@ilikeblazin: Yeah I was being lazy...kept meaning to pick one up but then I was like "nah, I'll have the big lights in any day". I finally figured out a way to mount the new lights though so no more worries.

5/13 (Day 9):

wonderful job making that hood it looks really professional and I bet it will do a great job.. is it possibly to move the lights closer?

I hope you caught my post in the other thread you made about the two plants you got..you should be able to seperate them now without doing any harm to them. just gently dig one of them up and put it in its own pot, then you should be fine.

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thats a cool little setup you got for the lights

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My Afghani x Big Bud Grow Journal

@Spittn4cash: Thanks on both points bro. I lowered the lights and split the other two plants into separate pots. I made deeper holes for them and buried about half an inch of the stems so they don't fall over. They are the two on the far left in this pic:



Here are some shots that show the three new guys I just put in:

Its been 48 hours since I hooked up my new lights. Picture from Sunday is on the left, Tuesday on the right:



Note: The two on the left sprouted a couple days later than the other four. I also had to transplant them into separate pots so I'm glad they're doing ok.

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1st Grow - Closet w/ CFLs

Hey man, that is looking really great. I love the hood rig you set up, looks like it will work perfectly. Question: Are you planning on doing the entire grow indoors, right up until harvest?

alex9009: Thanks for the kind words. My plan is to do this 100% indoors, but I'm not ruling out transplanting one or two outside down the road. I will probably remove the middle shelf from my setup once the plants are taller and cram.

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1st Grow - Closet w/ CFLs

What are you like a electrician?

Props on the grow closet! Your instructions are awesome! I'm hoping I can learn from what you did and convert a spare closet into a similar setup.

Are you using seeds from an old batch? Any more details on how you did the wiring would be cool.

Happy growing!

wipemedown: No, lol...far from it.

bchbum: Thanks bro, the seeds are from a bag I picked up last month. I wanted to get my feet wet with a low-pressure grow before I start in with the good stuff next time.

The wiring is actually very simple believe it or not. First off, I highly recommend picking up a quality utility knife. Not only do they cut right through hard plastic lids, they also splice wires like butter. They can be had for around $15 at Home Depot. This is the kind I use: Amazon.com: SMART EDGE UTILITY KNIFE: Home Improvement

You will want to buy 3 of the shortest 16ga extension cords you can find. Unless you are really pressed for cash, spend the extra $1-2 and get "outdoor" cords because they are much safer. In my case I chose HUSKY brand 8-foot cords which ran me $6.47/ea.

Now bust out the utility knife and literally cut the extension cord in half about one foot from the male end. Note the length of the extension cord here:


Next you will need to carefully splice back the main cord insulation about one inch, being very careful not to splice into the insulation of the inner cords. You should then have either white & black wires exposed (if you bought an ungrounded extension cord) or most likely white, black and green wires exposed (if you bought a grounded extension cord). Because the lights only draw 65 watts they do not require a ground, so cut the green wire off back where you began splicing the insulation, then splice the white and black wires but don't go down as far:


Just match up the white & black wires from the light with the white & black wires from the extension cord and twist on the electrical caps:


(Although the caps safely overlap the exposed wires, I usually add some duct tape or electrical tape between them to be safe)

The lights should now look something like this:


Now you need to add an extension cord with three female outlets (I call them gangbang cords ). I chose a HUSKY 9-foot cord because although I'm using a closet now, I might be using a larger space in the future and thus be further away from a socket. Here is a pic after plugging the lamps into the gangbang cord:


Finally, to secure/route some of the cords I used (yellow) plastic zip ties looped between each lamp and the cords:


Hope this helps!

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1st Grow - Closet w/ CFLs