My First Grow

What's up guys, new here. Good to meet everyone!

I built a stealth grow-box out of an old dresser that was slowly falling apart. Light currently hits about 2'x1x1' and as she grows I can raise the batten holder board chains to accommodate. Max box dimensions are 2'x1'x3'. I gutted the drawers then screwed the fronts to a board which I mounted on hinges to the bottom. As you can see the bottom drawer was missing. Top two drawers are magnetized to the front fascia. Top lid is also on hinges to allow for excess warm air to be evicted quickly and also allow for easy access to my make-shift ballast and exhaust fans.

Now running 5 CFL's - 4 daylight-blue 100w (26w-6500K) bulbs producing 1600 lumens each, and 1 soft white 150w (42w-2700K) bulb producing 2800 lumens for a total of 146 actual watts and 9,200 lumens. Running 2 120mm 40 CFM computer fans for exhaust. Two 4x4" holes in the bottom corners for intake and a Blizzard floor fan blowing air indirectly off a wall into intake holes.

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Onto the bud itself. I am growing Easy Rider Auto Flower from Ceres Seeds using a 20/4 light cycle throughout the entire grow. I got the feminized seed from my friend who purchased it from Attitude Seedbank.

Day 1 November 25 - I germinated using paper towel method and had success in only 24 hours.

Day 2 November 26 - Mixed full size (3-gallon) pot with 85% Fax Farms Ocean Forest and 15% Mother Earth Coarse Perlite and pre-watered the soil. Moved the germinated seed directly into soil after allowing excess water to drain.

*Beginning 20/4 light cycle at 7:30PM (Lights off at 3:30PM)*

Day 3 November 27 - Light mists of water to keep topsoil slightly moist.

Day 4 November 28 - She is already in her second day of being a sprouted seedling and has only been planted for 3 days. She appears to be very healthy.


Any suggestions are very welcome! I am interested in understanding how to properly water seedlings and how much to water them. (Water slowly until it drains through bottom?)

*I discovered that Blackstrap Unsulphured Molasses works as a plant superfood and will be diluting 1/2-1 tablespoon into my gallons of distilled water once she hits about 2 weeks. Uploading some pics that I have so far. Tell me what you think.

*Maintaining lights on temperatures between 83-87 degrees F and lights off temps around 70 F.*


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Day 5 - November 29 - Thinking about potentially replacing two of the 100w daylight bulbs with 100w blue bulbs (6500K) because i have 5000K and 2700K already and with 6500K Bulbs I would have the entire light spectrum (or as close as possible). I would maintain 134 actual watts and 9200 lumens through the veg. phase.

I still have the other half of my "ballast" to put bulbs in after she starts filling out and growing wider, probably around flowering time. Eventually I believe I will run 3 100w Daylight (5000K) 3 100w Daylight-Blue (6500K) and 2 150w soft white (2700K). Obviously this will only be possible if I can keep the temp down.

7:30 PM
-After 4 hours of dark she has opened almost 100% with shell still attached to cotyledon (leaves will eventually just fall off).



9:30 PM
-Went and got some 100w(26w) daylight blue (6500K) bulbs to replace white daylight (5000K) bulbs. Still using 5 bulbs total (1x42w-2700K, 4x26w-6500K). New bulbs will allow me to cover the majority of the light spectrum capable with CFL's when necessary.

*Once flowering begins I will add another 42w-2700K, use 3 23w-5000K bulbs, and 3 26w-6500K bulbs, totaling 8 bulbs (pending my ability to keep box temperature down).

11:30 PM
-Watered seedling for the first time with about a 12 oz. glass of distilled. Slowly poured around the outside edges of the pot close to the plant but not on top of it. Waited for water to drain a bit through the bottom then misted the topsoil on and around the plant to safely water the middle.

anyone, anyone..

Cool stealth looking setup, I like it. I always mix CFL spectrum I use mine only as additional lighting but my plants love it. good luck, hope to see some updates.

inƒamøus;8314452 said:

I am interested in understanding how to properly water seedlings and how much to water them. (Water slowly until it drains through bottom?)

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You have a decent amount of perlite in that soil so there's a less chance of overwatering, water it lightly though. It cannot
take up water as fast as a bigger plant obviously.

inƒamøus;8314452 said:

I still have the other half of my "ballast" to put bulbs in after she starts filling out and growing wider

Click to expand...

lol the ballast is the white plastic base of the cfl that regulates the power. The thing you connect them to
are called "Batten Holders"

Thanks, Willow!

Haha, dimebong! Thanks for the heads up! +1 for the TPB Julian quote!

inƒamøus;8316770 said:

Thanks, Willow!

Haha, dimebong! Thanks for the heads up! +1 for the TPB Julian quote!

Click to expand...

First person to notice. Not many people recognize it from the first movie.

Never really understood why almost everyone I have spoke to or seen there grow
Op, the either have a SHIT TON of cords hanging down or whatever with atleast 5 or
More Cfl bulbs ranging in watts from 27watt on up to 100 & 150! Why not just purchase those
Big 300 watters? They have those in the same spectrum as the smaller ones.
That's. What I went with. I have 4 300 wat Cfl's + a 800 watt LED system over my babies.
The more the light you have, the happier the tree. anyways, great set-up you got going
There bro.. looks good for your 1st run! Later

For only $48 you can get a 150W cfl with a dew guard that helps reflect the normally wasted lumens back down.
Check Amazon if you are interested they are great and would help cut down on unnecessary cords.

~Dankster~420 said:

Never really understood why almost everyone I have spoke to or seen there grow
Op, the either have a SHIT TON of cords hanging down or whatever with atleast 5 or
More Cfl bulbs ranging in watts from 27watt on up to 100 & 150! Why not just purchase those
Big 300 watters? They have those in the same spectrum as the smaller ones.
That's. What I went with. I have 4 300 wat Cfl's + a 800 watt LED system over my babies.
The more the light you have, the happier the tree. anyways, great set-up you got going
There bro.. looks good for your 1st run! Later

Click to expand...

Alot of growers doing full cfl grows are teenagers that don't have much money and acquire
their equipment over time or second hand.

In my case it is ridiculous prices that puts me off using the 300w.

I'm using a bunch of 23w, and a 400w hps for flower

I'm not spending $155 to get a 250w cfl. I could
get another 400w hps kit for that price.

That's my situation anyway. Rip off stores as opposed to ebay.

~Dankster~420 said:

Never really understood why almost everyone I have spoke to or seen there grow
Op, the either have a SHIT TON of cords hanging down or whatever with atleast 5 or
More Cfl bulbs ranging in watts from 27watt on up to 100 & 150! Why not just purchase those
Big 300 watters? They have those in the same spectrum as the smaller ones.
That's. What I went with. I have 4 300 wat Cfl's + a 800 watt LED system over my babies.
The more the light you have, the happier the tree. anyways, great set-up you got going
There bro.. looks good for your 1st run! Later

Click to expand...

I wired them in parallel using 16g lamp cord. Currently 5 bulbs running on one power cord. My whole setup only has 3 cords. One for lights, one for pc fans and one for interior fan. I looked into the 300 watt lights at home depot but they get expensive very quick. 4 100w (26w) and 1 150w (42w) was about $30 total. The high watt CFLs are like $20-30 each!! I am currently producing more lumens for the money and when I end up spending that much I'll get an HPS and use a couple CFLs to get a fuller spectrum.

Once she gets bigger and needs more light coverage I will get all the bulbs in and I'll have a total of 900 watts(240w actual) and 15,200 lumens with 8 bulbs total. Total cost of lights around $30 because Excel Energy has been putting them on deep discount to push CFL's over incandescents at Home Depot here in the cities. This is about as much as it would cost to buy one super-high watt CFL.

RCgrowerman said:

For only $48 you can get a 150W cfl with a dew guard that helps reflect the normally wasted lumens back down.
Check Amazon if you are interested they are great and would help cut down on unnecessary cords.

Click to expand...

Once I start getting some money together again I will be purchasing an HPS. You can get some pretty decent setups for around $100+. Seems to make a lot more sense than spending a ton of money on lesser performing bulbs.

dimebong said:

First person to notice. Not many people recognize it from the first movie.

Click to expand...

Count it!! I can't get enough of it. Been re-watching it forever.

Take into consideration that the area that the light actually hits currently is only about 1x1x1 and sun is around 10,000 Lumens per cubic ft.

WOW!!! Holly shit! Where in the world are you shopping bro!? Go to wal-mart
Hell or even lowes. I can pick um up all day long, "300watt" cfls right there in the bulb
Islle, for anywhere from 15 to 20 bucks!! Then I go ghetto, but hey it works!
I take those single sockets that you can plug in, get me a power strip, plug me
Up 3 or 4 of those in there, & wholla! You got you a 1200 watt cfl, for round 30 bucks!

dimebong said:

Alot of growers doing full cfl grows are teenagers that don't have much money and acquire
their equipment over time or second hand.

In my case it is ridiculous prices that puts me off using the 300w.

I'm using a bunch of 23w, and a 400w hps for flower

I'm not spending $155 to get a 250w cfl. I could
get another 400w hps kit for that price.

That's my situation anyway. Rip off stores as opposed to ebay.

Click to expand...

~Dankster~420 said:

WOW!!! Holly shit! Where in the world are you shopping bro!? Go to wal-mart
Hell or even lowes. I can pick um up all day long, "300watt" cfls right there in the bulb
Islle, for anywhere from 15 to 20 bucks!! Then I go ghetto, but hey it works!
I take those single sockets that you can plug in, get me a power strip, plug me
Up 3 or 4 of those in there, & wholla! You got you a 1200 watt cfl, for round 30 bucks!

Click to expand...

Dude, this is an international website. There is no wallmart here. I live new zealand. This is a country for the rich
but the government ain't doing a good job at making people wealthy. Cigarettes are heavily taxed to $15 a pack too because
this rip off country is also a nanny state.

You can get new zealand meat cheaper in forien country's than you can here.

I'm just happy to be contributing to the illegal drugs trade.
no matter how small my part is.

I could get a one way ticket to australia cheaper than i can buy that cfl lol.
And i will be moving there too. Much cheaper.

dimebong said:

Dude, this is an international website. There is no wallmart here. I live new zealand. This is a country for the rich
but the government ain't doing a good job at making people wealthy. Cigarettes are heavily taxed to $15 a pack too because
this rip off country is also a nanny state.

You can get new zealand meat cheaper in forien country's than you can here.

I'm just happy to be contributing to the illegal drugs trade.
no matter how small my part is.

I could get a one way ticket to australia cheaper than i can buy that cfl lol.
And i will be moving there too. Much cheaper.

Click to expand...

Good incentive to make you stop smokin cigs

Damn dude, that's crazy. America ftw!! At least until we start killing each other...then I'll be headin' your way.

i started out using 100watt driveway lights,cords hangin down,hell i wanted to grow but no dough.made good tops .cool settup btw.

inƒamøus;8317250 said:

Good incentive to make you stop smokin cigs

Damn dude, that's crazy. America ftw!! At least until we start killing each other...then I'll be headin' your way.

Click to expand...

its not that america is cheaper than anywhere else. It's not. It's that this country is more expensive than most
country's.