Whatā??s up party people,

Iā??m pph4ntom and this is both my first post and my first serious grow. There was an ill-fated closet operation in college but I donā??t really count that half-assed endeavor.

Background

With the arrival of spring, I spent a weekend recently turning the overgrown patch of dirt in the back of my house into a respectable piece of dirt and planted a lawn. So happy was I to be working outside with plants that lo and behold I started planting other shit, and decided, fuck it, just germinate some of the seeds Iā??ve been saving, throw ā??em in a pot on the window sill and see what happens.

Well, they almost all germinated (I put them in a wet paper towel) and I put them in their pots on the window sill. And they grew. So I germinated some more, because why not, fuck it. Then my cats ate two of the latest ones and ripped out the third, which is just now recovering.

I started looking into growing some more, because really, itā??s been on my mind for years, and Iā??m actually finally in a position where I can pull it off (living + financial situation). So I read some, and more, andā?¦

ā?¦ here we are.

The Set-Up

Stealth is my number 1 priority. I cherish my freedom and job too much to be careless. So Iā??ve decided to make this a basement operation and camouflage the grow box into sea of shit littering the floor. You can see what Iā??ve set up so far in picture No. 1.

The box behind the bed on the bottom is the veg chamber. Basically I took the biggest box I had (toilet paper box no less), measured it, and built a wooden frame for the inside. The dimensions are 18ā? x 17ā? x 24ā?. Hereā??s what else Iā??ve done and set up inside so far:

  • Light: 32W CFL at 2200 lumen
  • 400W Computer PSU power two fans
  • Intake: ~22 CFM
  • Exhaust: ~35 CFM
  • Power strip and timer
  • Painted inside of box with Montana Silver Chrome


Check picture 2 for a whole view and picture 3 for a closer look.

The Plants

Like I said, this started out as a ā??letā??s see what happensā? operation without much thought put into things (although somewhere in the back of my mind, I mustā??ve known that this would get serious). The seeds were from some kind bud a while ago, no idea what they are. I initially got some potting soil from the local hardware store, which in retrospect was pretty clumpy. Later I purchased some seed starter soil for some other plants Iā??m growing, which seemed much more apt to start growing herb, so I ended up putting another layer of that soil on top of the clumpy shit.

You can see the plants in picture 4 ā?? they stretched quite a bit when they were sitting on the window sill in the sun, and are quite spindly, so I decided to tie them to wooden stakes. In the last picture you can see a close up of the 4 best ones so far ā?? the 5th was one the cat ripped out that I replanted and is slowly picking up its head again.

Temperature has been around 70 deg. The 4 big plants are around 14 days, and range in height from 3.5ā? to 5ā?. I also started them on a 18 / 6 schedule for the past 2 days.

The Plan

So what weā??re looking at here is only the veg box so far. Iā??m planning on making another, bigger box within one of those big wardrobe boxes, which are about 2ā?? x 2ā?? x 4ā??. This will be the flowering box in which Iā??ll have one, hopefully two plants so that I can harvest a plant every 3 ā?? 4 weeks.

The current plants are really just more of test run and Iā??m looking at buying some seeds; Iā??m thinking with the space constraints I have, and the lights Iā??ll be using, Iā??ll go for an auto-flowering lowryder strain of some sort. The light Iā??ll be using in the flowering box is a 28W LED Panel, from what Iā??ve been reading here that seems to be a good choice for what Iā??m looking to do ā?? not a huge grow operation, just a plant to harvest every 3 or 4 weeks.

My Questions

So yea, Iā??m total newbie at this, but Iā??m into it. Here are a few questions I have for you all ā?? any feedback is greatly appreciated, and thanks for indulging a neophyte:

1. What do you make of my set-up, what am I forgetting?
2. Whatā??s the deal with the plantsā?¦ are they too stretched out? Are they fairly behind for day 14?
3. Is training them as I am a good idea?
4. What kind of seeds would you recommend?
5. I have not the first idea about nutrients; I can Google as well as the next guy, but are there any definitive sites / pages that you know of with good information on this topic?
6. Is the light in the veg chamber enough for what Iā??m doing? Will the LED panel be enough?
7. How much airflow is needed? Since Iā??m not using a HID, I think it wonā??t be as much, but in general, how much CFM are we trying to circulate in a box?

ā?¦ Wow, youā??re still reading my post! Thanks for sticking around, and double-thanks for any help or feedback you might have for me.

Iā??m stoked as hell about this, and cannot wait for my next post.

Happy growing,
pph4ntom
:greenthumb:
pph4ntom Reviewed by pph4ntom on . From Window Sill to Basement Operation: My First Grow (Micro / LED / CFL) Whatā??s up party people, Iā??m pph4ntom and this is both my first post and my first serious grow. There was an ill-fated closet operation in college but I donā??t really count that half-assed endeavor. Background With the arrival of spring, I spent a weekend recently turning the overgrown patch of dirt in the back of my house into a respectable piece of dirt and planted a lawn. So happy was I to be working outside with plants that lo and behold I started planting other shit, and Rating: 5