Closet CFL Grow - My First Grow

Hey Everyone,

Im starting my first grow tonight. Well, technically Im Germinating my seeds tonight, but I got my grow room all set up.

Im going to be using 6-6500K 23W cfls for veg and 6-2700K 23W cfls for flowering (maybe more depending on size). I still need to mix my soil but Im going to be using 75% Jungle Growth and 25% perlite. The jungle Growth has nutes in it so probably no extra nutes until flowering. I think Im also going to get some smaller pots so I can get another one in the closet.

I left the lights on for a couple of hours to see how hot it will be, looks like about 85 deg. with no ventilation. Ill add a fan in for circulation and that should bring the temp down.

How does all of this sound? Im a complete newbie at growing so hopefully I can get something decent or at least make a good effort. Please feel free to comment, I want to learn as much as possible. Oh, and I KNOW people LOVE pictures so lucky for you guys, I like to take pictures.

Here are some pictures of my setup:

The lights are the 2700K, they will be replaced tomorrow with 6500K cfl's.

I got the idea for the light fixture from malbulja. He has a great DIY Here: https://www.rollitup.org/do-yourself/159868-diy-cfl-fixtures.html

Thanks again for taking a look and please don't hesitate to comment, I appreciate all the help I can get.

Looks like a great set up man. Make sure you read up on CFL growing so you know how to do everything appropriately. It does require a bit different technique than using HO lights. Does your soil have time release fertilizer in it or is just just fertilized? If it's fertilized then the plant could probably go for maybe two weeks before needing nutes, but you wouldn't want o veg it much longer than than with CFLs anyways. If its time release, then you probably wont need to worry about any nutes at all. I saw one grow that used time released nutes that pulled 1/2 lb from 3 plants under CFLs. Be sure to check the soil Ph tho. Many pre-fertilized soils have a dangerously low Ph. Your grow room looks great tho!

Thanks for the info. My soil is time released, the bag says it can feed for 3 months. I do have a ph tester, its got two prongs, one that measures ph and another that measures soil moisture, it even has a light meter on it It was like $10 from lowes, hopefully it will do its job. I put my seeds in a napkin in a dvd case on top of my cable box. Im going in a couple of hours to get a couple of smaller pots and some 6500K cfls. Hopefully I dont have to wait too long for my seed to crack.

Awesome setup, Rentjr. I am working with something very similar myself and have had excellent results thus far. I started off with 10 23-watt CFLs and have since increased it to 22 bulbs for flowering. I love seeing these kinds of hand-built setups. The craftsman within me rejoices. Post updates as you go -- I'll follow it.

rentjr said:

Thanks for the info. My soil is time released, the bag says it can feed for 3 months. I do have a ph tester, its got two prongs, one that measures ph and another that measures soil moisture, it even has a light meter on it It was like $10 from lowes, hopefully it will do its job. I put my seeds in a napkin in a dvd case on top of my cable box. Im going in a couple of hours to get a couple of smaller pots and some 6500K cfls. Hopefully I dont have to wait too long for my seed to crack.

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tastybrains said:

Awesome setup, Rentjr. I am working with something very similar myself and have had excellent results thus far. I started off with 10 23-watt CFLs and have since increased it to 22 bulbs for flowering. I love seeing these kinds of hand-built setups. The craftsman within me rejoices. Post updates as you go -- I'll follow it.

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Wow, your setup is awesome! I wish I had a little more room in my closet but that was the only space I could spare. I will probably have to change my setup a little as she gets bigger. Im going with smaller pots than the one pictured that way I get at least 2 or maybe 3 so I have a better chance of getting a female. Im germinating 3 seeds so hopefully they all crack.

Keep up the good work. are you keeping a grow journal?

Another option to smaller pots is using a tupperware container that is the size of the bottom of your grow area and putting holes into the bottom for draining. That was the roots will be able to use literally every bit of space that you grow area has to offer rather than just what the pots provide. Whats the PH of your soil and what strains are you growing? Hopefully they aren't too sativa dominant or you may want to forgo the veg phase all together and 12/12 from seed. Doing this also will increase female tendencies, although higher temperatures will increase male tendencies.

Be sure to post pics of the lovely (hopefully) ladies

killerfingernails said:

Another option to smaller pots is using a tupperware container that is the size of the bottom of your grow area and putting holes into the bottom for draining. That was the roots will be able to use literally every bit of space that you grow area has to offer rather than just what the pots provide. Whats the PH of your soil and what strains are you growing? Hopefully they aren't too sativa dominant or you may want to forgo the veg phase all together and 12/12 from seed. Doing this also will increase female tendencies, although higher temperatures will increase male tendencies.

Be sure to post pics of the lovely (hopefully) ladies

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I didn't think about using one large container instead of smaller pots. I went to the hardware store earlier today and bought smaller pots (wish I had read your post before I left). I have a quick question about my soil, I read somewhere on here that I should flush my soil until the water runs clear BEFORE I plant my seeds. Is that something That needs to be done? It does have time release ferts so Im thinking that it might not be a bad idea. Also, reading this forum has got me paranoid about over watering my plant (seems to be a common newbie mistake), If its not neccessary to flush the soil before I plant, should the soil be completely watered before I plant?

I dont know what the ph of my soil is, I haven't even opened the bag yet (its in my trunk) is ph higher or lower when it is more acidic? I also dont know what strain im growing, I have a friend that was growing, he moved his plant outside and someone stole it so he decided to stop, he gave me some seeds he had.

I have to work a 12 hour day today so by the time I get home my seeds will have been germinating for almost 48 hrs. I hope they are ready to go when I get home b/c I sure am.

+rep for you and tastybrains for the help

KFN's idea about one container is a pretty good one if you are only raising a few plants. Some things to consider with that approach: firstly, don't make it so big that you can't reasonably handle it. You will probably need to remove it to your bathroom at some point to flush or some such. Also, with one container, if you do not harvest them all at the same time, it will be difficult to reuse the space immediately for a new plant.

For my last grow, I used 1-gallon pots (which is small -- most people tell you to use 3 gallons) for my plants which reached about 2.5' tall. This time around, I am experimenting with a SoG approach in dinky little 1.5 quart containers, keeping them short and bushy by topping them and starting them on 12/12 when they are about 8" high. I was worried that the plants might suffer from the extremely small pots, but so far the bud development looks perfect. I will know for sure in another month!

As for the dirt, I would not flush beforehand. It has nutes mixed in with the soil that are intended to slowly dissolve when they are exposed to water. I think there is a danger there in that too much water could cause too much of the fertilizer to dissolve, damaging the plants. Just plant your seedlings and give it a gentle watering and you'll probably be fine. I have used Scott's and Miracle Gro products successfully for years. A lot of people don't like them, but they are convenient and cheap, and when I first started I couldn't afford anything else. With time-release nutrients in the soil, you will probably not have to fertilize at all for at least the first month or more. Basically, don't fertilize until you start flowering, and then gradually introduce a high-phosphorus fert to support bud development. Time-release soil mixes are usually similar to regular Miracle Gro fertilizer -- i.e., much higher in N than P or K, so you will eventually want supplement with some bloom nutes.

Lower pH means it is more acidic, and 7 is neutral. Miracle Gro and Scott's mixes tend to be about 6.0 right out of the bag. You could add a little lime to keep it stable if you want, but really, you'll probably be fine. It will become a little more acidic over time because of the fertilizer, but you can partially solve that by flushing once or twice over the plants' lives. My personal experience is that the plants will do just fine as long as the soil pH does not go dramatically below approx 5.5, although I think that the ideal is somewhere in the range of 6.2-6.8.

Good luck!

The preflush is more for soil-less mixes as they sometimes contain chemicals from the production process that should be washed out. To water, slowly pour water over the entire surface of the soil to prevent dry pockets. Then pour it in at a steady rate until in starts to come out of the bottom. Wait 1/2 hour to an hour and pour more in until it comes out the bottom again. Then, be sure to wait until the soil is somewhat dry on the top. The rule of thumb is to stick a finger or two into the soil and when the top inch or two is dry its watering time, usually every couple days depending on heat and medium. Over watering is an issue when people water too frequently rather than too much at one time, although you dont want to flood the plants like crazy. Beyond that, I agree with Tastybrains

Hey, nice thermometer!

I'm running cfls as well, it's working great, check my grow journal there's a link to it in my sig.

Best of luck to ya, just do your research and you'll be fine.

Ahh, today couldn't have been a better day. I made some money, my friend scored me some KILLER smoke and I planted my seeds tonight. All three of my seeds were ready to be planted when I got home tonight, one taproot was really small but I planted her anyway.

I changed out the 2700K cfls for 6-5500K 27w cfls. Home Depot doesn't carry 6500K but 5500K should be fine. Im going to do 24/0 for the lights during veg.

My soil is 75% Jungle Growth and 25% Perlite. The soil doesn't say time-released, it says it should feed for 3-4 weeks. I dont know how long Im going to veg for so I may not need any nutes until flowering.

My ph tester is saying that the ph is 8 but im not sure if its actually working or not. Also, I really need to get a fan in there because the temps are going above 80, humidity is about 55%. I hope the high temps wont hurt anything for tonight, I cant get to the store until after 6 tomorrow night.

Anyway, here are some pics of tonights progress.

Those temps wont hurt the seeds while germinating, although it shouldn't get any higher and high temps and constant light will result in more males =(. Humidity level is fine tho. If you PH is 8, you're plants either die or suck really, really bad. PH is one of the most important things for a plant. Either get a new tester if you dont think that one is correct, or if you do, treat the soil ASAP. PH of 8 is 10 times more basic than the plant wants at most and will result in a massive phosphorous, iron, copper, and zinc deficiency. I am not sure if you know how to treat for alkaline medium, so I'll just give you a quick run through. If you do I guess dont bother reading it =)

You're gunna want to add acidic water (add vinegar), I would say around PH 5-5.5 every time you water. This will begin to neutralize the medium's alkalinity. Continue to test runoff from the soil after watering for PH, and as it comes down, you can use equally more neutral water. Aim for around a PH of low 6's. This process shouldn't take more than a couple weeks. When doing this there are a couple things to be careful of. First, if you do start to use fertilizers before the medium has reached that, alter the PH AFTER adding the ferts. Second, try to put the water around the plant, on the medium. Make sure the dirt around the plant is moist enough, but you will be dealing with relatively acidic water and dont want to anger the plant at such a young age. Remember tho, the home it's living in is equally likely to be upset it from its alkalinity.

Personally, I wouldn't recommend vegging a plant for more than 5" or 3 weeks with CFLs (whichever is first, assuming the plant is healthy the whole time). It is definitely possible to veg longer, but CFL light disperses very quickly and having overly tall or bushy plants will not increase yield because the plant will just spread out the buds, rather than produce more. They will at least double to triple in size during flowering. Other wise you can (and would probably want to) get a shit ton of side lights. I prefer to just grow smaller plants with denser buds. MMM makes me hungry just thinking about it.

killerfingernails said:

Those temps wont hurt the seeds while germinating, although it shouldn't get any higher and high temps and constant light will result in more males =(. Humidity level is fine tho. If you PH is 8, you're plants either die or suck really, really bad. PH is one of the most important things for a plant. Either get a new tester if you dont think that one is correct, or if you do, treat the soil ASAP. PH of 8 is 10 times more basic than the plant wants at most and will result in a massive phosphorous, iron, copper, and zinc deficiency. I am not sure if you know how to treat for alkaline medium, so I'll just give you a quick run through. If you do I guess dont bother reading it =)

You're gunna want to add acidic water (add vinegar), I would say around PH 5-5.5 every time you water. This will begin to neutralize the medium's alkalinity. Continue to test runoff from the soil after watering for PH, and as it comes down, you can use equally more neutral water. Aim for around a PH of low 6's. This process shouldn't take more than a couple weeks. When doing this there are a couple things to be careful of. First, if you do start to use fertilizers before the medium has reached that, alter the PH AFTER adding the ferts. Second, try to put the water around the plant, on the medium. Make sure the dirt around the plant is moist enough, but you will be dealing with relatively acidic water and dont want to anger the plant at such a young age. Remember tho, the home it's living in is equally likely to be upset it from its alkalinity.

Personally, I wouldn't recommend vegging a plant for more than 5" or 3 weeks with CFLs (whichever is first, assuming the plant is healthy the whole time). It is definitely possible to veg longer, but CFL light disperses very quickly and having overly tall or bushy plants will not increase yield because the plant will just spread out the buds, rather than produce more. They will at least double to triple in size during flowering. Other wise you can (and would probably want to) get a shit ton of side lights. I prefer to just grow smaller plants with denser buds. MMM makes me hungry just thinking about it.

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Hey man, thanks for all the valuable info. Im really worried about the heat and the ph of the soil. I put a fan in the closet and that keeps things right at around 80 degrees but i think im going to get some mylar b/c it must be the emergency blanket thats making it so hot (they are made to retain heat)

As far as the ph, is that something i can do right away? I just planted the seeds and I dont want to over water them. I didnt water them yesterday so I guess I could water them later today. Im just so scared that they aren't even going to come up out of the soil.

Oh, and do you think I should change to 18/6 for veg? I surely dont want all males

Thanks again for all of you invaluable help.

Nice space you have starting up there! =)

Seedlings have their own nutrients, you should be able to get away with very little watering until they've sprouted and reach for light and start to do that thing they do ;P

-Depending on what you want to do, obviously you're limited on vegging as flowering will inc the size x2 or x3, leaving consideration for your lights, you prolly don't want your plants growing much more than about 1' (if you do grow your plant taller, it will be optimal to setup more cfls as side lighting eventually).
-Many people start directly into 12/12 cycle but you will not be able to do much cloning for future generations if you go this method.
-As far as 24 vs 18/6, for vegging I can't speak much on that, other than I will probably run 24 for first half of veg to boost initial growth and 18/6 for the other half.

Hope the babies are bein cooperative!
~V~

just do it with every watering. be sure to keep the soil most for the seed tho! put a couple tablespoons of water on the seed/seedling for the first little bit. the seed needs to be moist or it will not break the soil

killerfingernails said:

just do it with every watering. be sure to keep the soil most for the seed tho! put a couple tablespoons of water on the seed/seedling for the first little bit. the seed needs to be moist or it will not break the soil

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Hey man, thanks for all of your help, no one else seems to be interested I guess there are just too many newbs in here

Good news! all of my seeds have broken the soil. One actually broke the soil yesterday but it was the one in the back so I didn't see it until today. I tried to lower the lights a little closer because the one in the back seems a little stretched out. a couple of the lights are only about an inch away, is that too close?

I also got a ph tester that work better and my soil is ph 7.5, not where it should be but better than ph 8. My temps still will not get lower than about 85 degrees unless I open the door, I guess its time to start thinking about some ventilation. Im going to get rid of the emergency blanket though and try some mylar first.

Im on my way to work but I will get some pictures posted up tonight.

no worries man, people usually aren't interested until plants are established and pics are goin up. The way to test if the lights are too hot (this is for any kind of light) is to put your hand under the light and move it closer until it starts to hurt. The plant can be a bit further than that point. With CFLs, the plant will be damaged if it touches the light, but other than that, it would need to be really freaking close to do damage, and a little leaf burning is not gunna hurt anything (buring the flowers will tho). One thing to remember tho is that plants in optimal conditions will grow 2" a day. I am not sure of your setup, but you *need* ventilation or the CO2 levels will drop and growth will be inhibited. Not so much of an issue when the plants are young, but something you need to take into account. Use water with a PH of 5.5 and work your medium to that 6.2/6.3 range.
Its great to hear that all of your seeds cracked! Here is some quick info on environmental factors that will cause more male plants: High heat (mid to upper 80's+), dry medium, more light (18+hours/day), low humidity, stress. The opposites will create more females, but if a male plant changes to a female it will tend to produce less than the actual females (but its still better than a male!)

Okay, its been 4 days now since i planted my seeds and they have sprouted. I gave them some vinegar ph'ed with water to 6.5 and put about two tablespoons per plant, mostly on the soil around the plant. I did this last night and so far they are fine.

I've arranged my lights so that each plant has 2 cfls in it's pot. I know some of them are pointed directly at the plant and that's not ideal but I had to turn them like that to get them as close as possible.

My humidity is a little on the low side so i might be looking into getting a humidifier if I can find space to put one. Has anyone had any luck with using ice/ice water as a solution to both the temp. and humidity by blowing it with a fan?

I gave them just a light spray with a spray bottle to wet the top of the soil and the plants. I raised the lights so they wouldn't burn my babies.

All in all, I think everything is going pretty well. I'm excited to see what comes next.

Also, I've attached a photo of the top of my grow room door. There is a space at the top that is the width of the door and about 2 1/2 in. high, does anyone have any ideas on how I can use that space for an exhaust vent? I'd like to make as few holes as possible.

Please feel free to comment. I will appreciate any and all advice you guys have.

P.S. +rep for anyone who can help me figure out how to use the space above my door for an exhaust vent

Hey they're looking good so far, just babies now but they grow up so fast. After the next two weeks you'll be like

For the top of your door you can try installing a couple small computer fans pointed outward to help ventilate, but hot air rises so i think it should be alright as is, up to you. Your therm said 77 degrees and that's pretty good, it's about the same as my temps.

But yeah, don't worry about people not posting in your thread, seems pretty common around these parts (have you seen my thread?)

nice looking cfl setup! will be following!
pic of my new 250w cfl cabinet setup