Tips for a newby closet grower?

Hey y'all! I'm new to this site and I'm new to growing. I recently (last sunday) got a few mid-grade seeds to sprout. It was purely experimental, but wants I saw those little puppys 'sperm' out I just had to continue on with the experiment. I picked up potting soil and two aquarium fluorescents; mounted lights in an old trunk and planted the babies; in a day and a half I had 13 little sprouts (yay)! Everything's growing fairly well, but my thermometer in the trunk reads over 80 degrees (a bit warm, yes?) and the plants, although strong, seem a BIT dark (could this be because I'm experimenting with mids or could there be a PH imbalance in the soil)? Also, I'm trying to keep this as LOW KEY as possible (living in an apartment), so if there's a way to harvest BEFORE the thing grows 6 ft tall that would be greeeeaaaaat. :thumbsup:

If anyone answers ANY of the above questions... thank you for dealing with my long ramblings!

Crap... I was supposed to find a more specific place to post this... I'm new and learning, sorry!

my bad, I shoulda read more, totally my bad!

You are going to need a lot of ventilation in there. Not just to keep temps down, but for air exchange and a fresh supply of atmospheric CO2. Dark leaves are a sign of suffocation... fresh air FAST!!!!!
The link in my sig should be pretty helpful too.
GO SOX!

read as much as you can here. maybe add a little desk fan to your grow room would be something to think about. as far as lighting the only exp i have had has been with a 250 watt mh and 250 watt hps both which worked average and were small. if tyouo thionk about HID lighting maybe a 250 watter will interest you. right now im usiong a 600 watt hps and the heat caused me to put in an ac in the closet. i thought this was going to be simple but you really get into growing these plants its addicting.

Danke Schöne all! My case is the exact reason one should do ALL their research before trying to grow! Instead of having everything I needed ahead of time, I am now throwing on shoes, socks... MAYBE pants, we'll see what kinda day it is, and running to home depot to get a small fan, ph reader, better soil, more lights, and all as FAST as possible; because now I have a personal attachment to my sprouts... I already named them... one is named Frito... he's the goofy one... ANYWAY, yes, Stinky, GO SOX! Did they win last night? Last time I checked SOX were up 4-0 with Josh Beckett DOMINATING on the mound... then I passed out whilst on this site doing research. Anywho, THANKS AGAIN!

(This thread shoulda totally been posted in the 'Indoor Growing' section)

Oh, romdog11, as far as the lights... I'm living in an apartment and my fear would be the landlord seeing a spike in the electricity being used in my little one bedroom here. My goal is to try to grow for as cheap as possible and with as little equipment as possible (like, no more than 200 watts being used TOTAL... and maybe sans AC). I know, this is NOT the best method, but I didn't have to pay for these seeds and it's JUST an experiment for now... but it would be nice if I could get a SMALL harvest out of it. I think my wife will stop my project if she caught me putting an ac in my closet... however, I WISH I had that kind of electrical flexibility!

Sounds like you're tight on space and available electricity so.. I'd go with CFLs. Throw together a little grow box. Basically just a box with lights at the top, a little desk fan positioned to suck air out, and an intake for that fan.

Home depot/lowes will be good for about everything but your soil/ferts. Get your building materials and a few 3 packs of "6500k Daylight" bulbs there.

If there are any hydroponic or indoor growing stores in your area, that's where you should head for soil/nutrients. Talk to the guy there and he can probably help you out.

Another option that might work better for you would be to build a growbox with CFL's, but only to root some seedlings...then prepare to plant the sprouts in a remote location next year. Because you have little space to work with, and due to the security concerns you have about growing in your apartment, this might be the best option for you.

...and if done right, you'll be amazed at the results nature can provide for you!

sog and scrog are best methods for closet growing

Get a good ventilation System in there
-intake fan (from outside or a/c'ed room)
-exhuast fan (in to attic or out of house)
-dampers on intake and exhuast
-scrubber for odors
-duct mufler for noise

good ventilation could cost around 500.00 and a cheap one maybe 200.00

get some good lights in there
-400w air cooled hps hood runs for 400w but will be worth it (run exhuast duct through hood)

if the closet is tall enough split it in to 2/3 and 1/3 sections
-1/3 section for mothers and clones
-2/3 section for flowering stage

just pick the best looking female from your first harvest


most importantly get yourself a good strain ... spending a grand on a primo closet grow and growing bag seed is pointless. Get a good strain from the seed bank that grows short

All of your questions have been answered by now, but most seem to forget the fact that yuor growing in an Apartment. Remember that your in a closet, a closed, confined space. Your never going to reach ideal temperatures, CO2, ventilatoin, et cetra by growing in an apartment. To incredibly dangerous.

So with that in mind lets first take into account some problems associated with indoor stealth growing. First of all, SMELL! You dont want that pungent aroma spreading to nosy neighbors. They WILL come knocking, especially in an apartment complex, nobody's stupid. They know what it smells like. So your going to need to pick up either A. A masking agent (an Ionizer would work WONDERS! in your small space) B. A charcole scrubber (they can be fairly cheap or really expensive, it all depends on how much you have to spend). Actually you really only have two options for scent in an apartment. Most complex's would never let you cut holes in your walls to an exterior. This must be addressed soon, so save your money.

The only other problem I see with your grow is that your using Floro's to grow with. Your in a confined space, I understand, but consider picking up a 250 Watt HPS bulb/setup for Flowering. You'll increase your yields ten fold this way. Floro's don't put out enough Lumens or enough of the color spectrum for Marijuana to it's potential.

Otherwise, everything (except the ventilaton) seems okay for a first grow. IF your worried about Ventilation, grab a couple of Desktop Fans (the ones in your computer.) They sell them at RadioShack fairly cheaply. You'll need to hook them up to a power source (the guy at RadioShack will explain how.) Cut a hole in your trunk and put on in there. Then add an exhaust fan to get that nasty air out of that thing. And you'll be good to go.

Peace:hippy::jointsmile: