First Grow, 150w HPS, Afghan Kush with PICS

With the help of everyone here I finally started my grow on January 14, so hopefully come 4/20 we'll be smoking some good shit .

My setup is in my closet and the dimensions of my DIY PVC cab are 21'' x 14'' x 42''. I have the option to extend the cab higher if need be, but can worry about that later. I used PVC pipes for the skeleton of it and wrapped it all with Panda film, and added 2 120mm Thermaltake computer fans for input and exhaust. My 2 plants will be growing under the 150w econolight with a remote ballast and a batwing reflector made from aluminum vent material.

Here are the pics of my setup:






I was just wondering should I paint the bottom of my batwing reflector with flat white paint or just leave it like it is? And as you can see in my pics there is light leaking from my fans. So how do you guys make it so that no light leaks?

Lastly, right now my temps are around 85-90F, but if I do the hand test I can get my plants a lot closer than they are, so should I lower the light or focus more on getting it cooler in there?

Any questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome. Thanks all.

work on getting your temps around 75f, then do your hand test w/ the bulb for hight

Get the temps lower and than worry about the light problem

so what would be the best way to get my temps around this level? I hooked up my fans to 12v chargers but other than that I don;t know what to do besides add more fans

Any suggestions for my heat issue? And do you guys think I should paint the under side of my batwing reflector with flat white paint or just leave it like it is/aluminum?

Thanks all, and I'll post pics a little later with the 5 day growth.

letsdothis21 said:

Any suggestions for my heat issue? And do you guys think I should paint the under side of my batwing reflector with flat white paint or just leave it like it is/aluminum?

Thanks all, and I'll post pics a little later with the 5 day growth.

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You could try freezing a 2 liter bottle of water and setting it in there. This should help get it to 75 if not close

RhymesWithGosh said:

You could try freezing a 2 liter bottle of water and setting it in there. This should help get it to 75 if not close

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Wow. That's a great idea, Gosh. And if it gets the temp too low, then he can always go for a 1 liter, or a 20 oz.


Great tip.

Your reflector would work better if you found a HIGH TEMP flat white paint. (The more pure white the better, and flat is important)

But you also need to get that reflector down to where it will actually do some good. The bulb should be 1" or so from the center of the reflector, and then focus the wings to get max light on the floor space. Also the 150 should be about 6" from the plants.

Forget about using ice, just get a larger fan. Skip the computer fans go get one or two of the 6" plastic 120v clip on fans.
Duct the clip on fan with a duct painted black, no more light leaks. There are also a very powerful round fans by honeywell you can find if you search the web or find the right stores, those suckers can pull all kinds of air and you could integrate either type of fan in place of the little computer fans you are using now, those just aren't enough.

OregonMeds said:

Your reflector would work better if you found a HIGH TEMP flat white paint. (The more pure white the better, and flat is important)

But you also need to get that reflector down to where it will actually do some good. The bulb should be 1" or so from the center of the reflector, and then focus the wings to get max light on the floor space. Also the 150 should be about 6" from the plants.

Forget about using ice, just get a larger fan. Skip the computer fans go get one or two of the 6" plastic 120v clip on fans.
Duct the clip on fan with a duct painted black, no more light leaks. There are also a very powerful round fans by honeywell you can find if you search the web or find the right stores, those suckers can pull all kinds of air and you could integrate either type of fan in place of the little computer fans you are using now, those just aren't enough.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the help Oregon, I just checked and the flat white paint I have says that it should be used when temp is between 50-90 degrees, but that it should not be applied to metal that exceeds 200 degrees when heated, so I think I should be fine there. I also have a humidifier and that clip-on fan on the way since my humidity is at 25%, and the temp is now around 85 with the frozen water bottles in place. I have also moved the light to around 5-6'' from the plants.

Here are the plants at day 6 and 3:



Any other questions/comments/suggestions let me know, thanks guys!

i cant see the pics...just says "Here are the plants at day 6 and 3:" then nothing

Can anyone else see them? I see them when I load the page, but here is a link to them...don't know why you can't see them..

http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/508/sspx0020we7.jpg

i can see em

Okay so I just added a humidifier and a clip on fan to my grow last night so I finally have temperatures around ~80* F and my humidity is now 50-60% at all times so hopefully my growing conditions are way better for my plants now. Here are the newest pics taken today of my plants, as you can see they were not doing too well and the leaves have started to curl up. This is due to heat right? My temps used to be at 95* F so hopefully that is fixed now, but do you guys think they will recover? Or what else should I do?

Thanks guys!!

can anyone confirm for me that the issue I am having with the curled up leaves is because of heat?

Thanks guys

definatley looks like the light is too close... I have my temps perfect and this still happens when the light is too close.... GOOD LUCK>>>>>>>

I would have to say that the temps and the humidity are really high. A lot of the grows that I have read on here have their temps at 75. As for the humidity I would try to get it to say somewhere between 35-40 to prevent mold and powdery residue on the plants.

I could be wrong tho.

Yeah I did some research on here and most people said 50-60% is good. And I am trying to lower my temps but the grow is in my closet and I keep the door shut since this is a stealth grow. Right now the temps stay at about 80 degrees so hopefully not too bad now...

It takes time on the net to figure some things out. That is what I have been doing for a while now. Happy growing

Day 13 of my grow today and here are the pics:





As you can see in the pics the early growth (especially on the 2nd and younger plant) has turned yellow due to the initial burning of the plant, but the newest growth looks healthy to me now that I have (hopefully) fixed the heat and humidity issues. The humidity has changed from 25% initially to around 55-60% now, and the temps have dropped from 95-100*F to constant 80*. I think 80* is the coolest I can get this closet due to its limited airflow, so hopefully that is okay. I see no signs of burnage on the new leafs so I hope it is okay. I will be transplanting the other plant tomorrow since it will hit its 2 week mark, and will wait a little bit for the other plant.

Any comments are welcome! and it seems like my older plant is really short but has a lot of leaves, so don't know if that is a good or bad thing...

Thanks guys

Good luck with your grow.