First real attempt at home grow

thanks, I'll stick with what I'm doing then. At this point I'm just sitting here with my fingers crossed.

one more bump for the night. gotta burn that midnight oil.

Ya, I'd go 18/6.

themoose said:

yeah im definitely planning on beefing up the light alot for the flowering period, i have 7 seeds in soil right now and however many females i get ill try to get 3 bulbs per plant, but i dont even have enough space for all the CFL's to grow 2-3 plants. I have one good sized fan hanging from the very top of the box its in a low setting 24/7, would that be enough or am I gonna need an official intake and exhaust?

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Go with an official intake and exhaust setup. Trust me, it will help with the heat issues. You dont want the box getting hotter than 85 and no cooler than 65. I run a 400w hps in a L2.5' x W5.5' x H6' closet area for flowering. The upper portion of the closet is fluros. Both areas are set up with intake and exhaust. The top portion is about 78 to 81 all the time with 24/0 for veg. The flowering box is on 12/12. the temp gauge below the light even with the plant canopy never gets more than 84 degrees and the ambient air temp of the closet is about 75 with a dark time temp of 65. They seem to love this so far. If you still have temp problems you can make the homemade AC that FilthyFletch posted and pipe it right into your intake.

You seem like your on the right track so far

thanks a lot guys, I'll work on copping a few old cell phone chargers.I've got tons of junk computers lying around so i don't think the fan should be a problem.

any suggestions to better my little project?

any suggestions or tips?

As others have already indicated, I think your 3 lights per plant will be adequate - keep them close without touching. air intake is important and if you can also set up an oscillating fan in there so much the better. Painting the inside white is a good idea.

As for light cycle, 24/0 | 20/4 | 18/6 are all great for vegetative
do not switch to 12/12 until you are ready to start flowering. Speaking of flowering, since you using CFLs to flower you don't want to stay in veg too long since CFLs don't have the light penetration to bud tall plants - but short ones should bud up just fine!

So far so good, make sure to keep the lights close to avoid any stretching, watch your water and feeding, get some ventilation going and you should end up with a respectable product

by oscillating fan, do you mean and intake/exhaust system? also i was planning on flowering the plants at around 18-20 days from sprout

email468 said:

As others have already indicated, I think your 3 lights per plant will be adequate - keep them close without touching. air intake is important and if you can also set up an oscillating fan in there so much the better. Painting the inside white is a good idea.

As for light cycle, 24/0 | 20/4 | 18/6 are all great for vegetative
do not switch to 12/12 until you are ready to start flowering. Speaking of flowering, since you using CFLs to flower you don't want to stay in veg too long since CFLs don't have the light penetration to bud tall plants - but short ones should bud up just fine!

So far so good, make sure to keep the lights close to avoid any stretching, watch your water and feeding, get some ventilation going and you should end up with a respectable product

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themoose said:

by oscillating fan, do you mean and intake/exhaust system? also i was planning on flowering the plants at around 18-20 days from sprout

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i meant the kind that moves back and forth (oscillates) - the intake and exhaust would be different. You can usually get away without having an intake fan provided you still have an intake hole and an exhaust fan.

I transplanted my better looking seedlings into the 1 gallon pots today I mixed 1/3 mg moisture control + 2/3 Mg starter soil, it seems like the starter has better air flow. these plants started coming out of the ground on St. Patty's day, so they are 4 days old. I also added an oscillating fan to the box.

Coming along. The little buggers are busy growing roots now - should see some more leaf growth in a few days. Don't be afraid to keep the CFLs within an inch or 2 of the tops. Easy on H20 and no nutes for the time being. (And make sure the 84 degrees doesn't get any warmer). Progress will seem glacial for the rest of the month.

Go smoke a fatty to reward yourself.

the only thing thats bugging me is i need to get to a store so I can get the right spectrum CFL's, I figure 2 more 42w plus the full spectrum 24 in tube should be enough until flowering and then ill add the 3000k's i have right now back in to the rotation. Also im gonna get another clamp light or light fixture so i can make better use out of my lights.gonna add soda can reflectors . but btw, I already did, thanks M8.

i just added this small intake hole, hopefully the temp will get down lower at least in the high 70's

Looken good so far man. What's your humidity at right now? I can't tell by looking at that gauge.

actually thats just an atomic clock, I haven't even gotten a chance to get a hygrometer, coming real soon I hope.

Will a 5100k full spectrum light be good enough for veg? or does it have to be a higher temp? I'm thinking about ordering 3 42watt 5100k full spectrum's tonight, good idea ,bad idea? The total for the order comes out to like 40 shipped I think. with those three lights and including the 42 w 6500k i already have, I would have 11,200 lumens for my box, not including the 2 ft tube, i figure during flower ill either take away one and add the other 3 3000's i have now or maybe just have all the lights going at once, Idk let me hear some ideas, thnx

themoose said:

thanks a lot guys, I'll work on copping a few old cell phone chargers.I've got tons of junk computers lying around so i don't think the fan should be a problem.

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THe PC fans are 12VDC (even the ons in the powersupply)

get REAL fans, bathroom exhust fans one in and one out, each at 150CFM.

The CFM rating is in free air, *any* restriction degrades that rating VERY fast. a 90^ turn is a killer.

thanks alot! I'll see what i can do, i don't want to use too much electricity, I'm running the whole thing off a extension cord running from a regular outlet.

..But most importantly does anyone know if full spectrum 5100k would be good enough for veg?

themoose said:

thanks alot! I'll see what i can do, i don't want to use too much electricity, I'm running the whole thing off a extension cord running from a regular outlet.

..But most importantly does anyone know if full spectrum 5100k would be good enough for veg?

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3/22:the temp was down to 79F when i checked on them this morning. Hopefully it will stay at that temp.
temp is back up in the 80's at 2 am.
3/23:this afternoon I put the fan that was in my box b4 the green one, right in the "intake hole", so it would bring in cold, fresh(sort of) air. the temp was down to 73 when i checked it 5 min ago, the light is plugged into the extension cord with the light plugged into it which is plugged into the timer so the temp will stay, mid-low 70's until the lights go out and hopefully it will maintain temp.plants are looking great ill take more pics after they grow a little bit.