New guy problems

stickyfly said:

Here is a pic of my setup. I am limited on space so I am going to have to keep my plants small. I have a full spectrum LED light coming but it may be too strong (I started another topic about that the other day) its 300W and this space is just under 4 sq ft. I am waiting on an exhaust fan so I have a fan blowing air in with the doors slightly open.
View attachment 4074777

Click to expand...

is that going to be your entire grow space? get that power strip out of there. and drop those cfls closer if you want squat plants. good luck

I sure hope that will be my entire space...I'm no pro so this is an experiment. Is the reason for not having the strip inside the box short circuits or electrical issue concerns or another reason?

electricity above the waist, water below the waist.

stickyfly said:

I sure hope that will be my entire space...I'm no pro so this is an experiment. Is the reason for not having the strip inside the box short circuits or electrical issue concerns or another reason?

Click to expand...

that strip could randomly spark and short curcuit. shit happens. so if it DOES happen, you dont want your whole grow tent up in flames

blake9999 said:

You may drop those lights down to about 3 to 4 inches from them plants so they don't stretch so much. Take a look at the CFL section under Indoor growing to get some pointers for growing under CFL.

Click to expand...

Easily that much. But it's better to be safe than sorry, especially with the other things going on.

dtl420 said:

Let them dry a little more between watering. Without oxygen the roots can't take in water, showing symptoms similar to nutrient burn. You should let the top inch of soil get bone dry. There's still plenty of moisture still down in the root zone. I hate those meters, the one I had was worthless. You don't really need them. when they start to dry out the cups will feel noticeably lighter. Right when you water them the roots are suffocating, when you let them dry out oxygen returns to the root zone and they begin drinking again.

Click to expand...

And less frequent watering encourages the roots to grow to seek it out.

I'm a bit OCD about the look of this thing because it needs to be discrete so I want to keep the strip inside with one cable out, rather than several cables coming out of it. I have a lock on it. I will buy an industrial grade outdoor surge strip from McMaster and hopefully that should be safer than all of the power strips in my house. I appreciate the tips on the watering...I need to learn that for all of my plants at home...Ive killed a bunch of house plants...have to do more reading. One quick q, should I water the soil or both the plant leaves and soil?

Nafydad420 said:

that strip could randomly spark and short curcuit. shit happens. so if it DOES happen, you dont want your whole grow tent up in flames

Click to expand...

Grow tent? I'd be more concerned about the house the grow tent is in.. lol

stickyfly said:

I'm a bit OCD about the look of this thing because it needs to be discrete so I want to keep the strip inside with one cable out, rather than several cables coming out of it. I have a lock on it. I will buy an industrial grade outdoor surge strip from McMaster and hopefully that should be safer than all of the power strips in my house. I appreciate the tips on the watering...I need to learn that for all of my plants at home...Ive killed a bunch of house plants...have to do more reading. One quick q, should I water the soil or both the plant leaves and soil?

Click to expand...

Killing one of these has a totally different feeling than killing a regular old houseplant.

Yes, indeed...I have pets and this is definitely not worth their lives. How do you guys minimize fire hazards? (besides keeping the strip out of the box haha) anything that you can put in as a failsafe? I bought a WiFi outlet and I have a security camera that also detects air quality and goes off when I fart so it would definitely set off an alarm. I am trying to figure out how to link the camera to the outlet so it can shut things down automatically but there doesnt seem to be an API that I can use (I'm in IT)...I'm looking into miniature fire suppression systems...after that its a conversation with SpaceX and off to the space station haha sorry I just smoked a wee bit.

on amazon they have a 100W led grow light, i think it could work pretty good in your small grow box, but you should do 2 plants at most. full spectrum for 30 dollars.

also get some orca and conex solution feed that to them....also check your water, looks like you may have heavy water, if your PPM is over 130, you need some RO water.

Hmm shitty part is I already bought the 300W, is there a way to put a film filter or tint to dim it a bit and still use the 300? I suppose that would be dumb from an electrical usage cost perspective.

As for fire suppression I found this....would put an end to the operation but my place wouldnt go up in a blaze.

http://www.swiftfireprotection.com/Products/Fire_Extinguisher_Sales/Fire_Extinguishers/stovetop/stovetop.html

[QUOTE[/QUOTE]
300 watts CFL?..I dont think it will cause a fire, but 300 watts is will become a lot of heat, so your grow room will get too hot for your plants.

300W full spectrum LED w IR and UV. Paid $50 for it and it will be a pita to return.

BTW, the reason I have 7 in there right now is because I got these out of some buds I bought so they may not even be females.

Looking more into the LED I bought it seems to put out about 4500 Lumens and more likely closer to 80 to 100W of actual light...do would that suffice?

Update: I measured my space and its 20 x 21" so 2.9 Sq Ft.

I decided to put my camera inside the box for the day to get some environmentals and I can already tell I have humidity issues. I put the camera in there around 9 am so the data before that is irrelevant. Interestingly my air quality got better but my current air supply is coming from an air purifier. Hope to have my exhaust fan later tomorrow. Whats the best way to get my humidity balanced inside without messing with my home humidity?

For that size u would probably wanna get cfls both spectrums for veg and flower and just 12/12 it with 2 plants max. Growing fems is your best bet check out cannabeanery dcseed exchange for cheap seeds since your a beginner. Also your definitely over watering plants that small shouldn't be watered every day or multiple times a day let the soil dry to wear its dusty and easy to move the soil around atleast the top half of the container letting the soil stay really muddy like with no dry periods is problems and u already look like u have them