New grow box. Newbie

est1410 · Feb 19, 2010

Hey. I am new here but I recently started my own micro-grow box. I thought I would build one. I used standard boxes, put one on top of another, insulated it and put alu foil as a reflective surface.

I have 2 fans, A large one at the bottom, serves to provide air and move the plants a bit and a small exhaust fan on top.

Light! From what I have seen I don’t need much. I am using 18w 600k and 11w 2700k. Surprisingly the are growing.

Ventilation system

Inside.

djlifeline · Feb 19, 2010

Hey man itr will grow but slowly and wont flower to much if anything with that amount of light. You need atleast 100-200w worth of CFLs to do perhaps 1/2 plants.

desertrat · Feb 19, 2010

you definitely need more light to get anything worthwhile at the end

est1410 · Feb 19, 2010

Thanks guys.

This is the first week. Minimal lighting.

This is the second week. 18w and 11w.

When the third week arrives, I will add more light. This week I will put 2x30w 6000k and 30w 2700k.

Thanks for the support.

est1410 · Feb 19, 2010

No I have the problem of humidity. Its around 20%. I have put a cup of water inside, but not much good has come from that.

djlifeline · Feb 19, 2010

Spray your mist bottle in the space and the cup of water has to be infront of the intake. Wet towels work well also. Try and see what works. Humidity be ok for now just try and get it up

stonesour · Feb 19, 2010

i dont know how people dont burn their house down using a cardboard box. At least get a tent that can handle the heat better than cardboard.

SunnyJim · Feb 20, 2010

I haven't started my grow yet, so my advice might be worth shit..

From what I've read, alu foil is useless at reflecting light, plus it can cause hot spots. I would take it down. For the cheapest solution, people recommend using either white paint or even white a4 paper. Those work better than foil, but of course if you have a little spare cash you might want to consider mylar or some decent reflective sheeting.

Good luck with the grow, i'll be watching closely dude!

SunnyJim

est1410 · Feb 20, 2010

Thanks for the input. Firstly just like to say my new bulbs arrived to day. So i am going to install them. I shoudl That is going to be a little tricky as I am trying to use parts I find around the house. So this is going to be ghetto fabulous. I will try to rig 3 lights together.

I know the dangers of fire and the possibility to burn the house down. I think I have taken the necessary precautions.

The fan is always on. All connections are either using proper connectors or have been insulated, such as open wire.

The plants are growing at an astonishing rate. In my eyes. Remember..noob.

Ok this is the random rig I put together.
Dont judge to harshly. however if you have done this and KNOW that this will fail. Please advise.

Will post pic later today. Its a ceiling light. In my head it looks really though out.... :eyesmoke:

Thanks.

est1410 · Feb 20, 2010

Hey.

So I set up the new light rig. Does not look too bad. well OK it looks really cheap. But thats the general idea. So in total I spent 15 Euros. Now with the new lights, another 15.
30 euros!!! :mrgreen:

The new rig puts out nearly 5000 lumen.

Ill keep you all posted. This might work.

SunnyJim · Feb 20, 2010

Looking good. How long have they been in the soil? How much/often are you watering them?

est1410 · Feb 25, 2010

hi all,

So its been a week with the new lights. Some thing happened to my timer, so i have been turning the lights on manually. This had lead to me not giving very much light to my plants. Nevertheless, the results speak for themselves. They have all grown. So yesterday they where transplanted into bigger pots.

The question is when should add fertilizer. I have some guano. Thinking, maybe once a week ill add some.

NEW pics.
The oldest.

The new ones, all about a week younger.

All unknown strains. Will be fun to see what they become.

est1410 · Feb 25, 2010

SunnyJim said:
Looking good. How long have they been in the soil? How much/often are you watering them?

Hey.
I put them all into soil when I saw the root to be more than 1cm. After that, they were in little cups, until the roots started showing at the bottom. But that took 2 weeks.
I used really old soil. I found a bag left from last year in my garden shed. The soil somehow is not bad. (flower soil)

About the watering once every 2 days.
Its better to let them starve a bit. So I have read.
Hope this helps.

growinthedesert · Feb 25, 2010

get a pc fan with no leds on it for it will fuck up your plants when thay need total darkness

est1410 · Feb 26, 2010

growinthedesert said:
get a pc fan with no leds on it for it will fuck up your plants when thay need total darkness

Ill leave the fan off when i turn out the lights. Lights and vans are all on same timer.

How many inches should the plants be away from the CFL lights.

ganjabreeze · Feb 26, 2010

the closer the better just dont burn jour plants...those lights dont get very hot...so you can put them pretty close...put your hand above the plant and if it feels ok to your hand it will be ok for your plant

zenopious · Feb 26, 2010

est1410 said:
Ill leave the fan off when i turn out the lights. Lights and vans are all on same timer.

How many inches should the plants be away from the CFL lights.

I would place a thermometer one to two inches away from your CFL's and check your temps. and gauge that way.

Just my two cents and everything discussed here is a fabrication of my imagination

Am I Norml · Feb 26, 2010

Your on the right track...and im glad to see another CFL grower starting out ...
that tin foil will cause ALOT of problems soon on your plants by increasing the wattage inside the cab(unavoidable since the plants needed more light) you have caused the foil to make new and bigger hot spots in there also... go to a hunting supply store or a department store and they are called emergency blankets(pure reflective Mylar) they are the best things for it and are super cheap...like 2 dollars USD..

now your cfl's are gonna need to be run about 3 inches off the tops of the plants...since you have fans running heat will be a non issue...
humidity is a easy one to fix.. take a small bowl or extra flower pot and put in there and fill it with dirt then soak it with water till its muddy and set it right in front of the intake fan at the bottom it will blow across the top of the soil evaporating the water and the wicking action of the dirt will keep feeding the humidity into the cab

XxTwoJointsxX · Feb 28, 2010

cardboard may hinder the humidity,

ive got a 300w and my plant is only a couple inches away from it, and its doing really well...

you using a cpu power supply just to power two fans??

Peace anyway man, people gotta start somewhere....

est1410 · Mar 1, 2010

XxTwoJointsxX said:
cardboard may hinder the humidity,

ive got a 300w and my plant is only a couple inches away from it, and its doing really well...

you using a cpu power supply just to power two fans??

Peace anyway man, people gotta start somewhere....

Yeah, it started out as a simple project. The fans now run on a simple adapter.
The plans are growing really well. I am actually surprised, as so many people have tried and failed.

However, I was thinking of putting the plants out in the sun soon. My balcony gets huge amounts of light in Spring. I was probably going to put the male plants there.

What can I do with a male plant, apart from decoration or making hash?

This is the next update.

middle of week 3.

Oldest

Youngsters

Nice right ;-)

New grow box. Newbie

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