New favorite hobby ( I hope )

[tchop134]

After looking around at everyone else grow journal thought I should as well, best chance to get the help I need if y’all can see me in real time

Garage built grow box 2x2x4
bathroom exhaust fan I have wired for timed operation as well as triggered by internal thermostat if things get too hot in there
using 2 led grow lights I bought from home depot along with 2 cfl on either side
2 internal fans and walls lined with aluminum foil

1 seed from a bag many many moons ago, started with a peat pellet, germination took 8 days

Im going to transplant to larger pot in a few weeks with FFOF but for now using miracle grow organic because its less hot for the seedling.

[tchop134]

Also I’m at 11 days since seed was put into pellet, don’t know how good the pic is of my seedling but the stem has been this redish purple color since it sprouted. Any thoughts or suggestions?

[Nicky]

@tchop134
Welcome to the forums and thus the community, I feel honored to welcome such a handy person as yourself to our little community.

First off amazing job on the home built box, very resourceful I know that took a fair share of labour hours planning and thinking and possibly some unpleasant words but dang that’s a nice little grow box.
Should be great to start a first plant in maybe even finish bit ideally you will want something bigger, 2x2 is fine but 4ft is short… Maybe to short after your first grow but for now let’s make sure your as successful as you can be with what you have until you gain the knowledge and items you will need going forward.

My first question is going to be what lights exactly are in there? This information will be important

My second is are you monitoring your humidity?
Do you have a dehumidifier or humidifier on standby? Ps your humidity is going to want to be like 90% in there until the plant is about half the size you want it to be, then you’ll flip to flower.

My third is have you taken a LUX app on your phone and taken a reading at the top of your plant to see how much light intensity your getting currently? If not please do so.

What’s your light timer doing? 18/6 for photo periods but the first two weeks you can do 24/0 or 20/4 on/off.
Flip to 12/12 or 11/13 when your plants at 50-70% max height you can handle because it will stretch.

A suggestion for now would be to boost the humidity and if you have to dome the plant, humidity is almost more important than light right now not quite but close.
Find something clear and cut it in half if you must but dome it to trap the humidity.

Do you let your water sit out for 24hr prior to giving it? You should this removes chlorine and brings it to a better accepted room temp.

What type of medium? Soil? If so what type?
Soil less? If so what type & mix 70/30 coco/perlite?

Have you chose a nutrient line yet?

You don’t have a carbon filter so you’ll be okay with the stink from flower?
If not look into 4invh carbon filters you can attach it to the exhaust vent.

I’m guessing you should drop your light if possible, if not then you should make it adjustable, same with your CFL’s make them all adjustable on rachet hangers or rig something up yourself in your shop.

[tchop134]

Thats a lot of info I never really thought of most of it. I buikt the box in 3 days based off a rough idea I saw that someone else did. The lights are 2ft 19watt full spectrum led grow lights made by feit electric, there’s 2 in there at the top and the 2 cfl are only 40 watt each. I downloaded the app and it says I have have 2000 lux right on top of the plant, hope that’s a good amount. I do have a temperature plus humidity gague top left on the inside, currently the humidity is 60% I put the clear plastic dome for seedling greenhouse over the top of the plant to raise the RH. As far as medium I used a peat pellet to germinate in and just this afternoon I moved it into a half or 1 gallon (not sure) pot and I used some miracle grow organic all purpose soil initially. I have FFOF but thought it was too strong for a tiny seedling. I had trouble finding activated carbon or charcoal to make my own filter, that way it will be easier and more cost effective to replace in the future. Just started looking at nutrients, however I have no idea what strain or even if sativa or indica yet. Thanks for all the questions, honestly never really thought of how to make sure Im’m getting good light at the plant. Your contiued feedback is greatly appreciated

[tchop134]

Did a quick google search and looks like I want to be around 40 to 60,000 lux, so 2000 aint gonna cut the mustard. I moved my plant closer to the lights but the 40watt cfl just arent going to work, if I changed them out for 100 watt each might that do it? trying to keep this well below the price of one you can order on amazon, on a personal note…f@#$ amazon, otherwise I will loose my point that I can do it easier and cheaper by using something we called in the olden days resourcefulness.

[Breezy]

nice box!!looks amazing! i’m gonna follow along as we planted at around the same time! without knowing what we have

[Nicky]

Amazon is a nightmare for lights.
Your plant will be fine for now but in 2 weeks you may want to move it closer or move your lights down more.

[Cannabian]

do you live in a legal state or province? Can you expose that plant to natural sunlight? Cannabis is a pretty resilient plant and while humidity can be helpful it can also cause problems especially with a lack of environmental control. Remember that this plant grows in deserts of Afghanistan to the mountains of the Himalayas to the shores of California, all have very different climates. What Cannabis really wants is sunlight or strong synthetic light. It wants breezes or air movement, it wants food and water. To grow cannabis the easiest way is to place it in a sunny spot outside in good draining soil and water it.
Not unlike a fish in a pond, as soon as you move it into an aquarium you become god! You are now the rain and wind maker and the bringer of light and nourishment! Are you prepared to except this mission! Do you have all the needed elements?

[scylents]

@Nicky just blew my mind dude. I can’t wait to get home and download that app!!

[scylents]

@tchop134 I love the box man!! You saw my IKEA wardrobe… I’m having the same discussion about humidity and ventilation. I like the exhaust fan!! I gotta get that done ASAP.

Good luck man, I see you’re getting as much solid advice as I’ve gotten in the past few weeks! I’ll be watching this thread.

[GreenFlex]

Sorry Hope that You don’t mind my chiming in but I would suggest getting rid of the Aluminum Foil as it actually absorbs light more than it reflects it! You would be way better off( more reflected light for your plants) painting the inside of your box walls with a flat white paint, it actually will give you more light reflecting back to your plants! I cannot for the life of me remember the exact numbers for light refraction but I do know that getting that foil out of there and using white paint will also help alittle with the heat.(due to the foil absorbing the light/heat instead of it reflecting it.

[GreenFlex]

Aluminum foil can be place on the grow room’s walls and laid under the room’s plants to reflect light . Hang aluminum foil with its shiny side outward instead of against the wall. The foil doesn’t reflect as much light as white paint or grow films, but the amount of light reflected should improve plant growth.

[tchop134]

I live IN a state that is still bassackwards on what freedom is and leave it at that
Can’t grow outside but I did move my little unknown seedling to a window getting a nice sun tan right now. You blew my mind with the fishtank and god comparison, but your absolutely right.

[tchop134]

I did, saw alot of boxes similar to what I ended up doing. Design build at it’s finest (or worst ) this website and forum is really all I need to make this box I built work, and grow me some spectacular skuds.

[tchop134]

Chime in anytime you want, I welcome any and all advice. Like this plant needs light, I need input and advice

[tchop134]

Oh, about the foil I was going to paint it white but thought that was bad for the plant, chemicals and all. My wife’s going to be pissed I wasted all that foil for nothing
How long do I need to wait after painting before my plant can go back in? Do you or anyone else know if there’s a particular type of paint, preferable for this type of room? Thanks again for all that are helping me, much appreciated

[tchop134]

So I did the laziest compromise with having foil lined walls and wanting to go white… I just painted over the foil. Seems to be working fine, but I wonder if you know how long I should air it out before putting the little back in there?

[Nicky]

You can buy mylar cheap it’s actually the best, or one of those survival blankets works great to.
Flat white also works great.
The fool must be so thin and easy to tear dang when you said foil I thought you meant you put mylar up…

Anyways @Cannabian is absolutely right but I figured that you needed a stealth grow and thus you couldn’t grow outside.

All things aside as long as you stay willing and active on the web including here you will be successful and be more and more successful each grow. Remember first grows are simply successful and learning experiences don’t expect alot for your first few times.

That being said i would suggest thst you get some advice from someone who clones and assemble the supplies, take a clone or two from your plant when you can so that you don’t have to see hunt going forward and can just keep re growing the same genetics, getting better and better.

You have a tds and PH pen handy along with PH up/down

[tchop134]

No, I plan to hit the nursery near me to pick up water ph, hardness, all that jazz tomorrow. The white paint was a great suggestion, using the lux app on my phone I can see the white paint gave me over 8500 increase in lux! I added a 100 watt incandescent bulb that gives 2400 lumens. Got overall lux at the plant well over 16000 lux, only problem is too hot! Keeps kicking on my exhaust fan overheat which is dragging my RH down to 30 percent. So I took it out and put my cfl back in for now. I was planning to clone, or at least try to, and even if this turns out to be a male I figure I can practice some of the growing techniques like SOG and such. Right now I want to get good at growing and using all the techniques, a nice harvest is ideal but I realize the rate of failure and am eeping my expectations in check

[Cannabian]

Nice! If you can find LED lighting, like pods orsomething like that, mount them on the roof of your box so the piwer supply is outside! That reduces power consumption and heat. LED is extremely efficient. The main downside with using non plant specific lighting is the spectrum of the light. Imagine if you could only hear a certain section of the frequency spectrum and some of what you can hear is faint. Now think of that like light. A plant only sees certain wavelengths of light and of that, only some is beneficial to growth. Most lights such as incandescent and lighting used for illumination in houses are cool white, soft white etc. They dont cover the spectrum plants use with enough intensity to be of much use. Because plant use light energy, photosynthesis, to convert sugars into food for the plant, it is pretty importantant part of the metabolism. This is why, plant lighting has a spectrum chart. You can buy lighting to specifically target vegitation over flowering, or flowering over vegitation, you can get lights that cover both spectrums albeit less efficiently. You can also buy UV emitters… use with caution! They can cause cancer and cataracts, typically the UV lights are disabled when humans do work in the grow area.
Anyway, to summarize, lighting is probably the single biggest limiting factor in plant growth… definitely a major player in bud formation. Have fun and save some money for some lighting… maybe consider a home built light? Quite a bit cheaper and you can build the size you want.