1st Time grower and super noob

gabeezek

Member
Hi all,

Been browsing variuos forums for the last few months just taking in tips and knowledge and decided to do some small grows. I dont smoke it myself but thought my brother could have the harvests if any.

Due to space and keeping things out of prying eyes i decided to go with a grow box that is in my outhouse.

1/2" ply wood screwed together box size 2ft wide x 3 1/2ft high
I have left the top loose for access save installing hinges for a door.
inside is lined with mylar insulating sheet
I have standard angled bayonet light fittings screwed into the side 4 at the top, 3 half way down and 2 at the bottom
My intake is an xbox 360 fan which is fitted in the center of the top so that it blows cool air through the lights and also onto the plants my intake is the other fan from the same xbox 360 fan which is mounted at the bottom these are wired to a 6-12v adapator so that i can increase or decrease fans speed. I am aware that heat rises and the extractor would be better mounted at the top but i wanted good circulation and one of the fans to act as not only an intake but to give a breeze to the plants.
The lower extract fan has standard 3" guttering pipe siliconed to it so that my diy scrubber will fit directly onto it with the help of a bit of duct tape.
a standard digital thermometer is fixed to the top removable lid to monitor air temperature.
the top 4 light fittings were fitted with 6500k 20w cfls for the first 3 weeks and plants placed within 3" at all times for veg. the other light fitting are all fitted with 23watt 2700k cfl ready to be switched on for flowering. Once all lights are on a total of 15000 lumens for the space also the lower lights and middle lights will ensure light gets to all of the plant and not just the top.
I have now switched the top 6500k lights to 2700k lights apart from 1 as i will be looking to flower in the next few days.
The plant on the left is a standard bag seed which was started 18 days ago and the larger one on the right is a feminised blue cheese which is on day 25.
they were both grown in vermiculite coco mix for the first week then transplanted into their final pots with a standard compost. I began giving 1/4 nutes at week 2.
I have not spent stupid money on nutes as this is my first grow and wanna try to learn whats best in my environment.
Fan is currently running at 6 volts keeping the air temp at a steady 77f if i increase to 12volt it drops to 68c so once all the lights are on for flowering it should give me a constant 73-78f
all in all it has cost (not inc seeds) about £30 to setup so not bad2013-02-07 08.34.55.jpg2013-02-07 08.35.07.jpg2013-02-07 08.35.24.jpg2013-02-07 08.35.35.jpg2013-02-07 08.34.49.jpg2013-02-07 08.36.18.jpg

Any more advice would be appreciated
 
Lookin good for a first set up. Reminds me of some of the shit me and my friend would throw together back in the day of hiding shit in our parents basements haha.

All i can recommend are more fans and eventually a HID lighting system. 150 watter will do ya good in that space. although you might have to raise the roof haha

Always wanted to grow some blue cheese.

good luck on the beginning of the best hobby in the world.
 
Thanks for the positive replies. I would have gone hps if i wasnt in such a tight space but maybe something for the future.
I will be switching to 12/12 in 4 days do you have any recommendations of things to do before that? I was thinking of taking some of the lower fan leaves off, is this a good or bad idea and also if it is a good idea how far down the leaf stem do you cut? or just the leaf.
I am going to bung in a couple more light fittings in so i have light on every side and close to the plants.

cheers
 
also i recommend the xbox fans as even thought they are small they certainly shift some air. Obviously designed for cooling air from a cpu which get to 170f so very efficient for the size.
 
I usually only trim the larger fan leaves that are obstructing lower bud growth. If the leaves are out of the way then leave them because they give you some room to mess up and theyre usually the first leaves to tell you about a nutrient/ph problem.
 
I would keep the leaves. It's still a source for absorbing energy and is usually where you'll see the first sign on a deficiency
 
I just want to thank everyone on here. The good comments, the bad, they all helped me out when I first started my little "plant" operation. I had no exp when it came to cannabis, even though I grew up on a large commercial farming operation.So I after reading most of the threads on here, I quickly had a little growing operation setup. Sadly my first two plants turned into male. But now I have the science dont pat. So again I just want to thank y'all for all the info, and helping me to develop my own little method.
 
Hi all,

Just thought i would provide an update on my first grow.
Firstly i have now swapped the grow box as it was getting awkward accessing the plant from the top due to pot size increase. I have now obtained a cupboard from a skip and adapted it. I have installed an inline fan at the top which is packed full of activated carbon which seems to be controlling the smell along with a couple of odour neutralisers.
Still have the standard xbox fans blowing through the lights and a gentle breeze on the plants. I have increased the passive intake as the last box was getting high in temps.

1 x blue cheese - plant on the right
1 x original haze pic n mix

The cheese was a feminised from pic n mix seeds and has ow started firing out pistils - day 12 of flowering
The original haze has calxys but my in experienced eyes cannot yet tell the sex, it is looking the same as the cheese in as much as pear shaped but no pistils as yet

Both plants were vegged under 60watt cfl 6500k for 25 days and switched to multiple cfl's = 200watt actual on 2700k the original haze was started 4 days later than the cheese.

The haze in only a small pot as it was just more of a grow and hope plant.
Both plants are in standard compost and were both nuted with lawn feed (as an experiment lol) seems to have made them really green and bushy condifering they were under cfl's they are both now on and cheap ass bloom nute from the pound shop. (not spending too much as it my first grow and wanna learn as i go)
slight nute burn on the haze ph was 7.8 but now reduced to 6.0 at run off and plants seem a whole lot better for it
Feeding/watering every 3rd/4th day as noticed over watering is a common noob error.
Made a small c02 generator with the standard plastic bottle, yeast, sugar combo and again since using plants are improving even more.
I also have an autoak47 under cfl's at the mo in a temp veg box 50watt total and autoak is 16 days old on a 20/4 schedule

see what you think​
IMG_0676.jpgIMG_0677.jpgIMG_0682.jpgIMG_0681.jpgIMG_0679.jpgIMG_0683.jpg
 
I am thinking of putting the auto ak47 in with the other two which are under 12/12. The am is currently under 6500k on 20/4. I know it is recommended to keep them under this light regime but due to space I wanna get a northern light going and veg until I harvest what I have at the mo which is going to be in 6 - 7 weeks.
Just means the auto will have to go into flower box under 12/12 with the original haze and cheese.
What do you guys recommend?
Cheers
 
Back
Top