Lady J's First DWC Closet CFL Grow

Lady.J

Well-Known Member
Hello :bigjoint:

This is where I'll be documenting my first DWC grow, 2nd grow overall (have soil plants flowering). Have had great success with soil and I love it...just wanted to find out about all the hype behind hydroponics and see whether it works well for me.

So first I'll tell you about the grow closet. It's a pretty small one, located in the hallway of my apartment. I was concerned about air flow and it's not like I can just cut a hole in my apartment's walls and set up a ventilation system or modify the door, so I decided to build a door / curtain made out of black plastic trash bags and duct tape. I have a 6inch exhaust fan coming, a long with some ducting, so I'll direct the air out of a 6inch circle in the top right corner plastic door. The door is fastened to the door way via strips of velcro. I usually don't have people in my house but if for some reason I do, I can just roll up the curtain and shut the closet door to hide my plants.



There is some Mylar on the way, and I'll be lining the walls and the inside of the plastic door with it. I'll probably duct tape some trash bags to the floor in case of spills. My wires will be grouped together once everything I'm expecting in the mail is here. The small light on top is a 23 watt 6500k CFL. I have it on just to give my clones a little light while waiting for their roots to take. The smaller plant is Seedsmans Original Skunk #1 and the other is Reserva Privada Sour Kush. They were sitting in just a cup of water for a week, have had them in the cloner for a couple days now. One will go in a soil grow that I will LST in one of the shelving areas of the closest (just for fun and to play with LST), and the other will go in the 5 gallon bucket.



For now, I have a bag seed about to sprout in the bucket. I'm going to play around with it while waiting for the clones to take and generate a healthy root system. Want to make sure I have a good understanding of DWC before putting a good plant in. If you look closely in the middle, you can see it uncurling. I consider "Day 1" to be when you can see the plant visibly coming to the surface for the first time, so Day 1 it is :). Since I see it coming to the surface, added two 23 watt 6500k lights. I have higher wattage lights, both 2700ks and 6500ks, but will be saving those for later.



Will be sharing what nutes I am using once the rest of my things arrive. Will be using a Ph meter, won't be using a PPM. Have some guides that I will be following, and have a pretty good instinct about growing so am confident things will be ok :). If not, at least I learned for myself, and only on a bagseed.

Thanks for looking :leaf::peace:
 

Lady.J

Well-Known Member
Nice closet, Ill pull up a chair =) good luck with bagseed dwc too =P
Thanks :). I took a peek at your grow earlier Vumar, thought you did a really good job. Can tell you did a lot of reading and put thought into your grow, appreciate having you here for input.
 

mikmike

Well-Known Member
looks great i would add some more bulbs on the upper level but other than that looks great :)
 

Lady.J

Well-Known Member
looks great i would add some more bulbs on the upper level but other than that looks great :)
Thank you, but those are clones that haven't developed roots yet so isn't good to give them too much light. Believe me, I'd never grow a plant with a single CFL and that far away :). Only while cloning!
 

Vumar

Well-Known Member
Thanks :). I took a peek at your grow earlier Vumar, thought you did a really good job. Can tell you did a lot of reading and put thought into your grow, appreciate having you here for input.
Which of my grows did you follow? Wonderwoman, Grape Soda, or Blue Widow grow? How do you clone? I can get mine to rock in rockwool but my bubble cloner failed miserably.
 

Lady.J

Well-Known Member
Which of my grows did you follow? Wonderwoman, Grape Soda, or Blue Widow grow? How do you clone? I can get mine to rock in rockwool but my bubble cloner failed miserably.
Blue Widow from Dinafem :). When I first made these clones, I just had them in an opaque cup filled with water. Poked a hole in some saran wrap, draped it over the cup and let half of the clone's stem get submerged. I've seen a lot of people do it, but it takes forever. I built a little blubble box from Sterilite bins, stuck the stems in the hydroton, and made sure the water was high enough to makes bubbles on the stems. It's been a few days now and they're still looking good. We'll see how it goes.
 

Vumar

Well-Known Member
I strongly suggest a small HID setup if you aren't happy with CFLs. I ran x2 high watt CFLs of different color spectrums and wasn't overly happy with bud quality. I could see a 250 watt DIY cool tube setup in there with a cheap exhaust fan :)
 

Lady.J

Well-Known Member
Thanks but I'm going to stick with the CFLs :). Instead of using a couple high wattage bulbs, am going to use several lower wattage bulbs all around the plant within 3-4 inches of the leaves. We'll see how it works out!
 

Metasynth

Well-Known Member
Thanks but I'm going to stick with the CFLs :). Instead of using a couple high wattage bulbs, am going to use several lower wattage bulbs all around the plant within 3-4 inches of the leaves. We'll see how it works out!
Sounds like a solid plan...CFL's will make some nice little plants, as long as you keep 'em close to the growth...this was done with all 23w cfl's and one 42w...

[video=youtube;uk_QbqMnl7Q]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uk_QbqMnl7Q[/video]

All that being said, HID are definately the way to go, eventually. But CFL's are GREAT for learning and getting used to growing indoors.
 

Lady.J

Well-Known Member
Are those your plants? Love the coloring on the bud and leaves, looks pretty awesome. I know there are better lights out there but not only do I not want to have to come up with money for blubs, have to battle heat, or dish out funds for ventilation and a ballast...I like the challenge of having to develop a strategic sense of where to put the lights for most effective growth. I have seen people grow CFL and HPS buds next to each other for comparison, they look very similar in size, and it was reported that potency wasn't affected. I feel the CFLs are the best way for me to grow presently.

Here is another grow I have going on using only CFLS, two plants in soil, around 35 days old from seed:


 

dtischerd

Well-Known Member
i say to each his own..with that said i prefer a 400w MH/HPS,but have been experimenting with a T5 HO with 2 grow bulbs and two bloom bulbs.

i can say this..i am impressed with the results thus far.

great for seedlings and clones,and so far a good vegger.
 

Lady.J

Well-Known Member
Hey Lady!

Ill be watching, I've been wanting to set up a dwc sometime.
Nice, love having your input owl....since you've been wanting to do it for a while, maybe you should grab some gear and try it out with me :p
 

Theowl

Well-Known Member
I really should... But I'm only physically back from my campout, in my head I'm still in the woods and can't find a water pump! ;)

I actually may get something started this week. I have most of what I'd need just laying around the shed, so purchases would be minimum.

Ill watch for now, gotta get my outdoor set up first.
 
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