Lets grow some plants.... Advice would be great!

[Posjr408]

So i'm a first time grower. I was up late last night reading theards until the sun came up. I'm on a budget so i'm doing a cheap grow you can say :thumbsup:

I have a good size closet. 2ftx5ftx9ft I'm going for 8 plants. I live in an apt. Which i have a crawl space underneth. Which i will add a bath room fan and make a hole in the floor and mount it.

I have added about 12 seeds in a wet towel and within 24 hours 5 have spourted. Seeds are nothing spacial. I smoked it before from the same family and it did its job :jointsmile:

I just got back from OSH and homedepot and picked up some lighting. 6 sockets ($1.19ea), Six y-sockets ($2.00 ea), 10-23w 1,600 lumens 2700k (4pk $3.00), 2-30w 2000 lumens 3500k ($7.50). I plan on doubling this later when plants get bigger. So the tatol at this point is 290w and 20000 Lumens.And i plan to add a higher bulb mybe two 5.6k into the mix. All bulbs are CFL.

So tomerrow i well start the tear down of the closet. I had two questions....

1. Is my lighting ok? And should i add two 5.6k bulbs CFL bulb.
2. Also should i add foil around all the walls in the closet to get better lighting with what i got.

I start taking pix once i do the tear down.

[Posjr408]

I planted 12 seeds that have rooted just waiting for them to spourt. Than i'll sex them and put them in their own pots.

http://i26.tinypic.com/3097iad.jpg

[Krimet]

Don't plant more than one seed in a pot, they'll be to hard to separate once their root system has started. You will only want more foil once your plants start to get bigger and you raise your lights. If you close the closet door I would put some foil on the back side of that too!

[Posjr408]

Sounds good. I'll repot them as soon as they spourt or get acouple inchs high. Yes i will be closing the door. I'll put foil on the doors some day soon. Thanx

I drilled a three inch hole on the floor which leads to the crawl space which is my vent system and added a bathroom fan from osh for 10 bucks.

I also added two 65w 12000k bulbs. Are they a overkill. It was left over from my old saltwater tank.

[Cede2Weed]

I do not think you can have overkill on lights as long as you are keeping the temps down.

I am sure others will chime in, but I have read on the boards that white paint is more reflective then tinfoil/aluminumfoil. I started with it as well:)

Mylar is the most recommended reflective surface. If you cannot find it, use safety blankets found in the camping section of walmart.

Looks like a very nice set up. :thumbsup:

Good luck!

[Cede2Weed]

You also may want to consider placing some books under your pots to get closer to the lights. If you can get to within 1" or 2" without the heat getting to bad that would be optimal.

[JaySin]

I would say get the fluorescent tubes down with the CFLs. I'm not sure if their band of light is useful, but more of their light would get to the plant if they were down by the CFLs.

[Posjr408]

I just got back from walmart and got 6 26w CFL 6500k. Which i replaced with the 23w 2700k. So know i'm pushing 6 26w 6500k, 23w 2700k, and 2 65w 12000k bulbs. I have two more 65w 12000k bulbs laying around which i'm still not sure if i should use them also?

I also bought a temp and humid gauge. Along with some 18-18-21 food.

My humid says 34% and high. Time to do some research.........

Temp is 82 so i just turned the fan on high.

I think i got some work to do. Plus i'm still waiting for the seeds to spourt. Only 2 have spourted out of 16.

[Posjr408]

Ok i added a glass of water to help raise the humid level.

Yesterday night i also add all the seeds to there own cup besides 3 per pot.

Here is a pix as of right now. Next i plan on makeing reflactors out of beer cans. Beside tomerrow is my b-day and there sure will be planty of beer cans around :thumbsup:

http://i32.tinypic.com/uy2x5.jpg

[Cede2Weed]

Happy birthday!

[Krimet]

Looks a lot better :thumbsup: Have a great b-day!

[Posjr408]

Thanx you very much. Its a boring one until :jointsmile:.....

I think i'm going to make anew canopy for my lights. And add a few more mybe 8 bulbs and two more 65w 12000k bulbs. I use to have a coral tank so i know how important lighting is to grow. But moneys funny right know. So CFL it must be.

Very happy i had about 8 more broke thourgh the dirt. I'm hoping all 20 will pop out tomerrow.

Oh i need to make a intake vent. Temps went up to 92. So i'll jump on that asap.

[Posjr408]

I'm having a huge heat problem. Room gets up to 96 today. I open the door every hour to air out so it can drop to atleast 85 deg. I added an air vent which was 3inch with a small fan pulling air out of crawl space and a vent to let air out to crawl space with a bath room fan.

Do i make bigger holes and try to push and pull more air?

Or should i try to get a A/c which is $ but need on for the bedroom any ways?

Crawl space is always cool never gets hot down there.

[marijuanaisgood]

dont put foil!! as it will act as like little laser beams and burn ur plants leaves. just as long as ur walls are white.

[bombdiggity]

you probably need a more powerful exhaust fan. a 6" inline fan will run you $120 or so, but most experienced growers say that you spend more on your ventilation than you do on your lighting.

[hudson88]

I wouldn't of thought active intake was nessecery if your only using cfl's and if you get the balance between intake and outake wrong it can cause problems. I'd use the more powerful fan to suck air out of your grow space and leave the intake passive for now. Compare the temps inside the grow area to those outside it and if you're still having problems then try adding active intake back into the system and see what the differences are like there. If heat is still a problem look into buying an inline fan like bombdiggity suggests or if you don't want the hassle and can afford it just get one now.

Good luck!

[Posjr408]

Sounds good. I'll make the hole bigger for starters And add a bigger fan and raise it to the roof since hot air goes up. Than i found a air cooler swamp local for 30 bucks. I my have to fill it twice aday.

[Posjr408]

Damn air cooler was a bad ideal.... It raised my humid to 85 in acouple mins. This is really starting to be a pain. Plus my room is the hottest room in the house. Time to get the big saw and cut some 6in holes.....:jointsmile:

[bombdiggity]

yeah look at vortex fans they are pretty nice :)

[Posjr408]

I do have a 6in fan but was 20 bucks. So i went ahead and made a 6in hole than fliped the fan around for intake and its blowing some nice cold air which was a 75 degs. But box says 50 cfm. So ya i think i need a 120 dollar fan if not two. I found one at homedepot which was 210 cfm for 80 bucks.

Good news is i now have 20 young spourts. I dont plan on keeping them all, eight females and i'll be happy :stoned:

Also i plan on lowering the roof level with some cardboards. I have about 4 feet of emtpy space which i just holding hot are. The closet is 8 ft high.

[Cede2Weed]

Turning into quite the little project huh, Posjr408?

Good luck!:stoned:

[Posjr408]

Turning into quite the little project huh, Posjr408?

Good luck!:stoned:

Oh ya. Alittle harder than i thought. Besides i want it to work the first time not sure if there will be a second! Mybe next year :thumbsup:

I came across some homedpote fans 6in 250cfm or 8in 500 cfm. 38 bucks tops. This will be my new project tomerrow. Plus make the second hole as big as the 6in hole i made. And buy some padded filters. Dont want dust and our fleas in my house.

[Cede2Weed]

What are you talking about, "not sure if there will be a second".

5 years from now everybody will be smoking a strain named after you. :thumbsup: