1st Grow Indoor stealth box 5 plants

Hey guys, I have read a lot here and deiced to join and show you guys what I got going.

The box (lighting and air flow)
I have a stealth box its 63" wide 23" deep 50" high. I know its not that high but its the best I got (for now!). The box is stainless steel with the inside painted white. This is my first grow and I know there is a lot more to learn. I have 8 cfl all about 24-27 watts. 2700k-5000k. I just ordered two more 5000k 100 watts each. Im hopping that this will be enough light. I have two openings 80mm at the top, both with active carbon filters. Right now one has a computer fan pushing air out and the other is just open. I plan to put an intake fan on the other one and duct it to the bottom. Other than that I have two fans one on the intake side oscillating and on the exhaust side a small fan blowing all the air from the floor up to the exhaust fan.

Plants
I have 5 plants going, I didn't keep a great log in the beginning so Im not sure exactly how old each one is. If I had to guess two were planted 2-3 weeks ago and 2 were planted 1-2 weeks ago. The last one was planted about 4 weeks ago. The last one is the worst (looks like its gonna die, i really neglected this guy from the start). They all started as seeds in miracle grow potting soil, then moved to fox farm. I got the seeds from a friend but they are supposed to be Nirvana Papaya (mango). I know one out of the 5 is a mystery.


The bad
the first 2 weeks i only used one cfl ( i thought it was enough should have done my research) The plants stretched at first but, Last week I started to read more to change my habits and upped the lights.

Pics will be up soon

I added the diy co2 this morning. some of the leaves are drooping alot any ideas?

Dont mean to keep posting but you cant edit posts lol

Im doing a 18/6 lighting period.



any advice?
do i need more lights?
When should i go 12/12?

Topplayer said:

Dont mean to keep posting but you cant edit posts lol

Im doing a 18/6 lighting period.



any advice?
do i need more lights?
When should i go 12/12?

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lookin good! ive heard each plant needs 4-5000 lumens each? im starting one and i have 19500 lumens from 8 cfl for 3 ladies. ill keep watchin

Need some help guys. My best plant is showing brown spots on the lower leaves? Two of my plants leaves are drooping? and one (dont have pics) is falling, I am gonna let it and turn it into an lst attempt is that okay?

What are you watering them with?
Magnesium can cause problems like that, it can happen if you are watering with house hold water, it can be remedied by adding a little epson salt to your water. Ozone pollution can also cause spotting on leaves

I have been using house hold water, I have not watered in almost a week though (i noticed it this morning). I will try the epson salt on my next watering. Could my home made CO2 be casuing this? I added it yesterday so it kinda makes sense. Should i take it out?

Topplayer said:

I have been using house hold water, I have not watered in almost a week though (i noticed it this morning). I will try the epson salt on my next watering. Could my home made CO2 be casuing this? I added it yesterday so it kinda makes sense. Should i take it out?

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how many homemade co2 bottles are you using? i saw atleast 2 maybe 3 in your pics. maybe just do one and get a little air circulation in there. see if that helps. i have one of those in a large gatorade bottle in my basement grow and its suprising actually how much co2 is created by fermentation. ive heard too much co2 can cause spots. but ive never experienced it myself.

lol I was using 3 lol I only have one now. I put the one i have near the fan that blow all of the plants. Now I have noticed that during the day temps rise to 90 at some points. I dont know what to do! I added an intake and another fan but still not help . I need to figure a way to make it better. argggg. After class I will work on it today and post some new pics

Topplayer said:

lol I was using 3 lol I only have one now. I put the one i have near the fan that blow all of the plants. Now I have noticed that during the day temps rise to 90 at some points. I dont know what to do! I added an intake and another fan but still not help . I need to figure a way to make it better. argggg. After class I will work on it today and post some new pics

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im finding keeping temps down in small grow area is tough. mine is at 85f right now. maybe try putting a frozen water bottle in there? might help a little. the only other thing i could think of is a small a/c unit? let me know if it gets better. good luck

The side of my box is around 75-80 when the lights on, but were the plants are (right under the light) the temp goes up to 90 sometimes (avg is around 85) . I have an idea how to fix it though, I saw a diy on how to make a chiller with a tub, copper tube, water pump, and fan. Where you put cold water in the tub to cool the copper and blow air across the copper. Sounded like a good idea but then i thought that if i put a radiator inside the box connected to a tub out side the box with a water pump pumping water from the tub to the radiator in side the box. I am going to go to micro center and get computer liquid cooling supplies and rig something up this week. It may work with out the putting cold water in the outside tub, but if not i will just put a frozen water bottle in once a day. Ill post pics when its finished. Hope that made sense, im sure it will help when i get pics up.

Any way here is a pic of m plants from yesterday, After talking with easily amused I think that my pots may be too big and that the plants are not getting enough water (its been over a week since I last watered and the meter i got still says there is alot of water left in the pots) so after i took the pics i pored alittle water right near the stem of each plant.

With the size of my box does anyone have a good idea when i should start flower them?

yo topplayer,

be careful with letting to much water sit on the leaves. that can cause little burn spots from the light being magnified by the water. i would start to flower around 10 to 12 inches tall. do you have a fan circulating air around inside the box? a small ocilateing fan wuld work great. i'll be watching so hit me up i'll try to help as much as i can.

peace

good idea on that radiator chiller thing. right now 85f isnt bad. but as your plants veg an get bigger they will produce more heat and the temps may rise. watch for wilting leaves this usually a sign of too much water. but hey, your ladies are looking good! usually want to veg at 18/6 for atleast 4 weeks before going to 12/12 to flower. im going to do 4 weeks veg for my box beezys. dont want to get them too tall!! take it easy.

crazy train i have a oscillating fan, i dont want to out grow my box and have to kill everything. so if i start 12/12 at 10"-12" how high will they grow during flowering about? thanks alot for the help crazy

i feel you about the height EA hopefully ill get the chiller done today or tomorrow!

im using fox farm soil, i also got fox farm nutes should i use them too?

Topplayer said:

im using fox farm soil, i also got fox farm nutes should i use them too?

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ive had good luck with foxfarm. im using them in my hydro grow right now and hav been very happy with the results, also goin to use it for my soil grow. the clones are in f.f. ocean forrest soil right now. seem to like it. im not giving them nutes untill theyre 2 weeks. but from seed it might be different. might b able to nute them earlier than clones. if you do start light with the ppm and make sure they react ok to it.

^sounds good on my next watering i will do 1/4 the directions. I just pulled all the plants down with zip ties. gonna do alittle lst. Im hoping it will help me grow it alittle bigger . I was thinking of topping one of them but i dont know. Maybe i am doing too much for my first grow? I will post pics of the lst later today. no time to set up the cooler today, i think i will have time tomorrow!

yo

i used ff soil and found that for veg i never had to use any nutes because that stuff has so much in it already. you said your box is 50 inches tall? i would throw them into flower round 10-12 inches. expect plants to at least double or tripple in size. lst will help with this. just make sure you are able to keep the lights around 1-3 inches away fromt he plants. and start off nutes at half or quarter strength so they can get used to them

peace

if i lst should i veg when they get 10-12 inches of the whole stem or from where i stop lst and let it grow up?

Topplayer said:

if i lst should i veg when they get 10-12 inches of the whole stem or from where i stop lst and let it grow up?

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once you have lst'd a week or 2 wait for the side branches to get to the same level as the top of the plant so it is an even canopy. let em do that for 2 weeks then i would flip em into flower since you have height restrictions. i grow in a pc case so i have to lst just bout everytime lol