300W CFL Box Stealth Grow, Pictures.

Well I've finally gotten around to creating this little grow journal. I am mainly creating it to ask about any problems I run into (hopefully there won't be many) and to keep a personal record of pictures so I can delete them from my computer/camera, heh.


The Seeds

I started with 5 bagseeds that looked healthy. Germinated them, and 4 sprouted the next day--off we go. Got them all planted in some seed starter soil with low amounts of NPK (around 3-5% IIRC) in Solo cups. After 1 weeks, transferred to 10quart "pots".


The Growbox

I am using an old 55" plasma tv box that has been sitting around our house forever so people are accustom to seeing it. It's huge, at 2' x 5' x 4'. Perfect for a small time grow. I have opted not to post pictures of my setup here, well, "just in case". Nothing too spectacular, just a big box painted matte white on the side housing some plants, heh.

2x42w CFL Daylight bulbs
4x28w CFL Cool White bulbs
4x26w CFL Warm White bulbs

Lights are 3" from tops of plants.

Ventilation? Yeah I got it--one 120mm PC fan at the top of one end, and 3 intakes (2-2.5", 1-5") at the bottom of the other end. I didn't plan on 3 intakes, but goofed on the cutting of the holes so decided to do it anyway. Temp stays at 76-77 degrees during the day, and 65-66 at night.


Plants and Nutes

The plants are 18 days old, with the exception of one that's 14 days old (planted it later). They were on water-only until 2 weeks, at which point I began 1/2 strength of 24-10-16 MG plant food. I will increase to full dose (1Tsp/gal) at 3 weeks.

The three 18-day old plants are ~7-8 inches tall, and the 14-day old is around 5.


Pictures!








Questions I've Got So Far:

1. Is my lighting sufficient to get me from seed to harvest, or should I go all-2700k temp. for flower?

2. Are my plants the correct size and health for plants nearing 3 weeks old? I think they are healthy, but they have recently slowed growth after sprinting for 2 straight weeks. They all have nice tight nodes and until recently were all solidly green. Prior to introducing nutes, random bottom leaves began turning more yellowish green. I belive this is from lack of light than burned. Overall, though, are the plants looking alright?

3. My humidity has sat right around 30% since I started this whole thing. I haven't really bothered to do anything since I have always thought that high humidity is the bad guy (fungus, etc). Should I correct this and get it up to around ~50%? Or does it even really matter that much?


The End (of the beginning)

I guess that's about it. I probably won't post picture updates but once every week or so, but I will refer back here to chat and talk about my grow daily. I appreciate any help in advance--this place has been a great help in my first grow.

Looks like the plants are going good.

1. The light needs to be switched the 2700k (warm white, Soft white). The cool whites (6500k) can still be used in flower but use 1 for every 5 like i did and you should get good results. The 2700k give off a more red light like what you see the sun do in fall. And as we All know that is when harvest comes. I Have 10 2700k 23w, 1 40w 2700k, and 3 20w 6500k in flowering and i got nice tight buds.

2. Go easy on the nutes over watering and to much nutes will cause yellow leaves. It is called a weed for a reason they grow easly.

3. Humidity Matters. Around 40% is ideal. i would leave it alone.

Awesome, thanks for the reply.

I noticed the leaves turning a bit yellow before I started nutes (it's actually one reason I started them about a week earlier than I planned). Hopefully it's not a big deal. I don't plan to give nutes but every 3rd watering or so.

how tall should a plant be before u start to flower

weeweed said:

how tall should a plant be before u start to flower

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I've heard for CFL grows the plant shouldn't be more than 14" tall and absolutely no taller than 20". There doesn't seem to be a hard line on this but that's what I've heard from other CFL growers

--Edit --

Just wanted to update that my 32 day old AK47 is now 21 inches tall (16 days into flower) so even though I flowered at 6 inches and tried everything to keep it stout, my plant has exceeded all the CFL height limitation (some say 14" and some say 20" max) so we'll see if my buds end up leafy and loose

Well, a few things can affect when you decide to flower your plant.

Strain, grow area size, personal experiments, etc can all affect when to throw plants into flowering. I personally will be flowering these when they reach around 10"-12" in height, which will also put them at about one month old from planting the germ'd seeds. I am going to start LSTing them soon I think, and also for a bit during the first part of flowering. My total height space is 4 feet, and 1 foot of that is taken up by the bucket. Another 6" or so is taken up at the top by the lights. I am aiming for having plants that are about 32"-35" tall at harvest. Of course, this could be less depending on where I go with LSTing.

The smaller your grow area and/or desires, the sooner you will most likely put your plants into flower. You will read a lot of people who do 12/12 from the start, even. It all depends on your case, I guess.

I'm a newb to all of this stuff, but if you have any specific questions, feel free to ask. I may not be able to answer all of them but I'm sure some more people will chime in.

I find that the lower leaves will sometimes turn yellow from when they touch the soil when the leaves droop, Cut those suckers off! think of a dieing plant you trim those dead leaves, its wasted energy.

Well just a little update here guys. A lot of growth over the past week or so. The plants are now 26 days old, with "plant 3" at 19 days.

I'm beginning to think about when I want to flower these ladies (hopefully), but need some help in deciding as this is my first grow. I've got a pretty limited grow area, but I hopefully will be able to put 2-3 healthy girls into a closet I've got that's about 4' x 4' x 5' (actual height is roughly 6 feet, but with the lights in there it will be about 5 feet of good grow room).

I've attached pictures of each plant, as well as a close-up of the nodes for the two tallest plants (1 and 4). Before you look at the pictures, though, here's a little bit about each plant that may help me decide when to put them into flower:

Plant 1 (first photo):
- 10" tall
- on it's 9th set of nodes
- stem is roughly .5"

Plant 2 (second photo):
- 8" tall
- on it's 7th set of nodes
- stem is roughly .5"

Plant 3 (third photo):
- 7" tall
- on it's 6th set of nodes
- stem is slightly smaller than the others

Plant 4 (fourth photo):
- 10" tall
- on it's 9th set of nodes
- stem is roughly .5"

As of right now, I am planning to put them into flower this weekend. They will be at 31 days and 24 days, respectively.

They look awesome man! the only potential problem i can see is that the leaves are drooping just a little, you might want to cut back on watering just a little.

weedaweedaweed said:

They look awesome man! the only potential problem i can see is that the leaves are drooping just a little, you might want to cut back on watering just a little.

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Thanks man! I only water them every 3 days (about a solo cup and a half), is that too much? I also give nutes (24-10-10) every 3rd feeding at half strength. I am open to suggestions about their watering definitely, as that's one of the few things that's really subjective about growing.

Also, the 4th plant (the one that's SUPER curled) is always like that for some reason. It looks to be the most sativa of the bunch, and it has some completely wacky leaves on the plant. They all look so...wicked/evil/demonic, ha! Looks sick though, hopefully she's a she so I can taste the sick bud that will come from her! *crosses fingers*

Your watering sounds about right, although you're in pretty big pots so maybe they're not using it all? the soil should be completely dry a few inches down in between waterings...it's easy to judge by the weight of the pot. They don't look bad at all though, so maybe that's what your strain is like. They're nice and green, hopefully you get some killer bud.

I hope so, man. This is my first grow, and I'll be pretty upset if I don't have at least two females. I realize that out of 4, 2 is possible. I'd be OK if I could get one good healthy female, and just take a few clones. Plants 1 and 2 are my favorites.

been reading this mate and looks realy good i started off in the same type of grow box like yours lol hope all go's well

alsoo were did you get you seeds from???

and i would cut down on wartering tehe

somke on my friend!!!!!!!!!

cheapazzgrower said:

I find that the lower leaves will sometimes turn yellow from when they touch the soil when the leaves droop, Cut those suckers off! think of a dieing plant you trim those dead leaves, its wasted energy.

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Keep the dying leaves on the plant... that don't waste energy, they creat energy via photosynthesis. They use nutrients from the roots to in turn provide the plant with energy to grow... They are the factories of the plant... Even if they are not working at 100%, they are still working.. Even completely yellow leaves are creating some energy... Just let them slowly die off naturally. Cutting anything puts them at risk for infection as you are opening them up to the outside environment... kinda like when your skin gets cut...

Thanks for all the tips, guys.

I have a question, though. Do my plants look strong enough to go into flowering? I'd like to put them into flowering at 30 days, but none of them even have alternating nodes, they are all still parallel. The two tallest are on their 10th set of nodes already.

Any suggestions?

***UPDATE!***

We have a female! Plant 1 decided to show me her goodies today. And my, are they pretty!

I was shocked actually. I've been struggling with deciding when to put them into flower, but she just told me herself! I'm going to go ahead and put her in the flowering room and see if I can't squeeze a few hairs out of these other girls (hopefully!).

I've attached pictures of the fem'd plant 1. Picture one is the nice healthy hair, and picture 2 is the plant as she is right now.

congrats!!!!

Thanks!

Plant 4 is looking like a male to me right now. I hope I'm wrong, but it has 2 or 3 very, very small pre-flowers coming in at the highest node. Females usually only have one, correct? In any event, I'm glad number 1 is a female!

2 pistils out of 1 catayx x2 for both sides is a garunteed female!!

they are on there way