6 weeks flower, 300W+ CFL grow, let me know what you think :) +pics

These are my two baby girls. They're just finishing up their 6th week of flower and have been grown under just over 300W of CFL. I made my own reflector for the amount of bulbs I wanted to use and it seems to have worked pretty well.They're planted in 3.1 gal pots and I've been using the Fox Farm trio every other water. The one that looks super-cropped was done so accidentally. I was trying to bend the stem and ended up snapping it. Either way, I'm really excited to see what I get from these two, this being my first grow and all. Like the title say, all advice and opinions are welcome!

Looking very good. How did you make your reflector? I like that.

Wow everything looking great! I also like that reflector anymore pics of it? Enjoy your grow.

Hey guys! Thanks for the thumbs up! I appreciate the comments and I've got a lot of pictures of that light which I'll post later tonight with a short "how I did it" thing. It was pretty easy if you've got some basic power tools. I'll post everything I got when I get back from the beach

sweet grow man, very nice first grow, and those are some great lookin buds. how big is you space. and do you know what strain that is.

nice grow man, ill be taking notes!!

very nice grow man-how long did u veg?

Very nice grow! I am actually growing one super cropped white widow in a similar fashion. I am also using fox farms trio every other week. Cant wait to see the how to on that hood, its looks sweet. well done! Bump

Very nice, how many plants do you have going in there?

How long did you veg and what strain?

Very Nice!! I am working with 3 under 320W of CFL's alittle light for 3 plants but giving it a go....Great Work, look forward to the harvest... Cheers

looking good.

Thanks for all the replies guys! To answer all your questions, there are two plants in there, both from Dutch Passion. One is Brainstorm and the one that was inadvertently super-cropped is Euforia. The grow space is about 26" wide x 22" deep x 60" high. I vegged both of them for a little over a month and at the time Euforia was about 18" and Brainstorm was almost 15". Now Euforia is just under 4' and Brainstorm is just over 3'. They look like they're almost the same height but I've got Brainstorm propped up on an extra brick to keep her closer to the light.

As for the light, it was built in an afternoon with some pretty basic materials. Nothing you can't find at your local hardware store. I seem to have lost the pictures I took while building it, but it's not too difficult. I'm going to take some more pictures this afternoon and I'll post those along with the How-to

yea definetly wanna know cuz that thing seem to really work

I appreciate all the replies! When you’ve put so much work into something it’s nice to have other people appreciate it as well J To answer all your questions, there are two plants in there, both from Dutch Passion. One is Brainstorm and the one that was inadvertently super-cropped is Euforia. The grow space is about 26" wide x 22" deep x 60" high. I vegged both of them for a little over a month and at the time Euforia was about 18" and Brainstorm was almost 15". Now Euforia is just under 4' and Brainstorm is just over 3'. They look like they're almost the same height but I've got Brainstorm propped up on an extra brick to keep her closer to the light.

As for the light, it was built in an afternoon with some pretty basic materials. Nothing you can't find at your local hardware store. I seem to have lost the pictures I took while building it, but it's not too difficult. Basically I drew up a design in TurboCAD just to get measurements right and I then cut out the template out of 5/8" particle board. I made the reflector by cutting out two almost identical sides (The only difference in the two is only one side has the 105W CFL, the other side has only the smaller bulbs which I moved in towards the middle a tiny bit).

After I had cut the pieces out of the particle board I cut the holes for the sockets to fit in. I bought a couple generic medium-base pig-tailed sockets from Lowe's. The pig-tail sockets have 6" wire leads coming off them already which just makes wiring a little bit easier. One is black and one is white. Black for negative, white for positive. I cut the holes in the board a fraction of an inch bigger than the socket itself. It still had a very firm fit and I had to gently tap the sockets in the holes with a piece of scrap wood over the top of the socket and then I gently tapped the board with a hammer until the socket was all the way in. The sockets came with an 'L' bracket which I pounded with a hammer until it was flat. That's the brace you can see screwed into the wood holding the socket in place. And just because I like to make sure I don't cut any corners, I hot-glued all around the edges of the socket on one side just to be sure it doesn't shift too much with the bulbs in place.

Here you can see down one of the sides. Like I said, I lost all the pictures from the build so these are the best I could do without removing the light from the environment. The socket in the middle is the 105W and that black cord you see coming out the back of it is what I cut and used as my main line to the wall. Everything connects to that cord.

This is the bracket I pounded flat and attached to the back of the board. You can see here the pig-tail leads I was talking about. And a little hot glue to keep everything in place.


Once both sides had their sockets installed and secured I took a 1/4" thick piece of Matte board (used for framing pictures) that I had covered strip by strip with HVAC aluminum tape and then cut the board by the depth that I wanted my reflector to be (22" cause that's all the space I have) and how wide the particle board sides were, while compensating for the bends. I then made score lines across the Matte board wherever there was a bend, being extremely careful not to cut all the way through. We just want to score it enough so the matte board will be able to bend on a crease easily. I used a heavy duty staple GUN (not a stapler at an office) to secure the matte board to the top of the wooden sides by lying the matte on top of one side, stapling it in the middle and working my way down both edges. Then doing the same to the other side. At this point you should have two wooden boards connected with a sheet of matte board on the top.

Here you can see the back board that I also covered in aluminum tape, along with the matte board on top joining the front and back boards together.

This is a picture of the top front side where I've made the connections with wire nuts AND electrical tape. ALWAYS wrap wire nuts in electrical tape tightly and securely.
I picked up some 16awg generic wire from Lowe's, one roll white and one roll black. The color really doesn't matter but it makes it a lot easier when you go back to wire everything together if you've got one color for your hot lead and one color for your ground. I wired the side without the 105W first. The 105W socket has a switch on it which I don’t use, it’s just there. I used one of those cheap aluminum reflectors with a clamp and with a socket and cord already attached as my main line. I used the cord from the reflector and cut it about 5/8 of the way down. I then connected all the white wires coming from the sockets to the positive wire from the plug I just cut and did the same thing with all the black wires only connected those to the negative wire from the plug. I also ran a long white and a long black wire from the plug across the top and to the other side for those sockets.


And finally here's a look at the long white and long black wire run I made from one side to the other. Once over there it's the same process as the first. Just connect white to positive and black to negative.


Once all that was done I just attached an eye-hole screw to each side on the top of the wood in the center and that’s what I use for hanging it. It seems to work pretty well for me anyway. It spreads the light almost perfectly evenly across the entire grow area.

If anyone’s got any questions let me have em! I typed this up at work so I apologize if it’s hard to follow or doesn’t make sense at some points.


Cheers!

electronic orgasm said:

Looking very good. How did you make your reflector? I like that.

Click to expand...

BTW, that's an awesome avatar

hey thanx alot for the info. next time i go out to the grandparents imma have to borrow there lil shop and make one of them. heres some rep

Awesome! Thanks, Im definintly going to give your reflector a go soon. Ive already got most of the materials lying around.

Awesome Grow, reflector and thread Dude, Mind if i join Ya?

+Rep fella, keep it up

The Undertoker said:

Awesome Grow, reflector and thread Dude, Mind if i join Ya?

+Rep fella, keep it up

Click to expand...

Not at all! The more the merrier! After all, weed is meant to be social, at least in my book. Thanks for the rep man, I'll keep ya guys posted when I'm ready to harvest and we can see just how well that reflector worked