CFL Rubbermaid

Hey all, I've been lurking around here for a while without posting, but I think its finally time to post

Last night I ran out and bought some stuff for a rubbermaid CFL grow. I have a setup with two 49 gal tubs and 250ish watts of CFL power for a total of 6,400 lumens of soft white, and 6,400 lumens of daylight. I can add or remove lights if necessary and intend to well document the whole process down to the recepit. I will be posting step by step instructions and photos on how I build my box / light setup.

My only real question is how I should go about this grow. After reading I'm really conflicted between a fast flower SOG or if I should just veg out for a bit and let the girls grow. I'll be starting from bag seed and have about 40 germinating right now so I can pick the best n brightest of the bunch.

A few friends of mine will be replicating the setup so we can compare the results (for great science) and post our outcomes to the forum community.

Everything included our setup will be < $100 from walmart / home depot and our hope is to have a yield by mid March if not earlier (hence the fast flower SOG idea). If we do decide to go with the micro SOG would we want to LST or just let em be? For all of my searching I have not found any LST guides that answer all of my questions (I'm afraid of hurting the gals through misinformation).

Thanks for any tips. Expect some photos of the setup by Friday (we plan to build tomorrow).

Well I use a DWC with cfls and I'm doing a SOG , and I LST my plants for max yeild . This is my second grow with this system but first using LST . So far I have noticed alot more buds then I did with my last grow . I got 3 ozs with my last grow from 6 plants , hopifully I will get 6 ozs this time around . Good luck and Keep growing

Welcome to RIU

I hope your grow goes well

Greendude said:

Well I use a DWC with cfls and I'm doing a SOG , and I LST my plants for max yeild . This is my second grow with this system but first using LST . So far I have noticed alot more buds then I did with my last grow . I got 3 ozs with my last grow from 6 plants , hopifully I will get 6 ozs this time around . Good luck and Keep growing

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Not to sound too noobish, but what does DWT mean? I looked in the noob section dictionary but didn't find anything.

As for the LST, what exactly are you doing? I was considering going to 12/12 when they hit 3ish inches high or flowering from seed in small cups to try to get the same results as Bombdigity. (linky: https://www.rollitup.org/cfl-growing/137956-maui-wowi-x-tutty-fruity.html).


I have about 20 seeds in germination right now (pics below). The local grow shop isn't open today, is it worth my money to go get some plain topsoil from home depot today to start these guys? I plan on hitting the garden supply for some good soil and nutes tomorrow, but is that too long to wait for these guys? Sorry about the terrible quality photo, I'll definitely have better for the rest of the thread.

Thanks for the well wishes, can't wait to get this going!!!

mortimer said:

Not to sound too noobish, but what does DWT mean? I looked in the noob section dictionary but didn't find anything.

As for the LST, what exactly are you doing? I was considering going to 12/12 when they hit 3ish inches high or flowering from seed in small cups to try to get the same results as Bombdigity. (linky: https://www.rollitup.org/cfl-growing/137956-maui-wowi-x-tutty-fruity.html).


I have about 20 seeds in germination right now (pics below). The local grow shop isn't open today, is it worth my money to go get some plain topsoil from home depot today to start these guys? I plan on hitting the garden supply for some good soil and nutes tomorrow, but is that too long to wait for these guys? Sorry about the terrible quality photo, I'll definitely have better for the rest of the thread.

Thanks for the well wishes, can't wait to get this going!!!

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Bombdigity knows what hes doing and hes a pro at it.... im not discouraging giving it a try by ANY means but for a first timer its probly not the easiest way to go but good luck..... if you start getting fustrated try out veging for a little longer

Greendude said:

Well I use a DWC with cfls and I'm doing a SOG , and I LST my plants for max yeild . This is my second grow with this system but first using LST . So far I have noticed alot more buds then I did with my last grow . I got 3 ozs with my last grow from 6 plants , hopifully I will get 6 ozs this time around . Good luck and Keep growing

Click to expand...

kid cannabis said:

Bombdigity knows what hes doing and hes a pro at it.... im not discouraging giving it a try by ANY means but for a first timer its probly not the easiest way to go but good luck..... if you start getting fustrated try out veging for a little longer

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Yah, we've run in to some trouble already. Two cans of white spray paint weren't enough to keep light from escaping our tubs. We're going to buy mylar today and cover the inside. We also had a lighting fudge and had to redesign our lighting system.

Now we're going to have sixteen 23 watt CFLs in each tub in pairs of two. Each pair of two is attached to a flex arm that I built by braiding 14g galvanized steel wire. This should allow me to move my lights while still having a central mount point in the back of the tub.

Will be taking pics and posting soon

braided steel... thats not a bad idea.... i use strings and thumb tacks

Well, after three trips to walmart, two trips to home depot, a trip to radio shack, and a local grow supply shop we got everything we needed and actually got some stuff built. Here are some pics. We still need to finish the exhaust system and add some more mylar to a few places and she'll be done.

Better news is this morning there are about 6 sprouts

There are some pics of the way we built the box. The bottom of one rubbermaid was silicone caulked to the top of the a lid for a good seal. The inside of both tubs was spray painted, but we found that the paint wasn't blocking enough light so we got some mylar. The photo of the braid is 14g stainless steal that I braided to from a flex arm to mount lights on but for now the lights are just hanging from because we didn't have the time to properly mount them.

When this is finished I hope to have sixteen 24 watt CFLs in there, though its looking more like 8-12 will be the max.

Does anyone have a quick and cheap (and quiet) solution for an exhaust fan? I have some PC case fans but Radio Shack didn't have the stuff to convert from DC to AC.

all you need is an ac adapter (ac/dc works) then cut ant strip the wires and attach everything

kid cannabis said:

all you need is an ac adapter (ac/dc works) then cut ant strip the wires and attach everything

Click to expand...

Good call, I'll pick one up today. Also, I'm back to the question of to veg or not to veg. I'm going to veg on 24hr light until the boxes are complete, but after that should I try to flower right away?

If I do flower would I want to try LST or topping or just letting the buggers go and harvesting after 8-11 weeks? I will have extremely adjustable lighting so hitting the lower leaves shouldn't be a problem in my box, but should I prune them anyway to try to help the canopy out?

Sorry for asking questions that may have been answered elsewhere, I've been searching both these forums and google for more information but it doesn't seem like there are many explanations for micro grows. I'm afraid if I apply techniques used on larger plants that I may kill mine

it all depends on what you want..... but it looks like you need more light i have 13 bulbs 300+ watts in my single rubbermaid.....

Try topping your plants to keep them from growing to tall . Are you going to be taking any clones?

i mean he has 2 rubbermaids stacked so that might not be good.... if a canapy gets to think for circulation bad things happen

True. But if he dont start flowering hes going to have a problem with canopy . Anymore then 4 or 5 plants and he doesnt have enough room

thats true

ya you are prob gunna need more lights on down the road....and are you planning on SCROGGing it??

I wasn't planning on a ScrOG, but its still an option I suppose. Right now there are about 10-12 sprouts turning up, so things are looking good there

I have a total of 16 lights that will be added over time for a 25,000 lumen / 384 watt setup. It got late last night so I only rigged up those 4, but tonight we should be finishing the box (including exhaust) and rigging up the rest of the lights to the steel flex arms that I'm making. I have a 4" computer case fan that I intend to use for the exhaust, think it'll be enough to keep that space cool?

Thanks for the suggestions everyone

should be fine for now if you add more bulbs to flower you may need more

ya that sounds like it is gunna be enough, put up some pics!!!!

Woohoo, this morning I checked and out of 35 seeds we have 30 sprouts! I added two more lights to the box and tried to get a bit of better coverage. I noticed some of the sprouts on the perimeters stretching towards the light. I think I'm going to leave these guys on 24hr light for a while longer and start to flower at about 2 inches. I know that some of the seeds came from hermies, and I've been told that will give them tendencies to stretch taller so I want to prevent them from getting huge.

Time has kept me from finishing my boxes, but I'm going to try to finish it tonight and get some pics up