Micro grow with CFL and HPS (22"x42"x18")

After months of watching and learning from many of you, I began my own micro grow this past weekend.

The space is small: It's a recessed cubby space I am making into a cabinet. It is 42 inches tall (but there is a slant that starts around 36 inches high. It is 22 inches wide and 18 inches deep. The bottom is about 2.8 square feet.

Three seeds germinated in paper towel were planted in soil on Sept. 13. By the night of Sept. 14, one had sprouted above the soil. This morning, Sept. 15, another sprouted above the soil. The third is yet to sprout.

I have five 26W CFL bulbs (1750 lumens each) for a total of 8750 lumens going 24hr/day right now.

There are two fans set up. One is hanging from a shelf and blowing toward the plants. The other is oscillating above the plants in a hope to keep things cool. The temp is between 80 and 85 and humidity (so far) is between 40% and 60%.

As the plants get bigger, the plan is to add a 70w HPS security light above and use the CFLs on the side and below. The space will likely only have room for one or two plants (with some LST action) so I have three going (and maybe more) in the hopes that at least one is a lady plant.

Below I will post some pics of my set up (which is still under construction, but I figured if I don't get them sprouting, I won't be driven to finish the construction).

I plan to wait on adding any nutes for at least two weeks. I am hoping some of you experienced growers out there can help tell me when the best time is.

I plan to let the soil dry out before I add more water.

I have the little guys in Jiffy degradable plant starters so i can just drop them in a bigger thing of soil when the time is right. I plan to use Scotts Moisture Control soil.

The first pic is the overall set up and space (with door removed). That shelf only cuts off about 1/2 of the top from the bottom so there is plenty of air circulation from the oscillating fan on top.

2nd pic is the bottom part (below the half shelf), showing the 5 CFLs and the plants, etc.

3rd pic is of the first plant to break through the soil

4th pic is of 2nd plant to break through

5th pic is of the 3rd plant, which is yet to break through

6th pic is of the thermometer

I welcome any advice, criticism, insults and good wishes.

Nice little corner u have there, just be ready to bend those branches, or raise the roof cuz they are gonna want to be 6' tall. oh and thanks 4 tha potato idea, i will start today and let you know. currently i have hundreds of them stuck to fly papers in there, but they continue to reproduce...

Thanks. I plan to do LST. I've been lookin around to see when the best time is to start. I think saw you, OutdoIndo, do it early on and with paper clips. That seems to make some sense.

I was planning to probably grow a foot then start the flowering. What do you all think?

Keep me posted on the potato.

What's up everyone. So, the cabinet saw some impressive work this past weekend, as you can see from the pics i will post below. These little ladies (I hope) were planted 8 days ago.

A bathroom-style fan was put in the upper right corner (you can see the 'top' of it in the pic). It's feeding into a three-inch hole in the left side of the space. Since it's been on, the temp has dropped about 15 degrees to 70F. Do you think that is too cold? I am afraid it is. Maybe I should keep the exhaust fan off for most of the day?

I also have the 70W HPS running (it is in the pic next to the exhaust fan). It is much hotter but as you can see is farther from the plants for now. I have the five 26W CFL bulbs (two are hidden by the little desk fan attached to the wall) about 5 inches from the three plants so they are getting good light but with the circulation going there is a lot of air movement in there.

There is a hole for intake air behind that book in the bottom right corner, but i have it covered until i can get a screen over it. That hole leads into an unused crawl space.

The lights are still on 24/0. But as you can see, there is a timer in there that is hooked up to the lights. When do you think I should change it to 18/6? Or something like that. I was thinking maybe when I move them to bigger pots. Which is another question I have. When should I do that? I think the sonner the better.

I still have to make the cabinet light tight. The plan is to do that some time this week. Once more leaves start growing and i transplant them, my plan is to start LSTing them around the edges of the pot. So I could, I think, have two plants in this little space. But might be better off with just one. Anyone have a suggestion?

And when should I start putting the nutes in? One of the plants (#2) has brown/yellow edge. I just used seedling soil with phosphorous to get them going but plan to move them to something basic soon. Check out the pics and tell me what you think and if i should change anything. Thanks a lot to everyone.

great job with controlling with your temperatures. in my small case its a hard problem to tackle