Cherry poppin': CFL, bagseed, rubermaid.

I've been trolling for a few weeks, now. I think now is a good time to declare myself...

Setup:

I have one 30 gal. rubbermaid, lined on the inside with aluminum ducting tape. At the bottom of the 'tub, I've installed one 60CFM computer fan drawing air in. Inside the 'tub is a wallmart special, "honeywell" fan I have blowing on high right over the plants.

A curtain rod suspends two power strips with plug adapters to serve as a light fixture of sorts. I'm running 4 23W 6000Ks, and two 23W 2700Ks. I plan on getting one high watt 6000, and 2700 to take the place of the existing lights over the top, and moving my current lights to a diagonal. Furthermore, I believe I will run two 2' T5s on the sides once the plants fill in more.

Plants:

I germinated 21 seeds from a potent batch of corn. After germination I placed the seeds in jiffy pellets all inside of a jiffy sealed container. I selected the six healthiest from those to live in the box, and have since removed two that weren't keeping up.

Medium:

I transplanted the pellets into Styrofoam cups at one week. I used a combination of perlite, Scott's general potting soil, and some organic mushroom compost.

Three of the chitlens are obviously yellowing and starting to curl slightly. Additionally, their growth has rapidly slowed over the last 2 or 3 days. Initially I feared my once-a-day watering schedule was too much, so I stopped watering all together. after 2 days of no water, there was not any positive change, so I moistened the top layer today with a spray bottle.

Did I overdo it with the compost?
Are they rootbound?

Picture time...

id say the yare definitely root bound.. they are pretty big for styro cups

looking good ya ur prob root bound move them shits to bigger pots and letm goooooo lol sounds like u got a good setup going keep us upd8ed man.

looks good! happy growing!

The interwebz has been down since my last post. I'm at a schlotzky's right now taking advantage of the free wi-fi. I have new pictures but am reluctant to wield them around here...

Since my last post, I have transplanted the youngins' to 3 gallon pots. Looks like container size was the problem. They took off! Especially the first one represented in the above pictures. I introduced a quarter strength nute solution at the transplant, and have been hitting them with a half strength every other watering. I water every other day. The days I don't water, I spray the leaves with a 1/16th strength solution.

I've also been taking advantage of natural light every chance I get. It's amazing how much change 2 hours under the sun makes. They just seem happier.

The net comes back friday. I'll update the pictures then.

Happy growing!

Thanks to AT&T's colossal failings as a "service" provider, I've been unplugged. Got a deal worked out with the neighbor now, though; I smoke him out, and he lets me phish his wifi. Symbiotic if you ask me.

Much has happened. The girlfriend destroyed one plant trying to change the height of the lights. I can kind of understand the mentality of some domestic abuser's. It's all about the perspective. Of the three remaining, one was male and also killed, one is female, and the other is still a little shy.

The rubermaid has been retired in favor of...well the floor I guess.

In other news, I just ordered a 150W hps fixture! I suppose I won't belong here in 7-10 business days. This comes after a series of headaches involving fluorescent bulbs, some dumb-shit home depot employees, and my own impatience.

Instead of mcgyvering a hodge podge web of low watt cfl's, I've been wanting to get a few, strategically placed, higher wattage units. I stumbled across some 30+ watt fluorescent "replacement bulbs" in the cfl section. I grabbed two 42w 6500K medium based units, grinning from ear to ear, paid cash, and beat it home, only to find out that these are unballasted bulbs!!! What the hell is that? I was under the impression all CFL's were internally ballasted.

I went back to HD with a bad attitude, looking for reparations. I talked to every employee in the lighting department..."How do I make bulb (A) work with 120V socket (B)?"

*crickets*

haha.

Finally I found someone who sort of understood the basics of my dilemma, and was informed that the bulb I have is a replacement bulb for a ballasted mercury vapor lamp, and I'd have to get one of those.

I found ballasts for a "T" connection style fluorescent bulb. Does anyone know if I can ghetto-fab one of those to work with my shtick?

(thanks for reading)

Picture time!

This is how my bagseed turned out after two + months..almost ready for harvest

I just got my ghetto fab DIY 150W HPS/reflector set up on my kiddos.

I purchased the lamp in the following link from econo lights. It was a painless process to strip out the guts, and extent the ballast. I spent $30 at the Home Depot for wiring, and miscellaneous aluminum/bracketing/fasteners to construct the "reflector" (bassicaly a piece of aluminum ducting, opened up, and drilled for eyehooks/bracket to hold the socket). I'm looking for a little feedback on the reflector. I'm not sure if it isn't doing more harm than good.

In addition to the hps, I have kept the previously used CFL's in play, and am still curious about the fluorescent bulbs I mentioned earlier.

As a side note: how hot is the transformer in the ballast supposed to get? I just touched it, and burned the shit out of my hand...it's also making a cackling whine reminiscent of a locus hiss. Normal?

Lamp I purchased: http://www.e-conolight.com/Product/E...ber=E-HC1H151Z

Picture time! (all pictures were taken with the internal macbook camera. Better photography equipment will be brought into play soon).