New Stealth box Project * lighting* ?

[tbolg]

hey guys,
Im new to GC, and while researching I have decided to begin to build a stealth box from and old speaker box which is about 2ft tall X 1ft wide X 1 ft deep. I have mounted 120v computer fan that I have taken from my old P.O.S. computer to allow for circulation. I am now deciding how and which lighting to mount at the top of the box. when finished the box should be damn near sealed but still having the ability to take off the back panel. Which lighting should I use and where should I go such as walmart, ect... I had been looking at a cfl like this http://electrical.hardwarestore.com/...lb-108555.aspx becuase ill need to not only buy a bulb but also the fixture, does anyone know what fixture to buy, I am cluless when it comes to electricity. oh and how much would a cfl light fixture cost ?????

Also after germinating my seed what type of soil should I buy, how do I go about feeding the plant and exatcly all of this. Ive seen people saying that 15-15-15 works well but how do you add that fertilizer to your plant ? sprinkle it on top ???? any help will be muchly appriciated, and also will have pictures up soon to allow you all to get a beter idea of what the speaker stealth box looks like.

Thanks,
Travis

[SmknVTEC]

Travis,

You don't have enough space. Figure a pot is at least 8 inches tall minus lights 3 inches away from the tops of the plants and that leaves you 13 inches of plant height. Even if you LST that’s not very much plus the width and depth of the box only allows for one plant. Unless you are growing from feminized seeds, growing one plant is risky because you have a 50/50 chance of getting a male. The CFL you showed is fine but like you said that would need a ballast such as a desk lamp to run it. Knock off the space that the light fixture would take and your vertical space is slashed some more.

Before germination (NOT after like you said), buy soil that has no nutes in it. Nutes would be listed on the bag of soil in an NPK number such as 15-15-15. Stay away from soil with NPK on it and don’t fertilize before the plant is three weeks old. After at least 3 weeks old fertilize with some 15-15-15 or so which can be a water soluble fert or liquid. Water soluble fert is powder that you mix into the water that you plan to give to the plants. Liquid ferts also mix into the watering water.

[tbolg]

I realize that I am leaving myself with very little room to grow but also you must realize that this is my first grow ever, and fundamentally a good building block from which to work with. I am not about to spend a couple benjammins with out learning first what im doing lol.

Thanks for the advice with the water/nutes, I will remember this. I have just germinated my seeds in a papper towel and transfered them into a small pot of organic soil. From there I plan on allowing it to grow some outside a little and get my cfl bulb and a lamp that ill mount into my box. This will only be a small scale grow with one plant, so I dont really look to see HUGE yields, more of a building block to learn from. Anyways im off to work and will check on my plants later today and see how they are progressing in growth and will update this.

[tbolg]

Hey everyone,
I have some pictures along with some good news. I have nearly finished my grow box and now have it atleast ready enough for my plants to be moved into them. As of now The box has a few small cracks in the front where light is able to get out and a hole where I have mounted a computer fan for circulation. I am going to leave the fan where it is but seal the rest of the visible cracks from the front. Also as of now I dont have a cfl light bulb but will be purchasing one in the VERY near future ( as in today or tomarrow ).

soooo...
so far I have

- stealth box ( 2ft(H) X 1ft W X 1ft Deep)
- 1 12v computer fan for circulation and stem thickinging.
- 6" pot with organic soil.
- 2 bagseed plants that are about 3 in. tall.
- 1 60 watt soft white bulb ( I know it sucks and needs to be replaced)

The plants are 4 days old.

The speaker box with the screen on it is not even noticable to the normal person. I only fear is of the wreackage that i am expecting from these plants. i will most likly move these babies to my loft in my addic when I begin them on flowering.

anyone who has ANY imput on this setup will be appriciated. Keep in mind this is my first grow and is kind of my fundamental growing block from which I hope to learn a good amount from.

OHHHH and I almost forgot one VERY important thing... PICTURES !!!
so with out further wait here they are.


box assembled with screen on.

box assembled with screen off.

back of box opened revealing it all !.

lighting

how do they look?


Straight on view.

[Jeffar420]

well my box is almost the exact same dimensions and Im going to be starting mine very soon.. So hopefully it will be enough room. Im going to LST mine to keep it low, you should also try this technique I beleive you are going to need another fan for exaust and are you going to seperate those 2 fellow's or whats the deal with that?

Im excited to see this work out as it is similar to my box, Good luck!!

I bought a 3 peice light fixture for 10 bucks, it was suppose to be for a bathroom but that doesnt matter.

I had to buy a cable so i could plug it into the wall but that only cost 4 bucks. Although I had to do the wiring it was VERY easy. (P.S you dont need a special fixture for CFL's just any old regualr bulb socket fixture)

I also bought 2 42 watt CFL's and 2 23 watt cfl's which i have to return cause I wanted daylights but got soft white's. (ones for flower ones for vegging)

I would say if your looking for lights over just one plant buy 2-3 30W Daylight CFL's with 6000+ K's being put out for vegging

and 2-3 42W Soft/warm white CFL's with around 2700 +/- K's being put out (flowering)

This is what im going with and it should be ideal for you aswell, but you will need a fan to get rid of the heat.

[3Nigma]

Two sprouts in the same pot!? Not good, kill one!

[tbolg]

alright guys, I am going to take out one of the plants and im thinking im going to take out the skinnier, taller plant because the other smaller plant is thicker stemmed and healthier looking now. ALSO one other new improvment I have made is a switch over to a CFL bulb. I pickup up two today at walmart, they are 13watts each. I have installed one so far and tommarow will be installing the next one . I have the bulb as of now about 2 inches from my plant, what do yall think ?

[Anony]

Whats the ingredients in that soil? It looks rough.
They look stretchy, is that fan blowing out?
You need a fan blowing on them to make them strong with such little light.

[tbolg]

anony- Yea the fan is blowing, but when I need to pull off the back of the box I unconnect the fan. For that reason in the pictures the fan is sitting still. I now have the two lights and tomarrow I will update with some new pictures. When I was at wal-mart I also looked for some water-soluable nutes but couldnt find anything that was 15-15-15. I plan on giving my plants some food after 3 weeks, does this sound right? Where do you all get your nutes from and what brand works best ?

Thanks very much to all the above who have commented, I really enjoy seeing people openly willing to help me and in return I plan on also helping others when I am able to absorb enough. Always a good sign to see that GC is a helping community .

[bluebong]

Ok, if you want to make this work even a little, this is what you'll need to do:

1) Better light. This is a no brainer. The easy thing to do is buy 2 sockets, 2 socket splitters, 4 CFL bulbs and wireing ($30-40). Strap those suckers to the roof of the box, get a square piece of glass and use it to separate the lights from the space. For extra points, get a fan to go into the light space and suck air through it to keep the heat out.

For triple points, find an electrical supply place and get them to sell you all the stuff for a 35-50 watt HPS($40-60 - ballast, igniter, socket and bulb). More efficient, more light, less wattage, but you will have to do the glass-and-fan set up. Put the ballast outside- you can mask it in an amp!

2) Disposable cups are the mini-grower's friend. Get a bunch of seeds and put one each into like, 9 cups. That should fill your space.

3) Try to find soil with nothing added. Failing that, the Seed Starter mixes are usualy good, and they have it at lowes, wal-mart, etc. As for ferts, see if you can get Peters 20-20-20 with micronutes. Use it sparingly. It's easier to fix a deficiency than over-ferting.

3) Make sure your fan is blowing OUT of the box, and there are holes at the bottom to let air in. This is just thermodynamics, but hot air rises.

4) Get a thermometer if you don't have one.

Ok, that's the simple stuff. If I were you, I'd flip the box, put a fan into each of the tweeter holes, and make the top the light space and the botton the plants space, separating the 2 by glass or plexiglass. You can raise the plants up to the light with, I don't know, books or something. Make inlet holes, one for the light, and one for the plants. I'd suggest just drilling a bunch of small holes to keep the light from leaking out a lot. Pain the inside white and hope for the best!

[h4rk4t]

damn dude! even though it may not have that great of growing stuff...its fucking pro imho hah cuz its jsut sooo damn stealthy...shit i HAVE to rep you for this hah...... but ya whati meant by not having 'that great of growing stuff' i meant to make sure it stays stealthy and all and the lighting. like getting an ionizer for 17$ or something and maybe even adding something that smells good by the speaker like those jars you open of that lip balm lookin stuff and it just lets off a smell. because i myself did a stealth grow in my cloest maybe the size of 3 or 4 of your speakers and smell and humidity was the main factor hah...and HEAT if you have a light over 150 watts...jsut use a CFL in there.

But for now its perfect i think youl have success
goodluck
peace

[tbolg]

Hey guys I appriciate all of your responses. As of now I have some new updated pictures taken maybe 25 minutes ago.

So here they are.

box with the two new 13 watt CFLs.


quite b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l compared to the soft white incandescent bulbs I had


My plant now 5 days old and after one full day under the cfl's and a noticable improvment from when she was under the soft white.


Hows she look? anyone got an idea for a name I could give her?

So now Everyone now has a much greater picture of what I am doing as of now I pressume. .

BlueBong- Thank you greatly for your critisism. Although everything you said is absolutly a great way to improve my box I am really not ready to take on all of the improvments listed above other than a second fan in the box maybe. I really dont want, as of now, anymore than one plant and one box. An increased number of plants would most deffinitly cause a greater odor later on. Also All of the improvments listed above arent quite possible to install in my box since it would greatly minimize space in the already compact box. I have to keep in mind the odor that will fill my room once my plant hits its flowering stage, and that will be my next obsticle I will try to eliminate.

h4rk4t - Thank you for your input. I am very muchly trying to achieve a box with superior stealth and have build one that is surprisingly stealthy. My mom had been eyeballing it because it had been right in the way of when you walked in so I have now put in a corner of my room by my cloths.

One question i have is when can I begin to incorprate the LST tequnique to my box ?

So as of now I am happy with my grow setup. I have been watering my plants every other day once the soil is no longer moist when i stick my finger about an inch deep into the soil. Anyone else have any idea's that I can incorprate or any other feedback about my box. Maybe another computer fan and maybe one more CFL possibly would be my idea. I will continue to post new updated pictures showing my plants progression and Ill also take pictures of any major changes I amke to my box.

[h4rk4t]

oh woops i said in a post somewhere in another thread i wanted to see your grow log heh forgot this was you lol. but anways LST should be started when its aboutttt 10 inches tall or soo......with a stem that wont snap...i'll let ya kknow just keep on updating pics and i'll help ya. Just go look at my grow log in my thread...i think somewhere in teh first few pages or so when it shows a lotttt of pics of each plant i have and it will then show after pics of lst so you should get a good idea for size.
peace out

[SmknVTEC]

Get those CFL's no further than 3 inches off the tops of the plants. This will prevent stretching. They look pretty good now. Glad you separated the two that were in the same pot. Three weeks before feeding them is what I always recommend.

[tbolg]

smknVTEC- thanks alot for the advice, I will be using it . Alright Ill make sure I keep the cfl's three inches from my baby. I meant to update with pictures but time just got away from me so Ill do it tomarrow some time since I dont have work. She is looking a good bit healthier
and I can see that she is growing . I am from now on going to refer to her as "Mrs. Jillian".
h4rk4t - the pictures in your thread are helpful and I appriciate your insight. Keep the feedback comming and ill keep updating this thread with pictures of mrs jillian.