Need advice with my setup

[PoDunk]

Okay here is what I have going on so far and what I have to work with...

I put some bag seed in a small cup of distiled water for a few days. Actually about a week because I forgot about them. They grew some nice long tails on them. Was actually startled when I seen them.

Went to Lowes this past Friday (3/26) and bought two 65W spot grows (yes I know they are crap from reading after the fact) and put them in the containers that you see in the picture. I used an extra end table with a glass top. Covered it with foil on 3 sides. The inside measures 23"x19" and the plants are 12" from the lights. Everything is setup inside a shower stall. That is how I have been sitting since Friday. Temp is holding around 75 - 80 under the lights by the soil. I have been adding small amounts of water daily. Oh the soil is Miracle-Gro seed starting potting mix. The lights have been running 24/7.

I bought two GE 400 Watt High Bay Pressure Sodium Light Fixtures today for $30. They already have the 3 prong plugs and run on 120v. The fixture that it sits in is 30.5 inches across! It has a light diffuser on the bottom.

The shower area is 3'x3'x6.5'. In the ceiling light fixture their is a exhaust and heat fan. That is located outside of the shower area over the sink. I have two electrical outlets that are on a GFI. I also bought two emergency blankets today.


How long should I grow my sprouts with my current setup?

A couple of the cubes have more than one plant growing in them. I have a total of 12 in 9 cubes as of now. Do I need to do something about that?

What is my next move? Should I use a CFL light setup to veg the plants or can I use the 400w light that I just bought? It has a Sylvania M400/U bulb which I believe is 4000k.


Thanks for the help in advance. This is my first grow. I have about a week and a half of experience and about 4 or 5 hours of reading.

 

[desertrat]

welcome to rui and growing. kinda fun isn't it? let's see if i can get you started on the right foot:

- think about stealth, even in a legal state you have to worry about thieves. you will need something to handle the smell and some way of making your grow space inaccessible for anyone else.

- you're not getting enough light with your current set up so i'd say go ahead with the 400 watt hps (i'm a little concerned that by your description and price that you do not have a complete system. you need bulb, socket, hood and ballast. sometimes these come together, sometimes you buy the parts).

- the plants are stretched from too little light too far away. if you can, bury the stems in more dirt and keep your lights as close to the top of the plants as you can without burning (use your hand to test temp).

- you only want one plant per container. pull the weaker duplicates.

check out the links in my signature below for more good stuff from this site.

 

[Ledhed]

You forgot to tell him to get rid of that foil. It has zero reflectivity and can actually harm your plants.

 

[PoDunk]

Well as far as I know it has everything. I plugged it in and after a few minutes it lit up my basement like a sob. I even took the clear cover "diffuser?" off it to clean it. The bulb is a M400/u m59R 400w. Has a hook and chain on the back of the ballast too. I got them from a shop that had a whole bunch of them for sale on craigslist.


Dump the foil? Should I put that emergency blanket film on the walls instead?

 

[Ledhed]

Yes, that is much better. Even better than that is to paint the walls white, if possible. If you don't want to, or can't paint, the mylar blanket is good stuff. Try to smooth it out as much as possible when using it.

 

[PoDunk]

Okay so this is what I am going to do...

Wrap the shower walls in the emergency blanket (flat and smooth as possible). I am going to hang the high bay HPS light from the ceiling of the shower. It is about 6.5' from ceiling to floor. So that should leave me with about 5' to the floor. I think I will leave the diffuser cover off. The cover seemed to block a lot of the light. The light fixture is about 31.5" wide. So it is damn near as wide as the shower itself. I will keep the exhaust fan running 24/7. I might have to take the shower door off if the shower area gets to hot. If it is still a problem I will move the ballast to outside of the room.

How close should I put that light on the seedlings?

Is this one HPS with a 400W 4000k 3600 lumens bulb enough light? I have one more of these high bay lights.

Should I move these little guys to individual pots so that I can bury the stem in deeper or should I wait?


Desertrat and Ledhed I appreciate the help. Desertrat the bathroom is in the basement and I put a lock on the outside of the door.

 

[desertrat]

1. How close should I put that light on the seedlings?

2. Is this one HPS with a 400W 4000k 3600 lumens bulb enough light? I have one more of these high bay lights.

3. Should I move these little guys to individual pots so that I can bury the stem in deeper or should I wait?

1. you want to keep a 400 watt light about 2 feet above seedlings for the first two weeks. after that, you can lower the light as far as you can without burning (use your hand to check temp)

2. looked up your bulb on net and it is a metal halide bulb, not hps. so the whole system is probably mh. also 36,000 lumens instead of 3600 which is plenty of light. metal halide is good for vegging but does not have the right spectrum for flowering. you're going to want a hps system for that. if you can handle the heat, a 600 watt hps system is ideal. if not, a 400 watt hps is adequate.

3. wasn't sure from your pic whether you had room to add more dirt or not. either repot into slightly larger pot or plan on staking them up.

 

[PoDunk]

Got the light put in now. I didn't put the plastic around the walls yet. I wonder if the white fiberglass walls are good enough. They seem to reflect really good. The lighting in the pictures does not do it justice. It is actually pretty bright white looks florescent. Probably a setting on the wifes camera that I don't know how to use. I couldn't get her to take the picture for me.

The light to the dirt line is 21" and the bottom of the pots are 24" away. They are in 3"x3"x3" containers.

 

[PoDunk]

Should I run an air duct from the ceiling exhaust vent down to the top of the light? Do I need to cut a hole in the reflector or can I just place the end of the duct above it? Checked this morning and the vent is exhausting the air out the side of my house just like a dryer hookup would do. Nothing special setup right now. It would be like if you were in the shower and ran your exhaust fan. I keep the glass door shut on the shower. Temps are holding at about 80 at the dirt.