Thats right guys, jed was a big help on my grow in the beginning, offering all kinds of suggestions. We just didnt see eye to eye on one different thing, which i totally changed anyways (added a/c to the intake) Anyways here is my total grow configuration:
Grow box size: 50" tall x 37" deep x 33" wide for a total of 9 square feet (25 cubic feet)
I built this box with security, max wattage per square foot, and air tight in mind.
Lights used: 30watt 2700K, 85watt 2700K, and 85watt 5000K bulbs
The amount of wattage always fluctuated between 545 watts to 945 because of the positioning of the bulbs throughout the grow. The design of my box helped utilized side lighting during vegging and flowering times, which is critical. Any advice i would give about cfl is dont worry about wattage, but worry about intesity on every postion possible instead.
Soil used: Fox farm planting mix, Seedling mix (generic), Fox farm ocean forrest mix.
I read somewhere that roots need to form in a small container and work your way up to their permanent pots. This gives the plant a solid root ball that is tight and organized, which works better than plants that have roots scattered and root bound. So for the first week i had them in seedling pots (very small plastic pots that are molded together and easy to cut. Then after the second week i had them in slightly larger plastic pots, then just before the third week, I moved them to their permenant pots (the roots definatly liked this system, but i needed to space the time out more).
Nutes used: Fox farm grow big, big bloom, tiger bloom
My wattering system was as follows: Small amounts of water per plant every day. This watering system kept the soil damp enough for perfect growth but not wet enough to cause rot. I checked soil dampness with a meter (which worked great!!!) watering like this kept the plants in constant growth. I dont believe in watering when the plant tells you by drooping. This causes unneeded stress and stunts growth. Just get a cheap 15$ meter and check it every day, if it gets a little dry add some water till the meter reads in the green. My plants grew like freaking crazy like this. Where my problem came was when i started adding nutes. I started adding nutes like the schedule said: every other watering. This was based off of a once a week watering system, not every other day watering like i was doing, so yeah i was feeding them twice to three times a week. Once the 7th week of flowering hit, i started noticing nutrient lockouts. Flushing and testing, flushing and testing.....blah. By week 9 they were ready to come down anyways but the burn really sucked. If i would have just feed them nutes once a week and kept with my same watering system, I know this woulndt have happened and i would have had maximum yield. This is how we learn kiddies!!!
Humidity and temps:
Since its was february and humidity levels were really low (20's) I set up two humidifiers in the beginning to keep levels at around 47-50% RH. During flowering humidifiers where removed and a/c was installed. The a/c cut down the humidity levels ideal for flowering and also dramatically cut down on the temps. Duriing veg temps were steady around 75-77 Degrees but once i added more lights during flowering temps would get in the 80's. Since I was like a hawk and ALWAYS monitored my grow (check my journal, you can see i was streaming my stats to my cell phone all day long!!!!) when there was a problem I was prompt in fixing them.
Ventilation:
During the first couple of weeks I was stumped on what to used for the best ventilation and maximum stealth. I have two four inch intakes on the bottom of my grow box and two on the top, bottom was intake (hot air rises, cold air falls) and top was exhaust. Since this was in my basement, my grow box was set right next to my hot water heater which vented out the roof (35 foot to the roof). I installed a 158 CFM variable speed exhaust blower for hot water heaters just above my box and above my hot water heater. (So when the box was not in use, the hot water heater can naturally vent without the motor being on.) This exhaust motor worked awsome!! very quite and moved a ton of air. The intakes at first worked fine naturally drafting until i started adding more lights. Then the a/c was piped into one four inch intake at the bottom and the other was plugged.
Just to let you guys know, I used timers on everything. This grow was 80% automated. All I did was watch and water.
I made a few mistakes along the way but four bag seed plants yielded me over 6 ounces dried in less than 12 weeks total which was kick ass!!! plenty more than i expected. I have 3 ounces left and sold 3 ounces for 350 each. not too shabby!!!
Now the room is prepped im waiting to get down there and start a new grow soon!!!! If there is anything i left out please remind me and ill edit this post. Thanks for following guys.