New to growing, this is my setup..Will it work?

Even so, it gets too hot and uses too much electricity and If that's the case it's not an option. Also, I had already purchased all this stuff and it cost me a pretty penny so I don't wanna scrap it all and start fresh you know?
 

SeeRockCity

Active Member
go with what you have till you can afford more.
The one in the link I posted is awesome for starters.
one 600W MH will probably use less or about the same energy as all those CFL bulbs.
The big benefit to saving for a new light is that they are more efficient.
You get more lumes per watt...thus giving your plants more UV while using less energy (comparatively).

One of the coolest things about the set is the hood enclosure.
I can almost have my buds smack flat against the glass of my 600W HPS and it wont burn.
the vented hood works wonders when you use an evac fan and a small piece of duct to direct the exhaust.
I have it in an enclosed closet with duct for evac and it's staying a perfect 80F (ok, so maybe not perfect, but close!)

Keep your CLF going and work on controlling your environment, reflection and nutrients.
Once you have enough $ to grab an HID light you will have enough experience with all the speed-bumps of growing that you will probably amaze yourself with the yield.

Seriously man, worth the money!!
 
I appreciate all of your help everybody, and yes if I do well I intend on making the investment of getting better equipment but as of now, I have spent all the money I can on my current setup.

I have fans ready to go, added more cfls, and I'm going to pick up the proper vegging ones and save the ones I'm using for flowering, I also added more foil and I'm thinking of covering the stands they are on with white ducktape although it will take forever. As I said I have the fox farm nutrient trio and when they're about 2-3 weeks into growing I'm gonna start them up on that, also have organic fox farm happy frog soil.

Edit - in about 45 minutes I'm going to turn the lights back on, thus completing the plants first 18/6 cycle, nothing yet but that's to be expected.
 
So now I think it's too cold down there, how cold can it get? because right about now it's probably 55-60 maybe more including the heat from the bulbs, I just turned up the heat but do you guys think this may have stunted the growth of the seeds? Or is it not that big of a deal because it isn't really unbareable.

Edit - it's now at about 72 maybe more so I fixed it, but it was definatly like that for hours...hope they still grow!
 

berkman858

Well-Known Member
Well that looks like you wired that yourself, not to be down on myself, but I don't think I'm capable of constructing any light fixtures.

I'm thinking of connecting hooks to the power bars, and taking a bungee cord and hanging it from the ceiling so maybe that would work better, but as they are now I can move them up or down, do they need to be closer?

Also I still need to know if the lights are going to be enough to get them started atleast.
If you can rig up some wood, either wood dowel or narrow piece of wood such as a 2x2, over the top of your plants you can zip tie the power strips to the wood and that should help to aim the CFLs down and provide better coverage for plants. Good luck!

Now that I think of it, if you can rig anything straight like even a broom handle over your plants you may be able to secure your power strips to it.

Another note, please check your total Amperage on the circuit that you are using and make sure you are not going over 75% of it's capacity because that could cause a fire. I see a lot of CFLs and then you kept saying you were adding more so I think the count is at something like 48 CFLs right? :mrgreen:
 
Well thats a really good suggestion because I could just use some screw eyes and hang the boards by chains,as for it causing a fire I don't think it should, right now in total I am using 19 cfls at 13 actual watt usage, for a total of 247 actual watts being used, I think it should be ok. I'm also not going to add more until I have enough money to pay for proper wiring. I WILL however switch these out to 6500ks so if the wattage on those goes up, I may have to use less but I'd still have to say it should be fine.

My only problem at this point is, it got pretty cold in there for I'd say over 10 hours, this wouldn't neccessarily "kill" the seeds right? If it was too cold they would just simply not grow right? They wouldn't be dead or anything right?
 

sworth

Well-Known Member
Nah, they'll be cool (pun intended) You're right; they'd just think "Sod getting out of bed, it's bloody freezing!"

Couple of days...patience. (Which is okay for me to say; I'm harvesting today:weed::clap::weed:)
 
haha thank you dude you've helped me alot and they didn't even start yet! XD

And that's awesome! direct me to some pics if you post em!!
 

bobswelad

Member
hi there, im a neewbie to the growing but could maybe give you some help... i see your growing space there is concrete or brick so if your on a budget get some big sheets of card board or wood if its avalible and paint it white and set it around your plants for some closure and reflection of light to your little ladies, hope this helps you :lol:
 
Hey guys, thanks again for the advice, and yes I have already covered the walls down there with aluminum foil raised the temperature, got a thermometer, and oghazy, I already have 3 fans ready to be utilized.

Still haven't sprouted yet, but that's ok, in about 2 hours I'm gonna turn the lights off so they're almost done with their second 18/6 cycle.
 
Very nice, you got it set up official, you have either an HPS or MH bulb..I'm envious :(

I'm gonna take some more pics when they sprout.
 

bobswelad

Member
thanks smoketheregs, its 600hps, they will pop up for you... how did you germinate them, i just put mine in a wet paper towel and put it in my biscuit jar lol and they sprouted after 3 days then i put them straight into 11litre pots and thats where they will stay untill harvest..
 
I didn't germinate them, I picked the best seeds from the bag I could find and I planted them in the pots you see there (2gal)

I've planted seeds I didn't germinate before and they've started off fine so hopefully these will too.
 
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