New Grower My first grow cabinet using cfl lights and antique ice chest!!!! Lots of pictures

[bccrowley]

Hello Everyone and welcome to this post that I have created. I am a new member of this forum and would just like to share my first grow that I have decided to go about doing. Many of the pictures are of the first bagseed that I decided to plant (has been doing very well and I think may be an autoflower!!!)

The other seeds that I have planted include a White Widow by Vision seeds, Auto Pounder by Auto Seeds, and Royal Bluematic by Royal Queen Seeds. These seem to be doing very well so far and are definetely growing quickly. My setup is an antique ice chest which I aquired and made into my grow cabinet. Currently I have 4 plants in this setup with 7 CFL bulbs. 5 are 6500k and 2 are 2700k each 1750 lumens. Figure it would be enough light to start with and actually ended up being too much for several plants showing spots. I am watering with half rain water and half tap water that all ends up being PH neutral between 6.6 and 6.8.

Currently not adding any nutrients to the soil which is a mix of perlite, sphagnum peat moss and a good potting soil which has some light ferts in it already. Not sure if I should add any nutrients or not??? ( saw on ebay a listing for 9 different fox farms nutrients 1 oz of each for $15 which I may have to snag and see how it works)

Light cycle is at 20/4 right now, and I love to take them outside to get mid-day sun which they seem to like a lot. Just transplanted all of the plants today into larger pots which I'm sure will make a big difference.

I am a newbie, but have done a lot of research on how to setup and grow indoors and out. CFL's are the cheapest way for me to go right now, and I am a broke college student so any money I get is spent quickly. Please inform me of what you all think so far, and any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I just want the dankest smoke for the end of the summer, and hopefully make back a little money. Cheers!!!:drool:

 

[Nam80232]

My first 4 grows where with clf's only. Ill tell you what I know about them if you'd like. What wattages are your clf's? Actual watts not equivalent watts. Pics of my best plant grown under clf's on my page. A pic of your light fixture would be great! P.s. I'm an electrician by trade. Good grow karma sent your way!

 

[Nam80232]

Sorry just noticed your light setup in pictures. Much of your light is being directed away from the babies. Hanging the lights up side down will shorten the bulbs life, and projects the light to the walls. Mounting the lights horizontally will direct more of its available lumens toward the little ladies. Hope that helps.

 

[bccrowley]

So when you say you have your bulbs placed horizontally what do you mean??

I am currently using the 7 CFL's which are each 26 watts actual power. I was thinking of buying one of the bathroom fixtures with like 3 bulbs and using a y splitter to make a 6 bulb top and place the rest of the bulbs where the light is needed the most. Another thought is the handheld lights like used in the automotive industry with the metal reflector on one side and cage on the other. (this would be great for hanging horizontally).

 

[nomis]

digging the ice chest dude!

 

[Nam80232]

When you install the bulbs, lamps, sideways you provide your plants with much more light. Which in turns rewards you with greater growth.

 

[bccrowley]

OK. Thanks for the input on the lights. I adjusted most of them so that the light will focus on the plants the most. The way it is currently set up, there are 3 different lights with a hood on it which is providing all the light to be focused on the plant as a whole. Hopefully I will be able to install more lights soon.

 

[bccrowley]

Hey everyone. Its been a couple days so I thought I would take some pics tonight and let everyone know where I am at. The auto pounder is growing at a rapid pace and so is the white widow. Both are starting to have a slight smell to them. My bagseed is still growing pretty good, not a lot of quick growth like I expect which I dont know why. There is a vertigo that is being germinated along with a few more seeds I plan to start within the next few weeks. For my first grow how do you thinks these little ones are looking. I have noticed some light burn where they grow a good bit over the course of the day and get too close to the cfls. I need to start feeding nutrients but dont know what I want to use. I dont have much money to buy expensive ferts from the hydro store. thinking some walmart or lowes organic.