This should be okay for now?

[deprave]

I am doing an experiment, my first grow attempt, I have a pretty roughly built structure for my seedlings. Germinated 3-4 days ago and planted today and yesterday (8 total, hoping a few at least break ground.), it is all bag seed...This is my seedling chamber and I plan to move to something better once they get to six inches, I also have 5x 2700K CFL bulbs that I plan to add for flowering. I am doing 24/0 right now but I plan to go 12/12 once they are only about 6 inches tall.



-3x 5500k 27 WATT CFL bulbs - hooked directly to power strip sitting on floor of the box

-MG Moisture control in 16 oz party cups

-cardboard box roughly 12inches tall, 20 inces wide, 20 inches deep

-pan of water for humidity

-A large fan on a very low setting to blow out holes punched randomly in box

-blankets covering the box for stealth and to hold in heat

-it is staying about 80 Degrees F

Here is some rough pics, I will take some better when I get more time, really bad lighting and I can't move it to better lighting for pics atm....

 

[willworkforweed]

I am doing an experiment, my first grow attempt, I have a pretty roughly built structure for my seedlings. Germinated 3-4 days ago and planted today and yesterday (8 total, hoping a few at least break ground.), it is all bag seed...This is my seedling chamber and I plan to move to something better once they get to six inches, I also have 5x 2700K CFL bulbs that I plan to add for flowering. I am doing 24/0 right now but I plan to go 12/12 once they are only about 6 inches tall.



-3x 5500k 27 WATT CFL bulbs - hooked directly to power strip sitting on floor of the box

-MG Moisture control in 16 oz party cups

-cardboard box roughly 12inches tall, 20 inces wide, 20 inches deep

-pan of water for humidity

-A large fan on a very low setting to blow out holes punched randomly in box

-blankets covering the box for stealth and to hold in heat

-it is staying about 80 Degrees F

Here is some rough pics, I will take some better when I get more time, really bad lighting and I can't move it to better lighting for pics atm....

Marijuana grows pretty fast. Once the plant comes up from the ground, it should reach 6 inches fairly quickly (a poor grow set up would only be 2 weeks, a good grow set up could be less than 1 week). If you were to cut the light cycle to 12/12 at only 6 inches, you would only be giving them a week or two of vegetative growth, which is not nearly enough. You want to give them 1 to 2 months of vegetative growth.

Secondly, marijuana plants grow a lot bigger than 12 inches tall. Even the LowRyder strain gets bigger than that. The height of your grow box really depends on the strain, though 3 to 4 feet is usually recommended.

Another thing, you want about 1.5 square feet of space per plant. You have 8 plants (some may not survive, but you can't count on that happening). That means you'll want 12 square feet of space. A 3 foot by 4 foot grow box would be better. 20 inches by 20 inches is just too small, and I would only recommend putting 1 plant in a grow space of that size.

Now, onto the lights. You can use the 5500K bulbs, but 6500K is more ideal. However, you only have 3 27 watt CFLs for the vegetative stage. That's roughly 5,000 lumens. And your grow space will need to be in a 12 square foot space. The general guide is at least 3000 lumens per square foot, but 5000 is better. So you want to get 36,000 lumens at least. For flowering, you'll want a little more. Remember, flowering is when you get the actual buds. Ideally, you would have 10,000 lumens per square foot, though 5,000 should be good.

 

[deprave]

Marijuana grows pretty fast. Once the plant comes up from the ground, it should reach 6 inches fairly quickly (a poor grow set up would only be 2 weeks, a good grow set up could be less than 1 week). If you were to cut the light cycle to 12/12 at only 6 inches, you would only be giving them a week or two of vegetative growth, which is not nearly enough. You want to give them 1 to 2 months of vegetative growth.

Secondly, marijuana plants grow a lot bigger than 12 inches tall. Even the LowRyder strain gets bigger than that. The height of your grow box really depends on the strain, though 3 to 4 feet is usually recommended.

Another thing, you want about 1.5 square feet of space per plant. You have 8 plants (some may not survive, but you can't count on that happening). That means you'll want 12 square feet of space. A 3 foot by 4 foot grow box would be better. 20 inches by 20 inches is just too small, and I would only recommend putting 1 plant in a grow space of that size.

Now, onto the lights. You can use the 5500K bulbs, but 6500K is more ideal. However, you only have 3 27 watt CFLs for the vegetative stage. That's roughly 5,000 lumens. And your grow space will need to be in a 12 square foot space. The general guide is at least 3000 lumens per square foot, but 5000 is better. So you want to get 36,000 lumens at least. For flowering, you'll want a little more. Remember, flowering is when you get the actual buds. Ideally, you would have 10,000 lumens per square foot, though 5,000 should be good.

thanks a lot for you input, I do plan to move to a bigger area once they are about 6 inches tall, I plan to start veg early because I don't have enough space, I have an additional 5.5k bulb to add once they get bigger and also 5 flower bulbs in the 2700k to 3000k range. I was planning to try the 12/12 from seed method basically SOG - I will definitely keep your advice in mind when I move to a new area, thanks a lot. I really don't plan on all 8 surviving very far but If they do I will be moving 3 outside when they reach about 1ft.

so you think it will be a higher chance of success if I veg for atleast of month instead of doing this 12/12 right off the bat method I have been reading about..again my space is limited, the new grow chamber I am looking at making should be about 2.5ft height, 20 inch deep, 22 inch wide. Unless I can think of something better...

Total lumens I am looking at about 48,000K for flower bulbs and 22,000K of that are veg bulbs. (multiplying the lumens 5.5K and 3k) (am I doing it right?)...So I need more for the veg? Total real watts would be about 243 Watts

 

[willworkforweed]

thanks a lot for you input, I do plan to move to a bigger area once they are about 6 inches tall, I plan to start veg early because I don't have enough space, I have an additional 5.5k bulb to add once they get bigger and also 5 flower bulbs in the 2700k to 3000k range. I was planning to try the 12/12 from seed method basically SOG - I will definitely keep your advice in mind when I move to a new area, thanks a lot. I really don't plan on all 8 surviving very far but If they do I will be moving 3 outside when they reach about 1ft.

so you think it will be a higher chance of success if I veg for atleast of month instead of doing this 12/12 right off the bat method I have been reading about..again my space is limited, the new grow chamber I am looking at making should be about 2.5ft height, 20 inch deep, 22 inch wide. Unless I can think of something better...

Total lumens I am looking at about 48,000K for flower bulbs and 22,000K of that are veg bulbs. (multiplying the lumens 5.5K and 3k) (am I doing it right?)...So I need more for the veg? Total real watts would be about 243 Watts

Oh, I see what you're doing to get the total lumens. The 6500K, 5500K, etc, those are just temperatures of the bulb. It's the spectrum, not the lumens. The lumens should be labeled on the bulb package. Just add up the total number of lumens you'll have at one time (not both sets of lights together). Then divide that by your square feet. If your number is above 3000, you're good.

 

[150wHPS]

I was under the impression that lumens weren't additive, but watts were.

if someone can elaborate I would be greatly appreciative.

 

[pokesalotasmot]

I was under the impression that lumens weren't additive, but watts were.

if someone can elaborate I would be greatly appreciative.

Lumens are a unit of light intensity. Watts are a unit of electrical usage. Both are cumulative. More watts does not necessarily mean more lumens. For example if you compare 600 watts of hps light to 600 watts of cfl light, the hps puts out more lumens than the cfls.