PC Grow Case CFL

Hey all this is my first attempt at growing, I've seen guys having good results with pc grows and decided to convert an old case. This probably cost me $15 to get everything together. The CFLs are very small but I plan to use it only as a seedling/veg starter box and move them outside to flower, and later this year I will be building an indoor flower room. I started with 2 plants and ended up giving the smaller one to a friend, then I had a problem with the plant becoming root bound and eventually transplanted it. I have done alot of LST to the plant and its in organic soil with bonemeal added. The strain is some bagseed Swazi, plant is 45 days old and we have 12/12 outdoor so its no longer in the pc case, hopefully it will start flowering soon. Any advice, criticism and comments will be appreciated

Hey all, unfortunately the last plant ended up turning male on day 50, but I have another plant in my pc case, its currently 14 days, and I have decided on 12/12 from the start so hopefully I will see male/female sooner. My goal is to get a mother plant to donate clones for my next grow.

nice mate!

Thanks bosweed so unfortunately my first plant was male but I wasnt too upset since it was my very first grow, since I dont have much space I can only grow one plant at a time so hopefully this next one will be female. I got some advice from my local forum and I think the last plant turned male due to stress as I grew it in the pc case and outdoors when it was good weather.

Here's some pics of my new plant, pics are from day 20 under 12/12 lighting, and i also topped it

looking good friend keep it up

Those seedlings seem like they didn't get as intense of light as they wanted, making them grow tall at first.
Sorry to hear about the coming of a man, but it's ALWAYS a learning experience. I remember reading a great idea to practice pruning/stress training on males, instead of destroying them.

Now with new seedling, if it's only a couple weeks old, it's not too late to put it back to 18+ hours of light per day. Which would probably be best.
Growing a seed from 12/12 is alright, but it won't start flowering until about week 4 anyways, and it would be better to veg it until it has pre-flowers.

Taking clones from Flowering plants works, and I hear they root fast, but if you want a Mother plant, it would be best to veg her instead of flower.

Compact Fluorescent Lamps, "CFL", which is what you're using, should be about 1-3 inches from leaves of your plants at all times.
Keeping them 1 inch will result in a super fat, short, bushy beautiful child.
Keeping them farther away, like 2 or 3 inches will still keep them bushy enough, but they will start to swell up more as they stretch for the lights.

As long as the lamps aren't more than 3 or 4 inches away from your plants, they won't stretch undesirably.

Good luck brother! Looking good so far. I love your LST job haha.

Hey thanks for the comment guys C.Indica yeh man, I learnt the hard way with the stretching so plants were much closer to the lights, I'm not sure what I want to do with this plant anymore actually just kinda growing for more experience. I'm saving for a 400w hps and then gonna build a 4x4 cab and then this pc case will be used for initial veg (only 2/3 weeks then flower under hps). A new seedbank has opened locally (South Africa) with some very good strains so this is a practice run before my mistakes start costing me money. I took some new pics tonight, Day 22

How loud is it when its running? What temps are inside?

Not loud at all, its in my room and my actual pc is louder than the grow case. I have no idea on the temps, its a super budget grow, if I find a thermo then I'll get since I'll need one for my next grow.

Hahahaha so... My plant is about as tall as yours, and almost 2 months old.
Except instead of like 4-5 nodes tall like yours is, it's more like 12-13 nodes tall. The newest leaves are 11 blades wide, and I'm hoping the new tips will start producing 13 finger leaves soon. Cross your fingers haha. It seems like your plant is still stretching, but if your budding it outdoors, this could be a good thing? I don't really know. I learn everything from books, internet, personal experience, and honestly this next one is the most important.
DARWINISM.
Seriously.

Almost every plant grows the same way mechanically. Like a particular node will put out Leaf first, then Branch, and finally Flower.
If you know about gardening with other plants, or even just walk around town noticing the way different local plants grow to their surroundings, you'll get a very good idea of what you can do to your darlings when you get home.
OH MY GOD I JUST HAD ONE JUST NOW!!!
Muahahaha.


Good luck with your project, I'm interested to see how the veg cab works as this one reaches the lights and starts to get dense.

Hey man, I think the reason its stretching is cos hopefully its gonna show pre-flowers soon, here are pics from day 22 of the other plant and the only difference is the light schedule and its alot bushier than this one,

its stretching because it is too far from the lights.. the closer you put them to the light bulbs, the less they stretch. keep it no more than 3 inches away ..( unless bulbs are really hot ).. plants double in size by the time they are done flowering, so keeping lights close to the plant keep them fat and bushy instead of lanky and tall.. lookin good though, just get those lights closer mang

This is where the plant has been for the last few days, do you guys still think its too far away from the lights?

No it's fine where it is. I'd be willing to bet it's just how that strain grows. I think she looks completely happy. What kind of soil are you using? Nutrients?

Well swazi is a very sativa dominant so I guess it will be kinda stretchy. Soil is an organic mix, with bonemeal and some fine wood ash to help balance ph. Nutrients is a organic sea kelp mix (very smelly) which I mix with tap water that has been boiled and I leave it to sit overnight. For watering I like to lift the pot and check the weight and then do a heavy watering and repeat.

Well looks good to me man! Hope to see some bud from this.

Thanks oldmerchant I dont know if you guys get swazi in the states but its considered an average everyday smoke, I pay R50 ($7) for about 10g but always has seeds and grown outdoor. Most of the really potent strains are ordered online and bred with local strains but usually grown indoors and seedless. Outdoor grown sensimilla buds are pretty hard to find unless its a friend growing it. Hopefully its gonna be a she

Hey all, here are some pics from Day 24, I found a super cheap thermo to check the temps. The average during the day with the lights on was about 28 degrees celcius, and its dropped to about 26 tonight inside the case

General Word of Caution, don't forget to check temps of your canopy as well, doesn't really matter now because you are still early on in the grow, but when it gets bigger check the canopy temps.