First Grow: DIY PC stealth, 125W CFL. Help/Comments Appreciated.

Ok, as far as my grow is concerned, everything seems to have gone fubar. I checked on the seeds, Ive been away for 4 days, and found that none of the seeds appear to have germinated properly, even the roots have gone missing, rotted away maybe~? And i still cant suspend my light properly in my pc case.

Ok, after that initial balls-up, I'm trying again.
I'm putting the 4 remaining afghani special seeds in water to soak for 24 hours then putting the seeds directly into medium, as I think the paper towel method rotted my last lot of seeds. I've also secured my CFL properly now so I should be set. Updates to come.

Finally I can see three little baby MJ hatchlings arising out of the compost.

I have 4 plastic cups once again, each with a plant inside it, and I have labeled them 1, 2, 3 and 72. I'll give them names when I become more emotionally attached/dependent on them.

After only 2 days of being in the medium I can see that 1, 3 and 72 have sprouted and hopefully 2 will soon follow.

I would definitlely say that I prefer this method of germination ie. soaking the seeds for 24 hours then direct to medium, than the paper towel method.



Managed to hook on my CFL securely at last, the screw part of the hook protruded from the top of the case so I screwed a dictionary on top of it to conceal it. As long as nobody tries to pick the dictionary up it should be fine!



This is a dual spectrum bulb to save me buying two bulbs, currently it has the blue 6700K side pointing down for vegatitive growth, and I will swap it around when the plants flower.



This is the case setup. Rather than moving the bulb up and down, I'll just use DVDs or books to move the plants closer to the bulb.



This is plant 3 trying to break out of its seed pod. I won't interfere with it.



This is plant 72 which has grown the most by a couple of millimetres.

Plant 1 is the smallest and has only just broken the surface so not worth a picture.

Great success!

Light Cycle: 12/12


Here is Plant 1:




Plant 2:




Plant 3:




And an unhappy looking 72, the stem seems to have shrivelled, might be dying:

wish i could have stopped you a week or two ago, dont grow your seedlings in compost man, the babies dont need nutrients. every thing the seedling needs other than water, is dormant inside the seed.

you probably noticed thats what killed your first babies. i see what your using now has alot of vermiculite, but are you still growing in the compost?

dont get me wrong some good compost will help you, down the road, but the nutrients in it are not good for babies. at least you didnt kill them with MG like alot of people do

KaleoXxX said:

wish i could have stopped you a week or two ago, dont grow your seedlings in compost man, the babies dont need nutrients. every thing the seedling needs other than water, is dormant inside the seed.

you probably noticed thats what killed your first babies. i see what your using now has alot of vermiculite, but are you still growing in the compost?

dont get me wrong some good compost will help you, down the road, but the nutrients in it are not good for babies. at least you didnt kill them with MG like alot of people do

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Hi. Yeh it's a 70/30 compost perlite mix. The compost was pretty much all I had but it's not MG.

I think the first ones died because they didn't have enough heat and they rotted as well. Compost might have been part of the reason though

PS. I've decided to change to an 18/6 light cycle as the pole shape of the plant that comes about with a 12/12 cycle isn't what I'm looking for.

believe me you have to put them on 12/12 you dont have the space for them to grow on 18/6, if not put them on 18/6 and wait and see that they will not fit

I dunno what to do now. I've seen other people do their PC grows on 18/6 then switch to 12/12 and it's been orite. Surely if I do LSTing or SCROG I can control it? Besides can't i judge when the plants are the right size to switch to 12/12 - don't they triple in size when you start the flowering photoperiod - using that info I can judge the right size of the plants?

Thanks for your help though. Other people's advice, if you're reading this, would be helpful too.

How is that light wired up? Can u send me a link to the adapter u bought?

mowux said:

How is that light wired up? Can u send me a link to the adapter u bought?

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go on ebay and search "e40 lamp holder". You can buy just the holder or the wire and holder together,
if you not good with wiring buy it together.

you know, i read a post a little while back on another forum, and when growing with cfls, the smaller wattage you get the higher the lumen/watt ratio.
i bought the exact same 125w ecolight you got, but im going to be using these smaller 26w bulbs, in 6400k and 2700k,
this way you can position the lights directly above your plants, with cfls you can have them like 2cm away from you plant tops without burning them, and to increase the efficiency of the light that reaches the plants. and you get more lumens per watt, i wish i had never bought that 125w eco light now, but maybe ill use it as supplemental lighting later in the veg stage,
you should always start seeds in rockwool, just like the other dude said, seeds dont need nutes, just plain water (distilled would be great) and they'd pop right out, using this method, my seeds germ in 36hours, pop em in rockwool and they sprout nice and healthy in around 2-4 days!

good luck man!
im a pc grower myself and you can do it!!!

Hey magicspoons

Sorry I didn't chime in earlier, I know a bit about 125w cfl grows, but I assumed you were taking the piss.
That strain is an 8 - 10 foot outdoor strain and you are growing 4 in a pc case at the same time.
Veg all you like, you'll be making other plans in about 3 weeks anyway.

magicman1987 said:

go on ebay and search "e40 lamp holder". You can buy just the holder or the wire and holder together,
if you not good with wiring buy it together.

you know, i read a post a little while back on another forum, and when growing with cfls, the smaller wattage you get the higher the lumen/watt ratio.
i bought the exact same 125w ecolight you got, but im going to be using these smaller 26w bulbs, in 6400k and 2700k,
this way you can position the lights directly above your plants, with cfls you can have them like 2cm away from you plant tops without burning them, and to increase the efficiency of the light that reaches the plants. and you get more lumens per watt, i wish i had never bought that 125w eco light now, but maybe ill use it as supplemental lighting later in the veg stage,
you should always start seeds in rockwool, just like the other dude said, seeds dont need nutes, just plain water (distilled would be great) and they'd pop right out, using this method, my seeds germ in 36hours, pop em in rockwool and they sprout nice and healthy in around 2-4 days!

good luck man!
im a pc grower myself and you can do it!!!

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Yeh I know what you mean about the light, next time around I will probably get some smaller bulbs.

Thanks for the help.

I've decided to keep it on a 12/12 light cycle anyway after much internal conflict.

magicSpoons said:

Ok, if I do do that, will it be harder to control the size of my plant? How long will the vegative state last roughly?

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no the plant will be much smaller than it would be if it were vegged to maturity... But even in a 12\12 grow it will still veg for 2 or 3 weeks. I am on my first 12\12 from rooted clone grow and one of my plants started to flower on day 11... results may vary

Number 72 died but the other three are going nicely.





Thinking of transpalnting them at some point soon.

Also, I need some help on coming up with a drip-feed system to water the plants as later this month I will be away for a week and there will be no-one to tend to the plants. Any advice on that would be appreciated.

I've put an order in for 4 more bulbs:
2x 6500k 25w cfl
2x 2700k 25w cfl

I'll put these in as side lighting when I get them. I'll probably need another exhaust fan in there too as it will probably get pretty hot.

the extra light will be good as long as you dont make a hot box

Sup fools. Grow is coming along nicely. Check it out.

It looks like u have some nute burn from that compost... I suggest transplanting into some regular potting soil.

jonbonjovi9 said:

It looks like u have some nute burn from that compost... I suggest transplanting into some regular potting soil.

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Oh, I just think it's a little yellowing of the leaves, it's nothing too serious.

Update will be posted tonight at some point.