My set up, newbie.

Hey everyone, i'm brand new to the forums here, however i've been reading rollitup.org for quite a while to understand what i need to do to grow a personal stash as a newbie.
I wanted to post my set up i just built for my sprouts sorry if this isn't the right place to post, but i wasn't sure which area was good for this.

Anyway, so this all started when my friend said "lets see what grows in this coke can"
We took a can, cut it in half, packed it with dirt from the front of my house (no worries, good clean dirt, packed with worms and leaf compost, i think someone used to plant things there)
Doing that, in less than a week we had 4 sprouts in one can, and 2 in another about 2 inches high. The one smaller can, with less soil seemed to grow thicker more firm stems, not sure why. Anyway, This was awesome, so this week, i said "gotta transplant this badboys" and bought some things from walmart to get it done. 3 hours later, built from an old computer desk i bought (from walmart heh) i now have a well lighted and ventillated grow box.

What i used:
-4" high, 4 sqft computer desk
-2 27w = 100w flourescent lightbulbs
-carboard to make a light box, lined with tin foil and alluminum tape.
-two Massey adjustible fans (took the rods off)

Sorry for the bad quality, my camera broke and i was forced to take them with my phone.

So i cut holes in the side and the top-back for the fans, back being exhaust, side being intake. Fit them in, secured with screws.
Made the light box, which in one of the pictures, you can see the inside of the light box where i have the exhaust fan point out. I moved the keyboard drawer to the very bottom of the computer case so i could pull the plants out and not fuck anything up inside.

I still used dirt from my yard to grow them, however i mixed the dirt, 1 part dirt, 1 part Expert Perfect Mix Potting soil

They are nice and green, look healthy, been transplanted from cans to the pots for 8 hours and good response, low droopage.
oh and the door is a big piece of cardboard lined with foil and alum tape, i know it's half assed, but it's tight seal and easier then putting a big door on it.

Let me know what you guys think, or if i could do anything to improve this. I do intend to add the DIY carbon filter from this site on the back when they get bigger.


Thanks for all your information here!

everything looks good!!!!! just a few suggestions is to get rid of the Foil and either get some mylar or white paint for the inside, and i would seperate each plant in its own pot.

Get those plants in their own pots bro!

And can you raise the top? Looks like you might have an issue with space.

Cool though, good job

O ya welcome to RIU as well!!!!

sweet! thanks guys!
I will def put them in separate pots, just wanted to get them transplanted because they were getting big, and in a coke can, those roots are suffering.
The space issue has come to my mind, however the pictures make it look like there is less space than there really is, it is 4 and a half feet high, and the box hang about 9 inches from the top. I plan on converting the box to a clone/mother box when they get bigger, so i get a longer yield span, and less hassle, i am experienced with cloning from my mothers garden shop over my high school summers =P
Thanks again for the input! as soon as i make changes i will post new pics

I agree with both down and motor. You have to grow in separate pots. The roots need to breath and on will choke the other out or worse they will choke each other out. Also when it comes time to kill the male you will have all those roots tied together in the pots.

Tin foil is a bad idea it makes hot spots where the light is magnafied by the creases and can burn your plants. If you dont have mylar or white paint you can use computer paper construction paper and so on. Just line the box with it. If you can see the color of the box through the paper just double up the paper or get better paper.

Space will be an issue if you cannot raise your lights a plant is usually set to flower at 12-18 inces and after that the plant will double to quadrupal in size.

It looks like a good start for a prelimanary "nesting" area for your plants though keep up the good work watch your ph and give those babies plenty of light and you will be so happy you did!!!!

ThatGuy1985 said:

I agree with both down and motor. You have to grow in separate pots. The roots need to breath and on will choke the other out or worse they will choke each other out. Also when it comes time to kill the male you will have all those roots tied together in the pots.

Tin foil is a bad idea it makes hot spots where the light is magnafied by the creases and can burn your plants. If you dont have mylar or white paint you can use computer paper construction paper and so on. Just line the box with it. If you can see the color of the box through the paper just double up the paper or get better paper.

Space will be an issue if you cannot raise your lights a plant is usually set to flower at 12-18 inces and after that the plant will double to quadrupal in size.

It looks like a good start for a prelimanary "nesting" area for your plants though keep up the good work watch your ph and give those babies plenty of light and you will be so happy you did!!!!

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awesome info thanks man

the light schedule is almost done for today so i'll change out the foil tomorrow morning before i light those babies up.
Now transplanting again, will this hurt the roots any more? not saying i hurt them already, but i did sort of grow them in an unorthodox manner... heh. Should i get pots half the size of what i have now for each plant?

I agree with previous comments to get rid of the foil and to put them in their own pots.

also, sorry for the double post, but since i'll be cloning for the future, i'll keep the plants between 16 and 19 inches, so pruning will be my task. I don't want to grow from the plants as i wasn't planning on worrying about a 2 and a half foot plant in my closet heh, needs to me small, portable, and able to yeild quantity

hey just a thought but here is a SCROG grow that i found. you should look into this method of growing as it will give you amazing yields with a super super small grow space.

motoracer110 said:

hey just a thought but here is a SCROG grow that i found. you should look into this method of growing as it will give you amazing yields with a super super small grow space.

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Oh this is a great idea! Yea a friend told me that you could grow horizontally two ways, one, get inch wide chicken wire, and when it's growing tall, tie the stems down, scrog it pretty much, wasn't aware of that term.
the second way is to break the stems a little, so that they re grow out to the sides. i don't trust the breaking method, not that it can't work in theory, just that i'm not gonna be that mean to my plants. lol

Thanks for the info, i'll be looking into changing my set up in the next month or two

also, i have a question, i saw this thread https://www.rollitup.org/do-yourself/158047-diy-reflectors-fer-cfl-lights.html saying you can make reflectors at of aluminum pans. Is this safer because it doesn't have a ton of creases? or should i still go white poster board?

lookin sweet dude,keep up the good work bro

Ok, so i ditched the foil, all of it (except the foil tape heh) and replaced it with white posterboard.
I made a smaller, yet wider light cover from the poster board, poked the lights thru and secured them about 3 inches from the top of the cover. I also improved the vent, instead of the staionary vent, i made a coil hose to attach to the exhaust fan and the lamp cover so that i could extend the cover and the lights at the sae time, bringing both closer or farther from the plants. Works like a charm! I know i could have just got one, but i went out to go get pots and the poster board, i forgot to get the vent hose heh, improvise!

Also, a good few hours before i put the plants in the case again, i wiped the whole cab out with Bug Stop, and let it dry nice, dried quickly with the ventilation, but i wanted to try to stop pests before hand... i saw some white peices of lint flying around and freaked heh.
also, i'm repotting the four in different pots within the next hour or so.
let me know what you think.

now that looks about 5 million times cleaner and more professional.

Keep us posted

Those plants are stretching bro!!!

Wisegrow said:

Those plants are stretching bro!!!

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yes, it was my fault for putting the new light cover in and still keeping the light on them, the lights were up a bit high, maybe 4 to 5 inches, for a good 30 mins, i thought i would have been faster, but i put the lights back down to about 1 3/4 to 2 inches above the plants to keep the from stretching anymore. hopefully they will be fine.

GoPostalMan said:

also, i have a question, i saw this thread https://www.rollitup.org/do-yourself/158047-diy-reflectors-fer-cfl-lights.html saying you can make reflectors at of aluminum pans. Is this safer because it doesn't have a ton of creases? or should i still go white poster board?

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The last post on the first page talks about hot spots and burning not much though.

There is more of a chance of hot spots from foil it isn't saying that if you have any foil in your grow area it will seek and destroy. It is more of a why would you want to increase your risks of something bad happening to your little ones.

GoPostalMan said:

yes, it was my fault for putting the new light cover in and still keeping the light on them, the lights were up a bit high, maybe 4 to 5 inches, for a good 30 mins, i thought i would have been faster, but i put the lights back down to about 1 3/4 to 2 inches above the plants to keep the from stretching anymore. hopefully they will be fine.

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You should bury them up to there neck in my opinion

Wisegrow said:

You should bury them up to there neck in my opinion

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ok, i am replanting them in their own pots in a bit, so i will make sure i bury the a little more before i put them back in the box.
thanks for the info.

Thanks thatguy, yea i decided (well, if foil is bad, this isn't any better) and went with the cardboard, very happy i did.