I've never really used forums before but recently I started researching ways of growing that are fast, compact and cost-effective. This forum helped me a lot, so I figured it would be a good place to document my entire process, since what I am going to do isn't all that common and there aren't many examples of it to be found.

Plan:
over eight weeks, producuce a continuous cycle of
FOUR plants to harvst from the eigth week. Rolling
grow. SOG (Sea of Green).

"Sea of Green (SOG) is the theory of harvesting lots
of small plants, matured early to get the fastest
production of buds available. Instead of growing a
few plants for a longer period of time, in the same
space many smaller plants are grown that mature faster
and in less time. Thus, less time is required between
crops. This is important to you when the electricity
bill comes each month. One crop can be started while
another is maturing, and a continuous harvest, year
round can be maintained. 4 plants per square foot will
be a good start for seedlings. 1 plant per square foot
will allow plenty of room for each plant to grow a large
top cola, but will not allow for much bottom branching.
This is OK since indoors, these bottom branches are
always shaded anyway, and will not grow very well unless
given additional light and space."

I have a space of about six cubic feet that I have designated to this project. I've never grown before (aside from a few half-assed plants on the windowsill that obviously didn't make it) but my hours and hours of research have allowed me to develop a system that I think will work out ok to begin with.
I intend to use ONLY compact fluorescents and I plan on starting the 12/12 cycle by two weeks of age. The seedlings will sprout in my kitchen, in good sunlight, supplemented if necessary. From there, they will be moved to a custom built growing chamber, starting off under two blue fluoro's until six weeks old, then moving to one blue-one red for two weeks, then two red.

This system is set up for convenience and deliberately designed to remove as many variables as possible. Here's a rough diagram:


So far I have the frame set up but I still need to attach the lights. I discovered a way (here: Grow Marijuana FAQ, Cannabis cultivation - marijuana growing tips & photos) of taking the appropriate bulbs apart, thereby allowing me to string them all onto one power cable. The one thing I'm not certain of is whether to do that in series or parallel. I know very little about this kind of thing but I know that in a series circuit, which I was originally considering, the bulbs will get progressively dimmer and since I will have eight of them I would much rather use a parallel circuit. What I would like to know though is if standard mains cable (European 240v) and whatever else might be affected could handle all eight 50watt bulbs in parallel. I'd be grateful if someone could let me know.

The seeds will arrive on Monday (it's Friday night now) and they will germinate in jiffy pots, using a planting medium of regular, NPK enriched soil mixed with perlite. I haven't decided what I'm going to do about fertilizer yet but I have on hand a bunch of old coffee, which I have read is a good source of nitrogen. I will probably buy something suitable along the way but for now I assume the soil is enough. I won't be growing for too long.

Ok, so this is my first post. I have until monday to gather up all your advice/comments/suggestions if you have any. Please don't hold back. I have a good feeling about this. I'll update with photos and problems etc as they come up.

P.S. The diagram isn't working. I've tried to attach it.. any ideas?

Firstly, Here is the pic from the first post that didn't work:



The seeds arrived today, rather than yesterday. No problem. I have a selection of Skunk seeds (5), five Snow White and ten miscellaneous. I prefer Sativa to Indica, although I'm not usually a fan of skunk (often too strong) so I decided to use the lucky dip and germinate three seeds, hoping for one female. I'll probably keep a male and label it, in case I decide I want some more seeds from this strain, as I will with each different plant I grow. [edit: Thinking about it, if they're mixed seeds this doesn't make sense. The best I'm likely to get is some unknown hybrid. I'll probably only do that with the known strains]

I used the paper towel method: "Presoaking - Put some moist tissues on a plate. Put the seeds on top of them and then put a layer of moist tissues on the seeds. Cover the plate with another upturned plate, so that the seeds are in darkness and the environment remains moist. Put the covered seeds in a warm place (21°C). Update for paper towel method: germinating marijuana easy and successful. Check the seeds every day, sprinkle the tissues if necessary and carefully transplant the seeds when they open and the tip of the root becomes visible. Put the seed in a growth medium (soil or rock-wool), approximately the size of the seed under the surface (about 5 mm). - AmsterdamMarijuanaSeeds.info
"
. Here are some pics (I hope):




and




So that's it for stage one. I'll Update in a few days when I plant the seeds + assuming they germinate ok.

P.S. 35 views and no help with the light problem. Anyone?

[edit: I added a fourth seed to the plate. I realised I didn't want to wait two weeks or so and find I had all males]

__________________
"It's more likely than you think"

Good luck .. we always like to see pictures .. so keep them coming with your posts . I'll be following this grow

Thanks, Korvette (if that is your real name).

Three of the four seeds have germinated today. The one that hasn't is the one I added about 20 hours later, so I have planted the three and kept the fourth where it is, hoping that it will still sprout.

Here's what the seeds looked like this morning:



Planted in jiffy pots:



So that's it for now. These will stay on that windowsill for about two weeks, when I will germinate four more seeds and move these to their new home inside my 12/12 grow box (which I have yet to build). I have ordered four 65w compact fluorescents (blue) to begin with. I think they will be more than enough for the first two stages, stretching to the third if I can't find more in time. They should arrive next week and I'll set them up in a parallel circuit at one end of the chamber. I'm on the lookout for some high-wattage, red-spectrum bulbs right now, which seem to be pretty hard to find outside of the massively marked-up grow lights that seem way out of my price range. I'll throw in the fourth seed when it's ready and update as necessary.

__________________
"It's more likely than you think"

Well, it's been two weeks and my bulbs haven't arrived yet! That isn't too much of a problem, I'll keep the seedlings by the window until I can move them to the grow box. They should be here within a week. Anyway, it's about time to germinate some more seeds, so I'll probably do that tomorrow. Here are the new pictures:



(incidentally, the four pots in the front are opium poppies - way too late, I know - and in the foreground there are two mushroom casings, ready to go into the cupboard. It's quite a drugs table.)



You can see in this picture the result of a stupid decision to leave the seedlings out on the balcony in an attempt to give them some more sun. The light breeze was two much for the taller ones, and they almost snapped. Luckily, they'll be fine, just a little bent to begin with. This should sort itself out when they reach the veg. stage.



I'm not so confident about seedling No. 3. From the moment it popped through the surface it seemed to just sit there. It hasn't grown an inch since about the third day of planting. Does anyone know why this is? Also, is it worth keeping? I don't know if it'll ever recover. It's certainly not dead, it just isn't moving. I guess I'll wait and see.

Finally, something I forgot to mention at the beginning. About a week before germination, I emptied out an old coffee filter into the soil mix and spread it around with a lot of water, giving it time to dilute and dissolve its acidity before planting. This was an idea I had to add some nitrogen, which I'm not sure was necessary, to the plants. Since the plants will only be about eight weeks old at harvest, I figure they won't need many doses of nutrients and to be honest that's a part of the growing process I'm not very sure of so perhaps people can give me some advice on that too.

Once I've built the growing chamber I'll update this post. I expect it will be about a week. I hope it won't be any more. I have a fluorescent strip bulb above my sink. I'm thinking of leaving the seedlings under that during the dark hours to make up for the fact my bulbs haven't arrived.

__________________
"It's more likely than you think"

I set three "Skunk Mix" seeds to germinate yesterday. No sign of life yet but that's to be expected. My three seedlings are doing well under the fluorescent lamp and have recovered from their windy experience. This post is more for my benefit than anything else, in case I forget which seeds I just germinated. So now I have three seedlings of unknown origin and three skunk seeds almost ready to plant. No pictures necessary!

P.S. I'm a little disappointed that nobody has offered any advice. Perhaps it's too early on in the process for that.
Expect an update on or around Monday when I should hopefully be planting the three seeds and building my grow box.

__________________
"It's more likely than you think"

i think advice will come if you do something wrong. looks like your doin good. gonna follow this grow..... goodluck

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I WANNA SMOKE!

Sounds like you did your homework, thats really going to help.

I'm subscribed, your looking good.

I grow SOG, I really pack'em in, sardines in a can, style.

I'd give you a REP+ but I'm REPped out, I'll hit you later.

Welcome,REP+

Thanks JR!
And TetraHyC, I have no idea what you just said but thank you too. Do you think I should squeeze any more plants into that space? How many plants do you have per sq. ft.?

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"It's more likely than you think"

click the second red link in my sig. box.