CFL Trash Can Grow

Doing an indoor trash can grow with some CFLs. Sorry my last thread got erased, so I'll just sum up the grow (my first, minus a super basic outdoor grow). (4) 23 watt CFLs @ 2500K, (1) 42 watt CFL @ 6700K, Local Bag Seeds (Usually an outdoor grown strain), the soil is just this "organic" compost I bought at a local hardware store (hard to find soil here for some reason), 24/0 light right now, temp is averaging around mid 90s, watered with a 350ml bottle screwed into the soil. I looking to try and keep the plans small and do some kind of scrog variant (I have netting I'll be putting up later on) Just looking for some thoughts, ideas, advice. Here are some photos I had up before of my setup and the plants.



Its only a few days later but here are some updated photos including the newly sprouted baby heh


The bigger plants are at about a week and a half, and the sprout it 2 days old.

Also what would be the best way to sex these plants. I want to sex them as early as possible considering how confined the space is. Thanks in advance for any advice.

Also I want to try fimming the plants. When would be the best time to do that?

Fim early. Earlier the better as far as I'm concerned, it gives them more veg time to develop their new tops.

Great idea! I am using a huge Rubbermaid and just went 12/12 yesterday. Might have to try this out though in the near near future. Cheers and good luck

flowering super early eh im excited to see this one take off... keep the updates coming along.. sorry to hear about ur old thread

surprised noones told you mid 90s is WAY to high. You need it down to something like 75-80 tops. I see you have two PC fans on your lid. Im assuming one is intake and one is exhaust? What I would have done with your setup is made both on the lid exhaust, and i would of attached another larger PC fan on the bottom of the trash can. Then I would of taken something like 3 or 4 1 to 2" wide wooden blocks and set them in the bottom of the can for "feet" for the actual pot to sit on so the intake air could flow freely up an around the pot and plant. Then set the actual trash can on 2-3" tall "feet" as well so your pulling in cool air from floor level. This I think would lower your temps considerably.

are the blue pipes at the base your "passive" intakes? I don't think they are large enough to give you the airflow your actually needing in such a hot setup. Its a good looking setup for sure I just think you need more incoming air to vent the heat off those CFLs

Hey thanks for the feedback guys, been busy with exams the past few weeks. Ill take some pictures when I can and upload them.

@hankdank yea man some people were saying it was a bit too high, but I realized it was way too high. As of right now I just prop the lid open some to alleviate some of the heat, which seems to have helped a lot, the plants gained back some of their color. The fans are actually both exhaust fans, and the blue tubes are passive intakes to allow the air to pass by the plants. I was trying to keep them small to minimize the light leakage. I'm going to be installing stronger fans to see if I can get a better exhaust going. I was actually thinking about the fan underneath when I was creating the setup, but the fans I was looking at were going to add too much to the cost. Though now that I've got new fans. I may place at least one intake fan on bottom side if the new fans aren't strong enough to bring down the temp.

My buddie did a can grow too, i agree that can really heats up bad bad bad!

Here's some photo updates guys. They were yellowing before, but I gave them some nutes (19-19-19) and lifted the lid to cool and they seem to be recovering. I put in the new fans, but haven't installed the ones on the bottom (I have nothing to cut with other than my pocket knife, so its a little bit of a hassle heh), for the meantime I just have them place in the bottom to circulate air better. I think Ill still keep the lid lifted for now just to be sure not to burn them out with the heat. Also guys the fans I bought have blue leds and I didn't realize it. How do you think that will affect the dark phase? Thanks as always guys for the replies. Sorry Im slow to update but school is really busy.

@zubey91 yea man I knew it was going to get hot since it was a contained spaced, but I didn't realize how hot it really was going to get. I was hoping using cfl's might help with the heat, guess not so much haha.

Just thought I'd post an update of the plants. What do you guys think about the discoloration the tips and a bit of curling of the leaves?

One thing you could do to improve your garbage bin is to line the inside with reflective material... either thick mylar, car windshield reflector, or reflective duct tape. Like everybody else is saying you should get some air intake from the bottom and use the top to exhaust. You won't be able to use your LED fans. They will mess everything up. Go get 2x 4" dryer booster fans, 1 for intake and 1 for exhaust. you can easily hook up 4" dryer ducting to intake or exhaust air to and from wherever you want. Why don't you just grow in your closet without the garbage bin? Your plants will get more airflow and you will spend less on electric because you won't need as many fans.. The fans you do use will all be directed towards the plants to strengthen the stems and to refresh the air for the plants.

bds460 said:

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Just thought I'd post an update of the plants. What do you guys think about the discoloration the tips and a bit of curling of the leaves?

Click to expand...

Looks like nute burn and overwatering to me.

go get a bag of miracle grow for 5 dollars next time

@beast yea I wish I could grow in a closet, but I have no closet inside my apartment to grow in heh. And actually I now have to two intakes at the bottom as well as the two exhaust fans. Theres actually a decent breeze going through the can, enough to give the plants a slight sway and hopefully strengthen them. The temp is down a lot from before, at ambient temp now (about mid eighties).

@kano Haha yea I wish I could have, but I couldn't find any miracle grow here. It was really annoying, would've made life easier heh. For now I'm just using nutes (19-19-19) in my water every third or fourth watering.

Lol'd when I read the thread title. Subbed, should be interesting to see how this turns out.

invest in some soil...not miracle grow though! fox farm, Roots organics, maybe even black gold..it loos like you used gravel from the side of your house

Like I previously mentioned I was going to try this......instead I half used it I have a trash can, CFL with aluminum reflector and six clones in my set up. I am actually going to get two more cans and they will be my veg bins. One has been going for about ten days now and I really like it. The lid is off so I don't have to worry about heat once they are of size......into the flowering room they go, rinse and repeat I have a large Rubbermaid 3 feet x 1.5 x 2 That's I keep my LST mothers in as well. When I finally get my laptop cord back I can upload everything. Thanks for your idea it really helped me out. The great part about this when I am not vegging the trash cans can be put away neatly with all the equipment.