GetSchwify's First Grow - DIY Growbox & CFL Lights

[GetSchwifty]

Hey everyone,

Welcome to my first grow journal. I want to start with a quick thanks to this community for the amount of time and effort you guys have put into helping those with less experience. I've learned an amazing amount from you guys, and I hope to contribute to this community, here, with my own experiences. So thank you

The Setup

THE BOX:
I built a grow box using:
1. 45 Gallon container from Walmart (36.6" L X 21" W X 19.5" H) [$15]
2. 4 12V PC Fans [$15]
3. 3 Car Sunshades from the 99 cent store [$3]
4. USB Fan from 99 cent store [$1]

The rest was random stuff I found around the house, such as wiring stuff, hanger hooks, duct tape, and a surge protector.

The intake is active with one PC fan.

The exhaust is 3 PC fans stacked on each other. The fans are running off 5 volts via USB wired together in parallel.

Now, I totally get that I'm going to start running into spacing issues. So I will be keeping you guys posted on the problem solving regarding that-- hopefully anything I consider, or the community suggests, will be able to help give ideas to those who are trying to grow in really limited spaces.

LIGHTING:
I'm using 6500k 23w CFLs with 1600 lumen rating.

MEDIUM:
I am going to start off with Edna's Best Potting Soil mixed with about 20% perlite. Ingredients in the soil include: aged fir bark, sphagnum peat moss, aged redwood, volcanic pumice, earthworm castings, washed sand, kelp meal, bat guano, feather meal, gypsum, oystershell lime, dolomite lime, and yucca shidegera saponin.

They've also added mycorrhizal fungi.

And I will eventually be using General Hydroponics Flora series for nutrients.

I have some RO water and I bought CalMag, but I think I'm going to just use tap water for now-- I don't feel confident enough to be in that much control of the water. I pH'd my tap water and got a reading of about 8, so I hope that's not too basic.

The Plants

STRAIN:
I'm not sure what strain I have, as these are bag seeds I found. Obviously not ideal, but it is what sparked this whole thing in the first place-- I'm gonna stick with them.

Journal Update
Ok, so I've wet a paper town, and I placed two seeds inside the paper towels.

This was just placed in a ziplock bag and placed in a drawer. The bag was left partially unzipped so that a limited amount of air could circulate.

So, thats pretty much it!

I'll be back to update this in about two days, and let you guys know how germination is coming along.

Sending positive vibrations,

GetSchiwifty

p.s. wubba lubba dub dub!

 

[Lupey]

Good luck, don't be afraid to fill the box with lights. 8 is pretty high on pH. I use mountain spring water from the store works well

 

[Kai420Fowler]

Good luck

The only thing to fear is bad weed

 

[GetSchwifty]

Good luck, don't be afraid to fill the box with lights. 8 is pretty high on pH. I use mountain spring water from the store works well

Thank you! Ok, I'll grab some from the store, the 8 reading has got me uneasy

 

[Lupey]

I was using distilled during veg then switched to spring water when flowering started

 

[GetSchwifty]

Are you adding CalMag to your distilled water?

 

[Lupey]

Yes I always add cal mag. Nutes and plain water

 

[GetSchwifty]

Journal Update

Alright, last night I check on the beans in the paper towel and saw this:

Looks like one of them hasn't cracked yet. As for the cracked bean...

I first filled up my solo cup with my soil and then wet the whole thing with plain distilled water that had a pH of 6.7 and let that drain. Then I took a pencil and made a small hole in the center, where I put the seed in with the tap root down. You can see how I placed it in the photo above if you look closely. And then I covered it up really lightly with about a quarter inch of soil.

Lastly, I took a ziplock bag and placed it over the solo cup as a little heliodome, that way I keep the humidity/moisture up until the plant takes root. I cut a small hole in the corner of the bag just to allow for some limited ventilation.

And here she is in the grow box! I'm also trying to get a good idea of the temperature right in the center of the lights, so I just temporarily hung the remote sensor over the cup to get some data.

I should be back with an update in a day or two and let you guys know how it's going.

Cheers!

 

[GetSchwifty]

Journal Update

Alright, quick update. I took this picture the day after my last post (1/20/16)

It's amazing how fast this happens. I took the plastic bag off once I saw that the first true leaves were opened up. Other than that, I left her (fingers crossed) alone, I played some slightly stoopid for her with my guitar so that should totally help

Last night I checked the weight of the cup and it seemed fairly light so I gave a light watering of just plain distilled water that measured at 20ppm and 6.7pH (got myself a TDS meter and Ph adjusters so that I can be prepared for when I start adding nutrients).

Here is a picture from today, day 4:

Everything looks healthy and growing nicely so far. I plan on adding some CalMag (no other nutes) to the second watering, but that shouldn't be for another 3-4 days or so. I'll give you guys an update when that time comes around.

Cheers!

Edit: Does anyone know why the images are shown rotated? The source images are oriented the right way...

 

[Teddy Edwards]

Hope all is well in your world.

How did this grow turn out?

We would love to be updated with some pictures and info.

How about posting a 420 Strain Review?

If you need any help with posting photos, please read our Photo Gallery Tutorial.

I am moving this to Abandoned Journals until we get updates.

Sending you lots of love and positive energy.