2nd CFL Grow. Rubbermaid setup. Hoping to avoid the mistakes of last time.

I did a closet grow the summer before last. They were going great for quite a while, and then a couple things went wrong.

First and foremost, I waited so long to try again because my first time I made that potentially devastating rookie mistake of RUNNING MY MOUTH TOO MUCH! Thankfully it didn't lead to me getting caught, but I spent the last couple weeks a paranoid wreck. It actually led me to harvest a little early, as you'll see in the pic I provide. This time, the only people who'll know what I'm up to are the good folks on this here forum.

Also, they hermied on me about three months in. I think I just screwed around with the plants too much. Getting too ambitious and wanting to clip a little sample now and then. Again, rookie mistake.

But I still would up with about two ounces of good albeit quite seeded bud. For a first grow, I think I did alright (it could've gone much, much worse), and this time I hope to do better.

I'm doing rubbermaids this time instead of a whole closet because I've moved, so I'll have about half the space. I'm using the same seed, if this one goes alright I'm gonna get some proper seeds online for the next grow.

Right now they're only germinating, I have six seeds with the intent to plant 4 with the intent of getting two girls (I don't think I'll be able to hold more than two) and I won't have my proper setup ready for about another week, but I have enough to get the seedlings started.

I'm thinking:
8 25-watt CFLs, maybe 12 if I feel like it needs the extra light.
Scrog and topped a couple times to keep the height under control and get the most light exposure to my bud.
Not sure what soil yet, but I'm not a threadbare shoestring budget this time. I can't say money is NO object, but I'll be able to afford good soil, and the proper equipment to test the pH and such.

This is what I yielded last time, like I said, I chopped prematurely, but I'd never been that paranoid in my life! I dreaded going to sleep because I had nightmares every night where the cops were watching and closing in. And the fact that it turned out good DESPITE everything that went wrong at the end really makes me think I can have some good shit.



Pics after my little weedlings sprout. I'm at the VERY beginning right now, I only put the seeds in moist paper towel about six hours ago.

Actually, now I'm leaning toward a grow tent. I saw that I can get one in the size I need for under a hundred bucks. That may suit my needs better, since I was a little worried about light leaks and odor control, etc. And it'll look a lot less conspicuous than two totes closed in on each other with cords coming out of it. I intend to keep it in a closet and I live alone, but the more stealthy, the better.

Not much to report yet. Seeds haven't germinated yet. I have them in paper towel and it's been 48 hours, so I'm a little concerned there. I know it can take longer than that, though. And it's been around 65-68 in here, maybe that's a little too cold for them to germinate but it shouldn't be. I know that's a little on the cool side, but I was planning on the lights to make up the difference for the next couple weeks until it finally gets cool enough for me to start running the furnace. The beauty of my new place is that I have a basement, with central heating and central air, none of which I had last time. So, come summer I don't have to worry about those 90+ days fucking up my girls.

If it turns out the seeds are no good anymore, I suppose I could go ahead and order the Blue Mystic ones like I was gonna do later, but all this shit takes TIME, and I was hoping to get my first harvest in by the holidays, which is a viable goal for the size plants I'm looking to grow.

Also, I've pretty much got my heart set on the tent now, yeah, it's a little more, but not as much more as I thought it would be-- the totes were a little are than I figured they'd be. And I'd have five feet of vertical space instead of three at the most. I don't really want my plants any taller because with CFLs it's better to keep them shorter and bushier, but now it won't all have to be so crammed together. Also, they look pretty convenient and I could probably stash it in the basement more discreetly.

Hey, first off just plant all the seeds, you can always remove more later on. If 3 out of 4 are male youll be bummed.
Also, have you thought about getting a cabinet to grow in? You should be able to get great cabs for almost nothing off ebay, craigslist or somewhere. Its less expensive, less obvious looking and you can build in a lock.
Last recomendation, is HPS an option for you?

Yeah, I think I *WILL* plant all of them, since I'll have a little more room than I originally planned, and they don't smell early on. Of course, there's still the fact that they have NOT YET GERMINATED! >.< Maybe the seeds have just gone bad, I last planted from them in May of last year, and I don't really know how old the weed it came from was. Couldn't have been THAT old, though. They're probably two years old, and I kept them a pill bottle in a dark space, so they SHOULD still be good.

Possible that they are not too good anymore, although low temps have caused problems for me in the past during germination so that might be holding you back as well.

Well, they finally cracked. I woke up this morning and found four seeds with tiny little taproots starting to form. Now I just have to wait for them to reach a quarter inch, hopefully I can plant them tonight. I moved them from my dresser drawer to a kitchen cupboard and turned on the furnace overnight. Maybe having it a steady 72 in here was enough to get them over the hump as it were. Two haven't cracked, but they probably will by tonight. If not, I'll give them a little while yet before I declare them to simply be dead seeds.

So that's a relief, since I was anxious to get this underway. Watching them sprout into little weedlings was one of my favorite parts of the grow last time, especially when they started to really look like little pot plants. ^_^

Got four planted, I'll do at least one more tomorrow, it had only JUST cracked this afternoon. The only holdout yet was also the littlest seed, so it's possible that one's a dud. But, for all I know it's cracked, too. It's been about ten hours since I least checked.

My "nursery" is in my closet, it's just a lamp with some y-splitters to hold four CFLs. But as I was getting ready to type this up I realized I'd be better off using my extension cord and plug-to-socket adapters like I did last time to SUSPEND the lights over the cups. That's what I planned to do once I got my tent as well. Call it a lapse in thinking, but I had to rummage around to find stuff to put the cups on so that the seeds could sprout nice and close to the lights, and for some reason I overlooked that most obvious solution that served me so well before.

But yeah, still hoping to have some smokeable by Christmas. I plan to switch to 12/12 14 days in, so I think it's viable. If it's not ready then, so be it, but I want to try. I read that Buds for Less, and he got 8 oz. across three plants with about the same lighting, and in 70 days. I don't expect THAT large a harvest (though I'd be quite happy to reap such a bounty ^_^), but I think half that is no pipe dream.

Is it the most bud I can get from a plant: hardly, but I want to keep it small. Nothing wrong with a small grow if that's what suits your needs.

Okay, I'm calling it at five. That last one should've cracked by now. The one unplanted seed that I saw had just BARELY cracked yesterday had a nice, long tail on it today. I my others just BARELY under the dirt because their taproots were still pretty short, but I pushed away some of it to expose them better because they weren't getting any upward thrust and all looked like they were on the verge of opening up completely, and I didn't want to suffocate them. So that was about fifteen minutes ago.

I have to leave for class in a couple hours, and they may very well be showing their... embryonic leaves? Is that the name for those two first, round ones? I forget the name, but THOSE might be showing by the time I leave. It amazed me in my first grow how much the seedlings would progress over just a couple hours. Since they've more or less sprouted, I'm gonna go ahead and call today:

DAY 1

DAY 2

I gots me some weedlings! It's amazing how much those little seedlings can grow in just their first couple hours. I woke up around 4:30 this morning (much to my chagrin... and I couldn't fall back asleep >.<) and my first sprouted plant looked like the middle photo (that's a different plant, though), and the rightmost photo is what it looked like at 9'ish.

And there's a pic of my temporary nursery here, more commonly known as a closet. I've got them about 3-4 inches from the lights. It's a delicate balance right now, I know that during most of the growth that's about the maximum distance they should be, but I also know when they're this young they can die from overheating very easily. I'll just monitor them over the next couple days and see how much stem growth I have, that'll be an indicator of whether or not I have placed them the proper distance. Don't watch too much stem, I wants me some long, continuous, hard rather-phallic-but-that-really-doesn't-enter-into-it buds!

This is such a fun part of the process. And just to know what they're gonna look like in a mere two weeks is really something. I think for my favorite part of the grow, it's a toss-up between the seedling stage or when the first buds start to show! Well, that's excluding HARVEST, obviously. ^_^

Not much else to say. I'll probably do daily pics for the next few days until the growth doesn't so much slow down, but the proportions even out a bit. (What I mean is, when my biggest sprout grows another 1/2 inch, it'll have doubled in size. When it goes from 5 inches to 5 1/2... not so extreme.)

Oh super! There's a hydro shop about 10 minutes from here. I'll check it out in a couple days and hope there's a grow tent in the size I'm looking for. I'd be willing to pay a little extra to not have to deal with ordering online, I'm a LITTLE antsy about that. I guess I'll find out.

Day 2-and-a-half

They're kinda going every which way. I hate to use the expression, but I think it was just the result of a brain fart. I was sticking the seedlings right under the ENDS of the bulbs, and then realized "FOOL! These lights are horizontal, you have these two-inch length lights and putting the seeds only under the ends?" And that would explain why they faced a strange direction if they were trying their hardest to face the optimum light. So, I put them more under the middle of the bulbs.

They're a nice healthy green and still growing, though, so I think they're still healthy. One looks like it could do better, we'll see. Sometimes it just doesn't take, I lost one last time as it was sprouting, too.

My mind is racing a mile a minute on how I want to do these. I'm still committed to the tent, and I think I'll probably go with twelve lights. I mean, another hundred watts? That's another 12 cents a day for who knows how much more smoke, but almost certainly enough to justify it. I think I'll top at least once, I just saw a grow journal that really showed a stark difference between a single cola and multiple. That also means I'm probably looking at three weeks before a switch to 12/12, maybe a couple days less depending how quick I get enough nodes to a do topping.

I'll have enough vertical space to not require a scrog anymore. I'll still give a try one of these days, but I think I'll stick to one new technique at a time. Last grow, I topped, this time I'll top and LST to make a more even canopy.

Day 3

Well, I think I was right about why they were all craning their heads all wonky, because today they're all perfectly upright and healthy little plants. ALL of them, the one that wasn't looking like it was gonna make it last night, I'm pleased to say is a perfectly vibrant little seedling today. Pics later, perhaps.

Day 4

Took some pics, and I cropped them to size and centered on the tops of the plants with minimum scaling so you could see them in ALMOST the same high resolution as my originals are. day_4f there is probably my favorite photo, it came out just perfect.

I would've hoped the stems hadn't grown as much as they had, but as you can see from the pics, they're now only two fingers' distance from the bulbs, about 1.5".

And really, it's not the stem at the bottom that's the problem, it's when they stretch between nodes like mad. I DEFINITELY won't let that happen, my first grow went wrong at the end, but they were bushy plants.

Using those plug-to-light-socket adapters and extension cords worked GREAT last time, but I think instead of moving the cords up and down to adjust the lights, I'm gonna use some chains and eyelets, since I can do much more precise adjustment that way, and they'll stay in place better.

I'm expecting my money today, so by the end of the day, I'll either HAVE a nice, new grow tent, or I'll have one on its way. The closet I have them in right now has those folding doors, and there's slits in them. So, it light leaks like mad. I have them on a 24-hour cycle, I hope to switch to 18-6 when I get my tent. I wanna give that a try, and hey, that's six fewer hours I'm running the meter.

I'd do it now, but I don't know if the darkness has to be complete like it is during flowering, and I don't want to risk doing harm. Also, I need to get a timer. Another purchase I intend to make today. The timer I had last time went crazy on me at the end of the grow, I had a power outage about a week or so before harvest, and I could never get it to work accurately after that.

Well, the shop didn't have tents, and the ones they could've ordered for me would've been like twice what they were online. But I DID get myself some pots for really cheap, and a nice bottle of Foxfarm Big Bloom.

So, I got home and placed an order. While I had the credit card out, I went to grasscity and ordered me a slick little ceramic bong, screens, and a grinder. And I arranged to score a bag of the good shit, hopefully one of the last bags I'll have to buy for awhile! ^_^

Hey, just as a quick tip you could build some reflectors for the cfls.


Originally Posted by mogie
HOW DO I MAKE A SIMPLE REFLECTOR FOR YOUR COMPACT FLUORESCENT?

To build this reflector you will need a regular soda can, any brand will do, which you will need to rinse thoroughly until no residue is left inside. You will also need a good pair or scissor and a robust kitchen knife to cut the metal accordingly. An alternate method to remove the lid, would be to use a can opener. The lip of the lid can be used, and it will cut it cleanly. These tools should be chosen carefully as they will determine over failure or success of this construction. A lack of caution and a sharp metal edge can be fatal to your fingertips so think twice if your tools are capable of doing the job.



How and where to cut:
Firstly, draw a plan of your cutting path on the outside of the can using a permanent marker or a wax crayon. This will aid you to get a better overview of you plan and to avoid silly mistakes on the way.

Cutting the top part of the can out needs to be done first, adjusting the opening according to the size of your bulb. You do not have to cut it exactly to shape as glue (super or high-temp hot glue) can be used to stick the reflector to the bulb ballast later on. A can opener is the preffered tool for this job. The reflector is purposely not covering the ballast to ensure good aeration and to avoid damage to the ballast components, resulting in a short circuit.

Next, you will need to cut the main part of your soda can in half using your scissors. A hole may need to be drilled first using your kitchen knife to get a good starting point for the scissors.

The inside of the can is coated with a thin plastic layer that should not cause any trouble cutting through the sheet metal. The bottom side of the can does not have to remain in place but leaving it will add stability to the reflector and enhance the reflectivity. An extra hole can be cut into the bottom as well to improve ventilation along the bulb or to connect a 50mm pc-fan to the end.


Lastly, two more cuts have to be made into the sides of the semi-circle reflector to ensure that the sides do not reflect the light back to its origin but rather focus it to where it is needed. The reflector can now be bent according to your light requirements thus making it possible to focus it directly on your plants. If your reflector does not quite fit the bulb yet you can now use glue to stick it to the ballast.

Yeah, I've built those before. ^_^ Thanks for the tip, though.

Day 8

Lookin' pretty good. I'd do pics but I'm kinda busy as all hell right now.

I think once sex has been determined, I'm gonna scale back the grow. Well, if I need to, I mean, I may only end up with one or two females anyway. How much odor prevention do you suppose one or two small females will need? The problem is I can't afford the inline fan and scrubber right now (if I REALLY get overly paranoid, I'll just cut this grow short and try again when I can afford that-- which would be around late January). I know from my last grow that it wasn't god-awful, and I used NO odor control.

Like I said, I'll chop them if I don't feel safe enough, and just wait a couple months. It's not an issue yet, though, nor will it be for a few more weeks yet.

I've um... been smoking the last couple days. It made paranoia set in almost instantly, but sometimes that's a voice to listen to.

How much odor can you afford? Is there anybody in the house that shouldnt know about it?

I live alone, but I'm in a townhouse. I'm on the end of a row, but I still have neighbors on one side. The worst part is drying, but I'm going to water cure, which I did last time and loved. It was done in a week, gave me a smoke I loved, and it makes the drying process all but odorless.