Hi all, welcome to my first grow... I read lot's of great stuff on this site and designed my own grow room in my utility shed. My plan is to do four plants at a time. I have a 4' x 7' sealed and insulated closet space in my shed. walls covered in Mylar, Floor painted white. I made four six-socket fixtures to each hold four 23 watt 6500k cfl bulbs and two 32 watt cfls... they are tied to ropes to allow for raising as the plants grow. Also made some single bulb fixtures that are attached to utility wires anchored floor to ceiling and can slide up and down vertically and used for side-lighting the four plants. I work in a factory that throws away lots of mechanical and electrical stuff so I can DIY some of the components.. I made an exhaust fan using a squirrel cage from a pooched blower unit and the motor from a household fan purchased for $1.00 at Goodwill. I cut a four inch hole in the floor to be used as a passive air intake. The exhaust fan will exhaust into the shed space through box-type carbon filters. Also installed an A.C. unit to cool the space. Since it is sealed(walls are insulated,seams and outlets are all calked with silicone), I will install a Co2 tank and automate it to control the Co2 at hopefully around 1200 to 1500 ppm..Seeds are coming and I'll pick up my C02 supplies this week. Any comments and advice from anyone who has grown in this fashion is welcome and appreciated. Here are some photos.. http://forum.grasscity.com/indoor-marijuana-growing/1102064-stoned-light-fixture-invention.html
Click the linkback to "stoned light fixture invention" for details but yes it is.. six CFLs actually. Ghetto, I know..
[quote name='"basssnob"']Click the linkback to "stoned light fixture invention" for details but yes it is.. six CFLs actually. Ghetto, I know..[/quote] Man I thought having a tent with an inline fan and a little personal fan was ghetto lol. I would have def upgraded those to a MH or HPS
That;s the plan eventually but those suckers only cost me about 12.00 each for the big ones and maybe 3.00 for the singles... I'll be lighting up the room with a total of 16 23-watt, 8 32-watt, and 8 18-watt(side lighting). I have been shopping around for months and have found deals on bulbs.. less than 1.00 each for the 18watt... 1.50 for the 23watt, 2.50 for the 32watt.. Added benefit of all that light with lower cooling needs.. Prolly get some HPS fixtures/bulbs when flowering time rolls along(in about four weeks I hope)
I would def use the hps it will significantly increase veg rate as well as the potential of your yield.
[quote name='"basssnob"']Thanks, Do HPS bulbs benefit veg growth as well as flowering..?[/quote] Yes it can be used start to finish and yields are higher IMO
... OK so here are some pics. Three of the seedlings are seven days old and one is four days old.. One of the older ones is looking a bit yellow.. any ideas as to why, I would appreciate some ideas.
Anyone have any impressions of these 10 day old easy ryders?.. Kinda small for 10days maybe?.. IDK so somebody chime in. Three better developed plants are 10 days from sprout, the fourth is 7 from sprout.. Using MG organic potting soil about 120w of cfl per plant 10 inches from the plant room temp pretty steady at ~ 80 F humidity between 45-60%
3 @ 13days, 1 @ 10 days .... about 6 days without water and my soil is still damp.. plants look good so I guess I'll let 'em go for a few more days.
...gave the babies a drink today, they look like they are starting to grow, nice and geen and healthy looking. pics later..
Good luck on your efforts; looking healthy and happy so far. Don't be so quick to give up on CFL; there is a tremendous bias by most to upgrade, but there is a wealth of potential in cheaper routes. I've taken the low road so to speak and am quite pleased with the refinement of my technique. I've found that air flow to strengthen them is probably the most important early step to establishing a successful grow. All the other technical stuff is just jibberish to me; 12/12 from seed with just tap water until about 6 weeks then really light nutes to start. For me temps were an issue until I set my light cycle to nighttime in the daytime to take better advantage of my air conditioning.
I'm all about trying my own variations on things but I have to say that at this point, I'm not sure how much cheaper things will be.. I'm running about 600-ish watts of cfl right now. As far as heat goes, 600 watts of flourescent bulbs gives off as much heat as a 600 watt hid bulb. If I was running the ballast outside of the grow-room, I would be even on the heat, even on wattage. I have not quite done my homework on the lumens per watt but I think the HIDs beat the cfls.. The t5s are close but the light doesn't penetrate so well.. So the florescents seem to be not bad BUT-and it's a big but. After shopping my ass off for low priced cfls and time wasted.. 'not sure how much i have saved. Also, I can buy a good quality, not-on-sale, 600 watt HPS bulb for the same price or less as or than eight 4 foot, 54 watt, t5 HO bulbs.. which is only 400 watts... So.. I have started out this way but am thinking that I will drift toward the HID side of things for the late veg and flowering phase but probably use the cfls for seedling/vegging. Everyone has different limitations and circumstances and I have seen some kick-ass yields in CFL grow journals, Some of which I would dare say that only a handful of HID growers could top. Who knows where all of this will take me? All i can do is sit back and enjoy the view.