New grow

[rds_sk8er420]

k sooo im new to growing this is going to be my first grow.
if read some threads, read some books, watched some movies.
now im looking for some advice on matirials....
I currently am germinating about 10 seeds, and have built a box in quite a large cold room/closet type place(not really cold at all but its a LARGE closet in my basement that has no windows and no vents outa it other then a small crack under the door), now i have the go ahead to grow my g/fs mom is smoke friendly and we dont mind if that room is smelly. the box in lined with tinfoil shinny side, I was wondering about lights---as in can i pick em up from rona or home depot, and how much im looking at i got maybe 50bucks for lights, can in no way afford a ballast, and can high pressure sodium lights be plugged into a regular light socket?. im using my air hockey fan for the light vent and a little plug in fan for inside vent on plants. i picked up some potting soil, perlite, worm castings, build sand, and pre-mix for soil. I have the pots and everything but no lights, IS THIS A SUITABLE GROW? or is there anything i have missed? any input would be greatful, i know i gotta give it a couple tries to get it right, buy i thought maybe some exp growers could tell me if im going in the right way.

 

[vintner]

No, HPS lights can not be plugged into a regular outlet. What you've got now sounds pretty good so far, but you're going to have to put some heat into a basement closet. Buy a small space heater or something, Then spend the rest on as many fluoros as you can afford. You can buy 4' tube fluoros and one surge bar, or several serg bars and as many lights as you can plug into them.

 

[rds_sk8er420]

fluoro lights? like the kind that is used in office buildings and schools? cuz i got alot of the small ones about 2' though, and blacklight ones too, will those do anything? and i got tons of those bars around here looks like i can set up shop then. can i grow about 10 plants in a 3'x4'x5' box?(ill post some pics if i get some seedlings from this first try of course)

 

[vintner]

Sounds like you need to do some reading and educate yourself before you start a grow. You could use the 2 footers if you've got a ton of them, but the black lights aren't going to grow anything. You're shooting for 50 watts per sq. foot MINMUM w/flouros. You can put as many plants in there as you'd like. Most here would say two, and that's what I'd probably do myself. But if you read up on SOG, you'll see that you can try to grow many more than 10 in there. All depends. Do you have a lot of seeds, or access to clones?

 

[rds_sk8er420]

i have 30 seeds, lights are the only thing im not sure about, ive got my light timer and the box is ready with tinfoil a fan above where the lights would go, and vent hole that the plant fan inside can blow air outa. its completely sealed, not with glue so i could take it apart later if needed. got the soil mixture and nutrients. im looking to start with at most 10 plants im not really trying to make a perfect crop or nothin, just a little something for myself and the woman. I noticed that the 2' tubes dont emit that much heat in a open room, but if i put lets say about 5 of those on there would that be enough for a couple plants? if not i could only afford about 3-4 of those 4' ones. and I will read up on that sog, thanks for the info.

 

[vintner]

5 two footers wont be enough for even one plant. 50 watts per sq foot is minimum for fluoros. buy those 3-4 four footer, and an extra surge bar, and stick as many of those 2 footers in as you've got outlets for them. Remember, no black lights.

 

[mush182002]

go to light bulb section and look for the spiral floros that say 42watts=150-200wattage. NOw make sure to look at the spectrum. If it says soft white, that means it is red spectrum which ive been told is ok but best for flowering. What you should look for is the bulbs that say daylight. Some packaging will have a scale and either have checked off soft white, bright white, or day light. Daylight is blue spectrum and supposdely the best cfls for vegging. UNfortunately, I have been told since the spiral cfls are relatively, it is still hard to find high wattage bulbs for daylight. Ive found a few that range from 30watts to 40 watts ( equals 150-200 watts). You may have to go check out a few stores if u cant find the daylight bulbs.

In some ways , it wold be so much easier to by an Mh/HPS conversion light. I could have bought one basically for how much i spent on bulbs and extras, BUT, THE HEAT FROM the cfls is much easier to control in an enclosed cabinet

 

[rds_sk8er420]

k well im gonna do that to sprout my little babys vintner, but im gonna set my box up with daylight bulbs like you said mush to grow my babys, then im gonna go out and buy (like around the flowering time) the soft white bulbs to replace the daylight.

I cant order anything of the internet so you im pretty much stuck with whats at the local wal-mart or homedepot for lights. as for heat mush, i got a air hockey fan, and a small desk top fan, i was thinking about putting the air hockey fan ontop of my box above the lights to suck out hot air, and have the little fan inside to keep air moving and cool. make sense? or think i should switch it up? air hockey blowing in, and the fan blowing air around and another hole for it to blow outa?

 

[mush182002]

PLease keep in mind, im a newbie too, but have done vast research on using cfl and have looked at peoples countless grow journals using cfls. Also, I had trouble finding daylight bulbs that were the higher wattage. Much easier to find 42w soft white. Anyways, I have a mixed of all spectrums .I will keep u updated on the status of my babies. They are only 2 days old. IM also trying to revive a 2 week old bagseed that ive been experimenting with while I tweaked my conditions of the soils and conditions of the cabinet. (temp,light,paint, etc...)

 

[rds_sk8er420]

yea ill call around the city and look for the daylight bulbs, I too have been looking into ppls grow journals, and do you know if they sell those plug to light socket peices at wal-mart or homedepot? my only other option was ikea and buying a cord set for each light, but id rather have 3 set up on a power bar and 3 more set up on another power bar. tkes up less space and less cords lol.

 

[vintner]

In a basement gro area w/only fluoros, getting rid of excess heat WONT be a problem for you. Consider investing in a small space heater for when it gets really cold here soon. If you're going to save up money for different lights before you put them into flower, why not look for a few (3-4) small wattage HPS? If you look around, I'm sure you will find 75-100 watters at Lowes or wali world. replace those for the fluoros you're veging with.

 

[skatterbrayne]

and do you know if they sell those plug to light socket peices at wal-mart or homedepot?

Yes those adapters that you can plug into a power strip and screw the cfl's into are available at home depot; some split allowing you to plug 2 cfls into one socket. 10 plants is sort of a lot to do in a floro grow. I've seen people come out with very nice looking buds under flouros, but they usually have a limited number of plants. Once your plants start flowering and doubling and tripling in size, you may have a light issue, man, if not before hand. Just somethin to keep in mind while you can still adjust things and prepare.

Peace to the grow,

 

[rds_sk8er420]

lol yes i have actually thought of that, and i changed almost my whole set up(just built another box lol). so now if got 2 grow boxes built now, one for 5 another for 5 plus im going to keep them small and bushy. id like to have atleast 2-3 foot plants nothing special. litaraly just for personal use. and for my g/f lol. plus at first sign of those bad sacks im sacking the plant. And b4 i forget they are bag seeds, nice bud but the previous grower obviosly didnt weed out the males and let them flower past prime(you could tell the potential of the bud know what im saying). so heres to hoping i do better!. AS for heat should i not even worry about venting the heat from the bulbs and keep it in the box?(i mean i could always open it just while lighted hours to vent the heat if it does manage to get to hot right?)

 

[vintner]

you not only want to vent the heat out if it gets to hot in there, but you need to exchange all the air in the box several times every hour so the plants don't run out of CO2. What would happen if you closed yourself up in a box that size w/no air exchange?

 

[rds_sk8er420]

good point only thing is my house gets to be about 18c for about an hour or so now and then, so would the box still be able to maintain a good 20 - 25c inside the box without purchase of a space heater? i dont really have any extra cash.

 

[mush182002]

I highly suggest you invest in some seeds purchased from drchronic or other seedbanks. In addition to them being genetically altered so that they have a higher rate of being female, they are typically stronger and will likely priduce better results. I just got min i ordered, nirvana papaya. They are thriving after just a few days and are already bigger then my bagseed. Goodluck with your grow and keep us updated