PC Grow Box Small Scale

Alright guys, I plan on attempting a grow in this box here in a little less than a month.
Just putting the finishing touches on this stealth PC.
This is a very small scale grow, more for experimentation purposes than anything. With a possibility of 0-3 females, I'm hoping for... an ounce at best with this grow.
I do plan on using LST.

Does anyone have any suggestions, ideas, advice for me?
One question I did have is, what kind of soil do you guys recommend?

Thanks!

---Uber-Pea---

one tip is not to mix the spectrums of light... blue light(day light/bright white) 6500k cfls for veg...red light(soft white) 2700k cfls for flowering... if you are going 12/12 from seed I would still suggest the 2700k...

and keep your lights 1-3 inches from your plants(cfls can nearly be touching without harming the plant) and is almost useless after about 5 inches

The lights are adjustable via rare earth metal magnets

About the spectrum... I plan on using a mix of the two until it goes into full flower when I will replace the 6500K bulb with a second 2700K

Thanks for the advice! Keep it coming please.

---Uber-Pea---

lol, ok do what you like, but your 2700k will do hardly anything for your veg, and the color change by switching from 6500/2700 will help transition from veg to flower...also when the rays of blue and red mix they create a color which will neither benefit your veg or flower compared to straight 6500k and 2700k... colors in the range of about 4000k-5000k will not help your plant at all... if you mix a 50/50 of 6500k and 2700k, where do you think you color range is going to end up?

Maybe don't ask for advice if you don't know how to use it...

No I see what you're saying. I guess I never considered the fact of light rays mixing to form a new spectrum... Didn't know it was possible.

Thank you for your advice... how does this sound? Two red bulbs for 1-2 before switching to the blues?

---Uber-Pea---

blues for veg, red for flower...
6500k 2700k

honestly though, the best way to learn is from experience, that, I don't have a lot of...what I do have is knowledge but just because I say it doesn't mean its the best way...science lets you know what the plant needs at certain levels, but many people grow differently depending on what suits them...I apologize if I came off sounding like a know it all, because I don't and am still learning myself...

My bad... had it backwards haha. And don't worry man, I appreciate your advise.

Any advise on soil..?

---Uber-Pea---

FCSoldier said:

when the rays of blue and red mix they create a color which will neither benefit your veg or flower compared to straight 6500k and 2700k... colors in the range of about 4000k-5000k will not help your plant at all... if you mix a 50/50 of 6500k and 2700k, where do you think you color range is going to end up?

Click to expand...

This is not entirely accurate.

First, color temperature (k) is only useful for human eyes, hence why household light bulbs are measured in color temperature. Extra red/blue light will NOT diminish the availability of red/blue light for photosynthesis because light is additive. If you add red with blue it becomes purple in our brain, but the amount of red light and blue light as separate wavelengths are still constant.

4000-5000k lights are not ideal because they emit a lot of green light, which is very inefficient for photosynthesis.

So you're saying that I CAN mix these bulbs and there will be an equal amount of light from each spectrum? Not an amount somewhere in the middle?

---Uber-Pea---

uberpea said:

So you're saying that I CAN mix these bulbs and there will be an equal amount of light from each spectrum? Not an amount somewhere in the middle?

---Uber-Pea---

Click to expand...

That is Correct.

That's what I thought... thanks for clarifying.

Any advice on soil?

---Uber-Pea---

ok, so your saying if I put an equal amount of yellow and blue light together they will not then turn into green(4000k-5000kappx)? and yes the kelvin scale is how the human eye sees light, but that does not change the fact that the green light is not a source of light for plants which is rated between 4000-5000 kelvin


also if we could not manipulate light spectrums we would have no color on television, tv is based off of 3 colors which are then mixed to create every color that is on the television... each one of those colors will emit light at a different spectrum, but I guess this is just my thoughts as I said I am not an expert, but show me a little background to that claim...

and no, I never said purple is bad...I said mixing the lights would not benefit in either stage...the more light in the right spectrum the better the results in my opinion...

uberpea said:

So you're saying that I CAN mix these bulbs and there will be an equal amount of light from each spectrum? Not an amount somewhere in the middle?

Click to expand...

Correct, there is no harm in adding additional light sources, even if they're not the ideal spectrum.

FCSoldier said:

and no, I never said purple is bad...I said mixing the lights would not benefit in either stage...the more light in the right spectrum the better the results in my opinion...

Click to expand...

You're right, I only meant to illustrate the qualities of light in a fairly intuitive manner.

FCSoldier said:

I said mixing the lights would not benefit in either stage

Click to expand...

I agree the ideal color for each stage will have maximum benefit. However, many people regularly use mixed spectrum lighting.

FCSoldier said:

the more light in the right spectrum the better the results in my opinion.

Click to expand...

Absolutely, my mistake if I caused any confusion on this point.

vh13 said:

This is not entirely accurate.

First, color temperature (k) is only useful for human eyes, hence why household light bulbs are measured in color temperature. Extra red/blue light will NOT diminish the availability of red/blue light for photosynthesis because light is additive. If you add red with blue it becomes purple in our brain, but the amount of red light and blue light as separate wavelengths are still constant.

4000-5000k lights are not ideal because they emit a lot of green light, which is very inefficient for photosynthesis.

Click to expand...

http://www.iit.edu/~smile/ph9709.html

go ahead and try it...ok now you see light rays do mix... mixing red and blue rays will make purple and purple will give off an equal amount of red and blue light... which will give you somewhere between the 2 ideals

Can I ask how many people on here want to use purple lighting?

vh13 said:

Correct, there is no harm in adding additional light sources, even if they're not the ideal spectrum.

Click to expand...

it will hlengthen the transition from veg to flower... switching from blue to red when you switch to 12/12 makes a faster transition...

so harm, no, but increase time yes...

well anyway, i'm getting worked up over nothing, sorry if I couldn't be of much help and hope your grow goes well

FCSoldier said:

http://www.iit.edu/~smile/ph9709.html

Click to expand...

This experiment only shows how the human brain interprets light.

FCSoldier said:

mixing red and blue rays will make purple and purple will give off an equal amount of red and blue light... which will give you somewhere between the 2 ideals

Click to expand...

Not between, more precisely, a combination of both. The frequency of the light wavelengths do not shift, they are constant. It is only in our brains that a change in color occurs.

FCSoldier said:

Can I ask how many people on here want to use purple lighting?

Click to expand...

This is the operating principle behind LED grows, that a purplish light with more or less blue/red in a given stage is the ideal.

FCSoldier said:

it will hlengthen the transition from veg to flower... switching from blue to red when you switch to 12/12 makes a faster transition...

so harm, no, but increase time yes...

Click to expand...

Hmm... I've no experience with this myself, but I've heard a little extra red in veg helps make a faster transition to flower when the switch is made and a little extra blue in flower feeds the plant a little more which is good for ripe bud production.

Thank you vh13, you have been very informative in clearing this up. I was pretty sure that you were correct about that.

So... let's talk soil. lol

---Uber-Pea---