First post, requesting advice.

Hi everyone, Let me first start off by saying how awesome it is to get advice from people like myself who are growing for personal use. This is my first time growing anything in my entire life, so i think I'm off to a decent start. Most of my inspiration for this came from PC grow box antics. Here's my setup.

2x Bagseeds
1x 10 gallon sterlite tote box
2x SOLO plastic cups (Cut in half)
1x Phillips 6 outlet surge protector
3x Ecosmart Daylight CFL 14w bulbs (60w light output)
3x GE Socket Bulb adapters
2x Shortened Sheetrock screws (To hold Sure protector on the wall of tote)
1x Thin plastic Sushi box with 6 hole punched in it
1x Digital Light timer (18/6)
4 feet of Aluminum foil (still not sure about this)
1x bag Moisture Lock Scotts potting soil
1x bottle Miracle Grow Liquid Houseplant food

As i said before this is my first time growing anything. So I wanted to make sure that i at least attempted to do it right the first time. Now, Here's my conundrum. My first plant (the one in the red cup), is almost as tall as the sushi box. The sushi box is very good at holding humidity while the tote doesnt seem to, nor do i want it to.. could get dangerous when the surge protector gets humidity in it. What should I do? I'm still trying to figure out which ones are male or female. I'm getting the impression that it's still to early. I think I'm on week 2 or 3. Should i remove the lid of the sushi box and just spray the plants for a little while? On another note, I'm worried about the one in the blue cup. I'm not sure if it's growing correctly while the other one is thriving.

also, any tips for ways i could make this better? I'm always open to constructive criticism

thanks!

~Rave

Read the first two links in my signature below and most questions you have will be answered.

firstly, i would get rid of the foil.. with all of those wrinkles, it can cause hot spots and burn your plants.. you can either just line your tote with some white paper or paint it white with some flat white or semi gloss paint and get better results..
next, i would stop using that sushi container as it looks like your plants are past the point where they need such high humidity.. i think they will do just fine in the cups inside of the tote without the sushi container from here on out..
i'm not a big fan on foiliar spraying myself.. i woiuld just continue to water them when they get thirsty untill they get to be about a month or so old, at which point i would start to use some of that fertilizer at 1/4 the strength of what the bottle says to use.. once a week you can bump it up by another 1/4 or so till your at full dose.. if you notice any nute burn, just back off on the nutes by a 1/4 till they don't show anymore burn..
and just water, feed, water, feed, etc, and you should be golden.
also, its wayyy to early to tell sex.. usually you will see signs of preflowers at around a month or so old, or good signs of flowering a week to ten days after you induce flowering with 12 hours of light, and 12 hours of darnknesss..

hey man looking good so far...u might want more light later in the grow...i would go to the hardware store and buy 3 light socket spliters(turns 1 light into 2).and that should be plenty of light...as for you set up its baller...one thing i would change though is that tin foil...when its all crinkled like that it sends the light a bunch of different way and it actually burns ur plant and causes heat spots...so i would flatten it and you will be golden. or you can buy a bunch of those party ballons that have mylar and cut those up...works way better than tin foil.
PEACE & POT

you dont want moisture lock soil. your roots are going to be soggy and not happy. pot like to get its drink and dry out a bit and take in air, then get wet again. unless you are going to ammend that soil with some perlite or peatmoss just return it to the store or get rid of it. iv used stuff like that before and it killed 2 of my plants when i started out. other then that your not off to a bad start things to try to stay away from tho are clear containers, and all MG products as it tends to burn pot. with cfls you always have room to improve and its easy to just buy a few more. one thing to keep in mind is a 13 watt cfl is 13 watts. dont compair that to 60 watts here nobody grows with incandesent. buy the 8 packs of 26 watt cfls at wal-mart for like 12 bucks and as many as those socket addapters (99 cents) as you can get your hands on. good luck bro =)

@Racerboy71 : thanks for the advice. I removed the Foil and relined the inside with white computer paper.. its What i had on hand.

@growingforfun: Great tips man thanks. with the 26w cfls make that much of a difference? i'm not opposed to getting them I'm just curious. Is there any specific bulb i should get? Cool white or whatever along those lines, I really had no idea what i was doing when i bought my first bulbs, I just figured daylight bulbs were as close to real light as i was going to get.

should i purchase a small fan or wire up a computer fan inside there to get some airflow?

What kind of soil do you recommend? (i really dont want to have to mix my own soil even though i know that it is probably the best option [i'm looking for simplicity as it's my first grow]) and is it worth it to stress them out by transplanting them into the new soil so soon?

Raveus said:

@growingforfun: Great tips man thanks. with the 26w cfls make that much of a difference? i'm not opposed to getting them I'm just curious. Is there any specific bulb i should get? Cool white or whatever along those lines, I really had no idea what i was doing when i bought my first bulbs, I just figured daylight bulbs were as close to real light as i was going to get.

should i purchase a small fan or wire up a computer fan inside there to get some airflow?

What kind of soil do you recommend? (i really dont want to have to mix my own soil even though i know that it is probably the best option [i'm looking for simplicity as it's my first grow]) and is it worth it to stress them out by transplanting them into the new soil so soon?

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if you dubble the watts you dubble your yeild so yes it makes a differance. always get as many watts as possible and the 26 watters are VERY cheap. i always think you should have a fan on. they serve 2 goals, first they keep air moving so it doesent heat up n there as much and also it helps make the salk and branches thicker and stronger so they hold up the buds better. cfls produce weaker branches and stalks so thats somthing your going to have to keep an eye on and maybe tie the branches up in flower so they dont snap if there weak

alright i'll make a run to the store tomorrow. What about my soil question?

fox farms ocean forest with some extra perilite.

oh sorry dident see you also asked what soil. as xivex said tho fox farms is great and easy to find. if theres a hydro store near you go there, google is a great tool in finding one local. personaly i would prefer using peatmoss then perilite since perilite floats around when i water and it ticks me off lol it gets the job done well though. if theres roots organics soil around where you live thats what i use and i like my results from it, my only complaint about it is it seems it lacks a bit of N so you can give your plants a bit heavyer dose of nutes if you see a lack also.

if you dont live near any hydro store theres sunshine mix and theres all sorts of soil mixes in here for you to look up

theres a hydro store nearby

apparently this is what they have http://portal.n-g-w.com/Default.aspx?TabId=69&searchBy=menu&criteria=112108049051&page=2

i'm not entirely sure of what type of foxfarm to buy

http://portal.n-g-w.com/CatalogResults/tabid/57/subcat/FF_OCEAN_FOREST/Default.aspx

or http://portal.n-g-w.com/CatalogResults/tabid/57/subcat/HORT_ROOTS_ORGANIC/Default.aspx the green camo bag.

you may want to go with fox farms soil and nutes since they dont have roots nutes.

personaly i would prefer to just use the same brand stuff since its made to go with each other rather then mix n match. also foxfarms has more cred here =)

foxfarm nutes on that webpage too?

Raveus said:

foxfarm nutes on that webpage too?

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yep, they have the full foxfarms nute line. tons of other nutes also but not roots organics nutes. kinda shocked me since they had several differant kinds of there soil lol

which nutes do would you recommend after getting that foxfarm soil?

Raveus said:

which nutes do would you recommend after getting that foxfarm soil?

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the foxfarms nute line. if it costs too much to buy it all just talk to the people there and talk to them bout your tomato needs. dont worry about it, they wont judge you or whatever your worryed about. remember they work there its they job to help ppl and in my experiance there general nice people just dont ask them stupid questions or use the words weed, pot, or marijuana. other then that talking about yeild, flower size, bloom size, plant size growth rates, leaf problems all that type of stuff is generaly fine and where i live the ppl love to chat and help trubble shoot any problems i have (as long as i dont use the bad words)

i should buy all the nutes?

as for soil i had been reading a guide on this forum from a user named "Widow Maker". He seems to have a lot of success using foxfarms "Light Warrior" soil for seedlings and then "Ocean forest" for veg

also, Was thinking of getting one of those emergency/space blankets to stick inside my tote.. I'm not sure as to whether it would cause extra heat especially with the 3 new 26w bulbs i'm going to put in it today. Any thoughts?

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