So here is my stealth cfl grow (not enough of those are there?). I plan to update this with pictures every couple days. Constructive criticism is appreciated but dont be an ass about it. If you have a suggestion say it politely, and if you dont like what I'm doing then dont follow my journal.

My setup:

About a 3.5x1x2 ft area under/behind my bed. Walls were first covered with the dull side of tin foil but that was causing hot spots so now they are covered with shiny wrapping paper (thin mylar?), the white side of wrapping paper, and still some tin foil on the top. There is a fan in there blowing straight at the lights and slightly at the plants that is on when the lights are on. There is also a vapor thing to increase humidity when I need it. There are two computer fans that are for exhaust and one for intake. The two top ones come on when the lights go on and the bottom exhaust one stays on 24/7. They blow out into an area under the bed and when I'm home that area is more open since I can move my bed over and expose it. There's also a window right there that I keep open to try and keep the outside air pretty cool. Oh and there are 2 26 watt cool cfls, 2 40 watt soft white, and 1 42 watt warm cfl. I know cools are better for veg'in but I didnt plan to veg that long. Temps typically range anywhere from 63-70 degrees with the lights off to 80-95 with the lights on. And humidity is pretty low, anywhere from 15-45%.

The plants:

I started with ten bagseed (some may have been hermie seeds ah!), put them in a cup of water for 2 hours, then in a wet paper that was inside of a ziploc bag in front of a vent so that temps. would stay warm. 9/10 germinated and were planted within a few days of each other. They were planted in a mix of about 40% fox farm ocean forest, 30% of some cheap mix that has little branches and crap in it, and 30% perlite. One never sprouted bc the soil was too dry and another was really thin and purple and just looked dead so I tossed it. So I was left with 7 sprouts. I kept them on a 24/0 light schedule. Five days ago they were transplanted into the new container and switched to a 18/6 schedule. It is just one long pot with cut out plastic pieces separating each section. The soil is the same mix but I added some dolomite lime to it. There are plenty of holes drilled in the bottom for drainage, and the perlite should also help. I packed the soil a little too hard though so the bottom is staying pretty moist while only the top 1-2 inches has dried out. I plan on watering them every 5-7 days while spraying the plant and the top of the soil with water every day (it dries out everyday but past the top the soil is still moist). Oh and I water with tap water that has sat out for over a day. I dont have any ph stuff yet to test the soil or water.

mistakes/problems so far:

First, the tin foil was a bad idea. In combination with the tin foil and hot ass temps, two of my plants got burnt. As of now they are both still alive but the leaves that got burnt turned yellow and black on the edges (after a night of extreme temps). All the leaves above the injured ones seem to be doing fine other than some very slght yellowing on the tips. I believe those plants also are a little over-nute'd since I made the mistake of trying to introduce a little bit of fox farm's "grow big" too early. I haven't given any of them extra nutes since then. The main problem I'm having now is controlling the temp. When I'm not home I have to push my bed back and it gets pretty hot.. There have been multiple times when the high temp. has read 98-102.. but my plants are still pushing along. Since they are so heat stressed they have been growing quite slowly. There also isn't a high enough humidity level most of the time. I wouldnt be suprised if I got a bunch of hermies..

Pics of the setup:






: peace:

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Disclaimer: I like to smoke weed.

The plants as of now are about 9-12 days from sprout (i think..). They are growing pretty slowly but recently have been speeding it up a little bit. There's 7 total. Some of the pics make the leaves seem more yellow than they are





the smallest one: (but also 3 days behind some of them)


this one has one deformed leaf (probably from heat) that started to yellow and I just snipped off the tip and the rest has been growing fine:


an injured plant:
the two first leaves were just yellow the other day but then after a night of 100 degree temps they turned yellow/brown/and black. these three pics are the same plant




another injured one:
i clipped the leaves on this one too. I know people say to leave them alone but my other plant seemed to be fine after I did it. And I think it helped the leaves a little from dying more like the one above ^^

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Disclaimer: I like to smoke weed.

Oh yeah, and I only plan on keeping these in veg for another week or two maybe depending on how fast they grow. I want to keep them really small. Im not concerned about yield at all so dont tell me about how im going to get nothing. This is really only a practice grow and the space was more made to be able to start some outdoor plants inside. Oh and the males will just be removed when I find them and then soil will be added to make the plants next to the old male plant have more space. I'm hoping the two injured plants are male since theyre injured.. and they also are the biggest so far.

Any questions?!

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Disclaimer: I like to smoke weed.

update! i watered about 5 days ago, but just sprayed the top of the soil and the plants with some water about 30 min ago. Temps. have been better after i learned that its better to have larger intake fans than exhaust but I wasn't home last night and the temps. got pretty high (100..). My plants are troopers.. Anyway, one more plant is added to the heat stress victims group with yellow/browning bottom leaves. The biggest plant (also the one that had the most damage) has some more heat stress damage on the second set of leaves. This one's nodes are the most spread out too so I'm thinking it will be male. They're about 14-16? days from sprout, maybe a little younger. They're still growing quite slowly but better than they were. I'm thinking sometime in the next week im going to put these in flower. I'm looking for results you would get from a seed-flower grow but I just veg'ed longer bc of the high temps-->slow growth. Plus I only want them to be about 12-16 inches tall. So here are the pics:


This plant has been growing without any symmetry (if you look at the leaves closely). I wonder if its from the heat..



the two bottom leaves are heat stressed on this plant and i think the other tips are slightly heat stressed too (they just showed up last night after the high temps so i dont think its nute burn), unless someone knows what else it could be:




third plant:



fourth plant, bottom leaves still hurt from before:



#5: the big but not as healthy, hopefully just male, plant.




6th: the baby



7th: I think a little heat stressed on one leaf that is usually the closest to the light.

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Disclaimer: I like to smoke weed.

if you want them small i'd put them on 12/12 soon, they grow up to 30% during flowering, and Id get 2 of those cfls per plant and separate pots. looks like a pretty cool setup bro. im a big fan of compact/micro grows

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Grow 3 Anything I say is fictional or theoretical. All pics posted by me are stolen from the web or are very good fakes.

yeah, as soon as I pick up a better timer this week im going to switch over to flowering. They dont really need separate pots, the plastic pieces seperate each and so they are essentially separate. And i have more lights that im going to add after i solve the heat problem.

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Disclaimer: I like to smoke weed.

So last night (new years eve), I completely forgot to give my plants some air and had my bed all closed up all night and i read the high temp. in the morning and it said 111 degrees!! And I was like SHIT, but then I looked at the plants and they grew so much since yesterday and they all doubled their size almost. I'm wondering if it's because they thought they were dying or something haha. But some also had new signs of heat stress. Anyway, after about 2 weeks or so of veg'ing, I switched them over to 12/12. Day 1 of flowering!

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Disclaimer: I like to smoke weed.

dude your gonna wake up as a fucking beef teriaki. wow man

hahahah...

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Disclaimer: I like to smoke weed.

Hey man, cool setup.

For the heat problem, if you have any space, put little cups or bowls of cold water and remember to add a fresh piece of ice everyday. Hopefully you are measuring your humidity, but I find it helps me regulate both humidity (always too dry in my room) and offsets the heat produced by my HPS (although, I use bags of ice... in ur microsetup, u'll probably only need a few cubes)

Anyway best of luck I will keep watching! Micro grow all the way - I could never get it to work.