some questions on small stealth grow

Hello everyone

Ive been looking and researching this and other forums for the past few days. i am going to start growing one or two plants indoors. i have very limited space as I will have to do a stealth grow because i live with parents. size is most important, at the most my growbox will be around only 15" tall and not very wide atall. i want to know your view on the best method to use for growing one or two plants under these circumstances, whether it be scrog or lst.
im thinking of using cfl's but need your help with which ones to use and how many. I was thinking of getting away with just two lights. i dont have a clue how i would work the lights in such a small place, ive heard of something called ballasts, do i need to use this for my cfl's, otherwise how would my cfl's work ?
during my research, I came across another thread with someone elses stealth cfl grow and they also had a very small growbox. It was recommended they went from seedling to flowering 12/12. i want to know how to acheive this and if anyone could write a guide for me. is this force flowering ? if anyone has any other things to add or other tips please tell me. im just a beginner so excuse me if ive made any mistakes.

SmokeTwoJoints said:

Hello everyone

Ive been looking and researching this and other forums for the past few days. i am going to start growing one or two plants indoors. i have very limited space as I will have to do a stealth grow because i live with parents. size is most important, at the most my growbox will be around only 15" tall and not very wide atall. i want to know your view on the best method to use for growing one or two plants under these circumstances, whether it be scrog or lst.
im thinking of using cfl's but need your help with which ones to use and how many. I was thinking of getting away with just two lights. i dont have a clue how i would work the lights in such a small place, ive heard of something called ballasts, do i need to use this for my cfl's, otherwise how would my cfl's work ?
during my research, I came across another thread with someone elses stealth cfl grow and they also had a very small growbox. It was recommended they went from seedling to flowering 12/12. i want to know how to acheive this and if anyone could write a guide for me. is this force flowering ? if anyone has any other things to add or other tips please tell me. im just a beginner so excuse me if ive made any mistakes.

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I think 15" tall is gonna be too small. Once you put pots and lights in there their won't be much room for a plant to grow. Look around on this site. Lots of people have had successful grows with cfl's. Check out my grow in my signature. Its being done with cfl's in a small grow box. Cfl's have built in ballasts. You don't need to worry about buying a ballast until you get into HID lighting. Cutting the light cycle to 12/12 does cause the plant to flower. Some use 12/12 through veg and flower. I am going 24 hours of light for 3 weeks then cutting to 12/12. It's my first grow so I can't say what works best. Hope this helps.

RaginCajun420 said:

I think 15" tall is gonna be too small. Once you put pots and lights in there their won't be much room for a plant to grow. Look around on this site. Lots of people have had successful grows with cfl's. Check out my grow in my signature. Its being done with cfl's in a small grow box. Cfl's have built in ballasts. You don't need to worry about buying a ballast until you get into HID lighting. Cutting the light cycle to 12/12 does cause the plant to flower. Some use 12/12 through veg and flower. I am going 24 hours of light for 3 weeks then cutting to 12/12. It's my first grow so I can't say what works best. Hope this helps.

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thanks i'll be sure to check out your grow. what do i connect the cfl lights to, to get them working. im still going to have to keep to a very small growbox, i'll say 19" at the very most ? any suggestions on how many cfl lights and which wattage for one or two plants ?

It depends on your growspace. Squarefootage to be correct. Look at the watts and lumens that the cfl's produce. Your minimum you need will be 3,000 lumens per square foot, and your goal will be about 10,000 lumens per square foot. To give you a referance, a 24 watt cfl puts off roughly 1600 lumens, I think. CFLs work out of normal light sockets.

I'll go ahead and say this now, before someone else does, it is not recommended to grow in your parents house without their knowledge. You put their lives at risk (burning down the house) and their house at risk (could be seized if you get caught) all over a few plants. Buy your weed for now, and grow when you have your own house. If you still wanna grow, do it outside gurilla style. Your parents worked hard for that house, don't screw them out of it.

On a side note, if you were to grow, I really wouldn't recomend growing in that small of a space. 19" can be done, but usually only by people that have experience. Try growing a normal plant, then with practice you can cut it lower and lower. The pot you plant in will take at least 6", the lights take up another 6", and you need to keep them around 2" away from the lights. That leaves you with 5" for a plant to grow. Most four foot people wouldn't enjoy being crammed into a 5" space, I don't think your ladies would either. I recomend a MINIMUM of 3' of vertical grow space for first timers, probably closer to 4' or 5' would be better. Just in my opinion though. 19" doesn't really give you much room for error, or much space to learn.

is it possible to put a growbox outside ? i live in scotland so growing outside without artificial lights would be near impossible.

it is possible, as long as the temps are ok

i am still going to grow inside. can someone explain to me how i could "burn the house down" or prevent this ? and also my parents house would not get taken away from them as i would only be growing one or two plants for personal use.

You'll have to germinate 3 or 4 seeds...You would want to SCROG all 3-4 of the plants...wait 'till you've got some decent veg growth and start flowering them...pull the males and try to find a good female. Keeping her under a screen during flowering will keep her short enough maybe. You'll need at least 6 inches for the pot/soil and least a good 3 or 4 inches for the light.
You could germinate the seeds in a 20 oz. Dixie cup, wait till the plants are 5-6 inches tall and start flowering all in the same cup but being that short and using cfl's I doubt you would yield 5 grams per plant..which isn't worth the risk IMHO.

It depends on how big the plants get, and the area that you live in. Some places hand out fines for anything under five plants. Other areas determine it based on weight. Cops can be dicks about it and have been known to weigh the roots, and occasionally the dirt that you grow in as part of the plant. Adds to the weight. Everything that you use to grow becomes drug paraphanalia. The watering can, the pots you plant in, the lights, it's all drug paraphanalia and can be confescated. You can then get citations on top of those items, in addition to you growing. Certain states have drug taxes that need to be paid then. If you get caught with illegal drugs, there is a tax on them (such as $1,000 per pound of mj or something, depends on the state). The law is designed so that you have to pay the tax BEFORE you get caught. If you don't, there is a 100% penalty. If you don't pay this the governemtn will put a tax lean on yoru house. Its a double fuck the government puts out to get you. Plus, two plants if caught in bloom could have enough for the cops to determine you were intending to sell. All of this means you have to go to court and get a lawyer to represent you. That costs cash. I'm assuming that you don't have as decent of a job to get you out of it, so your parents would be paying. Two plants can get you in plenty of trouble. And yes, it is theoretically possible to lose your house from it. Many people on this site have.

"Burning the house down" is done through carelessness and alot of electronics in tight spaces with little experience and few precausions taken. It's not very difficult for a 19" grow box with home-made wiring and home-made 'insulation' to turn into a tinderbox. Especially when you shove it under blankets and cardboard boxes, or other rediculious crap that some people do.

I'm not trying to poke fun of you, or tell you what to do, just advise you. You can do whatever you want, I would just prefer not to see you fuck up your life is all. When you have your own place you can roll the dice as you like, control more elements. Alot of people on this site consider it to be an insult to grow under your parents nose without their knowledge or permision. But again, do what you wan't, I'm not here to control you.

Dutch1976 said:

You'll have to germinate 3 or 4 seeds...You would want to SCROG all 3-4 of the plants...wait 'till you've got some decent veg growth and start flowering them...pull the males and try to find a good female. Keeping her under a screen during flowering will keep her short enough maybe. You'll need at least 6 inches for the pot/soil and least a good 3 or 4 inches for the light.
You could germinate the seeds in a 20 oz. Dixie cup, wait till the plants are 5-6 inches tall and start flowering all in the same cup but being that short and using cfl's I doubt you would yield 5 grams per plant..which isn't worth the risk IMHO.

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im going to buy feminized seeds as space is an issue so i would not be able to keep three or four pots in the growbox and wait untill flowering before sexing. im going with lst so most likely i would increase my yeild with bigger buds, so i think your a bit off with five grams per plant.

keep in mind that not ALL feminized seeds will turn out to be female. Just a generally large percentage of them.

envirolite there self ballasted and cost about 70 quid you could just get the £30 bulb and put it in a house socket as long as its a screw type cheap light but youll need to get two bulbs blue and red one at a time the blue first it comes in 125w and 250w and are very good for what you want to do you can touch it when on.. but the space youve got will be near on impossable because of the pots and light size especialy if its your first time because i try'd the same when i started and i've been doing it a long time now and still prob woulnt be able to do it.. you'll never hide the smell mine stik already and there only two weeks you an get a carbon air filter but its expensive because youll need a fan and ducting but its good to bring fresh air to the plants what is good.. plus there are feeds that you can use to force it to bud but cant help there word of advice be very cairfull with electric and fires esspecialy fires....