This will be my first grow (technically my second but my first plant was all natural and for the fuck of it). I'm curious if this box that I am going to build will be sufficient enough to grow a good quality single plant. If anyone has any suggestions are far as dimensions changes and whatnot goes, then go ahead and let me know, I'll take any since this is my first time after all. ALSO What lights should I use in this box? I was thinking fluorescents but if anyone has any links to any cheap higher quality lights, I would appreciate you linking them. I've read that I should use different lights for vegetation and flowering parts of the plants life, if so which variations should I use? EDIT: The cord for the power strip is going to plug into an extension cord, and then a light timer. EDIT 2: I found two light sets that might be alright, I'll put them in links below, what do you guys think? Vegetation http://www.amazon.com/GE-Watt-Energ..._2?ie=UTF8&qid=1363418876&sr=8-2&keywords=CFL Flowering http://www.amazon.com/Sylvania-2949...TF8&qid=1363419139&sr=1-2&keywords=soft+white
Lights are fine for size of box / single plant - make sure you use 6500K for veg, 2700K for flower. More light is better but remember more light is more heat. Consider having open section high up along back wall or high opposite where air enters for warm air to exit. PC fan for exit, small desk fan for air to enter is fine. Aim air coming in low. Guide exiting air out high. Hope you have climate control (AC) in room where box is unless you live where it's cold. Foil is practically useless and a waste of effort. Go to wherever you can get school supplies and use flat white poster board or paint inside flat white or cover inside with mylar or something else reflective. Your vertical dimension will need to be 3-4 feet minimum depending on height of planter. Better to go tall and lower/raise lights as needed than to run out of room. Also, more space above means less heat below - cfl's do kick out heat and it can add up over time. Your box is much like my setup, except my space can be opened on all five sides (including top where lights are) and I use white poster board (surprise) for reflection. Makes ventilating and access as need be easy and quick. You have room to flower four in smaller pots (tight fit) but I would veg no less than two so you have at least a 50-50 chance of getting a girl. It would suck to veg one plant for a month or two and discover it was male.
When you say 6500k for vegetation and 2700k for flower, is that basically the same thing as daylight bulbs for vegetation and soft white bulbs for flower? Will it work if I just have a fan pointing into the open part of the box to just move the air around so it doesn't get hot? For reflection can I use the material they put on those emergency blankets? I plan on buying feminized seeds so that I don't get males.
Yeah - 6500K = daylight, 2700K = soft white. Fan into box will work but more efficient to have cool air enter from one direction and leave in another. Cool air low, warm air high. Cool air keeps low with plant, warm air stays up towards exit. Emergency blankets will work fine - make it as smooth as possible. Flat white poster board or paint will reflect light the most evenly but for the size you are working with it really isn't that big a difference, just easier to set up and deal with. One fem plant will do fine in your space. Consider bushing the plant out into a scrog setup. CFL's don't have great penetration, especially to lower parts of plant but with a scrog setup you can arrange an even canopy of buds = more smaller but better developed buds = more harvest.
What exactly do you mean by scrog? Is that a kind of stress training? Edit: Nevermind, I looked it up. Edit2: I'll probably just grow without any methods like that the first time. I have a feeling I'd probably screw something up if I tried to do it any other way. Edit3: Ok how exactly would I go about doing this set up in a small box like this? Wouldn't the plant most likely end up growing against the sides of the box with a scrog?
Scrogs are easy - I scrogged my first grow because I was using cfls - and there's tons of info on them, how to set them up, how to arrange the branches and buds - it just gets you more harvest while using cfl's. Instead of one bigger main cola it gives you a bunch of smaller buds evenly arranged under the lights - that makes relatively weak cfl's more effective overall. If you don't scrog then since you are using cfl's I recommend you try to mount some lower lights to help get light to the lower parts of the plant. Cfl's don't have the punch to get light to the lower parts of a plant like HPS or MH.
Alright will my plants be effected badly if a power outage happens and the lights turn off for a short time during a day cycle? Edit: It's nice when no one will respond...
Yeah I figured as much, I guess I better just hope that no power outages happen during my grow. In response to what you said, I basically need to make sure it stays entirely dark during night hours right?
While power outage is a stress on plants that you definitely want to avoid, it's something that plants will totally recoup from Lost mine for 2 days last summer with no noticeable ill effects... Gl
And yes... Total darkness during the night hours when on 12/12 is important... Mostly helps reduce stress that can cause hermies...
Alrighty, so a power outage during vegetation would be a lot less harmful then a power outage in flowering would be correct? Also what hours should I do for vegetation stage?
What would everyone suggest I do when it's time to switch out the bulbs? Should I just wait until a night time cycle, and then switch them and have the timer set for 12/12 starting with the night cycle? Or should I wait until a daylight cycle, unplug the lights and leave them for like 24 hours (as I've seen suggested that you do before you start flowering), and then plug in the 2700k bulbs for flowering after 24 hours, on a 12/12 cycle? Sorry for double posting, just trying to get my thread bumped so people see my questions.
24 hours before you want your plant to begin the day half of its 12/12 cycle you turn off your lights, change them out, and begin 24 hours of "night."
Quick question, do I really need to germinate my seeds or can I just plant them in the dirt, water, and keep the lights on them. Is there any point to germinating them?
Either or. I like germinating separate because then you can regularly check for germination and plant when you get it. This limits the natural worry that the seed you might bury in the dirt might also be a dud and will save you some time in terms of eliminating the uncertainty and any extra days spent giving that dud seed "some more water and just a few more days."