newbie grower with some subtle questions

Hey guys I'm Dion, and I'm new to growing and I guess I've been making a stab at it for 3-4 weeks now. Now at first I had quite a few sharing small pots on top of a shelf with 2 2foot flourescent lamps with 20w plant/aquarium bulbs. I actually was fairly impressed with how they were comming along. Not the fastest growers for sure, but seemingly healthy.

So as the time went on i weeded my way down to 6 plants as of now. they are in a roughly 24"X15-18"X10-12" plastic bin. I have lined the wide sides, bottom, and top with a relfective blanket. cut a hole in the 2 short sides. one to allow air flow and i have a blizzard fan blowing 60 degree air at it and the other to allow chords to be placed and my 2' flouros to be hung.
I added 2 lights both 30 watt cfl on them and a thermometer just to check it out. The temperature seems to be staying hot. Aroung 90 degrees, which is not my main goal for sure. I'm wondering how to keep the temp down about 10 more degrees.

I guess I've just been guessing at the watering aspect of them, every couple of days. I try to stick my finger WAY down in the pots to make sure that the soil is dry at the bottom so as to avoid flooding the roots continually. If by chance i CAN tell that they have too much water, I just lay off of them for a little while, you know, what else can i do?

Right now im getting started on my 3rd and 4th sets of true leaves and I am checking the nodes with a magnifying glass to see whether or not i can actually discern what sex they are. I just took them to a 12/12 cycle today (no lights today for about 3 1/2 hours now) to see if I could get them to elicit sexual characteristics - Yes i think i can tell what is what, but they are young right now, so i don't want to jump the gun.

Any advice would be very much appreciated and especially on the temperature control. Its in a closet, and after adding those cfls i believe that my whole room has become hotter. Much more serious is the pregnant wife complaining about it :)

again I like these boards here and I've made a couple posts.
My name is Dion, and I like to burn one down occassionally.
Gracias y Adios mi amigos honrados
Dion

add some type of fan in there i use a 20 inch box fan works great and i use a 400w hps mh conversion (and that gets rly hot)

ya 400w same here, in a closet I cut to holes in my door though one at bottom for little fan blowing in and one at the top for hot air to be pushed out...shield them both, in 12/12 you dont want no light comming in ...sexing them will take with in 2 weeks of 12/12. 90 degrees wont kill your plants but over 2 hours at like 100 will. You should have a fan blowing on the plants, that would help even if the ambiant temp is 90. Plus they wont be so week when trying to bud...lol Does that plastic bin have any holes in the bottom? Hope so ...it would help a lot later on in the plant life . What is the PH of your growing medium? It could keep changing if you water with any thing other than just plain water if you have no holes in the bottom. Oh and if you rig a fan on a timer make sure it comes on right when or even befors the bulbs come on, you will gain 3-5 cooler degrees this way ...It doesnt let the bulb get hot to even raise the ambiant temp as much....peace

here are some pictures i have some more and i will be adding them shortly.
Dion

more more more
Dion

more yet, id rather be thourough* than overly vague.. see they are in pots with drain holes, they just have been placed inside an inconspicuous bin.
and thats it for now. :) appreciate all the help, maybe yall can see my fan and what not. ;)
Dion

well damnit i cant edit anymore... well, the first picture in the first set. Is that plant a male or is it just too early to tell?

To early. I 12/12 to tell

cool, so i read somewhere that you can 12/12 for a short period of time, and if you want to get more vegetative growth just reapply the 18/6 (but i had been running 24/7 with only the 2 flouros i had, I suppose with the additional cfls that 18/6 is the best way to go. am i correct, or should I abandon my 12/12 temporary idea and just 18/6 'em.

i really appreciate all of the feedback. My mother in law stole all my potting soil so 2 of those pots dont have enough after i transplanted from smaller containers. I don't like seeing them that tall. Just doesn't feel hearty enough.

Thanks
Dion

They look a little streched.... If i was you id wait for another 3 sets of leaves before determining the sex of the plants, then either carry on with 12/12 or revert back to 24/0 or 18/6. 18/6 is better for your plants btw.

they were a little streched as a matter of fact. for the first week i guess i had them under a regular incandescent desk lamp.... found out the the color spectrum emitted by the light promoted growth from the stem rather than from the foliage..

thats what these forums are for though, glad i got to reading them in time... i guess i did.

like i said 2 of them dont have enough soil in their respective pots. thats why they are so white at the bottom of the pics.

so i cut a larger hole in the side of the box and angled my fan upwards, better that way IMO because not only is that where the majority of the heat stays, but all that wind isn't hurricanning my plants over.

thanks for the tip though lip... 18/6 it is..

Dion

Indeed, you've done better than alot of people who come on here and have no idea about lights or watering or males and females... and its all because they dont bother reading before starting. At least you did before it went tits up! lol

It's ok, im here to help... If you could get a pipe in at the top of the grow room and have another fan sucking the hot air out i think that might make a differnce in the heat respect of things...

that would, if I indeed understand you correctly, entail putting a tube in the lid (would just a hole work?) while putting another fan INSIDE the box facing outwards to provide suction in the interior forcing the hot air out huh.. I think thats what you meant.

now for my two 2" flouros i have a pilot whole on the other side so i could run the chords into the box. Is that sufficient?

See i bought on of those REALLY small personal fans. In my mind it works pretty good, and i had it again inside the box blowing outwards, but the heat was just too great and i substituted this fan instead.

well i think im gonna go get some soil and what not.. maybe look for some of this superthrive stuff i just read about.

adios and I may just scrap this thread, and start a new one shortly, so as to show the progression of my grow and hopefully continue to get tips and critiques so i don't fark this thing up

thanks again
Dion

got me some superthrive and watered the plants....maybe too much for one day, but ill chill out on them for a while and see if they perk up.

got some more soil so that they look to be anything BUT streched.

messed around and broke my damn box.. re-did it to where i think its better than ever. added my small fan inside the box blowing out but on the lower part of my rectangular hole in the side. got my bigger fan outside the box blowing 60 degree air upwards into the box. i think im gonna make it guys...

ill see if i cant get some pictures of my new setup tomorrow... and i guess ill make a new thread and delete this one. still that doesn't mean not to give me anymore advice for now.

I'm still very interested in nutes and how you go about finding the right combination of them. pkn right? and that means phosphorous, phosphate, and nitrogen correct.? I was also wondering if there was a good way to get an abundance of co2 to my plants

thanks in advance
Dion