first time closet grow.all educated help HIGHly appreciated!

[jimjones]

alright so this will be my first closet grow. the space i have is length 24in width 14in height and 39 in tall. i have it all tin foil tapped on the inside already and have 8 available light sockets i have mounted on top but am doughting i will need to use all 8 but thats where i need help. i got some compact flaurecent bulbs that put out 800 lumens or so the box says and need to know how many i should run.also how many plants i can grow in this space from seed to harvest.all help is much appreciated.

[harrybuzz]

i would recommend using the light socket adapter that lets you screw in 2 bulbs where one normally goes " a Y socket adapter" or something like that. now you can have 16 bulbs instead of 8. i would look for a cfl with more lumens 1750 or 2100 the highest you can get your hands on. also if the cfl is soft white that is not the optimum color. heat will be an issue so ventilation is important. if you grow inside you will have to deal with various pests so do some research and be prepared. there are many others out there asking very similar questions. read the grow faqs section there is a lot of info for the beginner. the knowledgable people of this forum like pictures, they want to know if it is a soil grow, (what kind) nutes (fertilizer) . its taken me about 3 weeks to read up on my particular grow set up. good luck and hopefully you will attract some of the more learned members of this forum.http://boards.cannabis.com/grow-faqs/http://boards.cannabis.com/basic-growing/http://boards.cannabis.com/growroom-setup/http://boards.cannabis.com/indoor-lighting/http://boards.cannabis.com/indoor-growing/

[jimjones]

its going to be a soil grow and what color bulbs or how many lumens should i look for and are the best for the veg cycle and whats the best for flowering. also i read that keeping the lights about an inch or two inches above the plants is good if you dont have much room for the plants to grow tall is this true?

[Slevinkal]

For Vegging you're going to want bulbs that emit 6500k color temp and about 2000 lumen per sq. foot.

For Flowering you'd want 2700K and about 3000 lumen per sq. foot.

Tin foil supposedly causes hot spots so ditch the foil and paint the entire inside of your grow area flat white.

You might have to force flowering when the plants are about 18" tall if you want to avoid them growing too tall before harvest.

Make sure that you have plenty of ventilation because a lot of lights create heat. And you'll also need a fan just to circulate the air inside the grow area, that fan will need to blow on the plants directly but only enough to make them wiggle around slightly, this will make them grow thicker and stronger stems.

I might be wrong on this but a grow area that small you could prob only get away with 2-3 plants, maybe more during veg just in case you end up with males and have to kill em off. You don't want to grow three plants and two end up male leaving you one viable plant, right?


Im sure you'll get more help soon, just wait it out, some of the vets here dont have the ability to be on every second of every day so just have patience. You're going to need a lot of it during you're grow anyhow...

:thumbsup: Good luck

[harrybuzz]

yeah..... what he said.

[arthurdickson]

Hello guys im new to the forum.

I used to grow under 400W HID's and MH's but that was turning out to be waay too expensive plus i was having trouble with the heat. I moved to argentina now and i just finished setting up my grow cabinet but this time im using CFL's (two 65 watt lamps as you can see below, combined about 5000 lumens i know im not gonna yield no where near like with HID's bit if i can get into a rhythm and flower a bush and replace with a vegged plant when i harvest i will be happy).

the size of the cabinet is 50cmx50cm (1.6ft squared at the base and height is just over a meter but i got my homemade reflectors which work pretty well about 2 inches from my plants as you can see the overhead is pretty dark so they are getting most of the light)

my question is, will this be enough to veg AND flower? or will i need to go to the hardware store and fetch some more CFL's???

seeds germinated and sprouted out from the soild, been under lights for a day and a half now.

[MJisBadMmkay]

@ jimjones- I agree, you need to lose the foil. Use flat white as suggested, or mylar, or poly (also called Panda Film).

@arthurdickson- You need to start ur own thread, you kinda hijacked this one...:smokin:

Mmkay

[jimjones]

alright ill be sure to ditch the foil then even though it was a pain in the ass to put in lol.i have a exhaust fan that flows 50cfm and am thinking about getting another one so i have one for intake/blowing across the plants and one for exhaust,let me know if this is a good idea.another question i got some 6500k cfl's now and they are 60w/900 lumens a peice.i have the ability to run 8 lights but right now only have 1 row of 4 lights going.when should i kick the other row on? as of now the seeds have just germinated and i just dropped them in the cups.i started with 8 figuring all odds are against me.i figure i may get 3 females if i am lucky that is.

[Slevinkal]

I would run all the lights now.

As long as its proper lighting more light = more growth.

If you have a prob with heat you'll deff need to figure out how to get more/better ventilation. My intake duct ends directly behind my circulatory fan and it seems to keep my plants pretty cool, I'm also growing in a bigger area too though.

As for the fan blowing on the plants just make sure its not too direct. You just want them to wiggle a bit. My fan must have got bumped the other day cause one of my plants leaves started turning on edge. The fan was blowing too hard on them, once the fan was moved the leaves layed back down.

And, the tinfoil... I did the same damn thing at first and ya it does kinda suck getting it all taped up nice and pretty like just to have to rip it back down. LOL

[Slevinkal]

BTW, instead of using spray paint on the inside of the cabinet get you some Kilz brand spray primer. Its pretty much the same price as spray paint, its goes on super fast and doesnt run much and its dries insainly fast, to the touch in about 5 minutes or less and it has no sheen, it'll leave a flat white surface..

Its what I used, worked great so far and a lot less fumes than actually slow drying paint.

[jimjones]

alright sweet man.idk wtf is going on with my seeds i put down 3 napkins then put the seeds in then laid down 3 more napkins and kept the napkins moist but not wet and after 5 dam days little sprouts came out of a couple,you could barely even see them but i got impatient and just planted them so now how long will it takes for the things to come up?starting to make me wonder if i did something wrong:mad:and my temp in the box go's to 83 max but usually 78-81 in the dday and 72 or so at night

[Slevinkal]

...so just have patience. You're going to need a lot of it during you're grow anyhow...

:thumbsup: Good luck

Like I said.

How deep did you bury them?

Depending on a few factors it could take 3-7 days, maybe more if you burried them too deep.

[jimjones]

prolly no deeper than an inch

[jimjones]

it will just take them longer to sprout sincei buried them to deep right?it wont kill em?

[Slevinkal]

Not knowing any better I planted mine deep.

It took a couple of them four or five days to show.

Patience.

[reefersutherlin]

That all depends on how much moisture is in the soil. Too much spells rot for your subterranean babies. Make sure you don't over water them!

:weedpoke:

[jimjones]

one has just came through the soil but ther others havent yet.and the soil has stayed only damp never wet

[reefersutherlin]

How are they lookin?