Here we are at day 14


My first little baby is growing nicely

I'm seeing new growth on it daily now that its under the flourex flood light.
(1000w equiv - 10,600 lumens @ 6500k)

Seems to be shaking off the little burn it got from growing into the light just fine. (pic 1)


I'm still waiting on the mylar to get delivered, so I can finish off my cab.

I picked up 2 cheap bookcases from homedepot ($10 each) and mended them together to form a cabinet case. 2'w x 2'd x 5'h

Once the mylar arrives I will be lining the entire inside of the can with it.
The bookcases each came with a thin plastic backer board but I will be wrapping those with mylar and then using one to make a door with velcro to seal it, and nailing the other one onto the back. I think that using the thin plastic boards and just wrapping those with the mylar will also help keep temps down compared to using plywood.



I started up a few other seedlings and they're doing well too.
They're just over 5 days old now. The leaves on the smaller seedlings (pics 2-5) are actually a little over an inch wide. The seedlings themselves are only about 2 1/2 inches tall. They're getting a much better start than my first baby had.


I've been maintaining temps in the 75-80 range. I'm trying to get it down a little bit lower though. A ventilation system will most likely be needed once I add the side lighting boards I'm making, and seal the cabinet up, but I'm waiting until I see what the temps will be like after I seal up the cabinet before I start installing a venting system. No real need for it at the present, since the cab is open on the front and back. I have a small fan I've kept on the plants and lights for a few hours a day and that seems to be working well for now.


Humidity is something I've been having problems with. Its pretty dry here so I've had keep a close eye on that. I first added a few small tupperware containers with aqaurium gravel and water in them, (you can see one of them in pic 3) I had hoped it would evaporate enough to raise the humidity a bit, but it only went up about 4% overall, so that wasn't gonna cut it.

I got a small 1.2 gallon humidifier tonight. I put the humidifier a few feet away from the cab and about an hour later the humidity went up quite a bit. Sitting at 45% right now.


I'm still thinking about what to use for a main light for flowering.
I will most likely order a 200-400 watt HPS for that, but heat issues worry me.
Especially since I'm trying not to spend a whole lot on my setup. I may just rig up a large lightboard and use 6-8 cfl's in it, but after seeing other grows here I'm sure I would have better luck with the HPS for flowering.


Anybody have any recommendations for a fairly cheap HPS that wont skyrocket my temps up ? I've seen the cool-tube systems, but they are quite pricey.

Could anybody tell me how much a 200-400 watt HPS will raise my temps?


Any advice is greatly appreciated