First Grow. How are they looking?

Hey everyone I'm new to the forum and this is my first try at growin. Im going with soil and organic nutes. Right now I have some normal florescents (going to be replaced) and then a 100w cfl. I plan to change to a low watt HPS. My box is a cabinet split into two sections. Only using the larger (going to be a flower room) at the moment and it is about 1.8ft x 1.5 ft. Im going for as cheap as possible here. Let me know your thoughts.

Heres some pics - not sure but I think I am at about 3 weeks from bag seed.

Thanks. Ya ph is the 1 thing I havn't messed with at all. Not feeding them yet.

looking very good. the mirror you have in there does not reflect light at all it actually takes the light in. mylar blankets from walmart will do you some good hung up in place of that mirror and around your grow. its a good thing not to mess with that ph, if you do your gonna have issues with it through out your whole grow. once you flower you might want to transplant into a larger pot. hps would be very nice for flowering, you'll like the results just make sure you can keep it cool. oh yeah a small fan blowing on your plants lightly will help with a strong plant. next time you should mix some perlite in with your soil, it will help bring more air to your roots helping your plant growth. hope this helps some. peace.

I havnt messed with my soil mixture at all becuase I got it at a local hydro store so I assumed it was already ideal for growing in (both in ph and density). I just added a fan to my set up yesterday and since I moved it into that box it hasn't had the mirror there. Soon I will be adding computer fans and a small hps (Im thinkin 150w).

I will keep updating the pics as things go on. This might become my grow journal

Thanks for the comments guys.

Welcome to the board. I'm relatively new here also, but I've been growing for a little over 10 years. In the short time I've been here I've learned a lot, so I'm sure you'll pick things up right away. I think you're doing the right thing starting out with soil. Too many people dive right into hydro, which is not quite as forgiving as soil can be. Honestly, there's nothing I like more than a good, clean organic grow. You just can't beat the taste. If you haven't read the GrowFAQ yet, I highly recommend it. It's got all the important fundamentals covered, and is pretty well organized. It's definitely a must-read for anyone starting their first grow.

Looking at your plants, it looks like they could use more light. You mentioned upgrading your lighting system to include some CFLs and maybe an HPS. Since you're working with a limited budget, do what's cheapest right away. Get some low-cost CFLs and get them running ASAP. Also, try to move your existing flourescent lights closer to the top of the plants. Those lights usually run quite cool and can be safely lowered to about 2"-3" above the tops of the plants. The closer you can get the lights, the better. When you do upgrade to an HPS system, you'll need to be more careful about buring the tops of your plants because an HPS light generates quite a bit of heat.

Other than that, things look good. Make sure you don't over-water them. It's probably the #1 mistake made by first-time growers. You want to thoroughly saturate the soil, then allow it to dry out almost completely. Doing this will encourage the roots to spread out in search of water, colonizing all the available soil. Depending on the size of your containers, one good, heavy watering every 3-5 days is appropriate. You can also give them a nice misting with clean water once or twice a day. In about a week, you can give them their first feeding with a light dose of nutes high in nitrogen. Start out at between 25%-50% of the recommended strength the first time, and you can gradually bring up the concentration if you find that they are showing signs of deficiency.

Keep up the good work and keep us updated. Post pics regularly if you can... we all love bud-porn

you will fail.

welcome

yea looking good, that fan should make your stems thicker. 150 for 4 plants is a lil low, should at least shoot for 250 watt, and some cfls.

BOooyah! Check out what i made today. Im quite proud of it. Those are 4 6500k CFLs. 4 of the 60 watt equivelant and 1 100w equivelant. Also, I got some 2700k bulbs to put in for flower time. But for flower, I picked up a 2700k 300w equivelant. I think its the biggest CFL you can pull off without a special kind of socket. Let me know what you guys think. Temp seems to be staying ok and im hoping it wont heat up. Humidity is just over 50% and dropping . Next to come are the computer fans mounted into the walls and I also plan on doing a DIY carbon filter for any smellz. Exciting.

PICS!

Oh and... None of this is real. I didn't do any of this. Im just making it up. I downloaded the pics of the internets.

Oops. Its 5 bulbs not 4. Just added a little fan in the back facing out as well - temporary air flow. Any comments on my DIY lighting? Happy haloween

nice shield. i gotta make one of these things...

Thanks man. I saw a design with the power strip like that only they used paper poster board and foil. I thought that sounded like a fire hazard so I got some metal for cheap. Just bend it on the edge of a countertop and drill a few holes and your done.

Those sockets were just a couple bucks each and the splitters as well. Easily done for under 50 and Im not sure what my lumens are but when i flower I have a larger CFL for the center - biggest the store had at least. Its 300w eqivelant and blew my eyes out when i plugged it in haha. Picked it all up at a hardware store. Might want to get some small chains instead of hemp too haha. Its cool cuz its hemp but a little hard to raise and lower

I also polished the metal but its not a must

happy growing

RastaCourage said:

you should get the chains, it would be much more easier, to raise & drop the lights

Click to expand...

Yeah, if you're using hemp to hang your lights it's a fire hazard as well. Go to Home Depot and get yourself some chain. It only costs like $1.00/ft.

what lights are u using? they seem just a bit stretched, get lights as close a u can, when its comfortable for ur hand to be between both, i used 45 and 65W cfl nd kept em at 1-2 inches at most

oh and cfls u dont get the equivalent, its the actual W that u want, well more lummens, but usually go together.

I only refer to the equiv wattage becuase i forget the other numbers. The small ones are 23w or something... I posted this somewhere else but its more relevant here:

My growspace is 1.8 feet by 1.5 feet - so pretty small. I just calculated the lumens on my bulbs for the first time and its 4x630=2520 + a 1600 lumen bulb = 4120 lumens! That is for the veg. When its time to flower i switch out my 6500k bulbs with 2700k into the same fixture. For some reason the boxes of these have higher lumens. 4x900 = 3600 is the lumens of the 4 small bulbs ( 23watt i think, they are equal to 60w normal lights). Then to give it the extra boost i bought a 300 equivelant bulb. This thing says it puts out 4200 lumens. Niice. That means for flowering It should put out 7800 lumens. More than i thought i was getting. Plus that big bulb only cost me 15.

@ rolla And yea I should get chains. And im thinkin zip ties where i have the power strip tied on. I dont think that hemp will burn from the temp itself tho, you can unscrew a hot cfl with your hand. Maaybe if it sparks but im using a surge protector. Better safe than sorry i spose.

Heres a pic of the big bulb i plan to use.

dude lummens dont add up, u need a powerful light to get u a lot of lumens, 7800 lummens would be about a 150W bulb r more (actual), less but stronger CFLs are way better.

that bulbs nice though, give u lotta lummens, use em all n get en waaay closer to the lights trust me, cfls r cool, closer u have em, the more light theyll get