Disappointing First Grow. Advice Please

Ok so i just harvested my first plant and i had a total of about 3 grams... spent at least 100 bucks trying to grow this and the end result was certainly not worth that kind of money... Im growing in about a 20" by 20" area but it leaks light and smell any ideas on how to improve the box?

Sorry to hear you didn't get what you were expecting, but don't give up.

Well you will need to give us more info if you want our advice.

What problems did you encounter? Did the plant go hermie on you? what nutes? ventilation? light did you use, etc etc....

You can start by fixing the problems with the box, like the light leaks which could have shocked your plants or hermied them and therefore produced less bud.

For the smell problem you will need proper ventilation and air treatment with a carbon filter.

What temps / humidity did you have during the grow? how long did you veg? flower?

^^^I agree, it looks like no ventilation whatsoever. You need at the very least a fan blowing on the plant. Also proper ventilation pumping out the hot air and bringing in th cool, fresh air. Also more info like stated before, will help...

The box itself looks ok as a start but like everyone said ... Ventilation in/out is essential.
then.
Think about maximising the use of floor space in the box. consider either a wider pot of small tub for the base of the box. or maybe even a small bubbler setup.
either way you'll need to be a lot more ingenious and spend a little more dough if you want the good results.... another option is to sell your equipment on ebay like so many before you.

problems i ran into is the leaves started to turn brown and die. fixed the problem three weeks later with a high yield nute its 20 20 20,

for light i had a single cfl then put two more in during flowering but had to take them out after a week because of how much the light leaked.

3gram wet or dry. ^_^

Will be a hard earned Joint.
Then Start it again !

you didnt get much because you need more light and need the plant to get bigger and ventilation.. and you need ALOT of light if cfl if your expecting to get a decent alot of bud so dont be disapointed use better equipment if you want better results..

what could i get for better lighting for that small of an area?

not really sure.. but if using cfl fit as many as you can of highest wattage . and hope for the best . can get more really unless you have more room.

Obviously my first advice would be to get a bigger grow area, with that small of a cab you will find it difficult to grow much. However, if that space is all you have to work with then here a few things you may consider.

Mylar or paint the inside of that box white so that no light is wasted
Research about the "scrog" technique(I honestly think this alone will help you out more than anything else)
Bigger pot for the plant, no reason to skimp there as a 3gal pot is only a couple bucks. Yes it will be a pain in the ass to water etc, but I am still assuming that this 20" by 20" is all you have to work with. How tall is that cab?
As others have mentioned you need some kind of ventilation, maybe 1 exhaust(PC fan type setup) and a passive intake.
Get creative, build yourself a reflector. If you can get 100watts in CFLs under a reflector and keep it close to your plant as it grows you should see more bud.

My very first grow I yielded a whopping 16.9grams from 1 plant. I was somewhat disappointed but it was also very satisfying at the same time. How was the smoke of your 3 grams?

Build yourself some led lights works great.

Im a micro box grower check out my bottom sig should help you look over it and it you have any ?'s then PM me.

Probably a bad sign when you refer to $100 as "that kind of money". I wouldn't even try to grow indoors without $500 and 6-9 sq/ft.

Man your fine cfl will produce you just need to get your game right. Im more then willing to help and i only started with like probably less then 100 to start just add as you grow buddy.

dude chaulk the cracks n stuff some more plants in there

Haha, when I first saw your cab I thought, "Wait...someone jacked my box!" looks almost exactly like the one I just finished building/using

Mine was about the same dimensions (I had an internal area of 24"x24"x48" and out of plywood too!), and here's what I can def say helps:
-Paint that shit! Flat white. Cheap, no extra radiating heat or taped up/dangling bits.
-Get more lights/hang them! Mine was really cheap/ghetto...I drilled four holes up through the top, wide enough just for some hanging wire, ran a screw about an inch or so to the side of the wire, and wrapped the wire around the screws It was cheap, simple, effective, and I could raise/lower my lights. I had a sorta square bracket setup with reflectors and 6 43w lights going on the bracket.
-Modularize! Get all the power/wires running up top (liquid spills, etc), bring in air from the bottom (I used over sized HEPA filters over my intakes...helps cut down on air restriction which is important in this kinda cab), vent air out towards the top. I also had a sort of tray or rack if you will, that was raised and had all the plants sitting on it in their pots...kept my nutes, tools, etc under there, also helped with light trapping the intakes
-Get more plants in there, and get a fan blowing gently on them. 6 bucks at walmart

Since it's made of wood it's going to reverberate noise which means sticking fans in there is going to make it loud but it's needed as the wood also helps insulate the heat....
To fix the light leaking issue, I had some household door insulation strips on mine and three locks going down the side to keep the door shut completely (with that tall of a wood door it's hard to keep it from not arching eh?). Walmart also has some Duckweather strips or whatever. They're black and look like a V.

I'd take a picture or two of mine but it's currently in a different county oddly enough...

Oh, and keep a fire extinguisher near by...for reals. It's wood. With heat building inside from an electrical light...play it safe and not sorry!

20-20-20 nutes? WTF? In flower? light leaks. No ventilation.

I'm going to catch Hella shit for this but you can't build the equivalent of a Betty crocker easy bake oven, throw a plant in there and expect good results.

If you want to grow your own bud that is awesome, but you have some serious homework to do. In all honesty though, you may want to just hold off until you have proper space, knowledge and gear.

Stick a 150hps in the top of the box get a really high cfm fan like 200 or more run passive intake and you will get phat nugs just have to LST your ass off in that box for a even canopy and go for colas cutting off all bottom nugs. I'd say you could pull like 2 0z probably. Oh and you might need a intake 120mm fan like a 100cfm to blown directly over the bulb and run the exhaust out the back so intake will blow heat off bulb and run a passive intake down at the bottom of the box bam now your banging shit out with the right fans and such you could even go 250w just going to spend a grip on fans might even need a portable ac unit. Or just run 8 26 watt and 12 plants veg for 2 weeks then 12/12 i got 2 oz doing that in a SLIGHTLY bigger box also i run a 150w hps in there for flowering can even go up to ove 300w with cfls and hps in the box. I run one intake and exhaust 110cfm 120mm fans and have 2 inside the box same rating fans blowing on bulbs no heat problems except i vegg'd to long and now my plant is being grow in my closet hahaha