Birdyboy's first grow (wardrobe(closet)/cfls)

Hey guys thought I'd start my first grow journal, seeds aren't even in pots yet but I'm baked and couldn't wait! XD This grow will be far from sophisticated and it's mostly for experience.
Here's what I've got:
4 germinating KCbrains NL special seeds.
3 20w 2700k CFL's
3 11w 2700k CFL's
only 2 light holders though

Obviously 31w isn't going to provide enough light for 4 plants but soon I should be getting some higher watt and CT bulbs as well as some more light holders.

I'll provide pics of the seeds before and after potting which I'll hopefully be doing tomorrow.

Let me know your thoughts

That sounds like the setup I started with. Only I upgraded to 42 watt CFL's pretty quick. Here is a couple of pics of light holders I made. I bought a ceiling lamp at home depot (like 5 bucks), stripped the dual light fixture from it, attached it to a small board, grounded it to one of the screws, cut off a cheap extension cord(less than a buck) and attached it to the wires, hooked up a timer, and put some hooks on each corner to attach chains to the ceiling. I made a bigger one later on with 4 then one with 6 lights on it. Was plenty of light, but with the bigger CFLs they start accumulating heat so make sure to ventilate. Good luck dude!


Here is the top of a 2 light fixture
View attachment 1290578
A 6 light fixture setup

A 4 light fixture setup

Thanks 2closet your example should be really useful
Sadly I'm from the UK so no home depots to be found, however I'll look for some similar stuff at B&Q when I get some moneys

Sub'ed up for this grow... CFL grows still blow my mind.

Thanks OG panda nice to have you
I've just realised I'm going to be having some space issues, The area I have to work with is 14" by 19" and I have 4 seeds I have to grow until they're big/mature enough to show sex. Any suggestions?

Hey,
I think I should be able to deal with the space issue, if i get 19cm diameter pots it should have enough soil to flower plants in and just squeeze in my wardrobe.
Alternatively I could get 2 long rectangular pots and have 2 plants in each? Which would you guys do and why?
Thanks for any help!
Pics of germinated seeds and (unfinished) grow space to come later today

Birdyboy said:

Thanks OG panda nice to have you
I've just realised I'm going to be having some space issues, The area I have to work with is 14" by 19" and I have 4 seeds I have to grow until they're big/mature enough to show sex. Any suggestions?

Click to expand...

Plants don't show there sex until you flower, unless the plants happen to have a recessive ruderalis gene in them. Remember when you flower plants will double to triple in size depending on the genetics. So.... I would veg them out to about half the size you want the final plant height to be. About a week before you actually flower take some clones from all your plants and label them. Once the bigger plants actually flower, you'll know which clones to toss and which ones to keep. At least that's what I would do....

agreed with OGPanda

Back again, sorry about the delay

Here's a picture of my seeds after germinating and another after potting.




It's been over 24 hours since potting and no signs of breaking through soil, how long should I expect to wait? up to 3 days or am I remembering that wrongly... xD

I'm starting to get a little frustrated about light availability in the UK.
I can't find CFLs that are over 20 watts or any at all with 6500k CT and I don't know how best to rig them up cheaply and simply. I mean 2closet your setup would be perfect but I'm not sure of what the original ceiling light you bought would look like or if I could even find it in the uk. Help/advice much appreciated particularly from UK CFL growers.

So probably too soon for an update due to the lack of... events. But what the hell I'm an impatient man, guess this will be a good thread for those who like to know every detail about a grow haha. So here's some pictures.

My pots, still with unbroken soil, with a single light for no other purpose than allowing me to see what I'm taking a picture of xD



The pots look all empty and upset

Decided I'd drill a hole in the back of my 'drobe for the power cables for lights so went to get the drill out of the garage whereupon I made this serendipitous discovery!



Money saved! (Although I think I'll be going with 24/7 lights for veg)

And here is a shot of my wardrobe from the outside, nice and stealthy
(I've had it since I was a kid and am well aware it is a thoroughly gay thing to have in ones bedroom)

Think I've sorted out my Light setup at least in terms of holders, still can't find blue CFL's but I'll keep looking. I'll show you my solution tomorrow.

.... They aren't actually blue.... just labeled cool white instead of warm white.

I know Panda but they're like gold dust over here

Damn that sucks... just bust out with phone book and call around locally or see if you can't get them online, unless time is of the issue.

well i'll give local lighting shops a call but i'm not a fan of buying stuff online, might have to try get a fluro tube... hm. It'd have to be <47cm though.
Anyways, still no sign of seedlings sadly getting a bit paranoid xD i'm sure they'll be fine. Went to B&Q today and bought 3 more light holders, hoping to have 6 - 9 CFL's in there eventually. Also bought a thermometer just to make sure the temperature doesn't get too low at night with it being winter and all. Heard 15 celsius is the sorta 'limit' anyone got any tips on that?

I would think that's to low.... that makes it 59 degrees fahrenheit.... I would find a source of heat to bring that up a little, so your plants don't start shutting down into survival mode. Also, depends on your genetics on which hemishpere they are accustomed to.

ah no it's 23 celsius (72F) in there atm I just was wondering what was the lowest I should allow for overnight without stressing the plant

Im from the UK, try somewhere like screwfix or maplins, they have a wide range of bulbs.

Edit: and if you can't find any 6500k it's not the end of the world, just chuck a few more 2700k in there.

I think one of my seeds may have sprouted but i'm not entirely sure xD. I mean it's the tiniest little bit of green and I've never seen a picture of a seedling so small... maybe thats because you can't focus a camera on it (as you can see).

I've also lined my 'drobe with emergency blanket material (kelvalite I think, similar to mylar) and you can see my new thermometer here too.

Also Rorstar thanks for the tip I'll check out Maplins and Screwfix when I get some time and money

In other news a friend is giving me a bagseed plant soon (maybe tomorrow) so I'll update soon with pics of that.