First time grower. Cfl setup. Learn from rollitup!

StealthySteve

Well-Known Member
Day 1

Hi there everybody, i would like to start by saying thank you for taking an interest in my grow! Today i woke up and my seeds i germinated 2 days ago cracked and had about 1/4" of root exposed, so i rushed to the local home depot and got the required materials to build my light fixture (3 2700k 42w cfl, 3 porcelin light sockets, a wooden plank around 4' x 1', 3 extension cords, and some screws), grabbed some planters and i was good to go. came home built my light, wired up the sockets, and hung the lights. also i grabbed some aluminum foil and carefully stapled on pretty much everything the light hit, its only temporary i will switch it to mylar later as well as add more lights. Then I put my soil in the planters (80% fox farms ocean forest 20% perlite) put some water in my dirt (not to much) and planted my little seedlings. all i can do now is wait :-)

open for comment or suggestions!


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SamWaterstone

Active Member
Simple yet Sweet Setup. I;m a first time grower and i sometimes think i should have taken this route in the first place; instead of spending about $1,000 bucks for a sweet grow closet when being a novice grower. But o well.

How big are your pots? What kind of nutrients are you going to be using? Source of Water? Do you think the Fox Farms soil is good for starting off a seedling? I got me some Roots Organics 707 and was told it was too hot in nutrients for young seedlings, so i grew mine in Rapid Rooters.

Good Luck!
 

TechN9ne

New Member
Welcome!! Glad you're here.


Do you have a fan? Or ventilation?
Red spec(2700k) is for flower. You Sir, need blue.

Fox farms is good^^ just don't give them any extra food intill they get a decent size.
And... Forget the Mylar. When you expand and replace, get Panda Film

Other then that. Props man. Good job
 

StealthySteve

Well-Known Member
thanks for the compliments! ill be using the BMO nutes but not untill the plant starts showing signs that it needs them...i know this FFOF is packed with nutes, but ive heard other people having success with seedlings in it so i figured i would be alright. water source will be tap left out for at least 24 hours.. there is a fan if you look in the third picture you can see it poking out behind the foil...its just a box fan i stuffed into the back of the closet. also i know that the red is for flower but unfortunately i went to 2x home depot's, a lowes, and a wal-mart and all 4 of them only had red lights, i know its not as good but ive heard of others having success with 2700k...i will order some 6500k but i feel these should work until they get here. at which point ill probably just split each socket and add them as oppose to replacing the red lights. thanks for input!
 

StealthySteve

Well-Known Member
Thanks! ive done quite a bit of extensive research before i started this venture...I was trying to minimize mistakes on my first grow, didnt want to just jump in and make the easily avoidable mistakes that are common by first time growers... im sure i will hit some kind of snag though as im sure its unavoidable my first time, at which point i will certainly be posting about it...probably frantically :-)
 

StealthySteve

Well-Known Member
day 3

The seedlings have sprouted up out of the soil. i can already clearly see a rigid pair of leaves growing out from in between the embryonic leaves. misted the soil lightly and walked away. i will take some pics in a few days when they are a little more substantial.
 

StealthySteve

Well-Known Member
Day 11

got some healthy looking seedlings. ive been watering only by misting with a spray bottle but the soil was dry so i gave them a drink today. The puny one is the late bloomer it sprouted about 3 days later than the other 2. i added a couple more lights but i didnt have a card to order more so i just got 3 more 42 watt 2700k and i stole a blue a small blue light out of my kitchen.(i assume about 13 watts and 6500k lol). i ordered the BMO flowering nutes, i decided to only get flowering because i think the FFOF has enough in it to make it through veg. growth has been slow untill about 2 days ago so im hoping its really going to spurt now. ill keep the thread updated. leave some comments or questions, let me know what you think!

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Miss.Rabbit

Active Member
Day 11

got some healthy looking seedlings. ive been watering only by misting with a spray bottle but the soil was dry so i gave them a drink today. The puny one is the late bloomer it sprouted about 3 days later than the other 2. i added a couple more lights but i didnt have a card to order more so i just got 3 more 42 watt 2700k and i stole a blue a small blue light out of my kitchen.(i assume about 13 watts and 6500k lol). i ordered the BMO flowering nutes, i decided to only get flowering because i think the FFOF has enough in it to make it through veg. growth has been slow untill about 2 days ago so im hoping its really going to spurt now. ill keep the thread updated. leave some comments or questions, let me know what you think!

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looking good man! It's crazy no-one around carries a 6400k cfl! Is there by chance a Hydro store around? I picked up 2 125watt 6400k cfls for a a really reasonable price and some preciously owned hoods and I was in business! They'll grow under what you have ofcorse but will probably be stretchy... Maybe you could pick up a prepaid visa from walmart? lol just some suggestions! keep up the good work! I love seeing people do their research :)
 

StealthySteve

Well-Known Member
there is a hydro store around but they want over 80$ for a 100 watt light.. that just seems insane to me.. i will look into a prepaid card from wal-mart it may be my best option.
 

StealthySteve

Well-Known Member
got some decent grow in the last couple days, they're surprisingly bushy considering i only have 2400k lights. the little one seems to be dropping (maybe too much water?) and on one of the other plants the leaves are canoeing. no major problems. i have bent the 2 larger plants down and ive heard i should prune the leaves/shoots that are pointing at or are laying in the dirt, but as a new grower im reluctant to do any serious plant surgery, but if it has to be done i will. im considering training the main shoot to grow around the perimeter of pot. Im up for suggestions on how i should train these. keep in mind im using cfl's so i need to keep the canopy as even as possible. let me know what you think!
 

Comatoke

Active Member
looking good my mane!

my grow is on day 12ish im not sure right now, too high. lol

it's not my first grow, but iv'e had many cfl grows, and you sir are off to a decent start.

learn as much as you can. even veteran growers learn everyday.

GL and keep us posted!

EDIT: what kind of seeds?
 

StealthySteve

Well-Known Member
been a while since ive updated ive been busy, but i had a minute so i thought id throw in a quick update. i stopped veg and went 12/12 after exactly 30 days. my plants have been in 12/12 for 21 days now. you may notice i have 1 less plant, i suspected the one i topped of being a male so i burned it to be safe. now they are 20" tall of so and been growing pretty good... vertical growth is just starting to slow and the buds look small but good.. also starting to get some dank smells off of them. been feeding them with BMO flower power and im still rolling with the same 6 42watt 2700k cfls. everything looks good and seems to be going nicely...i just hope my buds start to fatten up soon. ive pretty much stopped any kind of training since i switched the lights and let them run their natural course. leave some thoughts/suggestions/comments. ill update again in a couple weeks.
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