Poor Man's CFL grow

Alright, I started this little closet grow about a week ago, at least that is when the seeds first sprouted. The babies are under 210w of CFL, 6daylights and 2softwhites. When I switch them to 12/12, I will go with the opposite, 6softwhites, and 2daylights, with a nice big 68w softwhite from Homedepot. My soil mix is MG organic potting soil, perlite, and a healthy dose of wormcastings. They are currently under 20/4 light, my reasoning for that instead of 24hour lighting is that I think the dark cycle will help with root development, at least that is what I think I read somewhere, lol. They are bagseeds from some reasonably decent burn. They are in 16oz solo cups right now, gonna transplant into 12quart pots. Once they are old enough for nutes, I plan to use FoxFarms Tomato and Vegetable organic fertilizer. At flowering time, I am going to go with BigBloom or TigerBloom. Perhaps some molasses as well. They currently get misted with creek water, twice a day, and a couple spritzes of Terracycle Wormpoop. The stuff is very mild and has no negative effects on my seedlings. I look forward to any input or advice, and I will post crappy pics often. As a matter of fact, here are a few right now,

 

Ok, then. Today I decided to get some mylar for my closet. HomeDepot had a roll of it for 28 bucks, that was just not going to do. I went across the street to Kmart and bought 2 emergency blankets, about 6 dollars. I also bought a 1.79 pack of coat hangars and some duct tape. With these items in hand I hurried home and wallpapered the closet with mylar. I also made a poor man's reflector for my cfl's using the coat hangars and scrap mylar. Here are some crappy pics to show what I did. Btw, the seedlings are looking very good, want to transplant them in a week or so, they are about 10 days into their growth.

 

Thanks! The only thing I am not going to skimp on are nutrients. Fox Farm stuff seems to have a good reputation, and I am going to get some Superthrive as well, I think. That Terracycle Wormpoop spray is only 2bucks! at Home Depot. It says to use it as a foliar feed. And it's organic too, which is a plus. A question I was wondering about, if anybody knows, is Alaska Fish Emulsion a good all around vegging fert?? I have some of that, and if I could use it instead of GrowBig, it would save me a substantial amount of money, and it is organic.

 

Hi, I transplanted today, I was worried that they were too small to transplant, but the roots were all the way to the bottom of the solo cups, and starting to spiral around, so I think it was a good move. They look incredibly small in the big pots. I think my pots are too big actually, I had a hard time getting the cfl's to cover evenly. I may take the 2 in the giant pots and put them in smaller ones, it's kinda overkill. I went and got a Ph test kit today, some FF Grow Big, and some Superthrive. I used the superthrive when I watered the soil for the transplant, so hopefully there will be minimal shock. I will take some of my patented crappy pics in a moment, and post them.

 

Okay, now I will actually attach the pics to my post.

 

Hi, I made a poverty version of an exhaust fan, filter, setup. I basically took a very inexpensive fan, (10 bucks), and a dryer vent hose, and duct tape. The fan is taped to the hose via a gladware bowl that I cut a 4inch hole in. I have the fan pulling air through the hose rather than blowing air into it, I figured that would be more effective. On the other end, I took some charcoal prefilters for my air purifier, folded them in half, and stuffed them in the hose. So the fan sucks air through the filters and hose. I have a small access panel into the attic at the top of the grow closet, when flowering comes, I will put the fan in the attic, and drop the hose down into the grow area, hopefully eliminating a lot of the odor. It doesn't move a great deal of air, but I don't have a very large grow, so I think it will work, and it was CHEAP!

 

I added a 68w soft white to my setup, it's not the right spectrum, but it should help, I have my little lights a bit spread out, so I wanted to add something more, so now I have 156w of 6500k and 122w of 2700k for a total of 278w. Should grow something, lol. I will swap out all but 2 of the 6500k lights when I go to 12/12, which I am thinking 2 weeks or so, I don't want the plants to get super large.

 

Thanks for the good Kharma, walshy

 

Here's a tip for anybody who is using mylar emergency blankets as reflective material. When hanging it on the walls, it is very delicate and will tend to rip easily. Tape will eventually fall off, and be a giant pain in the butt. And thumbtacks will rip the stuff. But, if you put a square of duct tape on the mylar, and then put a thumbtack through the tape, the tape will prevent it from ripping and it wont fall off the wall.

 

Not a lot has changed, but fortunately there doesn't appear to be any transplant shock, I already see new growth.

 

I am happy to say that even though I go look at these plants every couple hours, I see new growth everytime, they seem to be doing really good even though I am using MG organic as the basis for my soil. I ordered some automatic White Russian, and it comes with a couple freebies, Dinafem Blue Hash, and Dinafem Blue Widow, one of each. Since they aren't auto's, I hope to make a mother out of the ones that are female, (god I hope it's the Blue Widow!!) That would set me up nice for a scrog experiment.

 

Duh, all of Dinafem's strains are feminized...so I guess I have a very good chance to have a scrog fest.

 

Came home from work and saw substantial growth, I daresay these babies have a fighting chance! Rather robust, and seem like they may be a mostly indica strain.

 

Y socket adapter. Go to the electrical department at Home Depot, and ask one of the guys in the orange shirt. They are about 2 bucks a piece.

 

Ok, a little update. Even though not many people check out my little grow, it is great reference for me since I have no organizational skills, lol. It's been 2 weeks, and about 4 days in the new pots. These girls are coming along real good for 14 days under light. I am not sure how long to veg for before switching, since I"m using cfl's for flowering, I don't want them to get real tall. I may give them fertilizer for the first time, the soil is providing pretty good nutes, I think, but I want to give them a little boost, perhaps 1/4 strength GrowBig at the next watering. Maybe I will give one the nutes, and see how it does, then give it to the others. Any input on this would be appreciated!!

 

I got my seeds today, I had them shipped very stealthily in a t-shirt, No return address, and I don't see how anybody could suspect there were seeds in it. 10 auto white russian, 1 dinafem blue widow, 1 dinafem blue hash.