First indoor grow period.

Yo, I'm Jim and I'm about to start the process of my first indoor grow. According to the info I've gathered from all the other areas, this one seems perfect for my planned grow:

I have two feminized seeds I just got from Attitude (<-awesome! ). First is a Barney's Farm LSD and the other one came w/ it free (yeah, free), which is a Royal Queen Seeds ICE.

I'm stoked about my first grow, but I don't want to fuck it up right off the bat. I know how to germinate and sprout:

(at least I'm pretty sure:) shot glass distilled (or drinking) H20, wait for sinkage, after sinkage: wet paper towel trick till 5mm tail, bury about 5mm into soil, tail pointed down... (feel free to critique)

But my main concern is my lighting and set-up: I have a 20 watt CFL bulb that is apparently the cheapest I can use to grow according to local buddies. (my budget is pretty pathetic, hoping to change that in round 2)

It says its an energy saving bulb too, which is sick, and it puts out 1235 lumens, which I'm assuming is pretty good, and the light looks more blue-ish than yellow or red-ish (if that makes sense). Basically what I'm asking: Is this light going to be efficient enough to grow two plants side by side in a closet? I have a hanging pulley system (ghetto-rigged) that makes it so I can raise or lower the light to make sure its close enough to give the most light, but I can pull it away if the plant grows too close.

As far as the "grow-room," its in a closet in my house. Its not a rental, so I'm not worried about a landlord smelling them or anything like that, so I'm not concerned about ventilation... right?

If it looks like I have any big red flags that need addressing, please feel more than free to let me know. Reason I'm posting is to get help. Hell, its the reason I joined GC!

Thanks guys.

Edited by LAstoner22, 27 September 2011 - 08:03 PM.

I'm stoned

^ Me too, Holmes.

Roommies and I had to celebrate the delivery from Attitude.

You will need a LOT MORE light if you want any production.
Rule of thumb for CFLs is 100 actual watts for the first plant and 50 additional watts for every plant beyond that.

Yup what they said. Especially the stoned part.
Make sure to use good dirt, and watchout no light leaks into the "growroom" during dark periods.

Other than that go for it. Live n learn.

I just upgraded my light to a 100w CFL for now. Still no access to more powerful grow lights.

And the fam came in town for a few days so I'm late cracking the seeds, they're cracking now, but I'm going to let the roots get a little longer just bc they're going slowly and I'm unsure if I fucked up and didn't use a clean enough tupperware, so I took out the seeds (in the paper towel) and cleaned the tupperware... since then, and for the last 24 hrs now, the first roots haven't moved a mm. I'm freaked out that I may have somehow killed 'em too early...

I'll keep up the posting, if tomorrow this time rolls around and I haven't posted.... it probably means I've given up. (((

our order to attitude should be going out sat. Even though i just got some clones, i still can't wait. lol i been waiting patiently to order now i think i get free pineapple express

I haven't given completely up, but someone tell me how to tell if cracked seeds that stopped progressing are dead... please? I went ahead and planted them in their soil (very nice soil) today, even though the tails stopped growing like 48 hours ago...

Give it a few days to see if it pops out of the soil, no definitive way to tell if it is dead or not till then.

IF they are dead, then that's a huge waste... I went ahead and re-ordered the same seeds from Attitude. The UFO is different this time, but the Barney's Farm LSD is the one I want to grow SO badly...

I have a handful of rando seeds from bags, I'm going to germ some of those for a test-grow so I can get this thread rolling w/ pictures and whatnot.

I also just visited your link, Jojo, and I am extremely impressed... AND I happen to have an extra mini-fridge in my garage. I'll keep you posted on what my roommates think of taking the grow room out of their closet and putting it downstairs and out of the way. Not to mention your set up looks fucking sweet.

Hey Jojo, just realized I have two CFL bulbs to work w/, but the first is the 20w ("75w") and the other is a 26w ("100w")... so according to your advice I didn't have enough light. So I ordered this off of ebay:

168 LED Grow Light Blue Red Spotlight Plant Hydroponic | eBay

whaddaya think?

So I was looking at other mini grows yesterday, when I noticed that probably the most popular miniature grow room is a mini-fridge stealth grow box... and I dig it.

Thanks to Jojo, I realized I had my mini fridge from college rotting downstairs in the garage. I had NO idea if it was still working or not, but it sure as hell didn't look like it. My roommate (who has grown before) and I went to check it out. Took all the shelving and whatnot out, but when it came time to cut out (or smash out) the freezer box taking up room in the top, we realized the Freon was totally still in circulation and that it totally still would have worked... if it wasn't for the sudden hissing sounds we heard after severing the line to the freezer... Haha!

Anyway, after huffing freon and investigating our space for about an hour, we found two old, multi-setting small fans in my garage as well (best garage ever). So, since I already had one light socket + cord set up in my closet, I went out and bought two more of those, and an overhead light deflector for my new grow light coming in (mentioned above).

What we decided to do is screw in 3 light holders with the light socket strung through the middle, the LED grow light that is on its way from fucking China apparently, is going to be placed in the circular holding up top. The two CFLs are going to be exposed on either side of the fridge. (The same CFLs I mentioned earlier, the 20w (75w) is on the bottom, and the 26w(100w) is higher up on the left side. What I like about it, is the low wattage could potentially be a problem, if it wasn't for the interior of the fridge being entirely white and reflective. Also, I plan on turning the smaller bulb off and either moving it to the upper back of the fridge, or just taking the bulb out after the plant gets high enough to burn itself on that bulb.

When you look at the pictures, just realize the job ain't finished yet. The fan was originally ghetto-rigged in the front door (as shown) but when I went down to work on it this morning, I realized that duct tape is not a permanent solution to mounting that fan, so that's my new next step. Then I am going to drill a large hole (probably 3in x 3in) in the top, back left corner, where I will feed all of my cords out of the back, and will also be my ventilation in cahoots with the fan.

Lastly, this box may end up being just a vegetative box, simply because I will have to bush the holy fuck out of my plants to make sure they don't reach that second CFL.

FEEDBACK IS MORE THAT WELCOME... IN FACT I KINDA NEEED IT!

Thanks guys. Hope the city will help me out:smoke:

First pic is of all the tools needed (found em all in my garage).

Second is of my solution to the fan/duct tape problem. Essentially I just screwed a screw through each side of the section in the door where I wanted the fan (also found in garage).

Third is of the inside of the fridge now that I have the cords duct taped out of the way and cut a hole out of the back of the fridge for ventilation and to put the cords out of the back of the box. The back originally had a metal back, but that peeled away to a foamy center.

Lemme know what you think.... please?

I wanna feel the love of the City.

Hey Jojo, just realized I have two CFL bulbs to work w/, but the first is the 20w ("75w") and the other is a 26w ("100w")... so according to your advice I didn't have enough light. So I ordered this off of ebay:

168 LED Grow Light Blue Red Spotlight Plant Hydroponic | eBay

whaddaya think?

i bought that light too, you'll need a power cable to wire it up, it works well, i haven't actually put it over a plant yet but soon i will, maybe tuesday after the lady goes to work for another week

also you're better off putting the led's without the shade over it as they are directional and the reflector will be totally useless, put reflectors on the two exposed CFL's to direct more light to your plants

Thanks for the advice, bro!

What I was thinking was that with the white box, the whole thing would be reflective anyway. I'll play w/ it and see what I like, even if it is pointless, puttin it on either other CFL would really put it in the way of things.

I may just scrap the POS, but I have to wait for the light to get here. Did you get it from the same Ebay seller? Bc their site is saying its going to take like 2-3 fuckin weeks for it to reach me.

Also, the top socket is empty atm, so that will be the power cable for the LED grow light. I can't wait for my damn seeds to germinate. I got like 20 rando bag seeds germinating now so I can test the micro-grow on them before my Attitude shipment comes in.

yeah mine arrived, it's actually quite good, i'm going to use it on my micro sog grow