Need a vegging area

Usually I veg out in my living room. :tokin: However, my gals need somewhere to vegetate, too.

My GOAL: More medicine per plant (higher yields, more efficiency).

I think a good way to do that is to veg my plants out. And, I believe, I could get my old cabinet back up and running for that. I'll keep flowering in my closet, because the closet is a lot bigger, but will veg in the cabinet I used towards the end of my first journal. Two spaces are better than one! Well, gonna need a shopping list, so may as well begin here.

8x 23w 6500k CFL's
8x sockets for said bulbs
12v power supply for 12v fans (already have whole mess of PC fans)
Air filter? Nah, I don't even filter my flower area, lol
timer
Baking pan (same as I use in my flower area, to put pots in, to contain water/runoff)
2x 2gal pots
Some sort of decent soil
Ferts (already decided to get Orchid Better-Grow at local HD)

My (penciled-in) PLAN: I want to have two plants vegging at all times, and two flowering at all times, with staggered schedules, so that I can have a harvest at least every other month.

I need to work out a schedule that will allow for either two two-gallon pots, or three one-gallon pots. As can be assumed from my shopping list, I want to go all-soil, despite good results from hydro. I don't want to continue using hydro, because for me, it's too labor-intensive. I find soil to be easier to deal with.

Stay tuned for updates, "room" setup, trial and error, new plants, and possibly a new journal to come.

Comments

Well, since I'm on a pretty tight budget, until I win the lottery, I have to shop around a bit, and usually need to improvise on many things. So, while I'd like to get a purpose-built grow lamp, I need to look for cheaper alternative. To date, I've been using CFL's. With these, I've had good quality yields, but not very impressive yields. Now, for flowering, I'd like to save up and get a proper lamp. But since I don't currently have any lights for vegging, why not spend the money I'd spend on so many CFLs, and sockets, and wiring, and wiring hardware, and time, and just spend less than $100 on a "Lithonia OFL 100M 120 LP BZ M4 Premium Flood Light with 100-Watt Metal Halide". I can get it locally at my local big-box hardware store with orange-clothed minions, or online at a South American river for the same price. I'm pretty sure a 100w MH doesn't put out TOO much heat to deal with in a small area, and it would have MUCH more light than comparable wattage of CFL's. So while it'd be nice to run a 400w MH for vegging, I just can't afford it yet. Basically, I can probably afford one proper grow lamp, and I'd like it to be for flowering. For vegging, I'll have to budget.
 
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Supper Cropping has increased my yields buy 10X.
CFL is slower however gives you time to make one large plant!
 
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Anything could probably help my yields from where they've been. Have been vegging under 2700k CFLs, or simply going 12/12 from seed. I think the best upgrade I can do soon, is to #1: setup dedicated veg area, and #2: improve my lighting. Other techniques may help, but I think these two things will help the most, first.
 
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I think instead of trying to veg under HID, then move to CFL for flowering, may not be my best plan. In nature, flowering should occur after the summer soltice, in the northern hemisphere, and that time of year is usually hotter than the rest of the year, and has more intense light. In springtime, when the plant should be vegging, light intensity should be gradually increasing, to its peak right before the equinox (flowering cycle). Then, the very beginning of the flowering cycle should be the strongest, and should decrease gradually, until harvest. Or maybe that's all wrong. Maybe it's just hours. But in that case, for vegging, could we emulate nature more closely, say, for an indica, find it's native area's almanac or whatever, say it's Northern Pakistan, should try to match northern Pakistan's day/nights as close as possible, right?

/stoned rambling
 
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I could probably take my current light rig, and install it into the old cabinet of mine, and use it 20-24 hours a day. Just gotta fill it with 5000/6000 k lights. 23w, even x12, don't get TOO hot, in my current closet, temps ran about 75-80 at canopy. I plan to upgrade my proposed veg cab's ventilation, anyway: bigger vent holes, more fans, still no filters.
 
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Ascended Master Kief
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