thewhitehouse's first closet grow

My girlfriend and I are starting our very first closet grow. If it goes well, we will expand to a large setup. This thread is to keep track of our progress and to ask for help. Also, if you see anything in the photos that should be changed, please post your thoughts. Everything will be taken into consideration.

Background:
1) We got a lot of "could be whatever" seeds, and so we will be growing many random strains at once.
2) We don't have a large or even medium-sized budget; we use what we got.
3) We are going to be growing in soil
We will be posting pics often, so check this thread from time to time.

Here's what we got:
> Two 4' long 60 watt T12 Daylight CFLs (6,500k)*
>Two 4' long 60 watt T12 Soft White CFLs (3000k)*
> One 40 actual watts spiral CFL
> 32"x34"x68" grow space, lined with aluminum foil
> Closet painted white
> Small Desk Fan
> Some CO2

Pictures will be up soon. Check back Monday or Tuesday for them.

* These will be used at different times (both of one type at a time), ie - vegatative and flowering stages, respectively.

Edited by thewhitehouse, 18 October 2008 - 10:32 PM.
* Adjusted the wattage

Ok well first man, you need 100 actual watts per plant. I would guess you're 350 watt bulb is in fact a 65. Look for the smaller numbers on the boxes.

Mj will not flower under 24/0 light it needs to be 12/12.

Get rid of that foil and go buy emergency blankets from the store. These are far more reflective and much easier to hang.

Also if you can get you self a fan blowing in the grow space this is pretty vital to.

Finally what soil (I'm guessing you will be a soil grower) will you use and what ferts?

Peace and happy growing.

GL with the grow man! Listen to Mels and all will be well.

Can Mylar be found at like, MC Sports or Meijer? And oops, I'll edit the original statement to include the fact that I am growing it organically. Oops. Although, We are unsure what soils and NPK ratios/Ferts to use. Any suggestions?

Thanks For the heads up and info.

P.S. I know that 100 watts per plant is about as common knowledge as one plant per pot, but a friend of mine grew a plant in her closet with nothing but a standard light bulb. I saw it myself. I'm hoping that the same would happen, because I looked everywhere and could NOT find a store that carries HPS lights. That's why we got stuck buying the CFLs. The picture being posted soon might make a little more sense.

Edited by thewhitehouse, 12 October 2008 - 03:15 PM.
Spelling

Emergency blankets are made of mylar.

Get fox farm organic potting soil.

As for organic nutes pm cantharis he will see you right.

GL with the grow man! Listen to Mels and all will be well.

Thanks! check back soon.

This is just an idea, and I don't know if I can spare it right now, but would this light work for flowering?
http://www.bghydro.c...CSHPS015BGH&eq=

Edited by thewhitehouse, 12 October 2008 - 09:55 PM.
I wanted to change something.

sounds awesome.
sweet to see more people in GR growing.
a couple friends and i will be trying a grow next summer.

im in caledonia right now.
moving to downtown after i graduate high school.

where are the pics?

Can you create a good circulation of air in you're cab? Can you get much new air in? If not cfls, lots of cfls would work well.

Here it is. Most of it is set up, some things aren't. What you think, GC? I've got three clones and two seeds per box. I used OLD seeds, so most won't grow. That's why there are 2 seeds per box.

Any ideas?

Hey man,

Don't bet on old seeds not growing! I've just harvested 2.5oz of a plant that grew from a ten year old seed.

I can see a few issues arising. Remember rule no.1, 'Listen to Mels'? Lose the foil man. Painting the walls flat white works too. Did you get a fan?

You could always order an hps online...

All looks neat and tidy.

I'm working on getting mylar soon, and then the foil will come down. I've got a small desk fan, but I took the pic before the fan got set up. I'm not sure if the clones are rooting at all, but I got three seeds that just sprouted above the soil!!! Pics soon.

I'm still debating if I can spare the cash for an HPS. There's one I was looking at, though. The link is a few posts up.

I thought that over time, seeds lost their ability to germinate. 10 year old seeds? Epic! I got extra boxes in case they ALL grow. Also, I was told by the only grower I know personally that you are only supposed to water the plants 2x a week. GC Grow Gods, does this sound about right?

Also, I stood the lamp up because it was getting too warm on the plants.

Edited by thewhitehouse, 16 October 2008 - 10:01 PM.

I'm a hydro guy. But I think once you have them in good size pots you wait till the soil is dry an inch or so down then water. Rinse repeat. I think you just need to keep seedlings moist.

Yeppers, don't drown 'em, just water when the soil has dried right out. Roots need to breathe. Do you have perlite in your soil?

Sorry I missed the link to your light, I just wasn't paying attention was I?! Bad Freedom. Hope you get the one you want, it is an investment but it pays off!

If you do find two seedlings per pot, transplant them (carefully) asap, you wanna do it before roots get tangled. And yeah baby, age of seed matters not!

I have perlite that I got from a fellow grower, but I don't know what the fuck to do with it.

When should I start releasing some CO2 into the growin area?

Here's the update of what my shit looks like after 5 days. Sorry the quality is so shit . The middle picture is the up-to-date overview. The picture on the left is the bottom right (corner box) up close. The picture on the right is the bottom row, middle box. There is a clone in the top of that pic showing.


The clones have yet to grow even AT ALL, but are still alive. Why is that?

Edited by thewhitehouse, 18 October 2008 - 09:04 PM.

Lookin good so far , as they get taller it's gonna be very hard to properly light the plants with thoses tubes. Floro lights diminish very quickly with distance from the bulb. You might want to look into getting something off ebay a decent 250-400w CFL with a hood should'nt cost too much used. T5 lights the 4 or 5 bulb trays ROCK so much , look into some new lights your plants will love you for it.
If your budget is really tight , I would look into keeping thoses babies as small as you can , Top and Tie along the length of the bulb would be efficient.

Don't let them even think about stretching , drop thoses lights within inches of the tops. Get rid of the Soft white bulb and buy a Cool white.

GL lookin good , Fox Farms ocean forest for the win. K+ nice to meet you

*edit* what are your Temps at High and Low?

In my area, the temperature is warm, but not hot. if you're in there for 15 minutes you start sweating. I don't have the fans up yet, I am getting them tonight.

Edited by thewhitehouse, 19 October 2008 - 12:06 AM.
This was stupid before.

My plants showed what looked like stretching, so I lowered the light as low as would allow, and layed the lamp back down. Also, I finally got my fan up.

(1) My room updated. You can see the fan at the top left-middle, aiming down at the plants. It blows them gently and slowly.
(2) My garden.
(3) One of them up close, as to show their stage of growth.
(4) The same plant as shown before, but with a lighter by it for size cmparison.

*** BAD NEWS ***
I had to take the clones out because they were not growing any roots, were done improperly (I didn't do it), and were too light consuming.