New Grower My (first) rubbermaid stealth grow journal!

[codebreaker1003]

Whats up! I'm new to growing so I joined some other forums and just got ripped on for even wanting to grow an auto-flowering strain in my closet, but you guys seem a lot more chill and a lot less judgmental so I thought id post here!

My plan is to grow 2 feminized auto flowering strains, snowryder and speed devil #2 in a rubbermaid container in my closet using 3- 2700k CFL's and 2- 24" t5 fluorescent lights. I already started the plants today, in 2 small 3" pots in my window (just until i get the grow box set up)

I have a large 30gal rubbermaid container, I first set this all up and the box was glowing (check the pics) so I sprayed the inside with 2 coats of black spray paint, to stop the light from going through, and 2 coats of white paint, for reflectiveness (the paint was specifically for plastic and worked perfectly!)

Im waiting for the paint to totally dry, then ill mount a 6 socket power strip which i will connect 3 CFL's and the 2 fluorescent lights. (I'm guessing this is more than enough light for 2 plants)

For Air circulation and heat dispersal I purchased 2-120mm computer fans rated at 69cf/m and i will attach them to blow the air out, i'll also drill a good amount of intake holes.

Im growing in premium miracle grow potting soil, and i have a bottle of houseplant food just in case.
Im planning on switching these little pots out for some bigger containers once the plants reach a height of 2"-3" don't worry.

The pictures I posted are a few weeks old and they don't really give you the best idea of what this will look like, I'll take pics tomorrow after i mount the lights and the fans!

Let me know how you think I'm doing, and any tips, concerns and criticisms are appreciated!
Thanks in advance!

 

[KindredSpirit]

Welcome to AFN!!! :smokebuds: You're amongst friends here bro.

One thing you might want to reconsider is the Miracle Grow potting soil. I've never used it, but many here have said that it's a bit too hot for autoflowering strains, since they tend to be a bit sensitive to nutes.

Setup looks sweet! That pic of the box glowing made me snew coffee out my nose

Cheers man and again, welcome home!

 

[The Squid]

First off. Welcome to the best Cannabis Forum out there...or here...Whatever. haha. Second, eff those assholes that laughed at you for wanting to grow AFs. As you will see here, It's the shit! You're also welcome to post your photo-sensitive grows here.
Lights>>> Although probably ok. 2700k is for flowering, 6500k for veg. You can actually use 6500k for the whole cycle with AFs. What spectrums are your T5s? And are they ho=high output?
Ventilation... Good. You'd probably be fine with just the one fan for that box. You'll want a tiny little fan to circulate air in the box and simulate wind for the plants.
Medium>>> Ditch the MG dude. As it is normally too hot with nutrients for baby AFs. If it works it works but no one recommends it, I have seen it used though. And hopefully there is some perlite in there mixed in, if not, that's a good idea to have in your mix.
Nutrients>>> What's the NPK values on that plant food? You'll need more Nitrogen than Phosphorus and Potassium whilst vegging. And more of the P and K for flowering.

Also, AFs do alright with transplants but as they do have a shorter lifespan that photo-sensitive cannabis it is better to plant them in their final growing pot. But again, I have seen several successful grows on here where they transplanted. There is also the tier method in which you cut the bottom out of the small cup or pot you start it in and plant that(cup and all) into your new, bigger pot. Just make sure you water both the smaller and bigger container.

Well I hope I helped out and I wish you luck. Any questions just ask us. It's kind of our thing.

 

[fullauto]

Hey codebreaker welcome to AFN! Saw your rubbermaid thread and thought i'd chime in as i just built one of these to supplement my grow closet. I used 2 30 gallon totes and made them into a clam shell 1 right side up the other one upside down.Gave me more height inside then if i just used the 1 tote with a lid.Lining with flat white paint is good for light reflection,i used shiny aluminum duct tape which was a real pain. As far as your fan goes i just went thru what your going to try and the computer fan did not cut it as far as heat went-my box temps shot up to 90+ degress with 7 26w cfls. I ended up going with a 6" inline duct fan from home depot mounted to the top and a 6" hole in bottom container for passive air intake which brought my temp down to 78-80f. Also,get yourself a roll of 3/8" thick 1/2" wide foam weatherstrip and put it around the lip of the tote so when you put your cover on there will be no air leaks or light leaks. I glued a 6" 90 degree duct elbow into the passive intake hoole for a light trap and put a piece of furnace filter over the end to catch any dust that gets sucked in thru the intake.On the topside i used a piece of 6" insulated flex ducting and ran it into an ona odor bucket i built for smell control-works perfectly.Hopefully this helps you out some and if you need any help let me know. Oh yeah,i used 2 3 hole vanity fixtures-1 bolted to each side of the top tote and screwed in a y splitter in each side which gave me 7 cfls.

 

[codebreaker1003]

Allright, so far I see that I need to swap the MG soil out for some soil with less nutes, also I ordered 3 6500k CFL's so i have some better bulbs. The fluorescent lights I have both different, one is a 2ft "hydrofarm jump start" light and it is h/o. The other Fluoro light is some crappy one I bought at Walmart for $12 lol, its actually not even a t5 its a bigger diameter bulb and less efficient... Do you guys think i should ditch the 2nd fluoro light all together and just use 3 6500k cfl's and the t5 h/o fluro?
For the fans ill just setup 1 fan as exhaust, drill some intake holes and the other ill hook up inside the box to simulate wind.
Also Im not home right now, but ill check the levels of nutes on my bottle of nutrients when I'm home later. Im planning on finishing the last 2 coats of white paint today and then ill mount all the lights and fans and ill snap some pictures of the finished product!! Thanks for all the help so far!! you all are way better than any other cannabis site I've posted on!

 

[The Squid]

Cool. Glad we could help you into a better direction.
>Exhaust ideas sound efficient.
>You may be able to pull it of with that MG soil but I can't say for sure. Definitely need some perlite in the mix.
>That little 2ft Hydrofarm ho wouldn't hurt, and won't be using much power or creating that much heat. I say use that one along with your 6500k cfl's. As far as that other flouro I say stick it in there too if you have sufficient space to so so

Hope this helped more. Good luck.

 

[Muddy]

Welcome to the forum. I see you're gotten some good, solid advice already. We have a New Growers forum set up especially for people like yourself. I'm going to move your thread over there so we can better help you get off to a good start.

 

[codebreaker1003]

FINALLY AN UPDATE WITH PICS!! Both plants finally sprouted (I have no idea which ones snowryder and which is speed devil #2 at this point, I should've marked them when i started!) And I got the box mostly up and running!
I went to the store and they were totally out of potting soil, but i did get heat resistant reflective-tape to line the inside of the container with, since it was a lot cheaper than buying 2 more cans of spray paint. Also I got two black 8in plastic pots to transfer the plants into when I find a place near my house that has potting soil in stock!
What soil would you guys suggest I buy? Since Miracle-Grow premium potting soil is too strong for these guys, My plan was to look for some potting soil with little to no nutrients at all, right?
Also what exactly is perlite? I couldn't remember what it was called when I was at the store so I didn't even look for it lol
And my bad, I had no idea where to post it so I thought I'd choose a pretty general sub-forum as to not piss anyone off lol!

Check out the new pics too !!
Both plants are a little bigger today, they're about 6mm and 1cm tall, very green with those 2 first leaves soaking up the rays 18hours a day.
I forgot to buy string too, so I have the whole system taped together lol I definitely will not keeping it this ghetto looking!
Let me know what you think! Ill definitely be posting new pics every day or two so you guys can see how they're doing!

 

[Muddy]

Looking good. Perlite is the bits of white material you can see in your soil. It's very good for holding moisture and oxygen in your soil plus it helps to keep the soil loose so it doesn't compact so easily. Check nurseries and garden centers for good soil mixes. Pro Mix and Sunshine mix are to good ones to look for. Also check Ace Hardware. Some people are also finding Pro Mix there. Look for something that is predominately composed of sphagnum peat moss and perlite. Stay away from anything that contains slow release nutrients.

 

[JM]

yeah i like the promix BX myself... my top preferred soil mix

View attachment proMixBX.pdf