High all,

After reading endless threads on why not to do CFLs, I went with them anyway. Call me a rebel. Granted, I went with them excessively. Pictures will follow soon, but here is my setup. There are a couple of questions at the end I hope someone will be able to answer.

My grow box is built from a large storage bin (36x18x24). Quite proud of it actually. Air intake on the side at the top with a 40 CFM silent fan, and an exhaust at the bottom with a 35 CFM fan. A fan in the middle providing air flow to them stems. It is almost completely silent, produces almost no external light or heat, and looks like a normal storage bin sitting in the closet.

I started with 5 24" 18 watt grow lights, with 2 on the sides and 3 on the top. This worked fine for seedlings, but as you can imagine, was simply not enough light for growth. At about 3 weeks I added 10 26 watt CFLs (6500K) to the top. Huge amount of light for this small of space and the plants responded. They are growing strong, thick and amazing. I run a 18/6 schedule and the box stays at 86-89f and about 50% humidity during "on" hours.

I am at about 5 weeks now. The box is almost full of vegetation. The growth has reached the lights and I am about to add a box under the current one to allow for more growth. I am looking forward to flowering to cut down the number of plants. The place is packed out right now.

I am about to switch to flowering and will replace the 6500k CFLs with 2700ks. I am also considering adding 6 additional CFLs for the sides (3 on each side). I may use the 6500k for the sides to save a little money.

I have two questions with which I am hoping someone can help:

o The plants are currently about 10" high and very full. How high must they grow before I switch to flowering? If I switch now, what will I lose in yields as opposed to waiting until they are 18"?

o I have a total of 10 plants in two long window boxes. They sit down inside the bottom of the container. This has worked very well at this size, but I am sure I will want more room for root growth in the flowering stage. Do you see any drawback to them all (5 plants, assuming 50/50 m vs f) being in one very large box? Will the roots from each plant restrict each other? What is the safe distance between them? Using just one box will allow for more room for root growth as opposed to 5 smaller ones.

I must say, the solution I have put together for a closet semi-stealth grow has worked very well so far. More than a little paranoid about being busted, especially after smoking. However, I have had a bunch of fun. Waking up in the morning when the lights come on and the cooling fan starts pushing that sweet smell from the closet to the bedroom is grand experience. Thank you for your replies and happy gardening.

-ngtybear

a. you can switch into flowering now if you like... You cant really tell how much your 'losing' by not waiting till the plant get 18"..obviously you will loose some but theres no sure fire way to tell how much exactly, you'd just have to take a gamble..I've heard of a plant increasing anywhere from a foot to almost triple the size during flowering...so you never know until its time..also, you can revert back to veg during flowering, but it may cause a slight stunt in the growth but thats an option...

b. of course your goiing to be affected by the plants not having their own individual pots..i've seen cases where it actually killed a plant bcuz it wasnt in its own pot, ...the roots could get tangled, or it may cause an early root bound- meaning the plant has reached its limits of root growth and thats potentially disasterous for the plants...and transplanting is gonna be a nightmare down the road..

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Spittn4cash, thank you for the reply. I thought more would be interested. I guess not. Maybe because nothing is actually broken.

I have a similar sized setup as you..what I do is grow by the "dutch" method where you put the plants into 12/12 as soon as they sprout (if using clones,as soon as they are established)...what this does is make each plant around 24" tall and all bud without excess leaves..it works very well.. from seedling to harvest in about 10 weeks...the yield per plant is less but you can fit more of them in a given space,AND grow times are much shorter....here's a quote from the guy...
The Dutch guy who wrote this has 32 years experience as a grower!

Sometimes I can’t understand that growers still stick to old growing techniques.

One of these old growing techniques is to work with cuttings. With those cuttings you have to rely on what the market has to offer you.
Apart from that, you have to ask yourself if you really got what they told you they should give.
Also you often get spider mites and/or thrips for free.
And on top of that the price of cuttings has gone up dramatically over the last years.
And then…….. you have to hope they “catch on” immediately.
Most of the time this is not the case and you see them “catch on” only after about a week to 10 days.
Years ago I wrote: we are returning to seed culture instead of cuttings.
And see… I’ve seen signs left and right that I was telling the truth back then.

GO AND WORK WITH SEED!
It’s cheaper, easier, anonymous and legal, no more waiting and carrying around suspicious wet boxes, no more spider mite/thrips. Your growing rooms don’t stay empty unnessarily, and for sure you harvest more than from cuttings. And if you do it right, you can harvest 7x a year, etc, etc, etc.

How?

Just by using the tricks of Mother Nature!
Assume that seed in cold ground needs 5 to 10 weeks before it chooses its sex.
With 12 hours of light you can force them to choose there sex right away.
Mount a preferably in height-adjustable light fixture with 4-5 fluorescent lights over your seedlings in your flowering room.
The best fluorescent lights are 3x Philips cool white 33 ( NOT "deluxe") and 2x Philips 83 or 84 !
Your “lighting store” knows exactly what you mean and they are not expensive.
Have the tubes run on the same 12 hours as your flowering space by using a timer.
This way you prevent bad light and getting herma`s.
Use pots size 9x9 cm or 10x10 cm in which you put 1 seed.
To read how to germinate your seed follow >THIS< link.
Sow 3 seeds for every 2 females you need, 20 days before you harvest. Use good sowing/cutting soil with clay in it!
Be sure your medium isn’t overfed. An EC of 0.5-0.7 is ok, and in this figure I include the ballast from the tapwater.

With the fluorescent lights right above their heads you’ll be amazed how well the seedlings will develop on 12/12 hours….. and directly choose to be male or female.
That’s why you can weed out the males on the 16-17th day. After 20 days even the biggest noob can recognize the males and get them out.

Don’t be afraid of pollination… females are always receptive a bit later than the males to release their pollen. In the worst case there can grow just one seed in a node of the plant through pollination of a female that chose sex.
They always show their sex in the node by creating one female flower. (Apparently there is a reason for this)
After you have harvested your flowering room… you can put the female seedlings right from under the fluorescents into the 12/12 flowering regi me the same day, so you don’t lose any time.
Because the new “batch” of females are already flowering for 2,5 weeks… you only have 7 weeks to go to your next harvest!
In the meantime (20 days before harvesting) you have again sown seeds and the process repeats.
The result: You get more compact plants without all the lateral branches that take lots of space, take away light and cause a lot of cutting work.
A seedling which is put on 12/12 straight away will only make one big bud of 50-70 cm without lateral branches.
SO…you can put more plants on a square meter because they don’t stand in each others way!
If you start realizing that 85% of the weight comes from the main bud… you’ll understand this system and will seriously consider using it.
Bigger growers can always make a deal about the price of the seed. (Think about that)

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I don't know the same things you don't know
Vlad the Inhaler/Scientist/Astronaut/general fuckup

Well whilst reading that i was very impressed until i got to the bit wgere it says A 50-70cm bud? Do you know how big the plant grows?

50-70cm just seems to big to be true, i mean if this is true then surley 70% of people would do it?

Not disagreeing, just questioning

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if this post made your inner child giggle...rep me
Weed Isn't An Addiction - Its A Hobby

Are you using CFLs to flower?

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If you didn't care what happened to me, and I didn't care for you, we would zig-zag away through the bordom and pain, occasionally glancing up through the rain, wondering which of the brothers to blame, and watching the pigs on the wing.

- Pink Floyd

Yes cfls to flower. Also this method forces the plant to choose a sex right away and somehow the seed is "encouraged" to be female (80% success rate)...also since you basically have one bud growing out of each pot,its much easier for light to penetrate to the bud without having to make its way thru a lot of fan leaves....so less light is needed.
Ya man buds 12-16" long!!

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I don't know the same things you don't know
Vlad the Inhaler/Scientist/Astronaut/general fuckup

Yeah i im also very intrested, one fatt bud huh yeach im def. im going to think of that for my next stealth gro, so you switch right when the seed sprouts or through the very begining to end??

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"The creative mind plays with the object it loves." - Carl Jung

ALOT of people do this, mostly SCROG, and SOG growers....and alot of actual successful growers use SCROG or SOG. Except they do it from clone...but it will be kind of the same with a seedling.

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im gonna try this method on some mids that just sprouted so if it comes out not so good its no big deal,i heard of this bfore but now ill put it to the test for myself,see how it goes.