First Grow - 2600 + watt CFL!!!!

[low_rdr]

Greetings Everyone, and especially myself.

I'm using this as a true grow log, a step by step to my successes and failures using a CFL Cabinet. Before I get too in depth, I'd like to point out that the main reason I decided to use CFL's was heat - It was not cost. Originally I thought CFL's would be 30-40 degrees cooler in a cabinet, and my heat issues would be null and void. Where I'm growing, I have no need for carbon filters, no matter how bad the stink is, I'm covered.

That being said, my germ/clone box is in top of the cabinet (of course, for the additional heat). I'm germinating 12 strains for personal use, the main ones are Chocolope, GrandDaddy Purple, Amnesia, AK 47, Super Haze, Lemon Express, Pineapple Express - If you consider the values of some of these strains, you can see that I'm ultimately creating my own strain using different variables of these. All my seeds are feminized, I do however have a male GrandDaddy Purple and a male AK that I will be using as my pollinators when I'm ready to start my first generations of my own strain. For now, lets get to the grow box.

Expense has been no object here. I was actually considering purchasing a coliseum grow-box, however current living space requirements put me in the range of a box or utility closet. I opted for the utility closet, and since my original intentions were to grow no more than 6 plants, I got a rather small and cheap closet, 27" wide, 15" deep, 68" tall. This would have actually been perfect for 6 plants, however, I've already outgrown it, and my first seeds haven't finished germinating yet! (Doesn't that figure?)

Future plans are already being made, this will be turned into my veg cabinet - So, for now, lets continue once again, I purchased a plastic cabinet that was on sale for about 50% off, there was a much nicer wood cabinet (white interior) for about $70 more, I didn't buy it originally because I didn't think I had the room. The plastic cabinet I'm using now ran me $49 at Home Depot. The wooden cabinet was $130, and I will be purchasing it on my next trip. (Don't worry, I'll show pics of that as well)

Originally for my germination/clone box I wanted to use daylight T5's, however, none of the hardware or lighting stores around here had anything over 5k for T5's, I also couldn't find a T8 frame I liked, so I went with the T12 frame, and put in GE 610 nm daylights in. The top part of this cabinet is adjustable, and the light currently sits 4" from my clone box (perfect for clones, a little high for seeds, but I will set the box on a harry potter book when I sow). I would adjust the shelf for the seedlings, however, it takes roughly 15 minutes, and since its setup for clones, I'd rather not mess with it.

My veg box is powered by 6 syvania 100 watt 6500's, these are micro CFL's and I'm not too happy with the current lighting arrangement, however for this first grow, we'll see how it goes. this cabinet is adjustable, and is current setup to let the plants get about 9" high, which is when most of them will be going into flower, I do have some strains that will need 12-14" before flower.

For the flower box, I have 12 150 Watt Syvania 2700's on top, as well as 1 150 watt Syvania 6500 for full spectrum while flowering, I originally wired in series (doesn't work, do not wire your CFL bulbs in series!!!) which took about an hour, and another 3 hours to fix! Reading through other grow logs, I've noticed that one of the biggest complaints is undergrowth lighting. Since my original plan was to only flower 6 ladies at a time, I fixed this problem with 2 100 watt 2700 flood lights wired into the base of the cabinet to shine up into the undergrowth. I know... killer idea, and yes, you should use it!

Problem - Since I'm germinating about 12 strains right now, my plan is to get the bigger grow box before flower and use this setup only for veg - I'm planning on using a new technique using a 5" deep storage tub, and letting all my roots inter-tangle. I recently read on another thread that using a small growing space, and this technique, helps get rid of the need for 5 gallon buckets, so I'm very interested in trying it out, and my results will be posted here.

As far as yields, honestly, I'm hoping for a lot. I'm looking forward to at least 8 ounces per plant, now this is my first grow, so I know the possibility of that is slim to none, but I will work on it.

Cooling/Ventilation:
The box with all the lights on gets to about 100 degrees, There is a window conditioner right next to the box, and if the door is cracked with the air and all the lights on, its right around 80 degrees - I haven't put fans in yet, I am planning on putting in 3 120mm quite fans, and 1 for exhaust - This hasn't happened yet because I was under the impression that the CFL's would be much easier on heat (I'm still looking into my fan options at the moment)

Germination:
As you can see from my pictures, I'm germinating most of my seeds in the bags they originally came in. I'm doing this because I don't want to clutter my shelves with tons of shot glasses filled with seeds. My GrandDaddyPurple strain is being germinated in the same fashion, only using sandwich baggies. These are put into a glass jar, and covered with a beer cup.

Rooting:
After germination (all my seeds have cracked at 18 hours, some showing a 1mm tail, I plan on rooting at 5mm) I will be placing them into a seedling box which is designed to hold 72 seedlings (this is for cloning, and has a humidity dome for the clones). Since the box currently holds decent temps for seedlings, I'm not using a heating pad.

The seedlings will be put into MG potting mix inside the trays until they are about 2" and showing good leaves

Veg:
As stated above, I am going to be placing my seedlings into veg at about 2" and will start to top them ASAP, I'm looking for 8 main branches on each lady before we go into flower. I will be giving tomato nutes when the soil is dryer on top until the plants go into veg, I'm using MG organic choice, diluted by 50% for the feeding. Most of my strains will be put into flower with 8 tops and around 9" tall.

Flower:
At the flower stage I'm currently not sure if I'm going to use a screen for scrog, depending on how the arrangement looks in veg, I might just do that - I'm hoping however that my under-lights will help keep everything well lit - I have considered doing 3 smaller boxes with 4 plants each arrange around the under lights instead of just 1 big tub, depending on my schedule the next few weeks, we'll see which route I take! I am using MG Bloom Booster for flower feeding.

I am aware that many growers shy away from MG - However in my experience, MG is a wonderful product as long as you use it correctly for your precious ladies. Never use it as directed, always water it down by at least 40%, and if your paying special attention to your girls, you should be able to make any corrections you need to.

I realize this is my first grow, but I also realize first and foremost that this is a weed. Too much attention, and you'll kill it, honestly, its best to sit back and do nothing than to over do it.

As for the pictures, sorry the cabinet is mostly empty at this time, but I will be updating this on an constant basis up until harvest time. I can tell you, I'm totally looking forward to this first trimjob I have coming up!

PS - some of these strains are clone to harvest in 45 days, seed to harvest in 60, so some will be going into flower much quicker than others. I also realize there maybe a few questions of lighting schedules. the veg stage will be 24/7 and flower will be 12/12. I know many people like 18/6 for veg stage, and I may switch if I need to, perhaps a veteran grower can give me some advice here, I would appreciate it.

Now for the Pictures!


This is Super Haze, you can see the root at about 1mm right now


This is Amnesia, you can see the root just coming out


This is my germ station - Just two glasses with bags of seeds + distilled water


Clone Tray without lid for seedlings


Veg box - About 12" tall total. You'll notice I wired my flower box in a much better fashion,
I will be duplicating the process on my veg box when I upgrade soon (hopefully a month)


Flower box shot, notice the under lighting. 13 150w lights above, 2 100w floodlights below


As I said, this is a cheap cabinet


Do NOT wire your CFL's in series


These are my flower lights - 150 watts, 2700k 2600 lumens, that means my flower stage
is 2150 watts, and 39k Lumens!!!!


Flowering lights - 600 watts total, 8700 lumens total - I plan to up this to 2k watts and
29k lumens when I upgrade cabinets.


This was the bottle we got to celebrate the box and seed order! (Not really, we got it for
my promotion, but it was about the same time!!!!)

low_rdr Reviewed by low_rdr on 10-01-2012. First Grow - 2600 + watt CFL!!!! Greetings Everyone, and especially myself. I'm using this as a true grow log, a step by step to my successes and failures using a CFL Cabinet. Before I get too in depth, I'd like to point out that the main reason I decided to use CFL's was heat - It was not cost. Originally I thought CFL's would be 30-40 degrees cooler in a cabinet, and my heat issues would be null and void. Where I'm growing, I have no need for carbon filters, no matter how bad the stink is, I'm covered. That being said, Rating: 5

[low_rdr]

Wanted to give a few shots of what I came home to after dinner tonight.

29 hours germ I found all but 1 of my seeds are cracked and doing very well. Here are shots of the two I started you off with, I think we'll follow these two strains until the end, with other shots of the rest of the girls of course! Can anyone help me name these two girls? One strain is Amnesia, the other is Super Haze - So help me name them!!!


Here is Amnesia, honestly it looks like the root tip is coming out with a leaf on it... It doesn't just appear that way in the photo, it looks that way up close as well! As you can see though, she isn't just cracking that seed, she's ready to pop - If you could tell a yield by the way a seed popped, this would be a winner right here!


Here we have the Super Haze seedling - You can tell from the previous post that the root tip is quite a bit thicker and a touch longer, I'm sure that by hour 45 super haze will have met my standard for planting. Hopefully the rest will catch up over night! Both of these seeds have popped really well for me using this method, its easy, done with tap water, and I couldn't see anyone screwing it up.

[low_rdr]

After further investigation - Of my 12 strains I wanted to grow, only 5 are currently germinated.

I also tried another germination method which was soil - Unfortunately the soil germination has yielded no results, and the seeds may no longer be viable (I started this process 2 weeks ago). I have put these strains into distilled water, and I'm hoping for the best, but the cynic in me knows they are gone. I also have one freebie that has not germinated in the above method (yet). The Strain is Holy Grail 69, and the seed looks healthy, hearty, and has sank, however it hasn't cracked.

In an effort to help fill up some of these slots, I've started germinating two more strains, Liberty Haze, and Haze Special. Both of these strains are being germinated in a 12% diluted MG Organic stimulant. I'll post pictures in the morning if they actually crack and show a tail by then. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this simple solution will help catch the seedlings up by 30 hours, we'll see! (Again, the cynic in me knows it won't work, however, if the stress of the nutes doesn't kill the seedlings, it should show a healthier growth throughout the process, these are two more strains we might want to follow closely in this grow. In the end, it might make the difference, we'll see!

Some of the strains that didn't germinate properly are some of the key strains in my quest to develop one just for me, these strains are chocolope, white widow, and AK 47, I'm also missing pineapple express as well as lemon juice express. I've written the-attitude seed bank, however I'm not really expecting replacements, but I can promise if replacements are made, I won't be trying sensei on my next order

[low_rdr]

Update Time!

Checking on Liberty Haze and Haze Special, while the rest of the seeds are on hour 45, Liberty and Special have both cracked, while they haven't caught up yet, I don't think I'll be planting just yet anyway, so they'll have about another 15 hours. the Holy Grail strain I mentioned earlier still has not cracked, looks like its a dud. I will keep my fingers crossed and we'll see what happens there.

I contacted the Attitude, and surprisingly I received a response, and was told my new order was processing - I can't give a total review until the package arrives, but what I can say is :thumbsup: Awesome customer support so far, and i'll let you know how that process turns out (last order took almost 2 weeks, so this one might take the same).

Update on the girls with photos!!!

Amnesia is looking great, this is actually a horrible photo
I couldn't get her to lay just right, but not only can you
see the root is nice and strong, there is foilage on the
plant, these are seedling leaves, however there seems
to be a jagged edge to them, not the normal smooth
seedling leaves - This is going to be a promising mother
I think (As long as I don't screw it up)
Attachment 287048


Super Haze is looking very strong, just shy of the 5mm I figured we'd
see at hour 45, again, you can see the seeding leaves, and she's ready
to be put into soil. I'm going to give her a few more hours, and I'm hoping
that more strains will be ready, most are sitting at 3mm right now.

Attachment 287049


I will take single photos of the seedlings as they're going down, as well as a group shot so we can progress the first few weeks together.

keep checking back

[low_rdr]

Okay - It looks like I picked two excellent strains to follow! While all the seeds of this batch have germinated, these are the ONLY TWO strains that have come up through the soil, remember when I said amnesia was explosive? Well, she didn't just come up, she blew up! I checked on them this morning to see a touch of green. By lunch, she had shed her shell and was laying out for a nice photo op.

Super Haze is doing fantastic, she hasn't shed her shell yet, but she's broke the soil.

Pics of both of them below.

Royal Kush has crowned the soil - Liberty Haze, Holy Grail, and Haze Special haven't broke ground yet.

They are in MG potting soil which is 21-7-14

They aren't getting nutes yet, but will be receiving 15-0-0 for veg every other feeding.

Attachment 287130
This is Amnesia (We need to name her still)




Attachment 287131
This is Super Haze - Also needs a name!

[billydakid6812]

All the strains ur growing sound like they are gonna be some super plants. Just the name of them makes me interested to watch and see how they grow. Your set up is awesome dude I like how you got the cfl flood lamps on the bottom for side lighting, very smart move, where did you get the Rubbermaid cupboard I was thinking of a set up like that for myself. Although electricity is not my specialty so maybe the lighting wouldn't be so extravagant, but its a nice stealthy grow box. Thanks for the feedback and I will def be watching ur journal. Get them pics up

[low_rdr]

I got the cabinet for $79 at home depot. Do yourself a favor and get a wooden one about the same size, I was going to but figured this one would work, and it will, but it has light leak issues as well as being plastic doesn't really help with silencing fans - So if you try to put a proper exaust system on it, the entire thing will hum - Stick with a wooden cabinet, this is good for veg, but like I said, light leak issues for flowering

I picked my strains based on effect and flowering times. Most of my strains are seed to harvest in 60 days.

As far as electricity, if you want to do something like this, I can actually give you step by step pics as I'm about to repeat the process with a wooden box. If you want me to do a DIY wooden cabinet log, with complete setup and a seed to harvest log following that cabinet so we can see the end result, I'll gladly do it. Just say the word

Thanks for the compliments, means a lot as this is my first box!

[Quent]

When you say you'll be doing 24/7 in the veg stage, do you mean 24 hours constant, or 24 hour days then 7 hour nights? Obviously I assume you mean 24 hours 7 days a week, but I've wondered if the veg stage could benefit by having longer than 24 hour cycles, because on the few days that I couldn't make it to turn my lights off for my 18/6, and it ran for 24 straight, then a 6 hour night, I would always notice a lot of growth in the night period.

Looks like you've got your shit together here, though. Looking forward to following your massive success. 8oz/plant is a lot to hope for, for such a compact grow, but I can see it happening. At least 2 pounds. :thumbsup:

[billydakid6812]

I got the cabinet for $79 at home depot. Do yourself a favor and get a wooden one about the same size, I was going to but figured this one would work, and it will, but it has light leak issues as well as being plastic doesn't really help with silencing fans - So if you try to put a proper exaust system on it, the entire thing will hum - Stick with a wooden cabinet, this is good for veg, but like I said, light leak issues for flowering

I picked my strains based on effect and flowering times. Most of my strains are seed to harvest in 60 days.

As far as electricity, if you want to do something like this, I can actually give you step by step pics as I'm about to repeat the process with a wooden box. If you want me to do a DIY wooden cabinet log, with complete setup and a seed to harvest log following that cabinet so we can see the end result, I'll gladly do it. Just say the word

Thanks for the compliments, means a lot as this is my first box!

Yea I am debating on getting a box like yours, but Im wondering if it will be enough room for the present plants i have growing they are already in 5 gallon pots, and there is six of them. I know it would not fit, I see you have 6 smaller ones. Im very interested to see how your plants end up i will be watching from start to finish I have always been interested in the seed to harvest 60 days. I just worry about yield when I think harvest in 60 days it just doesn't seem to be enough time to me, this is my first grow well second actually, but this is my first official grow investing money into it. My problem is one of my plants is already extremely wide,about 6 inches each side of the stem, and every alternating node is proving to grow the same,idk why its growing so wide I can tell it's going to be a long lanky plant the rest are short and bushy,but still in the 5 gallon pots space is an issue,im going to keep my eyes open for a cabinet like yours. My girlfriend is bitching about having to share a closet now, but I am def interested in running electricity like you have, I presently have a max lume 200 watt cfl putting out just about 18000 lumens so I would only need lights and wiring for the flowering box. How much money for all the materials excluding the cabinet. As far as the diagram goes I would very much appreciate that, Im not ready to do it now, but very soon so it's up to you if you wanna make a diagram now or later, just keep me posted. Thank you

[low_rdr]

by 24/7 I meant All the time Realizing the format, yeah, i shoulda put 24/0. I'm leaving them like that because what I'm planning on doing is having a constant cycle, and until I move and actually get my 'room' I get 2 cabinets, one for flower, and one for veg, each cabinet unfortunately has to be sectioned off, as I'm having my ruderalis strains flowering as soon as they veg 7" and the rest will grow out more, and I still haven't set my mothers yet, so from there I've gotta start my clones for my scrog for when I move.

So I've got alot going on as far as growing is concerned, but I'm sure you can tell by the work put into the cabinet, that I'm going to have a phatass growroom (and my veg cabinets/clone station will be in my boxes, unless I get a killer closet in the house)

I've actually got enough lighting that if I squeeze enough plants in there, I really can produce 2lbs - heat would be a major problem in that grow box though, so I've gotta get that taken care of first before I consider an overload of light.

subscribe to the thread, I should be putting up new pics of the two strains we're following tomorrow

Oh, btw, if your reading this, that means I want you to help pitch in and name my two girls!