1st CFL indoor grow...Tips more then welcome!

Hello all!! First off, let me thank all of you posters here...you give every grow newbs like myself tons and tons of infos, tricks and ideas. Alright...last september i moved to a new appartement. The guy who lived here before had some stuff shipped overseas fron the UK in a wooden crate which he was using as a makeshift broom closet in the kitchen. I almost got rid of it but kept it. Fast foreward 3 months...just before christmast, I got a batch of weed that had many seeds. Pretty good weed, so I figured I'd keep the seeds. I had germinated seeds before...but I wanted to have the best ratio of succes so I started researching a bit. Ended up on this forum, and many others and realized that CFLs could be used, at low cost, to grow indoor MJ. EUREKA!!!
The wooden crate!!! So here we are a month later...I set my 1st grow box on a minimal budget, and I think its going great....Here are some of the specs:

FIRST GROW (Bagseed) Temp 75-85F Humidity 45-60%

20'x 20'x 72' Grow box
2 120mm PC fans (Intake)
1 120mm PC fan (Exhaust)
1 6' Desktop fan (Air circulation)
1 Humidyfier

LIGHT SETUP (Over 25000lumes, 2.7 sq. feet for about 9500lumens per square feet of grow space)
6 CFL 45w 3000lumens 4100-5000k
2 CFL 42w 2900lumens 2700k
1 CFL 23w 1650lumens 2700k

I only bought CFLs I could find at either Canadian Tire, Walmart or Home depot.
I have 2 other 42w 2700...Figure I'll wip'em out for flowering.
See if thats enough, if not I'll adjust.

The pictures were taken 16 days after I put the germinated seeds in soil. The first week was a bit stressful for the plants...moved them around quite a bit, had a few less CFLs, didnt have the humidyfier for the first 10 days (was about 25% humidity in there). But for the past week they've been growing very well. I started with 12 seedlings, now im down the the best 9...hopefully at least 4 of them will be ladies (Fingers crossed!!)...I figure theres room in here to get 4 nice, bushy plants.

Thats about it for now...I would really like to have some feedback from you fellow growers; any advices, tips or questions are more then welcome.

I'll keep posting, pretty excited about this 1st grow...This is kind of a test run..I ordered BC Big Bud seeds from BCSK. Can't wait to get started with thoses!!

Peace!!!

+rep for what appears to be a well made stealth box.

Couple things though....


I would HIGHLY recommended getting a small HPS. I grew 5 LR#2's under 2x 125 watt cfls(Actual watts). Good bud but the yield lacked bad. I went to HPS after that.I bet you 3 cookies that you could run a 150 watt HPS plus some CFL's without any problems with heat. I really think you should consider it well.I know all about budgets, trust me, but the extra 70 bucks may be worth it. I own a Sun System 150 watt HPS. It has a enclosed ballast.See picture.From earlier in my grow.They are big now

I would go with a higher light than that. I would go with a 250 hps you shouldn't have any heat issues with it. It will increase your yeild the bigger the lights the more you are going to get off from it.

Looking real sexy! SICC is a well known member here and has had great results flowering with CFL's and so have I as well as Concord Dawn.

Subed!+REP

They look good just keep the temp on check and lights as close as posible. Heres my 1st grow with 5 23w 2700k + 2 23w 6500k + 1 68w 2700. Its a bag seed its still got 2-3 weeks left, it has been through hell with me but shes staying strong and filling up nice.

Thanks all!
Yes I pondered going HPS, but I figured I'd go with CFLs for the 1st try because they are easy to find and they dont put out much heat.
There are a couple hydro equipement shop around here, but they didnt have any "Plug-in" kits and I dont feel like playing Mr. Electrician.....again.
That Sun System 150 watt HPS looks very sweet but I dont feel confortable ordering online....costums and stuff...worried about the bulb getting here broken...etc.
Quick question...I went from 24/0 to 18/6 couple days ago. I read that a 15F drop in temp was alright during dark period...but it gets really cold in there without light...like 57F...from close to 80F in lights. Is that to much of a drop in temp? Any tips on keeping some of the heat in there?
Also im thinking about nutes....which one and when?

Thanks!!!
Later!!!

Kala420 said:

Thanks all!
Yes I pondered going HPS, but I figured I'd go with CFLs for the 1st try because they are easy to find and they dont put out much heat.
There are a couple hydro equipement shop around here, but they didnt have any "Plug-in" kits and I dont feel like playing Mr. Electrician.....again.
That Sun System 150 watt HPS looks very sweet but I dont feel confortable ordering online....costums and stuff...worried about the bulb getting here broken...etc.
Quick question...I went from 24/0 to 18/6 couple days ago. I read that a 15F drop in temp was alright during dark period...but it gets really cold in there without light...like 57F...from close to 80F in lights. Is that to much of a drop in temp? Any tips on keeping some of the heat in there?
Also im thinking about nutes....which one and when?

Thanks!!!
Later!!!

Click to expand...

Just a FYI: HTGSupply is a great place to buy from. US company. I've bought all my lights and soil from them.Although the hesitation to order online is very understandable.

Although I think 57 may be getting close to the limit, I think it will be alright. My plants routinely go into the lower 60's at night and on occasion as gotten into the upper 50's.Never any problems. Those kinda temps at night can bring out purple colors!Or so I've read.

I used BioBizz BioBloom only for my 1st grow. Even though some people thought I could do better, I thought it did ok(although I didn't have anything to compare too) Lots of crystals on my plants. Very healthy.See pic for fruits of labor

This time around I decided to up it a notch. I used Technaflora. It requires a bunch of mixing but I'm liking it so far. The package in this link will contain enough for you to do your plants.http://www.google.com/products/catalog?hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=spN&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&biw=1366&bih=488&q=Technaflora+sample&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=11171880308697458552&ei=hFA8TYaZDMP48AbrvcHzCg&sa=X&oi=product_catalog_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CEgQ8wIwAA#

Other will probably talk crap about it, but hey, it was cheap.
BTW, you can find this sample package in garden stores too. Or at least HTGsupply carries it in store.

i'm doing a CFL grow too.. i'd go with all daylight CFL's 6500.. then switch to the 2700's for flower. imo

a good beginner nute is a 10-10-10 you can acutally use it from beginning to end.. however.. in flower you want less nitrogen.. like a 2-10-5 or a 2-10-10

tharoomman said:

+rep for what appears to be a well made stealth box.

Couple things though....


I would HIGHLY recommended getting a small HPS. I grew 5 LR#2's under 2x 125 watt cfls(Actual watts). Good bud but the yield lacked bad. I went to HPS after that.I bet you 3 cookies that you could run a 150 watt HPS plus some CFL's without any problems with heat. I really think you should consider it well.I know all about budgets, trust me, but the extra 70 bucks may be worth it. I own a Sun System 150 watt HPS. It has a enclosed ballast.See picture.From earlier in my grow.They are big now

Click to expand...

Can I grow from seedling to harvest with a 150w HPS?

Day 23 of my first indoor grow.
As you can see I changed the light setup for the Sun System 150w HPS with CFL support.
How are they looking?
I also built a small nusrery in a Rubbermaid tub.
Got my BC Big Bug seeds from BC Seed King and needed a nice warm place to start them in.
It has 5 x 23w CFLs 1600lumens 2700k for lighting, a 90mm PC fan for intake and a 80mm PC fan for exhaust.
Pics came up a bit messed up....pic 2,3,4 and 6 are the nursery and the 4 others from the 3 weeks old plants.

Good looking grow....you did a very good thing going with the 150 hps and using the cfls for side support. Your yeild will be a bit better......... as long as you watch your heat. You may find you need to increase ventilation.....

Oldreefer said:

Good looking grow....you did a very good thing going with the 150 hps and using the cfls for side support. Your yeild will be a bit better......... as long as you watch your heat. You may find you need to increase ventilation.....

Click to expand...

Im running 75-80F 45-60% Humidity in there.
Is that proper?

[video]http://www.pottube.com/view/2443/supercropped-plant-at-10-weeks/[/video]10w energy saver bulb.Supercropped.Just messing around with this plant to see how it fairs out under crap conditions

Day 30 of my 1st indoor grow.
Going smoothly so far.
Plants are triving under the HPS. No regrets at all there.
Down to the best 4 plants, in the final pot they'll grow in.
The next generation is coming; 6 BC Big Bud seedling are up and running, 1 has some weird 1st set of leaves...hopefully it will survive.
Thinking about switching to 12/12 on the 10th, that would make it 5 weeks veg.
The plants are real bushy but not very tall, about 8", so i guess they're indica.
Would you guys wait for them to get a bit higher before flowering?

8 days into flowering.
I think I got REALLY lucky...I think at least 3 of my plants are girls
I couldnt get good pics but heres a couple anyway...could anyone confirm?

NONHater said:

Lookin real good bro rep when I can! More people need to see this..

Click to expand...

Thanks man!
Im really happy so far...I put up the screen kinda late but these are bagseeds so this is kind of a test run anyway...next generation of BC Big Bud is coming strong (except maybe the weird one) and I ordered 2 more strains both feminized; BC God Bud and Purple Kush

Buddy of mine just got some God Bud. Think like ten of them didnt germ for him...how do you germ yours? Or do you just toss them in the soil? I toss em in the soil he used paper towel method on them. How many did you get? Bagseeds looking good!

Well the bagseeds were germinated into wet paper towels...i had like 30 of them
12 germed, 9 grew nice, choose the best 4 for flowering.
My first online oreder was for 15 (got 21!!) BC Big Bud normal seeds from Bc seed king.
Put 6 into jiffy pellets and they all poped on the 3rd day.
Ill probly try the pellets for the other 2..itll be a couple weeks before i get them though.

Well im glad nonhater pointed me in this direction, great set-up you got going cant wait to see the results.

+rep to u sir!!

HP

Interesting...ill look into that product.
Im running 27.5k lumens in a 2.6sq feet area...is that really a low amount?