PC Grow + 69w CFL + Newbie first grow

Hey RIU,


Ive been reading and watching videos as much as i could and the time has finally came to start my first PC Grow.
It doesnt really have to be stealthy but i do need to keep it small.

Here is my setup.

1 x PC Case - about 16" tall
Mylar On the inside (ordered a 10 pack of emergency blankets from amazon)
Stuck on with Doublesided tape and Black Gurillia Tape with HVac Reflective Tape
3 x 12v Fans - 2 exhaust and 1 intake - thought i may just try the passive system for now.
With Two Light Traps made from Black Foam Board.
3 x 23w CFLs Daylight (6500k) - Philips Mini Twisters.
1 Digital Therometer - for Temp and Humitiy


beans picked up from the local seed bank
Atomic Haze
Blue Satelite


The only thing i am still unsure of is how to start


I think i will Germ with two methods and hopefully i have successful Germs of the beans.


Tap or Distilled water in a cup and let them soak
Paper Towel method in a takeout food container
They will sit in the Cupboard ontop of my fridge




I need to figure out my Growing Medium. I wanted to keep it as organic as possible but it doesnt seem like it would be an easy task.


I have limited space and I wont be able to keep all the bags of stuff hanging around


But I will be using Soil


Im pretty sure i am getting Dutch Treat Potting Soil with Perlite ; not sure on the mix ratio


Anyone have any suggestions on the growing medium and how I can make this work?


Stoked on getting this up and running and ready for the journey and hopefully stress free grow

Added pictures. I need to fix up those light leaks but the main box is set

maybe look in to coco ? more clean and easy to use and come close to hydro, can even be reused after a good flush

Dont forget to switch the bulbs to 2700k for flower. Also expect about 12-14g max off a plant (you only have enough light for one)

Never really thought of coco before. When you say its more like hydro. Would I have to monitor the nutes more? I was planning on having 1 plant. 2 max as I saw another users grow. I'm thinking I will either scrog or lst. Prob both.

12g isn't too bad. I guess I'm not looking for crazy yields. I want great product
But come flowering ill get the soft white equivilant

I'm not sure on how I should handle the seeds.
Sincr I have two viles I was thinking of trying 1-2 beans of both and place them in solo beer cups and wait to see whichs ones take move the best looking one into 1 gallon square pots

Nice setup up bro.
First make sure you learn as much as you can about nutes to much can be dangerous I had several grows go bad cause of it.
I have the same setup in progress right now and already had over fertilized problems so you got lots to think about.
start off with easy stuff dont want to do the mistake I did thought I was a big boy at growing lol.

As for seed methods I use the paper towel method.
I had a few problems but im getting the hang of it
Make sure once it sprouts u let the root grow a little but.

I had the urgency to put it in soil once I saw the root lol and the seed never poped haha.
Just a couple tips from my mistakes. I'm a noob too =D
Good luck bro and im subbed =D

mr.lightgr3en said:

Nice setup up bro.
First make sure you learn as much as you can about nutes to much can be dangerous I had several grows go bad cause of it.
I have the same setup in progress right now and already had over fertilized problems so you got lots to think about.
start off with easy stuff dont want to do the mistake I did thought I was a big boy at growing lol.

As for seed methods I use the paper towel method.
I had a few problems but im getting the hang of it
Make sure once it sprouts u let the root grow a little but.

I had the urgency to put it in soil once I saw the root lol and the seed never poped haha.
Just a couple tips from my mistakes. I'm a noob too =D
Good luck bro and im subbed =D

Click to expand...

Thanks lightgr3en. I sub'd to your thread and learned from it too.

As for nutes - i do want to keep them simple and limited (KISS).

After reading up on it. i think i need a rooting and then a blooming nute. Does that seem right? I wouldnt mind keeping it organic but i think that is more work than what i want to take this first go around.

Nice set bro! How long are you going veg? And why don't you use the scrog method?

I donknow how long I should veg for. Any suggestions for such a tight space? I was gonna start off with lst then scrog. I got my trillis net yesterday.2 bucks can't go wrong with that gonna get a pot and soil and I should be ready to grow.

Nice looking case. Here are a couple tips from my experience.

You won't have much vertical height so I wouldn't recommend vegging for more than a few weeks.
Use low, square pots to take advantage of the space, and a screen to tie the plants down.
If you add odor control in the future, it will reduce your fan cfm and raise temps.
PCs with cfls (the ones I've seen finish--many don't because if space/temp issues) don't yield that much. A clone box would be helpful as popping seeds adds weeks to growing time. Clones are basically ready for 12/12 when they root.

Don't overwater and over baby when they're young.

good luck!

stone604 said:

I donknow how long I should veg for. Any suggestions for such a tight space? I was gonna start off with lst then scrog. I got my trillis net yesterday.2 bucks can't go wrong with that gonna get a pot and soil and I should be ready to grow.

Click to expand...

Like *bassclef said man not more than a few weeks! Just enough so that the roots can take a standing, I'm also doing a stealth grow and I'm doing a 12/12 from seeds with a scrog because it could greatly increase your yield! And a clone box is real nice if you have the space for it! Veg your plant for 4 weeks or so, if you look @ your plant imagine it double the size when in flowering mode and you'll have an idea of the space you'll use. Hope it makes sence. Sorry fot the late reply but my laptop got stolen !

Thanks for the tip. That really sucks about your laptop!
Here is an update on the project
5/6 of them have sprouted and planted into soil. i accidently knocked over one of the pots. Hopefully i didnt ruin it.

But it took about 3-4 days for them to germ. and after 24 hours of the seeds being in a cup of water i moved them to the paper towel.
After the first day I prep'd the soil by using a water w/ grozyme solution.

Hopefully, its not too hot in there, i had to wire my intake fan as after a few hours with the pots the temp was about 82F with 32% humidity.

I also put plastic bags on top of my containers and will remove them when the first leaf set comes and i will mist the top layer of soil with distilled water.

View attachment 2487399View attachment 2487407View attachment 2487410

Quick update:

All of beans have sprouted and most of them have little leaf sets.

I took off the bag last night and let the lights do their magic. The pots seemed kind of dry or at least the top portion of the soil so i lightly misted the soil and wiping the water off the leafs.

Today i got a little bottle squirter to make it a little easier to get the water w/ grozyme near the root but not on the leafs.

I also got rectangle pot to fit the case so i wont be wasting space with individual pots.

I just wonder how many plants I can fit in there.

Question: If i wanted to keep all the plants and veg them short and flower them early will it survive/produce?


Little bean on the top left wont shake its prior home.

Its not a good Idea to put more then one plant in a pot.
They can get root bound and choke each other. I seen it done once successfully but it was only 2 plants in their.

I would like to know myself what are the chance of more the one plant in 1 pot surviving.

i was thinking that. The rectangular box is a 4L tub ; 32x17x13 cm;

i was thinking one on each end and letting the roots grow towards the middle; as i have seen with some scrogs.

It's just i don't know what to do with these 6 seedlings. I dont think i have room for another box... yet and i dont want to throw anyway if its not necessary

Do you think i would have enough time to figure out which one are females and then make a decision after that?

I think i am thinking too much but rather be safe than sorry

Yea that's exactly what im planning on doing too.
I had one seedling growing but it's growth got stunted so I grew another one now I dont want to throw one away.

6 seedlings no way man you'll run out of room. Try too keep them there. Till they are strong enough to take the sun and practice an outdoor grow.
Other then that I hate to say it but give them away I did the same mistake and ended up giving away like 9 seedlings

Just to let you know, I vegged my plant till she was 5.5 inches tall and after the 12/12 switch she super stretched into a 15 inch monster. So I suggest you keep in mind the very real possibility of the plant tripling in size, especially in such a cramped space.

Wow thanks for the tip. I have heard of the sativa stretch. I assume yours was a sativa dominate strain?

No real update. Today was my first full watering since Germ. The soil has been moist since and, like a newb, i have been watering the base of the roots with a couple of mL of water+growzyme.

Today i watered each plant til a little run off was coming out of the drainage holes. 4 plants was about 200mL or at least thats what it seemed like.


I have one plant that died and another one that wont sprout its leafs; It was the last one to germ but i thought it had the most promise since the tap root was decent size ,imo, with some 'fur' root tip.

I do have a question. I have one plant that matches the other 2 plants in the seedling pot but it still has the seed shell on it. Should i try and remove it? I tried to flick it gently off but that didnt help




The picture above should show the seed on top ; should it be removed?

I still dotn know how long i am going to veg for. I guess i will play that by ear. After a week of 2 with water+growzyme i may get veg nutes or just skip that and get bloom nutes.

I was thinking about getting a pH kit etc but i guess i will wait til later on if i need it.

Hopefully i dont have any PH+nute issues down the road.

Yeah, mine seems to be a sativa-dominant. I dont know the exact strain, since its mystery bagseed, but its coming out pretty good. Still trying to decide whether to do Bubba Kush or Liberty Haze for my next grow. As for your plants, I have a few tips that I have come across my own grow that could ultimately help you grow your plants successfully.

1) Don't overgarden. I know growing is an exciting hobby and sometimes you cant help but be all over the plants, but at this seedling stage they need stability which means, dont stress them unless you absolutely HAVE to. They do best when left alone. The seed casing will fall off on its own accord. Remember that plants dont have people to remove that in nature and they do just fine. If you feel like helping it out a bit thats fine but unless it comes out with a light touch, I suggest letting the plant shed it by itself.

2) Don't overwater, as it will only hurt their growth and at this stage it could also kill them. One good way to see if they need watering is to stick your fingers about an inch or two into the soil. If its still moist then dont water. Cannabis prefers to dry up then get a good heavy watering rather than be watered every day. Roots grow by seeking out moisture, and if you water too much they wont have any incentive to grow.

Hopefully your grow comes out great, man. I will try to help with what I can so dont hesitate to ask. Best of luck.

Thanks a lot 216

I have been trying my best not to disturb them but i do like to check up on them everyday. I am wondering when i should move the 3 plants into a bigger container. They are quite small. I havent seen the roots pop out of the container yet but i dont think they will. I will maybe give it a few days. I had one plant die on me. it jsut never made it and the last seedling was in rough shape. I was going to toss it out but when i was cleaning out the soil i noticed that the root seemed somewhat good I repotted with moist soil and put saran wrap over it. If it does survive its going to be the super plant

But out of the 6. the other 4 seem good. about an inch in height skinny tiny little things hopefully they bulk up. And i will LST in a week or so.

What size container are they now? I had my plants in 4" pots pretty much until the leaves starting getting almost as wide as the pot and I noticed growth was starting to slow, then I transplanted to 6" pots and then ultimately to 1 gallon pots. Something I learned from that though is that youre better off just transplanting once in their lifetime. Way less stress. So I would say wait 2-3 weeks or until you have a few nodes and the plant is more sturdy, then transplant into your final container. Another thing is make sure the lights are 1-2" away from the seedlings. If the lights are too high up they will stretch toward the light and the stems will be thin and weak. If the lights are too high up on your case and cannot be moved, use boxes of soap or something to get them closer to the light. I used boxes of irish spring