My first post, my first grow, but not my first gardening experience.... at least i got something going for me! After growing vegetable gardens and indoor plants, I decided at stealth growing a few marijuana plants in my closet. Now I'm not growing to sell, I'm growing to get a better grade weed than what I can get from Johnny Dime Bag on the street corner for almost free. I want pride to be there when I do smoke my final harvest 3-4 months from now... which I'm way too fucking excited for! After tons of research and personal debate on whether I should try doing it, I decided to give it a shot. So I went online and took the first step, bought my first pack of seeds! I choose lowryder #2 because it seemed the most common sense route to take, pick a plant with high yield, a dwarf, and auto-flowering. Meaning I can't fuck this up too badly unless I'm retarded. So I buy the seeds online, great now I have to wait a month til they get here. Today I woke up and decided to start planning and buying all the supplies I need to stealth grow in my closet. I figure what would attract the least attention, a big ass rubbermaid storage bin sounds good, I already have a few in the closet, so what is another one? I look up research on lights, so I buy 2 fluorescent lights, one at 26W, 6500K, 1600 Lumens; and the other at 13W, 2700K, 825 Lumens. And a reflector to house it. I just bought both in case I need the lower wattage one for flowering. Now I'm thinking I fucked up on the lights and didn't get enough wattage... more of that in the questions section. I also got a timer for the lights, the kind you hook up in the wall and set the time you want them on. Figured from research just to run an 18/6 cycle through the entire grow (gotta love them auto-flowers). I get organic soil mix. I figured nutes will come later or not at all. Then I go to get two pc fans from compusa. I get some nice 120mm ones and figure get a power supply... well my dumb ass didn't know the difference between ATX and AT power supplies, now I do. (ATX needs a motherboard to boot up and actually power the fans. AT just needs a cord in the wall). I went online and bought an AT power supply and I'll return the ATX sometime soon. So that's where I'm at. Simple as can be. On my next day off, I'll drill holes in the rubbermaid bin in the upper right corner for the exhaust fan, and in the opposite side lower left corner for the intake. I'll need to get a power strip or might find one around the house that I can use. Figure out the timer, and make sure the lights are powerful enough. Now for the questions section! Questions: 1) Are the wattage and lights powerful enough? 26W seem real low to me when most posts said use 150W or so. Enlighten me. The guy at Lowe's (Louie) says this has the highest lumens and Kelvin for a screw in bulb. 2) I'm not using hydroponics, way to fucking complicated for what I'm trying to do. Should I get self-watering pots? I have some for a few indoor plants and work great! But my question is, can I just dump the soil in the bottom of the rubbermaid and plant my seeds directly into it? 3) Odor is a big no-no, I need zero smell from this box! I read about Carbon filters and some other shit, I found some links for DIY carbon filters. I might make one, but I'm looking for insight and advice on the subject. So here are some pics from all the supplies I've gotten. Any advice, feedback, sarcastic comments, nonsensical high ramblings... basically anything would be great!
Looks like you're almost ready to go. I'm thinking about getting lowryder #2 for my second grow. That PSU you bought will work just fine (just need to connect two pins on the mobo connector)...or you could have just used an 12V a/c adapter laying around (from a cell phone, old electronics, etc). You'll need more lights for sure. I'm not too sure what autoflowering plants prefer as far as color temp. (typically 6500k for veg, 2700k for flower) but most Walmarts sell 42w CFLs The rule of thumb is 100 actual watts for the first plant, plus 50w for any additional ones. Be sure to make use of bulb Y-splitters available at Lowes/Homedepot. Good luck and keep the pics rolling!
Get rid of those 13w = 60w warm bulbs there useless at this point. (actually use it to replace a ind bulb in your house and save money on electric bill) Buy yourself about 5-6 more of those 26w =100w daylight bulbs, there are great for vegging period. and as gitty said Y splittters
Sweet sauce guys! Yea I read up a little on the whole lighting situation and found out I fucked that up too... great, more $ down the drain! I'm gonna go get some more CFLs tomorrow and a Y splitter like you guys said. Thanks for the advice guys! I still have my 2 other questions to fill out. A) Can I dump the soil straight into the rubbermaid, or would people suggest against it? B) Carbon filters, how do they work, what do they do, why do I need one? Enlighten me Thanks guys! I'll post up new pics tomorrow night with the drills cut in the rubbermaid (hopefully)
Update: Today I bought two Fresh 2 (http://www.fresh2.com/index.html) I'm excited as hell to get them in, I'll keep you guys informed on whether or not they actually work as an bud odor eliminator! I also got a 4 socket splitter!
i doubt those bulbs will work i saw them b4 at the store fred meyer.. i just made myself a carbon scrubber and it works great basically you just need a big exhaust fan to force all the air through the activated carbon (available for fish tanks) there are many ways to accomlish this be creative.
Do not dump the soil in the Rubbermaid tote. Use seperate cups, If you dump all the soil in one, you won't be able to transplant the Mj to another pot, the roots may get tangled with each plant, if one plant is sick they all are cuz they share the same root system. Plus your tote is nowhere near big enough for a full grow, so you will need to transplant to a bigger area. carbon filters, there's plenty of info here, I wouldnt worry about that now, you are really far from needing it
3) Odor is a big no-no, I need zero smell from this box! I read about Carbon filters and some other shit, I found some links for DIY carbon filters. I might make one, but I'm looking for insight and advice on the subject. Hey I found these vacuum filters at wal-mart made by febreze. I'm about to start a grow and I'm going to fill one of those with activated carbon, which you can also find at wal-mart in the pet/fish section. The filter is like 28 bucks though. But I think if I do that and just run a hose from my exhaust to it, should smell nice . Good Luck.