My first grow: 260 watts @ ~17000 lumens of CFL in wal-mart storage

Materials:
Four mountable light sockets (Home Depot - Cheap)
Four Y adaptors (Home Depot-Cheap)
Two plug in light sockets (99 cents at Wal-Mart)
A crap load of cheap extension cords
Three 30gallon wal-mart storage crates ($9 each)
1 Gallon of white paint (8 bucks wal-mart)
Four 2 gallon smart pots ($3/each at hydro shop)
Botanicare three part nutrient system ($20 hydro shop for all three)
Fox Farm Ocean forest + dolomite lime mixed by me
Two PC intake fans (optional but it helps keep my temps down, $4/each)
Single honeywell fan mounted on top
10 26 watt cfls of assorted color temps

Genetics:
2 OG Kush
1 707 Headband
1 AK-47

First time poster long time lingerer. I'm about 1.5 weeks into flowering on my first grow. I was hoping to get away with only two 30 gallon containers but my biggest plant (OG Kush flowered at 12" just 10 days ago!) is now at 26" and I need more height. Plants are looking super healthy and if anyone wants to repeat this setup I would say make sure to allow up to three times an increase in height when changing light cycles. This was something I considered a myth so I let it go to 12" but now I think there's a good chance it will get to 36" and I hope so since I'm doing the work to add more height. These plants smelled from the start but my ionic pro is taking care of the scent so far even with early flowers blooming. The AK-47 is only 10" but had a lot of stress initially due to crappy Earthgro soil. My advice to anyone growing for the first time is to definitely get FoxFarm, I'm pretty sure EARTHGRO killed my first few clones and is just full of sticks and crap, my plants are so much happier in fox farm. Mixing in the dolomite lime was also easy and will give you peace of mind that your pH isn't out of whack. I'm watering about once every four days and that's all my plants really need. I've learned a lot through all this and would be happy to share anything with anyone who has any questions for me.

Picture descriptions (I don't know how they sorted these):

1. an outside view of my box with the fan mounted on top (intake fans are on other side to supplement the passive intake you see).
2. this is the ak-47 clone that was sick before but is now thriving with many flowering sites
3. Picture of my OG Kush #1 when I first got it at a clone and it was about 5 inches (now 27")
4. A picture of all the plants taken one week into flowering
5. top view about a week into veg
6. my headband clone when I first got it (now 24")
7. another top view in early veg.
8. My second OG Kush clone when I first got it (now 24")
9. a picture of my sick ak-47 from early veg.

Alright, I really don't want this to be one of those threads that has one post and that's it forever so I'm going to try and update it with my harvest and dry weight results after this post. I'm at 4.5 weeks flowering and the plants are blooming real nice. I've got a few burnt fan leaves here and there from the lights but the buds are fine. I added my two bulb two foot T5 into the room which gives a nice touch to those big badass top buds as well as a 42W CFL for my AK47 which is only about 14 inches tall because of stress during veg. My other 3 plants have all grown about ten inches and are all about 34" now. I got spider mites pretty bad without even realizing it and put in a Hotshot No Pest Strip and it killed those F'ers. All the white spots are almost gone and the plants are pest free. Here are some pictures, enjoy!

Hi toolmatism, I also grow with cfls. On my first grow I had spider mites.I never got rid of them, I was only able to control them. I literally tried eveverything except what you mentioned, not quite sure what it is. I used cotton tu rub the leaves with water, soap even alcohol. I used bug spray. I also took out of the house to spary them with a house, i even ordered predator spider mites. All this happened over a 5 period, and nothing worked. Anyway what is that you are using cause from my experience spider mites have a way of coming back.
Very nice buds though they are going to get huge spider mites or not

Hey Tatan. I used a product called Hotshot No Pest Strip. Its a small plastic housing with a strip inside that releases a pesticide called dichlorvos. I put it in my grow box and turned off the ventilation during the dark cycle while I was on vacation for 5 days. When I came back not only were they all dead but all the white spots were clearing up and turning green again. I couldn't have been more pleased with the result. Some organic people disagree with it because its a chemical but there's no evidence pointing to it being dangerous to have in a grow room. However, I wouldn't use it if you're going to be in the room you're using it in for more than four hours per day. They actually administer it to animals and humans to treat a variety of parasitic infections so I really doubt its hazardous when its only around your plants for a week or so. You could do the three approach treatment with expensive organic sprays and predators and still not ever fully control it or you could buy one of these for five dollars and get rid of your problem immediately. Whatever you do, good luck getting rid of those little bastards! BTW, I have heard that these strips don't work for everyone so they still might not work for your particular spider mites for a reason unknown to me, but they should as they do for the majority of people using them for spider mites.

Well thats good to know that at least thgere is something out there that works against those vermin. I dont have mites now.. i had them on a previous grow, ive made sure that on my current grow there is no chance for my plants to get inffected