PC case CFL micro grow

First off, this is my first real grow. I have tried my hand at growing some bag seed on 3 different occasions and just left near a window or on the porch. 2 of those seeds were eaten before they grew 6" by my pets( once by my cat and the second time by my dog) this time I made a pc case to keep it safe and stealthy. I currently have bagseed #3 growing in the case. It's small and severe transplant shock I think from too much light after transplant burned it a bit but is slowly recovering I think.

Anyways I decided if I'm gonna grow I need some real seeds of known origin so I bought some from herbies and they have already shipped. Should see them in the next week or so.
I chose to grow white widow X big bud just because it is a strain I wanted to try and it was affordable. I ordered a bag of 4 feminized seeds.
Probably not suitable for such a small space but I wanted to try it.

I will add photos of the setup when I get home. I'm using a soil mix from miracle gro for desert plants because it has better drainage and no nutes in it.
Getting ahead of myself but I'm wondering about what training method would give me the best results in this small space? SCROG? LST? Most of the photos I see of this strain have one massive bud on the main cola could I top it or FIM it to make more buds and spread with a screen or just grow one bigger cola and just bend it horizontally beneath the light? Which will provide better yield in less than 1 sq ft

Just a few pics of the current set up. I have been looking through the other threads and I haven't seen any PC grows this small. It will be quite a challenge to grow to maturity in here. Keepin with stealth theme I may create a speaker box for flowering and use this for veg but my goal is to do it all in here. Interior dimensions are 12" wide x 6.5" deep x 12" high. A few quick measurements show I only can grow a total height of about 6-7". Is this even possible?

Analog Kid said:

Just a few pics of the current set up. I have been looking through the other threads and I haven't seen any PC grows this small. It will be quite a challenge to grow to maturity in here. Keepin with stealth theme I may create a speaker box for flowering and use this for veg but my goal is to do it all in here. Interior dimensions are 12" wide x 6.5" deep x 12" high. A few quick measurements show I only can grow a total height of about 6-7". Is this even possible?

Click to expand...

Sure, just try and create as much "surface" area for your canopy, whether that surface be horizontal, vertical or somewhere in between.....

If I am creating a really broad canopy, I just pinch new growth from the 1st two tops...which creates four new tops...then pinch those again in a week or two and now you have 8 tops from a single plant to work with to manipulate your canopy, for example.....

For small spaces, bulbs can have a lot of cons.....take up space, create excess heat [low efficiency], dont all reflect in the same direction, etc etc....personally i know of better options, but that is for you to decide

I was planning to try as you described to create as many bud sites as possible by topping or fimming and a screen to keep them level. I am trying to maximize my yield as of course it is tiny. Would say 4-8 smaller buds with micro-Scrog have more yield than 1 big main fatty if I trained it to grow horizontally? Or would they all be smaller and not weigh much?

And yes I am not very satisfied with the loss of space with the bulb. I have been searching for a more space efficient and more powerful system. Not sure what kind of LEDs could be used to grow that will be cheap. Have been looking at cold cathode tubes as well very interesting but not sure if they work for growing

i bet some small vero Led's would be on a good cost level for how awesome they would be?

Tim Fox said:

i bet some small vero Led's would be on a good cost level for how awesome they would be?

Click to expand...

Two of the Vero 10 [3k or 3500k] would be real easy and cheap to start out with....
I bet depending on your level of growth you could push 1.5 grams / watt with them in your small space....

Most DIY heatsink lights consist of

led's
heatsink
Fan
Led driver

Special tip, I built a temporary fixture using used Laptop CPU coolers from Ebay. Cost me literally $4 for two heatsinks with 5v fans......and they have no more than 1/2" inch profile that really helps with keeping existing dimensions...

That would dramatically reduce your costs.....

For $20 you could build the whole thing......

- Bridgelux Vero 10's $4 each
[add $1.15 for each Molex wire connector, which I highly recommend for Vero's]
http://www.digikey.com/product-search/en?s=44063&FV=fff40008,fff80354,fffc03d0&mnonly=0&newproducts=0&ColumnSort=0&page=1&quantity=0&ptm=0&fid=0&pageSize=25
-Fasttech 65v 300mA LED Driver $3.67
https://www.fasttech.com/products/1612/10008256/1739206-27-63v-9-18-1w-led-constant-current-isolation
-5v Cell phone Charger as Fan Power supply
- Heatsinks:

Ebay used
HeatsinkUSA.com
[have a spreadsheet for cost/watt comparison]
LED Supply

-Not to litter your thread up, more, my apologies...

I thought a little more about what "I" would run in a pc setup...cost no concern...

I would leave it the same as mentioned above, but I would spring the extra $30-40 and buy bigger LED's and still run them @300milliAmps of current....

This way, you would effectively run the same wattage as 2x of the Vero 10 [which are great and nearly 40% efficient] and be able to run over 50% efficiency, effectively increasing light output for the same wattage.....just cost a little more in the beginning...10% more power into light photons, instead of heat waves...
Other wise, a couple of diodes, Vero 10, Vero 18 are excellent choices.... especially for small form factors..

I like those lights and I may build some because electronics is a hobby of mine and I wouldn't buy anything I could make to suit my needs. They will probably be later down the road though as to keep cost cheap as possible for now. I will see how things progress with the grow. But for now I already had all of this stuff around the house and is working okay probably add a few cfls on a power strip

multiple cfls can become a trap of sorts, the trap is the desire to keep adding more of them, and then more of them, next thing you know your creating allot of heat in your space, and next thing you know you have ALLOT MORE invested in clf bulbs than if you had just gone with leds to start with, my 2 cents, I have seen it happen over and over

Yes Tim fox I hear you I hope to make the conversion to led mostly because of space requirements. Cfl bulbs are a bit pricey 5-15$ each. I can see the LEDs being much better in the long run. If I have the extra money I might just have leds by the time I flower it. Or it might get pushed to the next grow

How many of the vero 10 should go in there? The area is 12" wide by 6.5" deep

A few update photos. My bagseed is looking better now still recovering from severe transplant shock. I took the shield off the bulb today to allow the sprout full light now that it's looking like it has a pulse