My first post/grow ever =)

Well I've done research out the butt, and I have a general idea of what I'm doing, but I need a little guidance so here's my setup. I hollowed out some like model car display case my cousin had and turned it into a grow box. It's about 3' wide, 2.5' deep, and about 3.5 feet tall. It already had a built in exhaust fan that is about 6" in diameter, and it really kicks in. I've mounted two t5 on each side of the box about 1' high. I painted the inside white. I have a small rotating fan and at the top is a 430 watt hps son agro bulb (I have a 400 watt digital ballast).
soil and seed wise I have some miracle grow potting soild, and a big bag of worm castings. The guy at the hydroponic store said to only mix in about 1 handful for every gallon of soil, because it's really dense and won't allow the plants roots to recieve the appropriate amount of oxygen. Oh and I made my own reflector using one of those big plastic containers for like clothes and stuff, I just shaped it like a reflector and cut a few small holes at the top to let the heat escape (heat rises right?) and I lined the inside with mylar.
My digital timer is set to 18/6, but my one problem right now is watering and feeding. Only two seeds have sprouted (of the ten) and I'm not sure if I should crank on the hps yet, or let the t5's run alone for a while. So any advise? I try not to over water, but end up soaking the soil my seedlings are in, because I feel like the seeds aren't moist enough. Any tips or comments? Please lemme know if there's anything that I could do using what I have to optimize growth.

P.S. I love this website!!!! I've always read, but never been a part of any disscussion. Only a few of my friends smoke, and I know a lot of people who look down on it, pshhh, bunch of schoolgirls. Now I feel like I'm in the midst of people who understand what it's like to stare at a weird stain in the carpet for 7 1/2 minutes.

only 3.5 feet tall wont give u alot fo room to grow becuase the hps will need to be about 20 inches off the plants specially in that confined of a space. then you got to factor in youll need big enough pots to flower in which are usually 8-12 inches high themselves

Whoa! What's wrong with schoolgirls? Tight, fresh, and pink got you down? hehe

If you got daylight spectrum T5s, use em till all the seeds that will sprout have broken the surface.

Aethersaegis said:

only 3.5 feet tall wont give u alot fo room to grow becuase the hps will need to be about 20 inches off the plants specially in that confined of a space. then you got to factor in youll need big enough pots to flower in which are usually 8-12 inches high themselves

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Very good points.

You better get an A/C hood if you wanna grow in that space with a 430w HPS.

Tnx for the replies.
Yeah I knew that 3.5' wasn't very good from the start, but I figured that if I grew like 10-12 small-medium small plants that I'd be ok. As for the Hps right now there's about 3 feet of space, and as the plants grow they'll get more and more used to the light right? Does that negate the effects of the plants being too close? I've heard people say that they only keep about 1' of space between they're plants and their Hps/mh lights.

TheBigXCheeseX said:

I've heard people say that they only keep about 1' of space between they're plants and their Hps/mh lights.

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With an air-cooled hood and a proper fan you could do it like that. That or you should think about finding a larger grow space.

Using plastic for a reflector sounds like a bad idea. Also, you could put the light in a cool tube. There are threads in the DIY section about cheap DIY cooltubes. Post some pics!

I'll get some pics up as soon as possible. Well On Friday I get my check, I guess I could order a cool tube off ebay or something, I was going to order seeds too. Btw, what site would you recommend for seeds? I know there's like a million threads on that, but I always see a different answer. Yeah I was kinda hesitant to use plastic, but it's not like that cheap plastic, it's like that plastic that you couldn't break it if you were like hulk hogan. I'm not saying it's not flammable because that's stupid, but I did put a lighter up against it for like six minutes to test if it was flammable and nothing happended. Btw I forgot to mention that my ballast has a dimmer (as low as 50% power) should I just leave it on half power until I get a better reflector and the plants mature a little?

TheBigXCheeseX said:

I'll get some pics up as soon as possible. Well On Friday I get my check, I guess I could order a cool tube off ebay or something, I was going to order seeds too. Btw, what site would you recommend for seeds? I know there's like a million threads on that, but I always see a different answer. Yeah I was kinda hesitant to use plastic, but it's not like that cheap plastic, it's like that plastic that you couldn't break it if you were like hulk hogan. I'm not saying it's not flammable because that's stupid, but I did put a lighter up against it for like six minutes to test if it was flammable and nothing happended. Btw I forgot to mention that my ballast has a dimmer (as low as 50% power) should I just leave it on half power until I get a better reflector and the plants mature a little?

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A dimmer sounds nice. Give em as much juice as they can handle.

As for seeds.... what are you looking to grow? Pick a strain then find a seedbank that will ship it to you.

Well I have my heart set on White-Widow =). I know I need a seedbank, but I want a reliable one. Is Nirvana any good? I was thinking Highgrade-seeds though because they have a guarantee. They also have a cool little fun bag with like 5 different strains. Oh and when I start to feed my weed plants how long should I dissolve the plant food in water for? I have miracle grows super bloom or something that is like 15-30-15...sounds cool except I doubt they need that much nitrogen durring veg right?

Depending on your setup, you could cut hole in the bottom of your grow box to accomodate larger pots thus allowing for 3 actual feet of grow space in the cab rather than 1.5 or so. If you keep them LSTed and plant to keep them small anways, this should be plenty of room. Good luck.