My first horticulture experiment

hey guys, the title says it all. let me tell you about my lights to start with since that seems to be the most important part.
i have 9 cfl's, 8, 23 watts, and one 125 watt. i also have 1, 70 watt hps. can't afford muck more right now. i have these set to come on 16 hours, off for 3.5 hours back on for a hour, then off again for another 4.5. i read somewhere that the interuption in the light will help fem the plants.
the soil i am using is miricale grow with time released plant food? i have my plants in 2 gallon flower pots.
the closet that i have all this in measures 30" x 30" with about a 9 foot ceiling. i have a bahroom size exhaust fan ducting it outside.
the seed i'm using is bagseed, pretty good stuff but have no idea what strain. i planted them straight into the 2 gallon pots 7 days ago, they all sprouted 3 days ago except one. and she was up this morning when i got up. i have 2 plants in each pot, i was going to pick the weaker looking plant after a week or 2 growing.
here's a few pics, feel free to give me any suggestions, i am a rookie.

after looking at a few other setups with cfl's i've decided to go to home depot and get some light splitters. and try to find a moisture meter.
should i get something to measure the ph in my soil? i'm getting my water to 6.5 and letting it sit for a few days before watering. i've only watered once since the start of this project. i'll add more pics when i get home.
i sure would appreciate some input from you veteran growers out there.

Do you have any fans on them?
The ideal distance for cfls is 4-5cm away from the top of the plant but you should only do this if you have a fan on them really.
You also have to check on them a lot in case they grow into the bulbs and burn themselves

i went and bought my splitters and added some light. i've got 14 23 watt cfl's going. that gives me a total of 22,400 lumens in an area of 30' x 30" x 42" tall. i also corrected the distance from light to plant.
the plants seem to be doing great, one looks like the leaves are blistering? there are 2 plants per pot and i was going to cull the weaker of the 2 after a week or so of growing. that may be the first to go.
thanks for the reply natmoon!! yes i do have a fan on them along with a exhaust fan taking air out. temps are from low 70's with no lights to high 70's with lights on. the humidity has been staying close to 50% give or take a few.
any input is welcomed.

Lighting looks really good. You really should get the extra plants out of the pots ASAP before the roots get intertwined. If that happens, you're going to stress out and possibly damage all the plants when you go to remove the extras. Also, you may want to invest in a fan (oscillating maybe?) so that you can put the lights closer to the plants and minimize stretch and heat stress.

Other than that, everything looks good. Plants seem to be progressing nicely. Good luck!

just got back from going to the salvage yards, i ended up getting 3 stadium lights, 400 hps. now i need to figure the wiring on em. i found wiring them 220v will make them run cooler, but i can't find the schematics for the wires anywhere. if anyone has any leads please point me in the right direction.

kevin said:

just got back from going to the salvage yards, i ended up getting 3 stadium lights, 400 hps. now i need to figure the wiring on em. i found wiring them 220v will make them run cooler, but i can't find the schematics for the wires anywhere. if anyone has any leads please point me in the right direction.

Click to expand...

Faq has a few posts about wiring lights that are similar to that. Second box upper left hand corner of this page. VV

thanks for the lead vv, but i went ahead and ordered a light from htg supply last night. just plug it in sounded alot easier. i'm concerned about the heat issues, maybe a larger exhaust fan. with the cfl's the temps are perfect from what i've read.

get an air cooled light

everything is looking great, got a bit cold last night. 61 degrees fahrenheit. doesn't look like it hurt a thing. the second set of leaves made a showing today!!!!!!

hey caligrown, thanks for the input. is that part of the reflector?

What about the seedling thats lying dying?

i just want to thank everyone out there for posting their own journals, thoughts, and ideas. i would of never made it this far without all of you!!!

hey natmoon, i started with 2 plants in each pot, after some reading i

thought best to 1 plant to a pot. i figure the seedling would make compost

soon enough. thanks for looking.

Did you get that oscalating fan like Nat said? you really need it to make your stem nice and strong and thick, looking really good!!

hi puff pufff, thanks for looking, the fan has been in place since day 1, keep getting stoned and forget to

mention i have one. they get plenty of breeze and fresh air. i leave the door open during

the day while at work. about 12 hours of the light cycle the door stays open.

Well they are really look good, keep us posted.....

Smoke!

all is lookig well, the temps were much better today, high of 79 and low of 69.

they look like they grew ahella bunch, the leaves look a lot larger, broader, but not much taller.

i think i will set my camera to take a pic every 3 minutes or so and watch my grass grow.

i want to say thanks to everyone that stops by. don't be shy, if you see me going in the wrong dirition, point it out.

all is looking well, i gave them some ph balanced water tonight, 6.5. no nutes, growing in mg. that hydro meter was a great investment.

i sat the camera up, started at 7a.m. and stopped around 7p.m. the 2 pics are the first capture and the last, kinda neat watching them grow with stop motion software.

i've had plenty of folks view my thread, but not to many comments so i'll take that as i'm doing alright so far.

Everything is looking good. I am going to set up that time capture on the camera to take pictures.

Thanks for the idea.