Newbie here, almost set to start growing, your input will be greatly appreciated.

First of all i would thank riu.org and everybody that helped me with my question, but again i got more questions, mostly cause i can't find a topic. but anyways here i go.

OK, so im gonna start growing some marijuana indoors under cfl, i have my box made, and its almost done, i will post pictures once i put all my questions up. But anyways, i have a 4x2x2 grow box, i have some kind of insulation that has reflective material on it, bought it at home depot. i currently have 300 watts of cfl lights, 6500k i believe since thats what i need for the veg stage according to the threads i read, and 2700k for flowering i believe, but dont have them yet since ill have to wait for bout a month til i change em. i already bought me some pots, i believe they are 6 inch round or something like that, you can see in the picture below, i have scotts premium potting soil and MG perlite, i have miracle grow all purpose 24-8-16 for my nutes and will be getting the tomato one which is 18-18-16 ( cause i bought 2 of the all purpose one, yea im dumb for not checking lol.) i also have rack so i could shift it so the plants would be as close as possible to the lights, which is reccomended so it wont stretch right? i have 2 xbox 360 fans. the have 2 fans in each fan, does it make any sense? lol you'll see it also in the picture, i gots me a cheap thermometer thats also measure the humidity. the box is almost light proff or light sealed or light stealth idk the term really. i also have a timer. the water im gonna be using is distilled water from krogers or walmart.

So thats what i got right now. My questions are = how often do i water the plants and how often do i use the nutes, how early could i use them, and how much do i have to water the plant and nutes. Someone stated in one of the threads that keep watering them til water comes draining out of the pot then dont water it til 5 days, that will make the roots like expand or stretch. i know i should read the box and follow the instructions but some people say to use 1/4, 1/3 or 1/2 of the strength recomended.

My other question is = home depot didnt cut my wood straight and i dont have any tool of whatsoever to cut it to make it straight so i built it anyway, my problem is when the light comes on due to how i build my box, its not really sealed tight and kinda opens, i have me a lock the which helps the door from opening but light still leaks out which is bad for the plant and humidity i think? i bought me 3 magnets to help the door shut havent installed it yet cause i still gotta borrow one of my buddies power drill. the door is kinda shifted to the left so hopefully the magnets would work. but what else do you think i could do to make it light sealed? oh im gonna be buying l brackets cause my friend said it would help to make the box straighter cause if i shift it to the right it becomes more sealed tight i guess.

the water im gonna be using is distilled water from krogers or walmart.

So what ya'll think? what else am i missing, im not trying to be like a pro grower i just wanna grow for my own and smoke it so i dont have to pay for it no more. i just wanna keep it simple, so any kind of advice would really be appreciated, i only have little knowledge about marijuana and growing it as you can see. and tell me what you think about my box. i only have

Reading the pictures the set up looks good for s small grow. Just more light, both spectrum, and your set!

idk what spectrum is and more advice would be appreciated.

Every thing looks good, the sun produces millions of colors/spectrum of colors. Having both spectrums give you more colors.

ohh, i see. hehe, i have 3 23w 100 watts cfl daylight 6500k, i could only fit 3 light bulbs, in the future im willing to buy like 2 bigger cfls with an equivalent value of 400 watts or possibly 450 if i can. if i get money i might change my light set up. so what you think i should do for now, im trying to keep it simple and not spend that much money. and also what humidity should i have in my box around what? and if my humidity level is low, i could always put like 1 or 2 cups of water in front of the fan to increase it, am i right or im just stupid of thinking that. btw thank you for your input. + rep

Just remember also that the bulbs are just 100w replacement running at 23 watts..
Im in UK and its a bit different here but like NONHater says put another 4 socket and more bulbs.. out of 8 bulbs, when your vegging put 6x6400K bulbs and 2x2700K bulbs and then when you flower go the other way 2x2700K 6x2700K
Everything else looks cool....Happy growing

I think you should look into getting a couple more bulbs in there and then adjusting temps 70F-80F 78F being prime and not letting it drop more than 10F-15F degrees and night. Thats prob your first priority. Just skimmed threw the first post but didn't catch how many plants you want to do in there?

If you want a good cfl bulb get one like this....

http://www.hg-hydroponics.co.uk/250w-envirogrow-8u-cfl-lamp-red-or-blue-170-p.asp

About the humidity.. Just run the fans as short as possible to keep heat down and use a fine sprayer to spray the seedlings/small plants to keep the humidity up.. Make sure you spray up under the leaves.
It depends on so many things, Just go for it and fix it as you need to...Its such a steep learning curve but youll get hooked

Thats a nice little setup you got there. Almost exactly like mine but I bought a storage box from the depo for 50 dollars so I didn't have to build one. The depo is where its at tho besides some of the idiots working there (not everyone tho) you can buy everything you need to build anything. But to help stop the light leaks I would suggest (this is my cheapo way I did for mine) Get some duck tape and tape the inside seem of the door and the top seem about 1/4 an inch and have a flap of the duct tape folded over the top so when the door closes the tape bends down and adjusts to the box to stop the light leaks. You may have to put acouple layers of the tape. Im not sure how well the duct tape will stick to the wood so you might have to use different tape but I suggested duct tape cause it can be bent back and forth without it tearing or loosing its stability. This stopped my light leaks by 100%. Say what you want but it worked for me and my low budget build. Heres some pictures cause I know I didn't explain it very well.

i could only fit 3 bulbs on my power strip thing what should i do? should i add another power strip on the bottom of the power strip i have now and add 3 more bulbs? about the humidity, i have a thermometer in there that also check the humidity, i left my box running to see the temp and humiditiy, as of now, without the lights on my temp is 70, and humidity is 40, is that good? i have a test plant in there thats not doin good, just wanted to see how to germinate seeds and how to put it in the soil and it growed. idk the temp and humidity if my 3 cfl lights are on. im adding a oscillating fan so it can blow up to my future plants, people said if the fan is blowing on the plant its good for the stem, my fans are just mounted and cannot be moved, thats why im adding an cheap oscillating fan.

thank you indogrower for the suggestion, ill prolly use the silver tape i got since i have plenty left and also helps reflect i believe. + rep more advice guys please

When i started testing CFL's I used 12 of the 23w'ers just like yours. Heat became a huge issue. I switched to a single big bulb, problem solved. Get a single 125w 6500K for veg, and a single 250w 2700k for flower. I got 3 zips off these in a 24" x 18" x 36" test box.

thanks for that info bro, so i gots my lights, and i think the temp is good with my lights, so ill stay with what i got i guess. +rep

ok so the light turned on, and i the temp was like 90 deg and humidity was around 35 i think, is that good or bad? i have 3 23 watts, 100 watts = 300 watts 6500k. im not sure if that is bad or good, so i took out one of the light bulbs, so now all i have is 200w, too see if it will cool down, go around 75 -80 hopefully, couldnt find a thread which would tell me the correct temp and humidity, if anyone knows a link please post it here, or either just tell me with your own knowledge of growing. i believe the more light the better the yield or how the plant will grow, so i really wanna use 300 watts, correct me if im wrong, i was gonna add an oscillating fan but once i start growing i wont have space to put the oscillating fan, which would make the temp go high again, inputs please. thank you.

Like Bonzi said get 1 big 100w+ cfl. The 3 23w equivelent to 100w is not using 300 watts, its only using 69 watts. You will need a minimum of 3000 lumens per square foot to get good plant growth. Try to find some of the biggest cfls you can. I know the depo sells high power cfl's. Maybe 300w equivelent at most using only 150w or get the ones just alittle smaller. Rememeber cfls you can keep inches away from the plant without burning it. For the temps, Ive grow with temps in 90's before no problem with humidity in the 10-20's so you'll be fine where your at. You could get the temp lower by only using 1 or 2 big cfls, and another oscillating fan in the box will help the temps alot too. Just get a fan in the box and 1 big cfl and your temps shouldn't be a problem just keep the cfls really close to the plant.

oh shit, i just fucked up then huh with my lights. can you tell me which light i should buy in homedepot. and that you for your input for the temp and humidity.

someone please tell me what cfl light i should buy cant find none on the website, home depot or lowes or menards someone, i just got laid off work today so imma start growing once i get my lights. so help would be nice.

u can use the cfls you have, i would suggest using splitters in the sockets to add more bulbs.

using the splitters is a good idea, but if i add more bulbs, which would increase my watts, but it would make the grow box hotter, which isn't good for the plant?