CFL - Rubbermaid - First time grow (bagseed)

I've been dry for 3 weeks now and went digging through some drawers and came upon a baggy with three seeds in it. I had completely forgotten about these little buggers and decided what the hell, I'll give it a try. Started by dropping them in some water yesterday and letting them soak for 24 hours and then put them in some Miracle Gro seedling starter soil in a 3 20oz bottles cut in half. I put em back in the cabinet for the night and tomorrow will put them in their new home.
I may be biting off more than I can chew but I plan on putting them through LST and topping so it's a lovely sea of green.

Here's the "grow room" - It's emergency blanket duct taped all around and on top. There is a fan cut into the bottom of one side. I have four light plugs but currently have 2 100w CFLs and one 60w "plant light" from Home Depot. The whole room is BRIGHT like a gloworm! I will be installing an additional output fan with a carbon filter sometime this week.

Since this is my first grow, please feel free to give feedback and please follow along!

Great start! Nothing wrong with a small ghetto grow going.

First, I noticed that you have no exhaust. It's great that you have a intake fan as this will push in fresh air for your plants but you need a way to exhaust out the stale air. This can be achieved by just cutting another hole on the opposite side and if you like a PC fan (muffin fan) could be put into that exhaust. PC fans are great at pushing air and are affordable. I am assuming that you are going to grow in soil. If this is the case you could start out with some great soil that cannabis loves and you wont have to worry about adding nutrients to the soil until later on when the plants are out of the seedling stage.

Some great soil mixes are Fox Farm's Ocean Forest, Light warrior or Black Magic. These potting soil mixes can go for about 20 bucks but believe me your growing medium will almost always dictate how well your plants grow. So investing a little money will return to you three fold. With quality soil mixes you typically won't have a pH imbalance so that takes that out of the equation. I personally never liked any product that Miracle Gro makes. When I started growing I used Miracle gro and well the results were bad.

If you plan on having 3 plants in the rubbermaid then plan on getting more lights in there. CFL growing is great and i've done a couple of grows with CFLs exclusively, they produce nice tight buds but you have to realize that they must be as close as possible to the growing plants. Usually CFLs will be placed 1 to 2 inches around the plant. The emergency blanket you have in there is a good proxy for mylar or panda film. If you like later you can paint the inside of the rubbermaid a flat white house paint and it will have just as much reflection as the emergency blanket. Heat build up wont be an issue because CFLs don't produce much heat and that little fan will be able to move the heat away from the plants.

When you water your plants after transplanting them into the rubbermaid make sure that you don't overwater them. Small plants and seedlings need less watering than larger plants. Also as your plants mature they will need to be transplanted into larger pots. here is a good chart to go by depending on the age of the plant

Plant age
0-3 weeks = root cube or seed starter
2-6 weeks = 4-inch pot
6-8 weeks = 2-gallon pot
2-3 months = 3-gallon pot
3-8 months = 5-gallon pot
6-18 months = 10-gallon pot

Allow 1 to 1.5 gallons of soil or soiless mix for each month the plant will spend in the container. A 2 to 3 gallon pot supports a plant for up to three months. 3 to 6 gallon containers are good for three to four months of rapid plant growth.

There is so much I could go on for a long time. If you have any other questions feel free to ask here or PM me.
I hope this helped.

Peace and positive energy to you



P.S. - Here is a pic of my AK-48 right before I harvested her. Grown with ONLY CFLs

inklein said:

one 60w "plant light" from Home Depot.

Click to expand...

I would suggest eliminating this light, as it doesnt really help your plants, and it will produce way too much heat for the light it is providing.

nailz - Thanks for the info! I will stop at the local nursery on my way home tomorrow and pick up some non-miracle gro soil for sure! I was planning on cutting the exhaust tomorrow when i move the lil buddies into the tub. I am going to prop the seedlings right up to the light on some cardboard boxes to get em as close as can be.

bill - I suspected as much! I will definitely take it out before i flip the on switch and toss the other two 100w cfl's i bought in there! Thanks for that!

What do ya'll recommend for beginning? 24 or 18/6?

Also home depot has a soil that is very similar to Fox Farm Ocean forest, but is wayy cheaper. It cost $8 for 3 cubic feet.

inklein said:

nailz - Thanks for the info! I will stop at the local nursery on my way home tomorrow and pick up some non-miracle gro soil for sure! I was planning on cutting the exhaust tomorrow when i move the lil buddies into the tub. I am going to prop the seedlings right up to the light on some cardboard boxes to get em as close as can be.

Click to expand...

You're very welcome. AND WELCOME TO RIU.org one of the best places on the net for Cannabis Cultivation Information.

inklein said:

What do ya'll recommend for beginning? 24 or 18/6?

Click to expand...

Vegetative growth is maintained with 16 or more hours of light. I believe there is a point of diminishing returns is reached after 18 hours of light. Most all living organisms must rest at a point in time. Some growers argue that 24 hours of light is the best option. Marijuana will continue vegetative growth a year or longer (theoretically forever), as long as an 18 hour photoperiod is maintained.

Peace and positive energy to you

http://www.lowes.com/pd_131340-11628-8710_0_?productId=3011773&Ntt=nrich&Ntk=i_products&pl=1&currentURL=/pl__0__s?newSearch=true$Ntt=nrich$y=0$x=0&spellCorrectedTerm=rich

Thanks for the quick responses. I will pick up the compost tomorrow and put them in there.
I did a search on the forums but couldn't find the answers to two more questions.
1) I am planning on lst'ing the fuck out of these and I was wondering if I absolutely have to put them in bigger pots? I've got 8" now and I would really like to stick with that, is that possible?
2) With major lst'ing going on, will I be able to keep these fuckers in this one, very large, rubbermaid? Or am I going to have to think about getting another to set on top? I would really really like to bonzai these things!

inklein said:

1) I am planning on lst'ing the fuck out of these and I was wondering if I absolutely have to put them in bigger pots? I've got 8" now and I would really like to stick with that, is that possible?
2) With major lst'ing going on, will I be able to keep these fuckers in this one, very large, rubbermaid? Or am I going to have to think about getting another to set on top? I would really really like to bonzai these things!

Click to expand...

Personally I am not a fan of LSTing , but i have seen some amazing growers that have alot of success with LSTing their plants. On to your questions.

1) Depends on how long you plan on letting them grow for. LSTing a plant does not affect the growth of the roots. The root system will always be growing in search for more nutrients. Mother Nature and all. If your plants become rootbound then they will have slow growth and be stunted.

2) I would suggest looking for another rubbermaid to put on top of the other one. Certain strains of Cannabis will grow tall and leggy esp. Sativas. Since this is your first grow and you are using bagseed chances are it will be a Sativa dominant strain. Indicas, on the other hand are short, bushy plants. They are the best strains to grow indoors. They also have a shorter flowering period 8-11 weeks than sativas. Both are great and they produce a different kind of high, the sativas often produce a heady high, cerebral and social high. The indicas usually have a body stone high, the kind of high that you get where you don't wanna move "Couch lock." Medical Marijuana patients tend to use Indicas for pain and for help with sleeping, Sativas are also known for their pain relief as well.

Whatever training methods you use, you are still going to have to use a larger pot, because as the plants are growing, so are the roots. Now if the roots have no more room to grow, the plant's growth will become stunted, or it could even die.

Got my first little sprout today! Hopefully the other two spring up tomorrow. Very exciting!

Got any new pics of the babies?

The one sprout is about the same looking as it was yesterday and I see a little speck of green in one of the other cups. The mini cup still isn't showing anything.
I think I fucked up when i planted them. I used MG Seedling soil shit and I didn't wet it down until after I put the seeds in. So imagine a cup of dry soil, a seed placed in the middle, another handful of soil on top and THEN water. Somebody punch me! I should have read the directions on the fucking soil bag. Actually I should have bought good soil. And well anyway if these plants grow up to be anything it will be in spite of me!

oops... here's the pic!

Sweet, it's always nice to see your first sprout pop up

Ok I scratched two of the pots as they weren't sprouting anything. Don't know why but I am guessing it's cause I fucked up the planting of the seeds. Oh well, just one then!
Seems to be doing ok, let me know if you see that something aint right.

yeah the other two never sprouted I dug them out of their pots today and tossed them in a mug of water and stuck it in the cabinet. Maybe I can get them to go?

I transplanted this girl into a bigger pot today with some Masters Nursery Gardeners Gold Organic Potting soil. I also added two CFL's to the box and now have the plant between 4 lights. The roots were starting to get rootbound in the bottom of the bottles already so I am glad I transplanted it! I wish those other two had sprouted. As always comments and feedback is appreciated!

inklein said:

yeah the other two never sprouted I dug them out of their pots today and tossed them in a mug of water and stuck it in the cabinet. Maybe I can get them to go?

I transplanted this girl into a bigger pot today with some Masters Nursery Gardeners Gold Organic Potting soil. I also added two CFL's to the box and now have the plant between 4 lights. The roots were starting to get rootbound in the bottom of the bottles already so I am glad I transplanted it! I wish those other two had sprouted. As always comments and feedback is appreciated!

Click to expand...

Your plant is looks like it is doing well. Nice symetrical growth. That's a really good sign. What size is it in right now? I would transplant in a couple of week to a larger pot. Something like 3gal or 5gal. The plant is still establishing its root system but that should soon end and upward green growth is going to explode! You will need to upgrade the pot as soon as you see this happen. If not the plant will get rootbound again and this will slow or stop upward growth. Hope this helps
Nice plant!

Peace and positive energy to you

Right now it's in an 8" and I am going to try to keep it small, I am growing it and flowering it in a large rubbermaid! Can't get too much bigger or there won't be space.
Here are some pics from today. The one leaf has a small heat burn at the tip, I think with all 4 lights on it gets too hot in there. I have a thermometer now and a spray bottle so I've been keeping tabs on the heat. I cut another hole in the side of the box for outflow and will install a fan with a carbon filter at some point in the next few weeks. I am pretty stoked about it so far, it seems to be staying fairly small and bushy and I am not seeing the stretching I've seen in others grow pics. Hopefully it will stay small and bushy the whole time.
When should I start LST?

Ok the first pic is from yesterday! Huge growth overnight! Any ideas on what strain it is?

Looks like happy healthy plants... did they stunt growth when you transplanted them? How did you transplant them?