Easyryder in DIY CFL Growbox

Hi All,

this is my 4th grow in total, done 2 indoors and 1 outdoor so far.

some details about the grow:

Box - 120cm (h) x 60cm (w) x 60cm (w) or 4ft x 2ft x 2ft

built myself from parts from bunnings, im not going to win carpenter of the year awards with it, but it will serve its purpose.

Lights - ive got eight sockets for CFL's - 4 wired with 4 y adapters (had to buy the adapters on ebay cause they arent easy to come by in australia)

at the moment ive got 4 x 23w 6400K, when the easyryder starts preflower im going to add 4 x 105w 2700k

Medium - organic soil with compost and some chook poo mixed through, left to sit a while to let the nutrients settle down so it wont burn the little ones

Pot size - 25l (7 gallon) plastic pot

Nutes - going to be sticking to organics. no nutes for the first two weeks, then a regimen of worm wee (1:10) and every second watering will have a seaweed based emulsion - Seasol and Powerfeed (http://www.seasol.com.au/) - the powerfeed is nitrogen heavy so will be using that for the brief veg state the the autoflower has, then Seasol for the flowering period.

Seed - easyryder from attitude

Germination - soaked the seed in a mug of water, left in a warm, dark place. seed sunk after about 36 hours. then i put her in the soil and she sprouted after 3 days.

So today is day one and pretty stoked for this grow. its my first autoflower and am looking forward to seeing how it goes.

Enough talk - here is a pic for you



the seed got stuck to the cotyledon (sp?) so i gently pulled it off, however it left some crap on the end of one of them.
i figure its no biggie.

any feedback, comments, whatever is welcome

Day 3

the first set of leaves is slowly getting bigger. i think its growing its root base more than the vegetation at the moment.

took some photos of the box too



some other details i missed in my first post

going to be running the lights at 24/0 till pre-flower, when i put in my 2700k lights will drop down to 20/4 for the rest of the grow

have got two 80mm exhaust fans and one 120mm intake

Day 4

still growing - going away for a week, but luckily my wife will give the girl a little water while im away

my box is about 20"x23" on each side so i think yours is really close to mine in size. once you get rolling you can build another box next to or on top of that one to flower in so you dont have to wait until harvest to start the next season. good idea on the fans mine are in the back so they are hard to clean and they blow right against my wall i also like the open floor idea it can pull air from the bottom that way, mine came with a floor in it but i might drill a shitload of holes in it to get the cool air in . i fit 9 1 gallon grow bags in mine and it gets a little tight but that helps hold the nugs up when they get heavy . i have 8 sockets in the flower side so 16 26 watters with the y adapters. i love the cfls i have a ballast and hid from my old closet but it got way to hot to put in my new box , i think cfls are the best way to go unless your going really big (larger than 4x4 feet/ meter square+). i dont like the led setups yet but they might be great in a few more years , right now they are still way too expensive but when the price drops and they get the color spektrum right they just might beat the cfls ?? they run really cool and cheap so i will get some as soon as the price drops and they tweak them a bit.

HERE IS MY SETUP SHOWING BOTH FLOWER AND VEG SIDES IT WAS AROUND $100USD AT WALMART IM NOT SURE IF YOU HAVE WALMART DOWN UNDER BUT THATS THE TYPE OF STORE I BUY ALL MY STUFF FROM CHEAP IS GOOD!

LOOKS GREAT I WIL FOLLOW ALONG

Oh and as you can see my closet was a mess for a while . I took a break from farming and im almost out of buds so i had to get things going again ...i was a little too generous giving samples to people over the holidays now im running low

thanks for the feedback dr bud.

i hadnt really thought about making another box yet - although i can see the benefits of having a seperate flowering area
might just see how this one goes before getting out the hammer and saw again.

i know what you mean about giving away samples, but its all good karma.

just got back from being out of town for a few days and she is growing slowly but steadily - its great to see the size difference after not seeing it for a few days.

so these photos are from day 8 - i think i will start putting in a very small amount of worm tea in the water in a couple of days

oh yeah - also not sure about the led setups. i know it sounds silly but i dont like the look of them, just doesnt seem right.

and no, we dont have walmart down here, i got all my timber and stuff from a place called bunnings which is like home depot from what ive read around here

I agree i know the plants need red and blue spectrum lights but the setups with only those leds look wierd . The sun has those colors in it but its not purple outside most of the led light grows use them along with a regular light setups so im not even sure if they work well.

Hey in austrailia you dont use dollars right? So what does your "$" look like? We call that a dollar sign or a money sign . On uk keyboards they have a "pound sign" that looks different than our $. And when you flush the toilet does the water spin clockwise or counter clockwise? And last stupid question do you guys use regular toilets or bidets(the kind that shoot water at your ass)?

You can stay away from nutes until you get 3-4 sets of full leaves , you can prob wait longer because your soil mix sounds like its packed with good stuff! I always have problems when i feed early , even on this grow i burnt them almost to death with a tiny bit of nutes in my water

try to find a spray bottle with a really light mist that way you can spray them alot without over wattering it gives you something to do when your checking out your plants 5 times a day the hardest part about growing is waiting for them to get going and waiting for them to finish budding (without taking samples) ahhh hahah

1 more tip you have to let the soil dry up before you water or feed . When your starting the roots cant get air if the soil is really wet , i always get fast growth right before they dry up and right after i feed . Once they have a nice sturdy stem i let them dry until the leaves droop down and when you give them their food the suck up the nutes really fast and grow really quick.. In another week or two you will have a bunch of leaves and nodes so you will be able to trim the way you want . I noticed you got the plant up close to the light that is the best way to set things up , if the light is too far away they will stretch and you end up with a tall skinny plant that falls over the shorter and fatter the main stem the better they seem to grow .

I talk too much sometimes so sorry if im bugging you i dont really talk with anyone about my garden so when i get on here i just keep going and going ... Thx

drbudwannabe said:

Hey in austrailia you dont use dollars right? So what does your "$" look like? We call that a dollar sign or a money sign . On uk keyboards they have a "pound sign" that looks different than our $. And when you flush the toilet does the water spin clockwise or counter clockwise? And last stupid question do you guys use regular toilets or bidets(the kind that shoot water at your ass)?

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nah, in australia we have dollars just like you guys and use the $ sign. as for the toilet, we use the regular type, although down here it flushes different so you dont really see if spin clockwise or counter-clockwise.

drbudwannabe said:

You can stay away from nutes until you get 3-4 sets of full leaves , you can prob wait longer because your soil mix sounds like its packed with good stuff! I always have problems when i feed early , even on this grow i burnt them almost to death with a tiny bit of nutes in my water

try to find a spray bottle with a really light mist that way you can spray them alot without over wattering it gives you something to do when your checking out your plants 5 times a day the hardest part about growing is waiting for them to get going and waiting for them to finish budding (without taking samples) ahhh hahah

1 more tip you have to let the soil dry up before you water or feed . When your starting the roots cant get air if the soil is really wet , i always get fast growth right before they dry up and right after i feed . Once they have a nice sturdy stem i let them dry until the leaves droop down and when you give them their food the suck up the nutes really fast and grow really quick.. In another week or two you will have a bunch of leaves and nodes so you will be able to trim the way you want . I noticed you got the plant up close to the light that is the best way to set things up , if the light is too far away they will stretch and you end up with a tall skinny plant that falls over the shorter and fatter the main stem the better they seem to grow .

I talk too much sometimes so sorry if im bugging you i dont really talk with anyone about my garden so when i get on here i just keep going and going ... Thx

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never tried the misting, foliar feeding thing, might give it a go this time - but yeah, getting itchy to give it some food, but your right - i will lay off it until the 3 set of leaves come through properly.

and no worries about the chit chat, its good to have someone follow my grow

day 9

it looks like the growth is starting to accelerate a little - go you good thing!

day 10

soaked the soil with a very weak worm tea - using a 1.25l soft drink bottle i added about 2 capfuls of worm wee to 1.2l of water. this was more as a soil tonic than any specific feeding for the plant.

good show mate i will be tuned in !

Jumping in here early, going to be watching! She is looking good so far! Getting ready for my first real grow attempt so just watching as many grow journals as possible. Can't wait to see her fill out that giant pot

drbudwannabe said:

And when you flush the toilet does the water spin clockwise or counter clockwise?

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And this made me laugh way too hard this morning...must have been my organic breakfast

pbjsammich said:

Jumping in here early, going to be watching! She is looking good so far! Getting ready for my first real grow attempt so just watching as many grow journals as possible. Can't wait to see her fill out that giant pot

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thanks for following

day 11

she is bending towards the light a fair bit every time i check up on her, but moving her around 180 degrees does the trick. this wont be as much of a problem when i get the monster size 105w cfl's - the bulbs should come out right over the top of her. i could have gone with a smaller pot size to combat this, but its a problem i dont mind having.

That is one healthy and happy looking plant man! Im looking forward to seeing this one Good Luck

day 12

first thing i noticed was the second and third set of leaves have stretched up a bit, and there is a new set leaves coming out from the join of the first set.
i also detected the first hint of smell, its only a vegetative kind of smell, but still a nice little hint of whats to come

bradderskush said:

That is one healthy and happy looking plant man! Im looking forward to seeing this one Good Luck

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thanks for following mate

day 13

still going good. contemplating giving the first dose of seasol and powerfeed at about 1/4 strength in the next day or two.