Buddy McNug's First Grow - Indoor Soil w/ CFL & LED - AK99, BB, & random bagseed 2014

Hello Everyone. I am excited to be joining the community here. Now that it is finally legal to grow in my state, I have decided to try my hand at doing a small grow with only a couple plants for personal use. I am completely new to growing anything, so all help and advice along the way would be much appreciated. I have been researching the forums for a while and have a basic understanding of what I need to do, but am still having trouble finding some things like watering guides, fertilizer guides, etc. I will go into more detail about that a little farther down in this first post. Now for the good stuff. Here is the basic info:

What strain is it?
Joey Weed AK99 and BlueBerry. Also a couple random bagseed.

Is it in Veg or Flower stage?
Seedlings - 2 days since they popped above soil

Indoor or outdoor?
Indoor

Soil or Hydro?
Soil

If soil... what is in your mix?
Foxfarm Ocean Forest mixed with perlite

If soil... What size pot?
Starting in Solo Cups then moving to 3 Gallon pots for rest of grow

Size of light?
Starting with 6-8 23w 6500k CFLs for Veg and then getting a 200 - 300w LED for Flowering

Type of grow area?
Using a Sterilite Plastic Storage Cabinet I got at Walmart - 26"(W) x 18"(D) x 36"(H)


I have some very old seeds I am using for this grow. These seeds are over 8 years old, lol. The first two strains I am using for this grow are from Joey Weed, which I believe is no longer selling seeds. Those two are AK99 (AK47 x Cindy 99) and Blueberry. I had started germinating old random bagseed first to get some practice before trying the AK99 and BB. I found that my best method with these old seeds was to give them a 24 hour soak in a cup of tap water then move them to a wet folded paper towel between two paper plates. I then sat that on top of my TV to give it a little heat since my house stays around 68 degrees. After 2-3 days they started showing roots so I moved them to Solo Cups with plastic wrap over them until they pop soil.

In the Solo Cups, I mixed around 60% Foxfarm Ocean Forest soil with about 40% perlite. Here are four of the seedlings while I wait for the rest to pop soil(Couldn't get the image uploader to work so I used the same images I uploaded at another forum):







One of the seedlings has two white spots, does that mean anything? Notice anything else I should be aware of? When I planted them in the Solo Cups, I put the soil mixture in, poured in warm water until it started draining out the bottom, let it drain until it stopped draining. I have not watered the seedlings since then it has been 2 days since they popped above the soil. It feels moist to me, but I am certainly no expert. Should I water them again? When should I first water them and how much? I definitely don't want to over water them as I read that is one of the biggest mistakes new growers make. I know the FFOF soil is rich in nutrients so I probably won't have to feed them anything for a while, right?

The seedlings are now sitting under a bright CFL light on my lamp while I finish the cabinet. I did some research and decided on getting the Sterilite plastic storage cabinet from Walmart:



They sell the smaller one and another that is basically two small ones stacked on top of each other. I am using this cabinet for the Veg cycle and am planning to get a bigger cabinet/pantry to use for flowering. From what I read on forums, that Sterilite cabinet shows the light through the sides and doors pretty bad so I got some flat black spray paint and painted the inside first and let it dry. Then I used spray glue to attach mylar throughout the inside. Tomorrow I plan to work on building the CFL lighting fixture using two power strips with 3 to 4 23watt 6500k CFL bulbs on each. The plan is to use a piece of wood, maybe 2x4, maybe 1x2, and mount the power strips to both sides of the board and either hang that from the ceiling of build some kind of frame to hold it above the lights. I am doing the 6 or 8 CFLs during Veg in the cabinet and then plan to have a 200 - 300w LED by the time they switch to flowering. I plan to cut a vent in the back of the cabinet near the floor for a passive intake and will use 1 - 2 pc fans for an exhaust at the top that goes into some kind of DIY odor cleaning box. I will take some pictures of the cabinet and lights after I get it put together tonight or tomorrow.

Now for some questions I have. Does anyone know of a simple idiot proof guide to watering plants based on their age? Something like week 1, water this much, week 2-3, water this much, etc. If something like that has been written up, I would love a link to it as I have been unable to find it using search. A fertilizer feeding schedule like that would be awesome too.

All questions, comments, and advice is welcome and appreciated. I am learning as I go, so I am hoping I can lean on the forum community here for help along the way. Thanks for reading, looking forward to learning all I can during this grow.

This morning I put the cabinet together and used foil tape to fill in gaps. I used Duct tape to cover the seams where the panels connected then covered that with the foil tape so I hope that helps keep light and air in. Here are a few pictures of the completed cabinet:






Now I am going to start working on the CFL power strip fixture to go inside the cabinet. One of the seedlings is stretching like crazy so the sooner I can get them under proper lights the better. Here is a close up of them:



I will take some more pictures after I have the lighting set up.

I have been thinking about my lighting setup and am considering doing LED instead of CFL for veg. I was going to do 8 23w CFLs for veg but think LED may be a better choice. I was going to do LED for flowering anyway, but I think I may buy a smaller LED for veg. Here are the two I am thinking of:

http://www.mars-hydro.com/led-grow-light-100-3w.html - TOPLed 100x3w

or

http://www.mars-hydro.com/reflector-led-grow-light-48-3w-74.html - TOPLed 48x3w

My cabinet measures 26"(W) x 18"(D) x 36"(H). What does everyone think? These LEDs should be better for temps in my small cabinet, wouldn't they? Which do you think is better? The first one appears to be an older model but says 300w vs the second one is a newer reflector model but says 150w. Both are basically the same price. It looks like from the coverage ratings on their site either would cover my small area. I know that more wattage is usually better, but seeing as how they are both basically the same price from the same manufacturer, does that mean the second newer model is more efficient and is as good or better than the older model 300w one?

I would like to make the purchase by tomorrow morning, so any advice, experience, or comments would be appreciated.

I wanted to update my lighting question above, I am looking for a LED for only the Veg period. I will be using a different LED I get later for flowering and will also be flowering in a different taller cabinet. So I am trying to find out which of those two above are best for Veg. I would not be using it at all during flowering. So, if I got the one with the switch, I would probably not turn the flowering part on until late in Veg before going to flowering. This has me leaning towards the 100x3w unless someone advices otherwise.

Well, I have been told that my cabinet is not tall enough for a LED since the LED would need to be around 18" from the plants. Back to CFLs, I hope 8 23w CFLs will be good enough.

I have another question for anyone that knows about using CFLs. I read that when using CFLs for Veg, you want to get 6500k. I have looked at my local stores and have only been able to find 5000k CFLs. I assume these would work but just won't be as good as the 6500k? Is that right? Should I just go ahead and get those 5000k ones or keep looking around until I find the 6500k CFLs somewhere? Is it that big of a difference? This is only for Veg.