FALCAOS FIRST - Autos & CFL - opinions wanted!

Greetings, my names Falcao. Usual story, fed up of prices here in the East Midlands so i've decided to grow my own. As its my first grow, i welcome comments and constructive criticism from those who know what they are doing. My main objectives are learning and i will be on a tightish budget

Internal size:
120cm high
85cm wide
41cm deep

Lights:
125w blue CFL (during veg)
125 red CFL (during flower)
Apollo reflector
4x 20w household CFL (so far)


Ventilation:
Passive intake

Exhaust -
RVK125
5" acoustic ducting
Budget carbon filter


I shall be growing inside an old metal cabinet i had lying about at work, it was rusty as hell, the bottom fell off as it had rusted away. I had to weld the shelf it had into the bottom as a floor, and added legs to raise it off the floor about 15cm.

Using an angle grinder i then cut a hole big enough for my 5" acoustic ducting.



Tbc tonight

Next up i welded a ring around drilled air holes to make a lip to clamp some tights down as a filter for the passive intake. Then i made a bracket with hooks on to hang the main light and screwed it to the roof, and drilled 3 holes for the wires for the main and small CFLs.

A lock was made and welded on for a padlock to compliment the handle lock the drobe had already that engages the latches top and bottom.

The inside was painted white, only a quick job with some left over white paint and a spraygun.
After temporarily wiring the CFLs up i checked for light leaks, as you can see there was leaks galore, so off to B&Q i went, and got some draught excluder, along with chain and s-hooks for the main light.

Heres the result:


Slight leak still at the bottom but as im having lights off from midnight, when no ones around, it wont be a problem

Next it was time to add the diamond reflective sheeting, now i did this pretty roughly with gaffa tape. Then i fed the ducting through the hole and connected it the the RVK i mounted on the wall. Tight fit it was, but not as tight as the carbon filter to the ducting. Couldnt fit it so after half hour i half fitted it as best i could and gaffa taped it tight

Mounted the lights 2 the side, and hung the main light. As you will see shortly the small ones are mounted to the side walls, and as the plants grow i will be fabricating brackets to hang more off the walls

Now for the best bit, the seeds. I bought 2x Ministry of Cannabis Northern Lights Auto Fem, and 2x Big Buddah Blue Cheese Auto Fem, chosen purely because the site i bought them off described them as small. 2 days later they came, but due to the size of the drobe i only got 3 pots, cant remember the size but only about 5 litres each, which will hopefully keep them small. I filled each pot with bio-bizz all mix and watered until water came out into the tray.

One of the BC seeds was alot smaller, so i planted the 2 NL and the larger of the BC 1cm deep into the middle of the pots, and away we went...

That was 36 hours ago, and no sedlings yet :
The top of the soil was dry so using a fine spray bottle i misted the tops till they were damp enough.

I went out and got a temp/hydrometer, and lights on temps were 18c (yet to see lights out temps) so i added a heater to the small room the drobe is in, but that only raised it to 22c. Yet to see lights off temp. Going to have to look into a internal heater, especially considering outside its warm for the time of year and the industrial unit its in has no heating. Any suggestions, fire away.

We have a seedling! The BC is the first to emerge, and has grown about 4cm overnight the quick little sh*t

Forgot to add, last nights min/max was 21c/23c with humidity of 55-60%, that was with a heater in the room. Still think come freezing temps outside that i will need a heater inside the drobe

Day 2 of the Blue Cheese



And finally, after 5 days, we have one of the Northern Lights popping through.




Im really tempted to build a taller drobe out of wood, say 2m x 1m x 1m, kit it out with this RVK125 fan and a 400w HID, and convert this CFL cab to a veg cab using pc fans and no carbon filter, to save a few weeks in every grow

The 2nd NL is still to appear, been 6 days now and im starting to give up hope.

NL1 day 2


BC day 3



Is my 125w cfl the right height?

Honestly I'd go lower

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Dr New New said:

Honestly I'd go lower

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Click to expand...

Ill lower it tomorrow then

I had 400+ watts about 6 inches away from mine

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BC day 7






NL day 6





Ive given up with the last NL and removed the pot. Seems like its Gods way of telling me 2 is plenty inside my small cab.

Well it turns out the seeds aint autos, just regular females.


Ive just bought a 600w hps and a load of mdf :-0