Fluro Cabinet Grow

[DudeWheresMyPlant]

Tuesday, 10/24/06
It is the first day, I had placed 20 seeds in a paper towel setup to germinate night before last. As of today 14 have shown taproots and been placed in Parkâ??s Bio Dome plugs (Bio Dome found at www.parksseed.com). 10 days ago I placed 6 seeds directly in the Bio Dome to germinate, only 2 came up, though these are bag seeds and I expect nothing more than just a few anyway. The two from last week are about 1â?� and 1 ½â?� tall. The taller one has itsâ?? second set of leaves and is looking quite healthy, the other got a shock on Sunday when the fan fell on it but is recovering nicely. I am using spring type compact fluorescent lighting, 2 150w and 2 100w bulbs. I will soon be getting 2 more of the 150w bulbs, giving me a total of 800w or around 9200 lumens in a 4.5-sq. ft. box. This should be pretty good for fluorescents. Below are the Bio Dome tray and inserts without the dome, and the grow box.
The grow box. You see here the lighting, though the way they are set up will be changed to where they are vertical for more direct lighting. Also there is an aquarium pump that is working in a bowl of water in the back to raise humidity, which is working a little. Humidity is staying around 40-50%. I would like to improve on this, but am unsure how. There is also a digital thermometer with high and low recording.
I will be painting the inside of the box this weekend in hopes of dropping the temperature a little more, it is staying around 85 to 93with the door open. With the door closed the temp rises to around 107 but the humidity rises sufficiently. I bought a can of flat white bathroom paint that has fungicides and mold reducers, this should cut down on those problems. I think the aluminum foil that it is lined with right now could be contributing to my heat problem. I would like to find some 2-color plastic sheeting, white on one side and black on the other for the bottom in case of spills.
I will also be purchasing some ceramic light fixtures this weekend to hang the lights vertically. I will be making some reflectors out of 1/8-in. panels and aluminum foil for more light focus. This will concentrate the light more where it is needed, whereas right now with the horizontal fixtures it is all spread out and not working too efficiently. I should notice a large increase in growth and internodal spacing. I am expecting about 2 oz of finished product if half are female. I plan to seed at least 2 females for future growing and eventually breeding for better quality. My next grow will be a perpetual harvest setup. I am planning a new grow box that will be larger, with better ventilation and cooling. It will have 4 chambers for seedlings, clones, mother and flowering. I will be using fluroâ??s again, totaling 1000w in the veg, and also in the flowering compartment. The seedling area will receive 500w and the clone compartment will receive 300w. I will be using the SOG method from then on. I donâ??t have access to clones or seeds of high quality plants here in NoFuckinWhere, Texas, so I am using lower quality seeded schwag. I grew one plant from these same seeds last year and it was much better quality than the smoke that it came from, considering it was sensi and was taken better care of. This will be my sonsâ?? first grow, and I am proud that he is doing it with me. He is not much of a smoker, but he does occasionally and asked me if I would grow with him. Nice huh?
I am not feeding much right now, until all seedlings are a couple of inches tall. I have added a B1 formula and SuperThrive to the water along with a few drops of 6-6-6 Algoflash fertilizer. This fertilizer contains micronutrients and has worked very well for me in the past. Combined with the SuperThrive and B1 supplement plant growth is amazing even under fluorescent lighting. I need a little help with the cloning process, because my success rates havenâ??t been very high in the past. I use a cloning powder, not sure of the name because the label is missing, and floral foam. My next attempt I will try in the Bio-Dome which is supposed to increase success rates because of the humidity dome and the fact that the plugs only absorb the necessary water. The Bio-Dome works wonders with good seed, giving a 90 to 100% success rate most often. I plan on purchasing some Oliviaâ??s gel to take the place of the powder and some Rootone.

DudeWheresMyPlant Reviewed by DudeWheresMyPlant on 10-25-2006. Fluro Cabinet Grow Tuesday, 10/24/06 It is the first day, I had placed 20 seeds in a paper towel setup to germinate night before last. As of today 14 have shown taproots and been placed in Parkâ??s Bio Dome plugs (Bio Dome found at www.parksseed.com). 10 days ago I placed 6 seeds directly in the Bio Dome to germinate, only 2 came up, though these are bag seeds and I expect nothing more than just a few anyway. The two from last week are about 1â?� and 1 ½â?� tall. The taller one has itsâ?? second set of leaves Rating: 5

[BlueBear]

First and mainly, your temps are two high, you'll end up with a bunch of hermies, and also, why does every newb's fan fall on their plants?
Well I'm not knocking you, I wish you the best of luck, but first you need to get the temps down to at least the 80's IMO and the foil replacement will not change the heat too much if any. What are the room temps?
Adieu

[brookerosebud]

you need an exhaust, and cool intake system, maybe even a passive air flow...
but bear is right, you need to get those temps under control. (70-75 is perfect)

love, brooke

lol, my fan fell too. it just didn't fall ON the plants. whew.

[DudeWheresMyPlant]

The room temp is in the 70's, and stays that way. I have a large box fan blowing air into the box, and a small box fan(the one that fell..lol) hanging from the roof of the box blowing out. I'm recording low's around 82 at night but that is it. I have found a small fan and some dryer duct, so since it is cooling off outside I may try and run it out of the window for a little cooler fresh air and see what kind of temps I get. Maybe I will get lucky. I am working on plans for a different cabinet that I should be building within a couple of weeks that will be a lot better cooling wise and will have more chambers for all stages of growth. Thanks for the advice ya'll!

[TheGreenFog]

The room temp is in the 70's, and stays that way. I have a large box fan blowing air into the box, and a small box fan(the one that fell..lol) hanging from the roof of the box blowing out. I'm recording low's around 82 at night but that is it. I have found a small fan and some dryer duct, so since it is cooling off outside I may try and run it out of the window for a little cooler fresh air and see what kind of temps I get. Maybe I will get lucky. I am working on plans for a different cabinet that I should be building within a couple of weeks that will be a lot better cooling wise and will have more chambers for all stages of growth. Thanks for the advice ya'll!

What??


Well, hope you get your ventilation problems in check.

G'luck

TGF

[BlueBear]

You know last night when I read your post I just skimmed it. Let me start off by saying that it sounds like you have done allot of work/research and I do commend you. Super Thrive, cloning gel and so on are good things. Let me know a couple of things before I try to give you some more advice, what does your spending limit look like? With about $100 to $150 you should be able to nock out those heat problems, you can spend less, but will have to probably be a little more experimental. Second question, is there a garden store around you that sales name brand equipment like Dayton, Vortex or Hydro farm?
When your ready to clone just ask and we will help.
Adieu

[DudeWheresMyPlant]

Hey Blue, well yeah I guess I have done a little homework. I grew a few plants before outdoors with great sucess and a couple indoors under tube fluros with decent results. This time I hope to get better results using the compacts considering their output and the ability to focus more light where I need it. I went today and bought a couple exhaust fans, a 70cfm outlet and a 50cfm fresh air. I also picked up a few more lights and some new sockets for a more vertical position. I got 2 more of the 42w for veg and 4 23w bulbs for cloning when the time comes. As for a garden store nearby, all we have is Home Depot (where I got everything this morning) and some mom and pop nurseries, no actual supply stores. ( I am going to wire up the lights here in a minute and look at layout how I am going to mount the fans. I found a small squirell cage fan at my brothers that he said I could have, though if it works I dunno, it has been outside in the weather and is possibly full of nasties. Well gotta run for now, bedtime soon gotta work tonight. TTYL

[invision]

thats a whole lot of floro's there it would be cheaper to run a 250watt hps and gain over triple the lumens but heat again would be a issue just a thought for ya.

[DudeWheresMyPlant]

True, but for now it's the cheapest and most easily attainable. I looked at some HPS flood lamps 150w at home Depot and they are still a little over my budget after meds and bills... would be lovely though

[invision]

home depot is the last place you should buy HPS i bought both my 150's shipped to my door for 62.00 thats the cost of about 5-6 decent CFL's if you have a credit card and about 35.00 to spare ill hook you up.

19.00 plus 5.95 for a bulb

http://www.e-conolight.com/Product/E...umber=E-BLH151