Comfy420's First Grow, High On A Dime Budget Newbie CFL Grow

[comfy420]

Hi all,

This technically isn't my first grow but it's my first serious grow where I am trying to actually get some good harvest. I grew 1 plant back in college but it did not turn out well. I basically built a tiny box with a couple CFLs in my closet and threw a seed into the most organic sounding soil I could find and waited to see what happened... It just grew a few popcorn buds although for a weed newbie like me that was great back then. I really could not do anything serious back then due to living in a small apartment and my social circles were really not inclined to look nicely on growing or smoking cannabis.

Nowadays, I have moved to a new town after college for work and haven't smoked at all for a few years now since my last supply ran out. All my friends and coworkers here are also way to goody two-shoes to smoke (although they probably think that about me too). I now own a home and have all the privacy I could ever want and have been wanting to grow and start occasionally smoking again so here we go...

One of the goals of this grow is to try to get the best harvest but with the lowest combination of startup cost and electricity cost. I have built almost my entire grow box out of things that I have laying around the house so overall the grow should be very cheap.

Here are things I needed to buy:
-$70 seeds
-$40 nutrients
-$16 ph management kit
-$30 soil & pots
-$20 CFL bulbs
-$10 Carbon for homemade filter
-odds and ends

which in total is going to cost around $200 which I will be very happy with if I could get a few ounces




Here is my grow box:

I made it out of giant scrap cardboard box which at first did not work too well because it was way to floppy and needed to be more rigid. In order to make it more stable I grabbed scrap baseboard material I had out in my workshop and put that on all the edges and then used my staple gun to secure the cardboard shell to the wood which made the box very stable.

I am going to run 8 CFL bulbs at the top of the box which I have rigged up with a power strip, a couple plug in light sockets, a couple lamp sockets i salvaged from old lamps, and 4 splitters i grabbed for cheap at hardware store. I am also running 4 CPU fans i had in my scrap box of computers running off a 12v 1.5a charger block that I cut the end off of and wired together with an old breadboard from electrical class in college.

The filter I made out of a 4" PVC pipe for the inner tube and a cardboard oats container for the outer tube. I cut lots of holes in the cardboard and cut ridges with a saw in the PVC pipe. I then wrapped the pvc pipe with drywall mesh and wrapped some black fabric around the outer tube and the tops of both tubes

I hope someone can enjoy this journal or give me tips as I go along

 

[Neptune]

Good luck hope it goes well for you, i'd be scared of fire hazards with the carboard but i'm soft! looks good either way

 

[comfy420]

So my seeds arrived safe and unopened today!

I ordered from the vault seedbank which was overall a good experience. I ordered with bitcoin and they shipped the next morning after I ordered and I got them 11 days later including weekends. Also, packaging was very good and I can see why people say their package could be inspected and still not find seeds.

Here are the seeds I bought:
3x Royal Queen Seeds Amnesia Haze Autoflowering Feminized
3x Green House Seeds Co Green-O-Matic Autoflowering Feminized
Freebies:
1x Royal Queen Seeds Northern Light Autoflowering Feminized
1x Royal Queen Seeds Quick One Autoflowering Feminized

I chose Green-O-Matic because I grew that last time and wanted to try again and it has a very fast harvest window. The Amnesia Haze was because my GF wanted a non-sleepy strain and picked that one out but one of the ones i'm most excited about having is the northern lights which I read is very good but that will have to wait till next grow because i'm hoping for quick harvest on the green-o-matic.

I also went to a hydro store and got the soil i chose Fox Farms Ocean Forest and some cloth grow pots. I also went to local big box for my 23 watt 6500k & 2700k CFLs for the grow and a cheap small bag of perlite to further amend the soil. After leaving I read the perlite bag and realized it actually had some of those dumb miracle gro nutrients mixed in. I read a few posts on the forums and someone recommended just soaking it in a bucket and all the perlite would float and fertilizers would sink. So I soaked it all in a bucket and rinsed it all out and it worked perfectly. I then mixed up the soil outside.

here's my soil & pots ready for planting:

So last grow I germinated using paper towels and it worked but I searched online anyway and as usual there is such a barrage of information and differing opinions I just said screw it and I'm doing the paper towel method like last time... Sometimes with this you just gotta throw your hands up and say "fuck it... there's never a right answer and just do what your heart tells you"

I am doing 1x Green-O-Matic and 1x Amnesia Haze for this journal

 

[comfy420]

Okay so got some good news and some bad news

So good news first the seeds germinated this morning and I planted them in the soil

Here is the Amnesia Haze:

And here is the Green-O-Matic:

I planted them root down and put them in grow box:

Okay now for the bad news... So I placed a thermometer/hygrometer in the grow box on top of the soil and when I got home the temperature read 97 degrees.... =( Luckily the device records the max and min temperature from past 24 hours so I know that that it never got any higher but i'm really worried that I may have killed the seeds during the day being that high for a few hours.

I had the door open to the closet but it still got really hot in there. So here's what I did... I borrowed the exhaust fan from my bathroom (i'll reinstall it later) and installed it on top of my grow box and am now pumping the air into the attic instead of back into the same room so i shouldn't have a heat problem from now on... in fact it has dropped down to the mid 80s in the box now so I can only pray that the seeds survived

Does anyone know if they are likely dead?
How long should I wait before I can conclude that they are dead if they don't sprout for me?

thanks

 

[comfy420]

We got a fighter here... the amnesia haze has sprouted despite the scare yesterday with the temperature.

I believe it is going to be tough to fight the temperatures on this grow... I live in a hot place on the giant blue marble we call earth and always have kept the house pretty hot to try to save on my air conditioning. The ambient temperature I have to work with is 80 degrees... it's hard to cool to less than 85 if 80 is the intake air.

Anyone have any comments? anyone reading lol?

 

[Clancy]

Hi Comfy, wow, I like your budget setup. That charcoal filter looks ingenious. I see you got some seeds from Greenhouse...my very first grow was a Greenhouse seed called The Doctor...turned out well. I wouldn't worry about the temps...97 degrees won't kill your seeds. My grows typically hit that temp often and yes, it's too high in terms of "best conditions" but it's no way a death sentence. It was 94 degrees in my grow box for a few days straight recently. You might try getting a small air-conditioner.

 

[comfy420]

thanks clancy =) Your encouragement on the temp helps and it seems you were right at least for the amnesia haze which has just sprouted as you can see in my post just about 30 minutes ago but still waiting on green-o-matic. An air conditioner, even a small one, would really blow my budget both initial cost and also would kinda kill my electric bill... I actually am venting into the attic now so temperatures have been much better ranging from 82-88F or so... Once I switch to 18/6 light schedule I will put the lights off during the hottest part of the day and that will definitely help.

The charcoal filter was just a few hours of brainstorming and looking at everything I had around my house till I finally found 2 tubes that fit inside each other and then what seemed like forever cutting out holes and grooves so air could get through without breaking the tubes... it is very non-restrictive of airflow without any charcoal in it so we will see once i throw some in there which I will do once plants get more smelly.

 

[comfy420]

Day 2 Update:

Green-O-Matic was second to sprout but it has sprouted and is looking good now on day 2 since placed in soil. It has shed the seedling shell under the soil and and came up looking healthy and strong. The cotyledon leaves are curling back toward the stem but I don't believe that is a problem.

Green-O-Matic:

Amnesia Haze came up first but the seed shell seemed to be stuck on the seedling 36 hours later preventing the cotyledon leaves from opening up... I very carefully removed it with tweezers a couple hours ago and it opened up to the light within 30 minutes and looks healthy =)

Amnesia Haze:

I'm very happy with how things are going so far and seem to have 2 healthy plants. I can't wait for them to start growing into big strong plants. I am going to try to LST them and keep as flat of canopy as possible.

 

[comfy420]

Day 3 Update:


I lowered the lights in the grow box to be closer to the sprouts today also the fans are now in line with the intake fans on the side of the box so maybe keep the heat from building up around them. The babies are still slowly growing and to me look perfect so far so I will keep along this path.

Pic of lowered lights:

Green-O-Matic:

Amnesia Haze:

 

[Beardedbud]

Hi mate, I'm another cfl grower, I'm a few weeks away from harvesting my first 2 ladies which have had their problems but are doing ok.
I'll be following your grow and I'm no expert to growing cannabis but I have 20 years of Horticulture experience and I'll try to help where I can....as well as learn from your experience.
Looking forward to seeing how your babies go.

 

[comfy420]

Hi mate, I'm another cfl grower, I'm a few weeks away from harvesting my first 2 ladies which have had their problems but are doing ok.
I'll be following your grow and I'm no expert to growing cannabis but I have 20 years of Horticulture experience and I'll try to help where I can....as well as learn from your experience.
Looking forward to seeing how your babies go.

Welcome beardedbud, I'll appreciate all the help I can get.

Do you have a journal or picture of yours? I would love to see how they progressed under cfls

 

[Nokes Tokes]

very ingenious setup you got there! I'm using the Fox Farms ocean soil myself but I went with an organic compost and baby beads instead of perlite.

I'm not an expert by any means but I think some mylar on the walls would definitely help you. If you want to go cheap, I've seen people use the inside of dog food bags for its reflectivity. Also I've heard using uvb bulbs help with potency.
If you want to put your bathroom fan back you can get a inline booster fan from amazon for 20 bucks and it will definitely help you with your temps and it will fit your filter just fine.
Are you able to adjust the height of your grow box? It might become an issue as your babies grow. You can get refrigerator boxes with braces for free at home depot and make an adjustable grow room pretty easy.

I'd love to see the LST when you do it, I have virtually no experience with it.

Again amazing job buddy! I look forward to seeing more!

 

[Beardedbud]

No journal but Ill take a couple of photos this arve and attempt to post them here, not so good with the technical stuff.

 

[comfy420]

very ingenious setup you got there! I'm using the Fox Farms ocean soil myself but I went with an organic compost and baby beads instead of perlite.

I'm not an expert by any means but I think some mylar on the walls would definitely help you. If you want to go cheap, I've seen people use the inside of dog food bags for its reflectivity. Also I've heard using uvb bulbs help with potency.
If you want to put your bathroom fan back you can get a inline booster fan from amazon for 20 bucks and it will definitely help you with your temps and it will fit your filter just fine.
Are you able to adjust the height of your grow box? It might become an issue as your babies grow. You can get refrigerator boxes with braces for free at home depot and make an adjustable grow room pretty easy.

I'd love to see the LST when you do it, I have virtually no experience with it.

Again amazing job buddy! I look forward to seeing more!

Thanks Nokes =)

I may buy some mylar space blankets (emergency blankets) for the walls however I have also read that flat white paint has at least pretty good reflectivity so that's why I painted the inside of the box white with some paint I already had... And I have looked at those inline 4" duct fans from amazon and elsewhere. How well do they work and are they loud? I might pick one up for this grow however the bathroom exhaust fan is working well for now and I never used it anyway so I might just keep that running with my setup till the end of this grow.

Height should not be an issue because I am going to try to aggressively LST in order to keep the entire canopy as close as possible to the lights because I honestly have on the low side for light I think. Also, the main issue with CFLs I've read is light penetration so I'm going to try real hard to get a group of main colas all up near the lights in an even canopy

No journal but Ill take a couple of photos this arve and attempt to post them here, not so good with the technical stuff.

cool if you get the photos that's great but it's not that big of deal if it's too much of a hassle.

 

[comfy420]

Day 4 Update:


So another day and another tiny bit of growth. We have 2nd set of true leaves coming up now so I'm excited for growth to start speeding up. It seems so slow like watching paint dry but when I really think about it I'm amazed at the life cycle of this plant. One can watch this plant develop and grow with visible changes literally counted in hours.

I am going to try to post daily updates of the babies so that at the end I can have a nice progression of pictures showing their entire lives.

I was on 24/7 light so that the seedlings could sprout and open up their wings into the dazzling sunlight of their CFL lit world but now have changed over to 18/6 for the remainder of this grow. I put the 6 hours of off time during the hottest part of the afternoon in order to try to keep the temperatures down lower and have been trying to keep the house A/C a tiny bit cooler while the lights are running. The plants are doing great however in their high 80s F environment so I think i'm going to stop worrying about temperature now unless for some reason it changes drastically.

Green-O-Matic:

Amnesia Haze:

 

[Beardedbud]

Welcome beardedbud, I'll appreciate all the help I can get.

Do you have a journal or picture of yours? I would love to see how they progressed under cfls

My first 2 ladies as requested...

We had our issues, such as - Started outside so not the best start
- lights too far away for most of veg.
- humidity too high (will purchase a dehumidifier)
- ph was too high for majority of grow
- because of wrong ph they had what i think was a calcium deficiency

But all in all it was a good learning experience and Im looking forward to my next grow now i have more knowledge.

 

[comfy420]

Honestly beareded I think your judging yourself too harshly... They look beautiful to me almost perfectly level canopies, very symetrical, and good color... they will keep growing a bulk up here in flower definitely.

They are maybe a little bit small depending on how big of a harvest you desired but I would love to have plants like that in a month or two. For personal use that will produce a plentiful harvest.

 

[comfy420]

Day 5 Update:

Hey all, Plants are doing well and steadily growing as expected. In other news I got Nutrients and PH kit in the mail today a few days earlier than expected so that is exciting. I'm not going to start nutrients for a little bit but I'm glad I have PH kit because I had been rolling the PH dice on my tap water due to wanting to get started ASAP.

If anyone has any advice on nutrient schedules for autoflowers (when to start what strengths) with Fox Farms Trio using Fox Farms Ocean Forest soil I will be all ears. I am also going to attempt to research a good feeding schedule for them as well. According to the seeds descriptions the Green-O-Matic is a much faster progressing plant than the Amnesia haze so I might need a little bit shorter schedule with that one but we will see after I dive into the recesses of the internet for knowledge.

I wanted to thank everyone for being here and without further ado... pictures



Nutrients:

Green-O-Matic:

Amnesia Haze:

 

[Beardedbud]

Honestly beareded I think your judging yourself too harshly... They look beautiful to me almost perfectly level canopies, very symetrical, and good color... they will keep growing a bulk up here in flower definitely.

They are maybe a little bit small depending on how big of a harvest you desired but I would love to have plants like that in a month or two. For personal use that will produce a plentiful harvest.

Thanks mate, yeh, I know I'm being picky but I'm a perfectionist when it comes to gardening, 20 years of horticulture experience does that.
I'm happy with them, just pointing out that even with these little problems you can get a nice harvest and if I iron out the issues I had imagine how much better they could be...we shall see anyway as I have 3 new babies growing now for my next attempt.

 

[comfy420]

Day 6 Update:

So I tested and adjusted my PH for the watering today and the PH of my tap water scored a solid 7 according to the general hydroponics testing liquid. I modified it with the PH Down and it took about 20 drops per gallon with 4 tests along the way in order to move it to around 6.5 PH. I included a picture below of the ph after I treated it and i believe it is right on the 6.5 color from the bottle cover.

Otherwise the plants are doing well. slow solid growth and color looks good. Cya next update...




Adjusted PH:

Green-O-Matic:

Amnesia Haze: