or LST(low stress training). take a look at my PC Grow in my sig its all LST and it works great! looken forward to the pics
 
F

ForcedInduction

Active Member
i was planning on using LST. i think i'm going to use thin solder to hold them down, how soon should i start the LST? i want to start when they are as young as possible.
right now their on 24/0, when should i switch to 12/12 to keep them as small as possible? i need to find a timer, or else i will be manually turning the lights on and off...

dopewear, awsome grow! looks like you have some pretty good experience. i'm sure you will be answering many questions from me! :)
i'm almost to page 30 of your PC grow, long thread, i'm also reading v12's PC grow thread. thats a long one as well!
 
cerebralvibrator

cerebralvibrator

Active Member
Hi there FI,

They look nice and healthy. You're going to need to pot them up in a couple of weeks so may as well make it thier final home by using the biggest pots you will be able to work with in your space. Why not try kitchen foil for reflective sheeting? Its cheap and easy to get hold of but get a quality one as its much stronger and heavier duty than cheap foil and dont crease. I use that in my small cabinet.

Nothing wrong with CFL's and you got some good advice above re spectrum, mix a couple of 6400k's (daylights or 'blues' ) in with the 2700k's to balance things. You will have no problems vegging/flowering with that combo.

You may care to take a look at my new '3 in a bed thread' in this section for ideas on how to maximise space/yield in a small space?

Hope this helps, keep it going!
CV.
 
F

ForcedInduction

Active Member
cerebralvibrator said:
.
You will have no problems vegging/flowering with that combo.
Click to expand...

thats what i wanted to hear! :)

i saw that tin foil may cause burning? i was planning to use that but then i saw you weren't supposed to?

i will check out your thread thanks!

also you think those cups are too small? i don't want to go too much bigger
 
cerebralvibrator

cerebralvibrator

Active Member
ForcedInduction said:
thats what i wanted to hear! :)

i saw that tin foil may cause burning? i was planning to use that but then i saw you weren't supposed to?

i will check out your thread thanks!

also you think those cups are too small? i don't want to go too much bigger
Click to expand...
You can safely use the tin foil :-) Running CFL's you're not going to be having any problems with heat reflection/ concentration I can tell you that from long experience.

Cups are honeslty too small. But I've seen plenty of grows in a couple of litres of soil, in 2 litre drink bottles for example. But theyre not going to veg too long in those before they fill it, think about 12/12 after a week or so maybe? Just let them get a few roots down first.

Just a few ideas/thoughts but you must go with your own feelings and experiment in your own time.

CV
 
EpyxN

EpyxN

Active Member
cerebralvibrator said:
Just a few ideas/thoughts but you must go with your own feelings and experiment in your own time.

CV
Click to expand...
:)

You wouldn't happen to have an old fish tank airpump and air stone laying around would you? you could make a small profile bubbler and not have to worry about medium space.

you could also heat a 2 liter up on 1 side so the plastic becomes plyable and then push it onto a flat surface so that it makes a flat side on your 2 liter. use it like a planter. There would be alot of wasted soil near the surface but the root system would have a decent amount of <-- side to side --> space to spread in.
 
F

ForcedInduction

Active Member
cerebralvibrator said:
You can safely use the tin foil :-) Running CFL's you're not going to be having any problems with heat reflection/ concentration I can tell you that from long experience.

Cups are honeslty too small. But I've seen plenty of grows in a couple of litres of soil, in 2 litre drink bottles for example. But theyre not going to veg too long in those before they fill it, think about 12/12 after a week or so maybe? Just let them get a few roots down first.

Just a few ideas/thoughts but you must go with your own feelings and experiment in your own time.

CV
Click to expand...
thanks! i will get some tin foil up asap.
sounds like i will switch to 12/12 after a week

EpyxN said:
:)

You wouldn't happen to have an old fish tank airpump and air stone laying around would you? you could make a small profile bubbler and not have to worry about medium space.

you could also heat a 2 liter up on 1 side so the plastic becomes plyable and then push it onto a flat surface so that it makes a flat side on your 2 liter. use it like a planter. There would be alot of wasted soil near the surface but the root system would have a decent amount of <-- side to side --> space to spread in.
Click to expand...
i don't see what your saying about the fishtank airpump and stone?, i might be able to get my hands on one..

i might use your 2 liter bottle idea, how exactly should i make it?
 
F

ForcedInduction

Active Member
update!

i decided to start LST on two of my plants, just to see how it would affect them when they are so young. right now i'm using plastic coated paperclips
i bent them over about 8 hours before i took these pictures

i also got a thermometer and the temperature stays around 85. i think that's perfect

still trying to get a timer, i think i will switch to 12/12 on saturday, exactly 7 days after they came through the soil.
 

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