"Critique My Growing Box"-bre

I have been using a vintage toy chest as a night stand and have recently turned it into a "growing" box. The box is about 3' tall and about 18" square. I am running a 32wat energy saving light bulb I salvaged from an old lamp. The walls are covered with aluminum foil and i have about 50 odd holes drilled in the back about a quarter inch in diameter.
My objective is successfully grow and harvest one plant regardless of quality. While doing so undetected to other residences of my home before investing in fancy gizmos and gadgets to grow quality marijuana.(low budget as possible)
I have about 10 seeds(random seeds picked up from bags of reggies) germinating on the top shelf of a dark closet and plan to plant all of them fearing I will kill everything. I managed to score some organic potting soil made for growing tomatoes and plan to use, say a 3 gallon bin to grow out of. I do have on hand just some plane old miracle grow laying around i plan to use unless referred to do otherwise. I was also just going to use tap water. As far as air circulation goes I can't think of anything other than the holes i drilled that wouldn't set off any suspicion. I do very frequently run a box fan next to the box as it helps me sleep, but if it were to also help with my plant I would leave it running more frequently.

I have never done it so dont know but what about 12/12 from the start?

I read something about that, but would that mean to get them to mature I would have to cut down to 8 hours a day? Or is 12 the min?

I also just read about spraying with salsa water. It that a commonly used practice to increase quality or in my case sustain life?
And are there any other practically free tricks to help?

12/12
wtf is salsa water? I would say no.
In ur case I don't think so.... you couldn't prune i don't think

salsa water is just carbonated water.

Ok, no trimming.

And I've been seeing everywhere that you should have your light a certain distance during certain times, but the light in my box is static. Could i perhaps kill the plant by not being able to move it higher or could it not grow b.c i would be too high?

mach thanks

The closer you can get your light source to the plant without burning it, the better. CFL's don't create as much heat as other lights so you should be able to get your plants pretty close.

FYI, its seltzer, not salsa.

Even though cfls dont create much heat in open spaces they will in small closed off boxes.

you have to be able to move the light bub. Also you need some ventilation in that box, looks as though a little computer fan might do.

Also get rid of the Foil it only reflec about 40% of light back, paint it flat white to get 80% reflection

When painting would spray paint work? And should i avoid any chemicals in the paint or does it matter?

Instead of moving my light, could i instead bring a 2nd light in at the earlier stages? And then remove when i want the plants to flower doing so leaving it on a 12/12 the entire time and simulate fall with less watts instead of less light per day? :/

I'm still having trouble finding info on how to keep my plant small if anyone has any 1st and advice it would be much appreciated.

Thanks for the advice,

(Will be planting germinated seeds in a few days and will post pics)

Mr. Ortiz said:

When painting would spray paint work? And should i avoid any chemicals in the paint or does it matter?

Instead of moving my light, could i instead bring a 2nd light in at the earlier stages? And then remove when i want the plants to flower doing so leaving it on a 12/12 the entire time and simulate fall with less watts instead of less light per day? :/

I'm still having trouble finding info on how to keep my plant small if anyone has any 1st and advice it would be much appreciated.

Thanks for the advice,

(Will be planting germinated seeds in a few days and will post pics)

Click to expand...

if you want to keep the plant small, get some seeds from a dwarf strain - easy/low/diesel ryder, speed devil. if you've got a normal strain, then you can either lst or scrog it (look that up, really helpful)

i guess you can paint the walls with any kind of paint, just let it dry out good.

get more lights! at least 4 23 watters. you can buy Y splitters or a powerstrip. you don't have to move your lights, you can move your plant! put it on top of a dvd stack or something.

yeah, and get some ventilation - get like 2 or 4 cmfs (one blows air in, one out)

Thank you.

In regards to air circulation I have to keep a low profile. I do have 2 old computer power supplies and was thinking about using them.

Ok, need: more lights, better air circulation, and paint walls white.

I will post pics after i have made renovations to cannabis's residence. Hopefully I can do so before my seeds are ready.

Thanks for the advice much appreciated.

Flat white

You can keep most plants "small" by just doing alot of LST'in, and yea Flat white paint type doesn't realy matter but I'd recommend a Oil based one as alot are mold and fungas resistant, it should say on it if it is I find "CIL" ones are if you can find that brand.

My advice:

Dont paint. Put up mylar.

Ive painted cabinets before...and they take weeks to fully get rid of the fumes.

Believe me, you dont want to grow in a painted/fumy box...it will affect your crop.


White paint is good, if you have little $$ to spend, and a few weeks to let it air out. But mylar is only $18 per roll...and its way reflective.

Also, get whats called an "Axial Fan". Theyre like PC fans...but much more powerful, and relatively cheap.

A good brand is Eco-Plus...I got a 105 cfm 4.5" fan for $35. It vents out my 30 Cubic feet veg box well. Keeps the temps down and such.

Also, look into getting some better lights...try out maybe a 125w or 250w CFL with a reflector. Theyre pretty cheap...maybe $120-150 for a full 250w CFL setup. Cause that one CFL you have in there wont really cut it...And you'll also want to place it horizontally, rather than hanging it vertically.

You mightve noticed that it puts out more light on the sides than it does downward...this is true with almost all lights...their sides put out the most light.

I don't know what that person is talking about it dosen't matter what type of white paint but it does. Flat white reflects light white, it says it in every how to grow article you can read. Now mylar reflects alot, but get dirty real fast and is very hard to clean. The two best things for grow ops is black and white poly then flat white paint. Thats it.

theres Oil and Latex based paints