Help appreciated! First time grower!

[tenkalden]

Hey everybody, i got myself a closet grow recently. I have a total of 9 sprouts (about 2 days old) in small white Styrofoam cups under 2 (8 inch florescent glow lights) each say its to 60 watt but only uses 15 watts (has a kind of purpleish blueish glow). Plus i have a 40 watt flexible lamp that has a 60 watt equivalent cfl that only uses 13 watts. Those are the only lights i have now. i know i should have more lights but, im out of money for the moment. ......anyways my questions are:

1. What lights you recommended to add to my grow that are relatively inexpensive. (vegetative growth)

2. How much and when should i water my seedlings?

3. how the hell do i set up a HPS light ? i mean capacitors, igniter, cables!! they drive me nuts ! Do u guys recommend any small wattage HPS set ups?

Additional notes: I will post pictures at 1 week and therefore after until harvest !

 

[PrairiePoet]

I think if you read through the forum you will find that you should try to get 50 watts per square foot of grow area.

On CFL's don't go by the equivalent wattage, but by the amount the bulb actually uses. Your 15 watt CFL's are 15 watt. Forget that it says "Equal to a 60 watt".

I use 6 85 watt CFL's and a 150 watt HPS (bulb, reflector and ballast in one unit). This gives me around 40,000 lumens over 6 sf. Not sure why you would want to build your own ballast though.

You should let your seedlings dry out a little bit before watering them.

Prairie

 

[tenkalden]

wow! hey thanks man for actually trying to help. Your experience is just what i need! ahah.
50 watts per square foot! wow thats wayy more than what im using right noW! fuck! where did you get your CFLs? im wondering because i see a lot of the CFL bulbs at home depot but i dont have any lamps/sockets to plug into for the bulbs. looks like im gonna have to buy some more lights...........

just a status update: 3 of my seedlings shed their shells and have little tiny green leaves! also 4 more have the shells on top but are barely hanging so they are good, but the other 2 are still pretty small with their shells on. good news is that my good seedlings dont have long thin stems, stems are pretty good and the leaves are low on the ground where they should be!

 

[tenkalden]

i found a light fixture at the home depot website, its rated at 75 watts which is wayyy more than my 13 watt cfl. im thinking if i buy 2 of these and replace the incandescent light bulb with a 75 watt CFL? sound like a good idea?

Bayco 75-Watt Incandescent Trouble Light - CE-425A at The Home Depot

 

[datrippp]

Hey man, welcome to the grow world..
I started on a non existant budget also, So I feel for ya. You can get a 150w HPS outdoor shop light from Home depot, or menards and just take it apart and rewire it so all your using is the socket, ballast, & lamp. These run about 65-90 bucks and will get you a decent start. It just takes a little elbow grease to set it up to work for you. I did this, and made a hood for the lamp out of an old small hibachi BBQ grill I had laying around. A little flat white High temp spray paint, and she worked damn good. lol. The rewire part is very simple to, and if you just google "150w shop light ballast wiring" you'll find plenty of easy to understand instructions on making it a grow light. Now I would highly recommend getting a good ballast asap though. If you just want a small closet grow, get a lumatek digital 400w ballast. Theyre worth every penny, and it will run 250w and 400w HPS, & MH bulbs. They also have a super lumen setting that increases the lumen output bigtime, you use that for like the last 2 weeks of flower or so. But theres tons of info to help get you going good, on this forum so your already in the right direction.
G/L and keep growing. Also, you can look into my pics and see the light setup I made when I started, it really did work great.. lol

 

[tenkalden]

hey man thanks ! i wish the rest of the world was this helpful like u guys! just comes to show weed makes people better ! lol.

thanks for the advice datripp, im going to seriously take a look at ur HPS at home depot this weekend, ill need it eventually for the flowering anyways. and ur habachi bbq grill is genius dude! ahaha funny ass hell lol.