Hello all! I'd like to welcome everyone to my very first grow journal here on grasscity. I've been lurking for quite a while and i finally mustered up the guts to grow. Enjoy, The Garden Of Eden!!! Part 1.) The box The box is roughly 1.5 ft by 1 ft by (up to) 5 ft tall I haven't put a lot of thought into smell yet, but i'm living with my parents and they don't really mind the smell. Although i would like to control it somehow, so that my parents can have company without needing to discuss the odd topic of their sons pot farm. I will support the lights from the top (via metal ballasts) I am planning on growing 3 plants, i'd say i have enough room for 4 or 5 but i'd rather not crowd up the box too much. I have one fan in the box running with the lights to maintain a low temp. i had it run 12 hours with all 5 lights already and it was warmer, but the blulbs were still cool to the touch Part 2.) Lights + Fixtures I purchased two, 4 socket splitters, and two sockets form Amazon.com. (If anybody is curious i will post links to the exact product) Sadly, the socket for the chord was smaller than i had expected I decided to do some electrical work, rather than wait and purchase the proper equipment. I documented each step of the process just in case i needed to do it again. (pictures Enclosed) Don't forget to run the OTHER END of the cable through the hole (where i cut off the socket) before splicing the wires (trust me, i made this mistake twice) Here they are set and running I'm using 100w cfl equivalent bulbs which translates to roughly 1600 lumens per bulb. Right now i have 5 bulbs; but i plan on using 9 or 10 for the flowering stage, since it's hard to throw the cfl light around the whole box. I found this helpful guide for the amount of cfl's to use. http://www.marijuanagrowing.eu/how-use-cfl-grow-t23291.html I'm starting with just two, until i see spouts above the surface. From there i will add all 5 bulbs. When i switch over to flower i will add an extra fixture and a few more bulbs to evenly spread the light. I'm starting on 18/6 lighting, when they get as big as i want them i will switch over to 12/12. Also, i germed today so excited Questions? Comments? This is my first mini-indoor grow so input is appreciated!!!
Lots has been accomplished today! My friend recommended that i actually measure the box. The real dimensions are 1'2" x 2' x (currently) 3'. the shelf that limits my grow space can be lifted allowing me up to 6' 8" of room. I also added a reflective "door" to recycle some of the light and to help seal the box during flowering. I'm definitely going to need more light, but i'm waiting to buy more fixtures. I may be able to get some fixtures back that i bought for another grow. Seeing how i didn't get ANYTHING from that grow, somebody's going to have hell to pay if i don't get my lights (you know who you are ). Anywayyy, i finished covering the box with aluminium foil. I might switch that out for Mylar or one of those emergency blanket materials if i get the chance. I have filled the pots with my own "potting" mix, and they will be ready to receive seedlings in a few days. The potting mix uses two types of potting mixes, that i believe contain nutes and vermiculite, and one type of actual "potting" soil. The soil is dense and clay-like, it holds water pretty well and looked to have some organic material in it So i'm not sure if i'll be using a lot of nutes but i think i'll throw in some miracle grow after week two of veg and maybe again when she's budding. I germinated 9 seeds yesterday in a paper towel. The seeds have been sitting for about 24 hrs, 2" underneath two cfl bulbs. No signs of splitting yet, but i decided to put up some pics to share my excitement
Good luck on your grow, will be watching What seeds did you get? Don't think you will have enough room to grow 4-5 more like 2 plants. Why are you doing a 18/6 veg and not 24/0? Yes you should switch the foil for mylar if you can, even flat white paint has much better reflectivity than aluminium foil.
Thank you, thank you this is my first grow, so i'm using bag seed. I plan on ripping a few males, that's why i germinated extra. When I've selected the strongest females I'll re-pot to two, thanks I'm doing an 18/6 light schedule because if it works just as well as 24 i don't see the point in wasting extra energy. I also don't live in Alaska, so there aren't many days i see with 24 hours of light. Are there any benefits of the 24 hour light?
I've heard that as the plant get 30% more light in the day it grows faster. I don't have any first hand experience of this though
I think i'm going to stick with 18/6 since i am using bagseed, and i have heard that 18/6 is more likely to produce females than a 24/0 lighting schedule. I placed a saucer of water underneath my fan last night to regulate humidity. All 6 pots have a germinated bean in them, less than 1" below the surface. No signs of life yet I am worried it might be getting a little too hot in my cab. Or maybe the bulbs are too close to the soil (4 bulbs, 3 inches away at least) i might cover the tops of the pots with plastic wrap just to keep some humidity (sort of like a mini greenhouse) until i see sprouts
Thanks I covered 3 of the pots at first to see if it would work, the covered pots didn't dry out so i have all six in their own individual "greenhouses" Now hopefully they'll sprout so all that light can feed my ganja instead of drying out my soil You can see the saucer of water underneath the fan. It's doing a good job of keeping the space humid. So, I think I'll stick with that method, rather than spraying 2 cups of water a day into thin air. I don't have room for all these seeds, but at least it looks like i might have a 100% success rate
Goooood morning from Mary Jane Rex Sam I removed the plastic wrap and they're shooting for the sun, or it's artificial counterpart I needed a low cost mulch-equivalent and i came up with this sponges cut to fit over the soil (good idea?) Those bulbs are BRIGHT 4 enough, 5 too many? I need to invest in some sunglasses B-) I might run 8 bulbs (t5's if possible) for flowering to get a full spectrum i definitely need to switch that tin foil for Mylar, The tin foil seems to be doing an ok job of reflecting light, but i need something insulated that i can seal up and control air flow when she flowers I'm also thinking about a SCROG for high yeild that was a test, but it fit right in there and took some work to get back out haha Anywayyyy, i might be a bit busy to be updating this everyday, but hopefully you'll hear from me at least weekly, i'll try to slip in the occasional update pic if enough blades are curious Pce for now ya'll keep smokin'
For cfl's start with 100 true watts for your first plant, then add 50 watts per aditional plant, deff get rid of the foil, it may look like it is reflecting light but its a poor reflector and thats being nice. Mylar blankets are cheaper then dirt at walmart... Just looking at your pics tells me you should deff scrog to make the best of the area your growing in.
I have space for 8 bulbs and i am currently running 5 23 w (actual) cfls, roughly 115 watts. during flower i may run all 8 (almost 200 w). If you read up, you'll see that i am not flowering all 6. I germinated extra because it's bag seed and plan on having a few males to throw out. Once i can sex the plants i'll choose the healthiest 2 or 3 females to flower. As for the tin foil thing, i have a heard tons of people saying this. Now, Mylar has been the first thing on my shopping list for about a week now, but i'd like to express my disbelief for this statement. In elementary school i made a solar oven using tin foil, not Mylar, tin foil. And that shit gets HOT. I even used to make concave lenses to light my bowl with . While I do believe there are a lot of things more reflective than tin foil, i refuse to believe that it's useless. Until i see some kind of real study, comparative growth, light exposure tests on photo paper etc., i refuse to believe that it's as poor as most blades are saying.
No studys needed, heres the links... This first link is to the wiki for foil, they clearly state that foil is, at best, only refelecting around 88% of light... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium_foil This is the wiki for BoPET, other wise known as mylar, it is said to reflect 99% of light... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BoPET The thing about foil is that it retains heat, mylar will not. so if you insist on keeping a heater in you box, by all means, use foil. Refuse all you want, your still going to be incorrect.
ohh true, i didn't think about the heat... 88% is very high for a reflective material. Water is something like 2%, snow is just a bit higher than that and i know both can burn the shit outta you... this is my first indoor grow so i don't have any materials just laying around. i'm sure my babies will be okay for a few days, i can't get Mylar 'till at least Monday
I meAnt cfl lights can I just sit it in the sun? Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum mobile app
course you can dude, it's a pot(ted) plant. i'm not sure exactly the conditions, but yeah, the sun is actually better for growing cuz it's natural (i would think, anyway) just take a look at this outdoor pot farm right there.
the sun emits wayyyyy more lumens than a light bulb (you have to remember all the stored energy on earth comes from the sun. but you need to able to control light times, 24 hours of light (or 18/6) for veg and 12/12 for flower. The plant needs to be tricked into thinking the seasons have changed
He is right it IS better. But you cannot isolate and control, temps, moisture, RH, pests ETC. so those things need to be watched harder. The sun IS better cause even at the many miles away that it is, during avg daylight we pickup 500,000-1,000,000 lumens on a fairly sunny day. THATS the reason why its better THATS IT! If you can do what I do and stick the sun inside, then your set!!!! But here is an example of how to use CFLs to their full potential. I am an electrician and understand how these bulbs work. The most light comes off the most collective surface area. The swirls on the sides are close to each other, this makes them keep each other warm. Since these are NOT regulated voltage filament bulbs, and they are a mercury vapor bulb, the warmer they get the more lumens it puts out. Same principal with HID lighting. M and HPS are Arc tube gas bulbs. They operate on a gas reaction to get brighter. More watts wont blow it, it will just get brighter. Which is why you CAN use a 600w ballast on a 400w bulb. Most people dont know this stuff. SO MY POINT IS!!!! With Cfls you want to CONSOLIDATE. Get 6 plug power strips with the 6th outlet being spaced apart for a "Transformer". I get the "Power Sentry" 6 plug spaced outlet power strip x2 for 6.97$ @ wal mart. Then 0.99$ bulb socket to power outlet adapter for each bulb, then MAKE SURE YOU GO TO WAL MART! they have great value 1600 lumen 26w bulbs in a 4 pack for 4.96$ and they are 6500k. No where else will have better value CFLs for lumen:dollar ratio. They last too I have been an electrician for 5 years and my father has been one for 35 years.. Trust me.. Heres my custom CFL Light i use aside from my T5s and 1200watts of HPS.. This puts out 25,600 lumens and uses 416 watts. This is over a 1ft x 1 1/2ft space making it 1 1/2 sq ft, the light density is 19,200 lumens per square foot. Compare that to my 454 watt t5 puts out 40,000 lumens over a 2ft x 4ft area making it 8 square feet only giving 5,000 lumens per square foot. See the difference? t5 is for HUGE plants. CFLs are more condensed and intense meant for yungins. I built this light below for 54$ tax included. I have pix of my entire operation in my grow journal in my sig if anyone wants tips or advice feel free to ask,4 years and several soil ops under my belt.