Stealth Closet Grow, floros of many kinds!

Well here it is, my first grow in this apartment. Because of landlord and roommate issues I have to do a stealh closet grow. I have done several indoor grows at my last apartment with the same setup but I am ready for something more High Intensity if you know what I mean. A HPS is on the list of things to do. My setup consists of the following:

CLOSET:
2x4x4 (height restriction because it still needed to look like a functioning closet.)

LIGHTING:

FOR VEGGING:
6 x 40 watt T12 - 3000 lumen @ 6000k
2 x 32 watt CFL - 1400 lumen @ ??

FOR FLOWERING:
2 x 32 watt T8 - 2900 lumen @ 3500k
2 x 32 watt T8 -2950 lumen @ 3000k
2 x 40 watt T12 - 3000 lumen @ 3000k
3 x 23 watt CFLs - 1400 lumen @ ??

Currently I have 4 little beauties that are 3 weeks old today. There are 5 others that are only at day 12. All seeds came from bags. No pedigree information. This is basically one last practice grow before I get my 400 watt HPS for my next grow room.

I will keep pictures coming and look forward to all the great advice from the knowledgeable people here at RIU. For now they will be from my cellphone and the quality is poor. Ive read just about every journal I can find along with the very informative GROWfaq. This is a wonderful place to share thoughts, laughs and information with people who have one great similar hobbie. Look forward to getting to know all of you better.

I attempted my first FIMs on 4 of these plants. Im not sure if I was sucessful, time will tell. Ive been running temps between 75-85 F, and humidity has been around 40%. Ill post more pictures tomorrow or Friday. I am interested in peoples opinons on when might be the the earliest time in which I can do some 12/12 action. I dont want to sacrifice my yield all together, but I need things to move quickly. I dont have a pH for my water supply. Where might be the best place to pick one of those up for a reasonable price? Time for blazin and bed. To all a good night.

Well no takers yet huh? "If you grow it they will come". I beleive this to be true, and indeed what Costner's film should have actually been about. It is time for the nightly update. I figure if I start making this journal real informative then more people will subscribe. Lets get down to business.

Still no trouble from the landlord or the roommates. The "box" is barely noticeable. Looks like a normal college kids closet. I plan on posting a few exterior pictures so you can see the ghetto construction. I basically lined the walls of the closet at 42'' with 2x4s as ledgers. On top of the 2x4s I screwed down the top of an old coffee table that was cut to fit the inside of the closet. This was basically the top of the box, but from the outside it appears as a shelf. The door then became the only opening to the box. To solve this problem I cut a sheet of luan plywood to seel the front. There is a window fan at one end of the closet that I cut to fit in next to the "coffee table/shelf". This window fan pumps in fresh air from the room. The air exits at the other end of the coffee table/shelf where I plan to put a carbon filter. The 4ft. light fixture hang in a homemade frame right below the underneath of the coffeetable/shelf.

That is basically how my box is constructed. Most of the edges of the box are infact my closet walls. It all sounds much more complicated then it really is. The pictures may clear up any confusion you have.

PLANT UPDATE:
The 9 beauties are still going strong. I transplanted the remaining 5 into 1 liter pots. The solo cups had them root bound. My current temps are 85 F and RH of about 40%. Any inexspensive ideas (that do not involve buying a humidifier) on how to consistantly raise my RH into the desired 60% range would be apprieciated. Does anyone know if 40% during veg is going to hurt me down the road?

I have been watching two of my plants develop substantial undergrowth from their nodes. This is a good thing! All of the others are just developing their first leaves at these nodes. Most of the planst are between 4-5 nodes. Does 10 sound like a reasonable number of nodes to enter flowering at? I also scored a pH tester kit at the hardware store today! I am excited to test the water from my tap. I have suspicions that someone poisoned the water hole... haha not really, but my plants dont always seem to like the tap water. Enough babbling for one night, time for the pictures. If everyone keeps interested and gives advice and construction criticism along the way then Ill keep up with the regular updates. Goodnight y'all.

i love watching closet growers do your thing...if you want to raise the humidity just place a bowl of water in front of your fan it should raise it by bout 5 %...

Here are the 7 remaining plants on day 24. Not much more to report. I think most of them have 5 nodes and have been topped. Also you can see what a dramatic haircut several have gotten. The big fan leaves block too much light for the new undergrowth so at this young stage they gotta go! I wanted to put these gnarly beasts into flower later this week, but they arent quite ready... imo. What does everyone thing? When should I cut the lights to 12/12 on these babies?? feel free to drop your thoughts and opinions. Im still running temps of almost 80F and RH of around 30%. Pics are still frm a phone so quality is so-so. Holla!

how high could you let them grow? If less than 2 feet then now(ASAP). They will double or triple in size once they hit 12/12..

I took your advice and started 12/12 today.

With this I added my 3 softlight CFLs (14,20,23 watt) and 2-40 watt 3000 lumen 3000k T12s, 2-32 watt 2900 lumen 3000k T8s and 2-32 watt 2900 lumen 3500k T8s. By my math that is 17600 lumen with the tubes and an additional approx. 4000 lumen. Grand total of 21600 lumens produced by 265 watts. This seems like a reasonable amount for the 4 sqaure feet of actual plants. That is a reasonable 5400 lumen per square foot. Not quite where Id like to be.

Once the dudes are pulled out of the 7 plants I might add some 40 watt cfls. Goodnight

Over the past few days since my last post I have seen alot of new growth at the nodes and topped sections. The fast rate of growth makes me assume that conditions have been disirable so I will continue with what I have been doing. I expect the plants to show their sex withing 10 days. Pictures on my next post. I am interested in opinions about doing a SCROG screen when the males have been pulled? I know getting males out of a screen that have been weaving in for a month can be hard. Will the stress of the screen make the flowering period slower or stress the gals?

any suggestions folks? Your input is always apprieciated