Noob Bagseed PC Grow (300w) CFLs

So after months of lurking around these forums and learning about growing, I have decided to give it a bit of a try myself. To start things off, I dont plan on finishing this grow, I am going back to school in a few weeks and I really cant risk having plants there, so I will either ditch the plants or let a friend finish them.

This is a pretty basic DIY PC case, sure it is janky but it is totally functional and Im pretty proud since I did it all by myself for half the price of what I could have paid online. Im also just growing bagseeds; I had quite the collection so I germinated a few and now they are sitting in soil. Plan to sprout them then go 12/12 the whole way with some LST of course.

SPECS:
Lighting: 3 23w soft white CFLs, 100w equivalent
Ventilation: 2 80mm 12v PC fans which I wired myself (I know it isnt that smart to have them both on the same side but it is all i could do with my little $20 pc case)
Soil: African Violet potting soil. I know its not the best but I figured since I had it, it would work. Better than Miracle Gro too
Nutes: Fox Farms Happy Frog organic fertilizer. Im going to let them grow a bit before I use any, might buy some specific flowering nutes. I want to keep it organic though
Reflective material: Yes, you are looking at computer paper. It sad but whatever. haha. Its flat white and it does a good job, it wasnt really economical for me to get mylar for such a small area, white still works real well.
Also have some ONA gel for odor control


Like I said its not much but Im pretty happy with it because its DIY. A lot of people bash PC grows but I gotta keep it stealth. There are still a few light leaks on the case that I need to patch up but I just finished it so I figured I would post it and see what everyone thinks.

Comments, help, and constructive criticism is welcome!

nice set up. why wouldn't you take it with you? should work well in a dorm or apt.

I suppose the 300w is a ploy for hits?

Honestly not bad for a newbie by any stretch of either word. Congrats and good luck.

guitarzan420 said:

nice set up. why wouldn't you take it with you? should work well in a dorm or apt.

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We have a ton of parties in our room so there are tons of people in and out, and not all of my roommates are cool with smoking even so I dont want to put them at any risk.

RanTyr said:

I suppose the 300w is a ploy for hits?

Honestly not bad for a newbie by any stretch of either word. Congrats and good luck.

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Well they are 100w equivalents, thats why i kind of put it in parentheses. I do want more people to check it out though. haha. I appreciate the support man thank you

Anytime friend. I too am growing in a pc case atm and always support those who seem to have a head on their shoulders. While I may come across as a rather surly fellow I have a ton of experience and knowledge so if you should need any support just let me know. 'Scribed.

The tip I find most critical for micro grows is don't over-veg. I vegged for over a month this grow but I LSTed my ass off and had to be ridiculously creative when it came to light placement to overcome the size restrictions imposed by the case.

That being said I am now working on a slightly larger growcab because it is tedious as fuck to work with such a small footprint.

looks good for one plant you really have 69watts.. thats barely anything you will need more light

where do you find cfls that plug directly into an outlet?? is there a special name for them

ieatglue88 said:

where do you find cfls that plug directly into an outlet?? is there a special name for them

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its not a cfl that plugs directly into the outlet u can get light sockets that go directly into the outlite then just screw in the cfl there avaible at home depot or a hardware store

heres a pic for you

n it looks good jackpot im doing a grow SIMILAR to a pc case grow but mines a really really small dresser i am using 3 23w cfls too, was told i need more but its all i had the money for but its my first grow and i need mine stealth too so i decided to just do my first to gain experience but urs looks good man hit my journal up once i start it ( just need to buy a fan and some seeds n imma start it ) pm me if ur interested

Tha Dope man187 said:

n it looks good jackpot im doing a grow SIMILAR to a pc case grow but mines a really really small dresser i am using 3 23w cfls too, was told i need more but its all i had the money for but its my first grow and i need mine stealth too so i decided to just do my first to gain experience but urs looks good man hit my journal up once i start it ( just need to buy a fan and some seeds n imma start it ) pm me if ur interested

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3 is fine for now 3 6500k ones is good but your gonna need to buy like a four pack of 2700k for flowering at least for 1 plant more the better

Interesting thread jackpot08. Lot of work for such a small space, but interesting concept. One thing you might want to improve on is the pieces that appear to be cardboard and masking-tape. Home Depot/Lowes has wide rolls of aluminum tape, for duct-work. That's what you want - and you can use a piece of plastic from an old DVD cover - or so, for backing, rather than cardboard.
Looking good - happy grow!

Thanks for the advice guys. I have another CFL I can fit in, aside from light I actually want to get my temps up a bit because its kind of chilly down here in the basement and the hottest my case has got is 74. Today I also did some work covering all the light leaks. I already have the cardboard on the inside hidden now, im just going to hope nobody sees the back. I know it looks pretty sloppy but I will get over it. There were actually vents on one of the sides that I had to cover though, I think I want to put DVD covers over those to make it blend a bit more. Thanks for the idea. I gave some rep to a few of you guys!

Anybody have a good solution to stop light leaks through the fans?

Good luck to the fellow stealth growers out there

Jackp0t08 said:

Thanks for the advice guys. I have another CFL I can fit in, aside from light I actually want to get my temps up a bit because its kind of chilly down here in the basement and the hottest my case has got is 74. Today I also did some work covering all the light leaks. I already have the cardboard on the inside hidden now, im just going to hope nobody sees the back. I know it looks pretty sloppy but I will get over it. There were actually vents on one of the sides that I had to cover though, I think I want to put DVD covers over those to make it blend a bit more. Thanks for the idea. I gave some rep to a few of you guys!


Anybody have a good solution to stop light leaks through the fans?

Good luck to the fellow stealth growers out there

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not sure man i have the same problem(major light leakin out my fans that i just put in) but i hear maybe a type of black mesh or a black t-shirt u can cut so the air still flows threw it try it out and let me no if it works

p.s i gave u rep too

Tha Dope Man

Everyone who is saying you need a ton more lighting is fucking stupid to say the least. I'd say that case is a mid-size atx case, right? That case would be somewhere around .75 square feet. If you need a minimum of (I know lumens aren't additive, but I don't feel like explaining why it works in this scenario) 5k lumens to grow a healthy plant per square foot during flowering, then you only need 3750 lumens inside that case.

Assuming the average 26w bulbs throws off approximately 1700 lumens your case already has that beat by roughly 1400 lumens. Adding another bulb (which is always better) during flowering would bump your lumens/ft^2 up to almost double that. As long as you manage to control the heat issue your plants would thrive in that lighting.

That being said upgrading to 42w bulbs would improve penetration quite a bit, which is always a good thing. Everyone loves penetration. Even plants.

RanTyr said:

Everyone loves penetration. Even plants.

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ahahahahahahah even president obama likes penetration lol

J.F.K got penetration worse then a prostitute getting fuckd by 3 guys while she was on her knees searchin for that piece of crack rock

just a question jackpot should i germinate my seeds or just place them in the soil? i just bought 2 off my buddy n i donno what to do

I germinated my seeds, I just think its easier to start em out that way. Also thanks for the lighting advice RanTyr, it is already pretty bright in there for such a small area, just a mid-tower case. They are making progress so far so im going to hold off on that other light.

Looking awesome Jp, but don't fully diss MG....

lol

TimboSlice said:

Looking awesome Jp, but don't fully diss MG....

lol

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Looking good man! I didnt mean to totally diss MG really I know people get good results from it but a lot of beginners seem to struggle with it so I decided to stay away from it.

Here are some pics of my plants so far. Just the two of em. I am keeping them under 24/0 lighting until they get a bit larger. Ventilation is working well, the case doesnt get more than 2 or 3 degrees over the room temp which really surprises me. It seems to sit at about 78 degrees which is a good temp I imagine. I tried to fix the lighting a bit in the last pic to give a better idea of the color but its still not exactly the same. They are a really true green, looking healthy so far.