CFL Cabinet Grow. Royal Highness. First Grow Ever

So let's begin... I got tired buying my medicine off the street, so I decided to grow for myself. I bought some Feminised Royal Highness seeds by Royal Queen Seeds. It supposed to be 1:1 CBD/THC strain. Good social smoke with some pain killing and anti anxiety attributes. 2/2 germinated, used paper towel method with some myko, so I'm really happy about it. They prices, quality and customer services are really good. Recommend it to everyone.

So here's my setup:
Old cabinet 1 ft. 7 in. x 2 ft. 7 in. Height is no prob, because I'm planning to veg no longer than month and top each plant once.
At seedling stage lightning will be 4x23w 6500k CFL, later on I'll add 4 same CFL bulbs. Flowering will be 8x25w 2600k CFL and 2x23w 6500CFL.
Watering: Tap water ph'ed to 6.8. To get the right acidity I'll use soda and lemon juice.
Soil: Potting soil that worked well for a friend in a greenhouse - 54%, biohumus (a.k.a. worm castings) 18%, perlite 21%, vermiculite 7%.
Ventilation: One passive intake hole about, and one active with 80mm pc fan. Outtake quiet 125 cubic meters per hour fan. Later on I'll add diy carbon scrubber.
Nutrition: Plan is to not use any nutes at all. If needed I'll brew some compost tea with molasses, compost, manure and bone meal.

So that's it. I'll post some pics as soon as baby girls will sprout.
Have a nice evening.

So 2/2 girls sprouted! So we can call it seedling stage day 1. Or veg stage. Not sure really lol.

As You can see, second girl still has seed shell.
And here's the light fixture:

And the whole cab:

Mattock said:

So 2/2 girls sprouted! So we can call it seedling stage day 1. Or veg stage. Not sure really lol.
View attachment 3739153 View attachment 3739154 View attachment 3739156
As You can see, second girl still has seed shell.
And here's the light fixture:
View attachment 3739157
And the whole cab:
View attachment 3739158

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Look at those cute little bastards! I'm a new grower too; barely on my second grow. I'm going through the same thing with the whole being tired of buying weed, from the club in my case. That looks like a pretty cool setup. I would just have to say you should have a plan as to how you are going to manage your lighting. I believe that height could potentially be an issue even with topping and begging a month. I topped and vegged a month and have mine under cfls thats have always been kept within 2" of plants and its now 21" tall from dirt to tops. Your lights are only going to be on top of your plants, hitting the top canopy only (I'm having the same issue right now with a similar setup). Make sure to either keep room for side lighting or top and lst your plants into horizontal growing beasts in order to utilize your proposed lighting. You don't want your plants growing as big ass Christmas trees and getting burnt by your lights. Good luck bro!

Thing is once you start growing your own you don't run out anymore. Just don't tell anyone, at all, no one.

Welcome to the fold.

HazednConfused, thanks for your tips! I know what You are saying, but there's the thing - the budget. I am wet dreaming about 4 x cree cxb3590 custom build for this cab. But my wedding is upcoming so my fiance won't let me spend anymore money on this (I'm happy that she's not against me growing). And I'm still learning day by day more about this plant, so it's alright, I'll first finish few grows with this setup and only then I'll move on.
MeJuana, I know that but few people already know. I know that it's the higher risk & shit. But i grew up with them and I feel blessed that I can call them true friends. I need someone to share, I'm simple human being.
Lucky Luke, what? Sorry didn't understand the phrase, as You can clearly see English is not my native language.
And back to the diary.
Veg day 5

Second girl still has a seed shell. And today It's the time for the first watering. Water will be ph'ed to 6.8

I know what you mean about needing to share, and our warnings are already too late if your friends know, but you are risking one of them slipping up. All it takes is one drunken comment.

I was the same as you, I needed to tell someone how excited I was when I started growing. I told the people on here instead. Nobody on here knows who I am, and we are all in the same situation and have all had the same thrill when a seedling pops out of the soil. My advice to anybody else needing to share is to do what I did.
I am so secretive about it my adult kids don't even know I have been growing for the last 10 months and they live in the house the grow is in!

Just a suggestion, one way you can go down the led route cheaply is use store bought led bulbs. Pull the plastic cover off and you get 10-15% more of directed light, rather than the all round light a CFL gives out. I used CFL on my first grow then swapped to led bulbs and get much more light for less wattage and less heat than CFL. I would love to go cob but have very limited height and already had a CFL light rig setup, so used that instead as you can see.

*edit - there are 9 bulbs in the cab, with 129w total and roughly 15,000+ lumens. Before ripping the cover off, each 13 or 15w bulb gives 1520 lumens. Last grow I did 2 autos just to see what autos were like and got just over 4 ounces total. Bulbs roughly 2-3 inches from canopy towards the end with no burn, so same distance as CFL. This pic is the current photo period grow of Northern Lights (left) and Big Head seeds Big Freeze (right)

Good luck with your grow

Umgh. In my 2nd world country 13-15w E27 led bulb will cost as much as 60-70w CFL. So it's not an option, but thanks fore reply.
Ok then. So it's Veg day 8 and my plants looks really small, or is it just me? Should I add some more light? Mix some 2700k spectrum?
Heres the girls:

My humidity when lights are one is too low, about 45%, so i spray cab couple times a day to increase it a bit.
But when light goes off it stays about 85%.

So I went ahead and added 2 x 25w 2700K bulbs and watered/sprayed my plants. How it looks:

Your plants look fine bro. The size is about the same as mine were at that age (10 days) I would say, put something under your pots so your plants are 2-3" from touching the lights. This is the effective range for cfls and will help you with stretching and keep your plants short and bushy. And for the humidity, try putting a cup or bowl of water in your grow box. It will increase your humidity. You'll see the water level of the container drop daily. Just keep up the good work dude!

Yeah, but I think plants at this stage don't need that much intensity and my baby girls aren't stretching at all. New leaves growing on top of old ones.
And about a cup or bowl of water.. Look at 2nd post and whole cab photo. There's a photo where you can see whole tray of water on the left. And I think the weather outside dictates humidity most. Today it's raining outside, I opened my box and theres 80+% humidity.
P.s. Grow cab is near allways open window.

There does look to be a little stretch there. When you re-pot just sink them a little lower in the soil.

CFLs are a juggle height wise.

Ohh. If two of You said that I must lower the lights, than I will do so as soon as I get back home. The light hood are hooked on the cab ceiling with chains so there won't be a problem to do it. And I know the repoting thingy, I read a lot. Thanks!

Im doing a CFL grow to. If ud like to see a 15 day old plant then take a look (or follow my grow!)
My Micro grow- https://www.rollitup.org/t/luckys-fridge.916437/#post-12819228

Not sure how to follow, but I already checked it out few days ago. I got some sort of fetish for fridge grows. Even my plan was to grow in fridge, but I couldn't find one cheaply.

So as You guys said I should lowered the lights and I have done it! Now they are about 7cm (~2.7 inches) away.
Veg day 9!

Mattock said:

So as You guys said I should lowered the lights and I have done it! Now they are about 7cm (~2.7 inches) away.
Veg day 9!
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That's about perfect man! Your plants will be fine. The cfls won't harm your seedlings unless you let them grow into the lights. Just make sure to check them daily or else you'll have some fried plants! Looks good though

Your plants will really appreciate the closeness of the CFL's now. The others advised you well.
Another idea for you. I see you have a nice sized tent but at the moment obviously only using a small area in the middle for your seedlings pots. CFL's hung like yours mainly throw their light out sideways. Can you hang some mylar or white board/paper down from the sides of your reflector, or stick some to a box or bit of plywood and make a fake wall to try and reflect some of that light back towards your plants? Basically, while you only have small plants, try to make the 'walls' of your tent as close to the lights as you can rather than a couple of foot away, if you get what I mean. Any extra reflected light you can reclaim this way will benefit the plants.
Good luck and keep us updated!

HazednConfused said:

That's about perfect man! Your plants will be fine. The cfls won't harm your seedlings unless you let them grow into the lights. Just make sure to check them daily or else you'll have some fried plants! Looks good though

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Ill add. Also keep an eye on ur canopy temp.

Thanks for the tips and kind words, guys! And @It's not oregano I think I'll pass on your advice because my cab is not that big. There's 4-5 inches from plants to reflective walls and if I close other two sides which are far away then I'll have some problems with air moving around. I think I'll stick with it as it is now. Thanks again for kind words!