first grow, in crawl space, autoflower strains

I decided i would grow in a crawl space off one of the bedrooms we use as storage. The first picture is a little closer than the second but the second has a piece of cardboard (will be mounted higher) that i painted white. I am using 2 grow lights i bought from....never guess it... WALMART! ten bucks each, good deal i thought. The third picture is one showing what it looks like all sealed up (just put door up and turn little latches lol). There is no light escaping and i cant hear the fan really, you can hear a little buzz, but i dont know if yould notice it with out knowing its there. I also painted the inside of the door white with the little bit of paint i had left. I also bought 100W light bulbs and lightbulb sockets on one end and plug on the other. The light bulbs are 2700K. The wattage on the grow lights are 75W output, 16W usage, i believe thats what they were. Suggestions? like i said i have two 100W (23W actual) cfl lights i plan on adding these once i transplant my plant into the larger pot. i plan on using an auto flower strain called LR2 x AK-47 to be the first one i try. im not sure if i listed the seeds i ordered but the seeds include red dwarf buddha, Lowryder #2 x AK-47and Sweet Dwarf. The free seed i received is UFO#1 Reserva Privada Cole Train. Not too sure if that is a great strain, height or length from germ to harvest, but hey...it is free. I plan on doing LR 2 x AK47 first just cause its the one i am most interested in, then i will try Sweet Dwarf, finishing with Red Dwarf Buddha. And possibly UFO#1 Reserva Privada Cole Train indoors, but i think i am going to use that as my first outdoor grow. (fingers crossed for whole growing experience)


Oh and everything i bought added up to less than 70 usd. i was pretty pleased. So supplies was $70 and seeds were about $65 equals about $135 total spent, so as long as i get about a half oz COMBINED from all plants, i came out ahead, plus i get the experience =]

as for the first picture, i labeled some junk, i got bored lol. and i have the 100w cfls, menards has them on sale! =] 4 pack for 6 bucks.

Edited by tylerjb, 27 March 2010 - 05:14 AM.
added info

more pictures, i made some renovations to crawl space. It was done pretty cheaply, but none the less it was done. mounted the white cardboard in place a little higher, with some more above and below. as i continued up with the card board i added reflective tape made for metal to metal, but it worked still. i also made a little over hang using the card board and reflective tape. i think you are unable to see it, but i added some white cardboard to the right side of the crawlspace. now it is pretty much boxed in with white cardboard and reflective tape. i also got some more lights in place ( 2 true 100w cfls) and have everything wired up. wall to fan and timer, timer to extension cord (this one has 1 grow light, 1 100w cfl) and also is continued by another extension cord from this one that leads to the other grow light and other 100w cfl.
idk if thats confusing or not.

Edited by tylerjb, 27 March 2010 - 09:21 PM.
added a picture

bump?

What are the dimensions of your grow space?
Soil?
Nutrients?

I'm no expert and I haven't even started my first grow but I suggest you construct some sort of fixture which will hold your two lights horizontally over your plant, with a reflector on top, this gets your plant closer to the light and since the lights your using emit light from all sides you would be increasing their efficiency.

You seem to have less light than I plan on having on my grow. You are currently using 2 16W bulbs, or converts to 75W incandescent. You don't want to be looking at the incandescent wattage, you want to be looking at the 16W. I'm using a 100W bulb that converts to I don't know what incandescent. I'm assuming you thought my bulb was incandescent as you were implying I would'nt have/needed more light.

Why are you waiting to add 2 more 23W CFLs? Get them in there now!

What are the dimensions of your grow space?
Soil?
Nutrients?

I'm no expert and I haven't even started my first grow but I suggest you construct some sort of fixture which will hold your two lights horizontally over your plant, with a reflector on top, this gets your plant closer to the light and since the lights your using emit light from all sides you would be increasing their efficiency.

You seem to have less light than I plan on having on my grow. You are currently using 2 16W bulbs, or converts to 75W incandescent. You don't want to be looking at the incandescent wattage, you want to be looking at the 16W. I'm using a 100W bulb that converts to I don't know what incandescent. I'm assuming you thought my bulb was incandescent as you were implying I would'nt have/needed more light.

Why are you waiting to add 2 more 23W CFLs? Get them in there now!

mine bulbs are 100W actual, not 100W replacement. and i am also using those 2 tall grow lights to (hopefully) encourage some height, but once again i am using autoflowering plants so height will likely max at like 2 feet thats like max. but the later pictures have all my bulbs in place, and i am going to walmart to pick up those metal bowl looking things that hold a lightbulb in the middle soon. and the dimensions are about 34in height and 28in width. i could increase this, but i kind of made false walls out of cardboard to keep light in. (wouldnt be a big deal to make larger). but like i said im using autoflowering plants so i didnt have to worry about the height too much

http://forum.grassci...g-cannabis.html.
u want @ least 50w (actual), if not 100w per plant, & keep them closer, 2-4" away.
auto's need 20/4 lighting from start to finish, & try to make some sort of reflectors for your lights

UPDATE: while waiting for my seeds to come i decided i would mess around making some bag seed grow. i got 3 seeds to have taproot come out. so i popped them in the soil (taproot down) very lightly, then covered with soil lightly. Those are in the soil and i got the bulbs over the soil (about an inch or less (look at picture)). New to the grow space is some reflective material that i found in a first aid kit in my hunting pack (i was cleaning haha). I added some to the door (in a picture) and some to make a false wall type thing. The false wall goes about 7/8 or 15/16 the way down, i currently have a space heater behind it to keep it warmer (chilly in crawl space currently). i may have enough to cover the white parts of box wall also, i really hope so atleast. so there is my update.


oh and a question, where and for how much can i get an average soil ph tester?

Are you at school?

I'm in Year 13 at sixth form in London, I don't know how this converts to the school year in America, I'm 18 basically, I'm studying chemistry at college (again, I don't know if this means college for you), so I have easy access to a variety of chemicals.
I'm using HCl for pH down.
NaOH for pH up.
Universal indicator for pH testing (not very accurate)
Although very low accuracy I get it all for free.

Otherwise I'm sure 10$ would get you a pH testing kit.

update: some seeds germinated, planted two days ago and they sprouted today! ill add pics later =]

well here is the sprout =] lol

they really grew in a day! there are 4 in there the smallest one the bulb dropped on it so it is a runt lol. but the other three are pretty large for an over night growth spurt. i took one out from under the roots and put it in a diff pot. gonna eventually get these babies outside. =]

well today my seeds arrived =]
cant wait til the one im germinating cracks =]
aghh the waiting game!

ps. the seeds came 7 days after it was withdrawn from my bank acct.

little change in my room today. thought of a cheap way to hang my cfls. all i did was go to walmart and buy some sting/yarn type material. and well i used a couple little nails too, but i had those at home. then i took the string and made a slip knot on one end, but it around the base of the Y socket, then figured out height above plants and then put another slip knot on the other end and connected it to the nail. then pressed nail into my card board wall. now its fully adjustable =]. also having a problem, my plants leaves are turning brown and brittle. i have been doing the 2 inch watering thing. (dry after 2in of soil time to water) so im not sure. i also flushed the soil right away so yeah not sure whats going on. also picked up some nutrients, are they okay?

ps. these are going to go outside eventually. i hate wisconsin. a week ago it was 70+ degrees and today its low 30s and snow. wtf.

forgot to add the pics, here they are.

added one of a new sprout i have, its cute hah =]

bumpp

Edited by tylerjb, 09 April 2010 - 04:44 AM.

bump.

after my own research i think it was a heat problem. am i right that it could have been? it was high 80's i found out in there. and is 31-33% humidity okay?

the humidity is good and the heat is ok too, sometimes it gets 87 in my box but my plant seems to love it, and i dont think that miracle grow liquid food is for are types of plants, i know its a no no to use there powder shit, im pretty sure it goes the same way with that. and you should check out my grows, i got a stealth with cfls and a dwc(hydro) setup and a closet setup with the same walmart lights and a t-5 4ft flourescents and pretty much the exact setup

Are you absolutely sure those are CFL bulbs that you have next to the pot? They definitely look like incandescent bulbs to me. I've only seen a few CFLs that are made to look like incandescent bulbs and they are very low wattage bulbs.

If those are regular incandescent bulbs that would be why you are having a heat problem. Get those pieces of junk out of there, they would be doing more harm than good.

Edited by CurtChronic, 12 April 2010 - 11:31 AM.

i went 12/12, i wanna just see what the smell will be like. i am gonna grow Easy Rider next and instead of putting this one outside. im just gonna go to flower and check the stank that comes up and how hard it will be to control