First time growing in card board box

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tylerplumtree

New Member
My first post on this site and it is my first time growing. I have made a cardboard box that is a decent size. I have totally covered the inside with aluminum foil for reflecting light. I have seen many videos and sites and the lighting principle changes quite a lot. My seeds are currently still germinating. When the roots pop out and i plant them in solo cups I should be able to fit about 10 cups in my box with still a pretty decent amount of room leftover. once put the cups in the box, at first how much light is required and when should I add more light? Im going to put a fan inside but probably not an exhaust fan. what are the downsides to that? thankyou very much
 
drudigger

drudigger

Well-Known Member
Please don't use aluminum foil as a reflective surface, Either paint it white, or use some mylar blankets and tape them up you can get a mylar blanket for around 99c to $1.50 the aluminum foil will create heat spots and kill your girls.

Also as for the lighting for 10 seedling i say around at least 10k lumens but than again i am a beginner as well maybe someone else can elaborate on this but i think 1 t5 should do it for a few weeks and then about a row 3-5 t5's or Some dual spectrum hps and you can use that throughout your grow And really you want at least 2 fans for air circulation. but if your only going to have a intake put it close to the bottom, this will get the cold air in the room into the box rather than the mixture of warm-hot-cold etc air that isn't what you want in there and could cause problems later on. But i do recommend using a exhaust fan at the top of the box along with the intake. Also what are the dimensions of the box? Do you plan on using it throughout the grow or is it just for seedlings? I am not a big fan for keeping a plant in a cardboard box past 4 weeks in veg since in flower the box can rot on you from the humidity levels (especially if you don't have a exhaust).
 
theleach

theleach

Active Member
Go to Walmart and get those reflective sheets for the inside of your cars windshield. They work great.

But unfortunately cardboard boxes are probably the worst thing to have your plants in. Its not really healthy for the plants, gets extremely hot inside, and i've always been a little paranoid it could somehow burn or something (depending on your lights)

If i were you id get a few windshield reflectors and use them as walls, building your own little grow tent. Use a little ingenuity, growing in a cardboard box cant be the best place.

Ive done it and believe me, it was facked
 
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tylerplumtree

New Member
the box is probably 3 feet by 3 feet. and also can someone explain the difference between female and male plants? and im doing this without my parents knowing so it is hard to rig an exhaust fan up. if i were to cut a hole towards the top of the box could that do the same thing?
 
Homegrown4Life

Homegrown4Life

Active Member
Tyler don't listen to the haters man, i'll help you out. the difference between male a female plants is simple. Female plants grow buds for smoking and males plants do not. The male plant will grow small round clusters of pollen. If you let the male plant pollen sacks open in your grow space it will cause your female plants to produce Seeds instead of buds.
 
Homegrown4Life

Homegrown4Life

Active Member
tylerplumtree said:
My first post on this site and it is my first time growing. I have made a cardboard box that is a decent size. I have totally covered the inside with aluminum foil for reflecting light. I have seen many videos and sites and the lighting principle changes quite a lot. My seeds are currently still germinating. When the roots pop out and i plant them in solo cups I should be able to fit about 10 cups in my box with still a pretty decent amount of room leftover. once put the cups in the box, at first how much light is required and when should I add more light? Im going to put a fan inside but probably not an exhaust fan. what are the downsides to that? thankyou very much
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Now lets talk about your setup man, If you want to get anything out of that card board box your gonna need to reduce the number of plants. When your plants sprout you may want to give them 12 hours of light and 12 hours of dark right from the start. Once you see little bright white hairs grow out of them youll know that you have a female plant. From that point choose 1 to 2 healthy ladys and discard the rest. Don't worry about throwing the rest out man, your box does not have space to handle more than that. your best bet for lighting this thing is gonna be CFL's (Compact fluorescent bulbs). You can probably handle no more than 4 of these. Get the 15watt ones, two WARM light and two COOL light CFL's. If you have more than that you will overheat your box and bake your plants alive. If you have any more questions just ask, my first grow was somewhat small like yours so I know all about growing in tight spaces.
 
L

Lakerfan2420

Member
@ Homegrown4life I'm doing my first grow and it's similar to this one can you check out my thread you input would be greatly appreciated. Not to hijack your thread Tyler
 
TheDude0007

TheDude0007

Active Member
brotherjericho said:
Read much, ask help for clarification.
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I am not being funny but the time you took to read his post and posting 4 times you may as well have offered advice. He is newbie I suppose you just always knew how to grow and never made mistakes.

edit** did not see your reply on the second page so that makes it 5 times.
 
TheDude0007

TheDude0007

Active Member
tylerplumtree said:
My first post on this site and it is my first time growing. I have made a cardboard box that is a decent size. I have totally covered the inside with aluminum foil for reflecting light. I have seen many videos and sites and the lighting principle changes quite a lot. My seeds are currently still germinating. When the roots pop out and i plant them in solo cups I should be able to fit about 10 cups in my box with still a pretty decent amount of room leftover. once put the cups in the box, at first how much light is required and when should I add more light? Im going to put a fan inside but probably not an exhaust fan. what are the downsides to that? thankyou very much
Click to expand...
First thing I would say is that you are only going to learn by your mistakes and although some things you mention is not advisable I would still suggest you try and grow.

Just a few bits of advice.

Please do not put a HPS in your box :-) you will start a fire.

Use CFL's (compact fluresent lights) maybe go for two 105w 6500k bulbs, you can buy these in most hardware stores or even the supermarket.

I am not sure that your box will hold an extractor fan it will be fairly heavy unless you use pc fan's that may work. Again I would not due to possible fire hazard.

Keep your grow simple. my sugestion is to lose the aluminium foil, or if you do not have the budget to use mylar or panda film make sure you use the dull side of the foil.

Make sure that the soil you are going to plant in is of good qaulity and has lots of pearl light mixed in, also have loads of stones in the bottom of the pots for drainage.

Importantly while you grow them they need more than 12 hours per day light, you may want to make sure they get at least 18 hours.

When they are big enough set your timer to 12 hours light and 12 hours darkness and make sure it is 100% dark inside your box.

After having the plants on 12 hours of light for about 7 days the plants will start showing you if they are male or female but you may only be able to tell the difference after say 14 to 20 days.

If they look like little trees with bunches of bananas on them they are male this is bad. If they look like they have hairs on them they are female.

Good luck man. This is how you learn to grow and I still remember my humble beginings incidently also in a box hahahaha. It did not really work but since then I have grown beautifull plants and every grow you learn.

BTW even though it did not really work I still got about 8 grams of weed out of my first grow and man did it make stoned. lol
 
TheDude0007

TheDude0007

Active Member
Homegrown4Life said:
Now lets talk about your setup man, If you want to get anything out of that card board box your gonna need to reduce the number of plants. When your plants sprout you may want to give them 12 hours of light and 12 hours of dark right from the start. Once you see little bright white hairs grow out of them youll know that you have a female plant. From that point choose 1 to 2 healthy ladys and discard the rest. Don't worry about throwing the rest out man, your box does not have space to handle more than that. your best bet for lighting this thing is gonna be CFL's (Compact fluorescent bulbs). You can probably handle no more than 4 of these. Get the 15watt ones, two WARM light and two COOL light CFL's. If you have more than that you will overheat your box and bake your plants alive. If you have any more questions just ask, my first grow was somewhat small like yours so I know all about growing in tight spaces.
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your cool for trying to help man.. respect from me, I wonder how some people get such high reputation for being such ..... i wont say it :-)
 
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