White Widow, MKage, Delahaze

Whats up guys? Well I started the germ process on Monday (3/19/12) and planted all 7 girlies on Thursday (3/23/12). I started 5 Greenhouse seed co. white widow, 1 TH Seeds Mkage, and 1 Paradise Seed Delahaze, all feminized.

I will be growing in my custom attic growbox which stays about the same temp as my house since I am tapped into my home hvac system with 2 passive intakes of 6"....they arent always passive b/c when my home hvac system is blowing the grow room duct vents are actually blowing at the same rate as any other vent in my home....This is why I have 2, 6" fans inline with each other on my exhaust system so I have a total draw into my room at all times, so my exhaust goes : filter---aircooled hood---6" fan---4' of duct---6" fan---3' of duct....Also both fans are controlled with variable speed potentiometers. I will not need to supplement with c02 either since I will have fresh air coming into the room via my hvac system at all times. I will also run at least 1 exhaust fan at all times so NO SMELL leaks back through my ducts into my home via the hvac. I will be using a Lumatek ballast that is switchable from 250watt mh, 250 watt mh super lumens, 400 watt hps, 400 watt hps super lumens....I also have an extra ballast just in case b/c you never know when 1 will quit. I will also be using a 150 watt CFL and a few other 40 watt cfl. I will probably run 1 40 watt cfl for each plant as supplemental lighting.

So my grow log starts here :

I started my seeds in starter cubes from lowes with FoxFarm Ocean Forest soil that I got from a local hydro store. I put the cubes under a humidity dome and placed the 250 watt MH set to 250W super lumens right at the top of the humidity dome ( which is about 8" tall )....so the light is approx 8" from the soil level. I will be incorporating a drip water system so I have a no hassle grow. I do not want to be freaked out when something comes up at work and I cant make it home in time to water and my bitches are burnt.

I have a few questions :
1) How long should I leave the seedlings in the humidity dome?
2) When should I switch to the 400Watt MH? I wanted to gradually bring them up to the 400 watt so I didnt harm the young babies.
3) What is the lowest temp a grow room should be?
4) Is it better to grow in the same pot the entire cycle or switch to bigger pots a few times as the plants get bigger.

I will post a few pics soon since I know everyone wants to know what my space/growbox looks like. I have been told over and over this will not work in my attic....I cant wait to prove them wrong. I actually made me contruct my growbox better!

I will post updates atleast 2 times/week and hopefully with pics!

Putting 2 inline fans in series is not a good idea. Also a HVAC system does not bring fresh air in, it just recirculates the air.

1) How long should I leave the seedlings in the humidity dome?

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I do not use a dome for seedlings

2) When should I switch to the 400Watt MH? I wanted to gradually bring them up to the 400 watt so I didnt harm the young babies.

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I have put mine directly under a 600 with no problem, just make sure you have the bulb far enough away has to not burn them(place hand at canopy level and if you feel heat adjust upward.)

3) What is the lowest temp a grow room should be?

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I try to keep mine above 60, anything below that and the growth rate really slows down. Ideally I try to keep mine between 76 to 82

4) Is it better to grow in the same pot the entire cycle or switch to bigger pots a few times as the plants get bigger.

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This depends on your size of pot you are using. I have done both. I have started and completed an attire grow in a 5 gallon Smart Pot and have also started in red solo cups and trans planted them later into bigger pots. The bigger the pot the bigger the plant gets.

Hope this helps

Grow dude.....why is it not a good idea to run inline fans in series?

nvus420 said:

Grow dude.....why is it not a good idea to run inline fans in series?

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2 fans in series will increase pressure but not flow, this would only be benificial in systems with very long duct runs.

hxxp://old.greenheck.com/technical/files/engineering/04fall_eng.pdf

Also what kind/size inline fans do you have? Duct booster fans will not work for this application. You are going to need a centrifuge type fan to be able to pull through a filter and move enough air to cool the room and provide fresh air.

How large is your space? Have you done test runs to check temps? Attic spaces are tough to control. In the winter, you are still going to need to bring in cool air to cool the space when lights are on, when lights are out, you are going to need to heat the space. In summers, temps in attics can get 140F or more.

My temps.are.75 at night ( with my heater) and 83 during day ( with only 1 intake) the other intake is blocked off! The outside temp is topping out at 88/max ( which was today) and 60/ nights! I'm using 2 6" centrifugal fans on speed controllers and both are about medium speed! My auto drip system is working great! I will be adding a 200 watt cfl and a few smaller cfl to the grow area soon! My 7 plants r all about 2 inches tall and in 10" pots with fox farm ocean forest soil! My auto drip system is at 6 min, 1 time a day....the drippers r 1 gallon per hour and 1 dripper is on each plant! I'm looking forward to this grow! Remeber my grow area is 4x4 insulated with r60 attic insulation.....I.will be doing a lst grow and see what happens.....I like feedback so more people respond...speak to Yall soon:icon_smile:

Whats up guys? I have not posted in a week or more so I wanted to give an update and post a few pix. Out of my 7 sprouts, 6 are still going strong and 1 has fallen behind. I plan on taking the 2 weakest links out and putting outdoors when I make the switch to flowering. My wife moved the napkins around when we were germing so we do not know which plants are which so we will just see how they all turn out. 1 plant def sticks out and looks different so I know that is not one of the white widows.
My plants are 17 days old from when they popped the ground and were placed under the 250 watt MH for 5 days then switced to the 400 watt MH on a 24/7 light cycle and the light is about 6 inches above the canopy.
I will be doing the 1st bend on my LST tom. night b/c I have read to do this at the 4/5 set of leaves. I want short bushy plants with lots of colas so I am going to try this style called lst, I have never done this.
My room temp stays around 72-80 day and night....
Let me know what you guys think.....

Looks like we have pretty similar starting times! Green mojo! they're looking like they might have had a little bit of a nute problem at one point that you fixed, all the newest growth looks great though! keep up the updates!

Also in my opinion the added pressure created by running 2 inline fans in series will burn the motors out faster.

Looks healthy. I bet your gonna have some nice bushy bushes here in a few weeks..
Pull'n up a chair. :watchplant:

Thanks for the replys guys! PartyBro420 - Someone else mentioned the stress on the motors of running 2 fans in series so would leaving 1 fan completely off help? So just the force of the 1st fan turns the 2nd fan? 1 Fan doesnt create enough negative pressure and I def do not want ANY smell leaking b/c the wife says its gone if she smells it haha so I have taking LOTS of precautions so this does not happen. How fast are you talking burning up? the 1st fan is at 70% and the 2nd fan is at 20%, both on dials. I am willing to take the risk if it would take 2 years to burn the fan up. Let me know your input....Thanks
What you see is not nute burn, atleast my opinion was overheating!! My heater did not turn off while I was out of town over the weekend!!

No, leaving one off won't help, because the pressure created from the one fan working will move the rotors on the fan that isn't working, and cause it to wear unnecessarily. Put it this way, you can move the rotors on an oscillating fan just by using your own lungs power, and you're using a 6" centrifugal fan and ducting. running a fan at 70% pushing air into a fan running at 20% will cause overspin and it will overheat and burn out fans very quickly. The construction of the fan makes a big difference, ie. ceramic bearings etc. but i'd say within the space of a single year if you leave those 2 in series the way they are one may even catch fire.

Why do you have them run in series? for your size space, a single 6" centrifugal should do wonders.

Not necessarily nute burn, but i think if it was an overheating issue you'd see it on more than just a couple of the plants.

If you're going to keep 2 fans in series, at least get fans that are rated for "overspin" but it's not something you need to be doing unless you're running like 50' of ducting.

Whats up guys? MY plants are doing rad after the 1st lst bend. All my plants are perked back up and going strong.
PartyBro - I cant find any info over the net to support your theory. I actually read where it is best to put 2 fans in series on long runs. I am not saying you are lieing, I just wanted to find some more info... Do you know where I can find the info you are referring too? I am going to call my local grow shop tom and see what they have to say. Also, if that is nute burn early on that is due to the Ocean Forest Fox Farm soil I used b/c I have not added additional nutes.
How long should I veg for? 4 Weeks, 6 Weeks, or wait until the 1st alternating nodes?????????
Should I drop from 24/7 to 18/6 to 12/12 or just go straight to 12/12?
Would it be better per plant if I only had 4 plants vs 6? Or am I good since I have an oversized hood and all plants are covered?
Thanks for the info guys! I will post a few pics in a couple of days to show the progress of the lst and I will take a few of the room to show my custom box fabbed in the attic.

2 fans of the same CFM are ok to run if your duct is very long, 2 fans in series will increase neg pressure, where 2 fans parallel will increase flow.

When I first told you not to do it I thought you needed extra flow and diddnt have such a long duct run.

Growdude said:

2 fans of the same CFM are ok to run if your duct is very long, 2 fans in series will increase neg pressure, where 2 fans parallel will increase flow.

When I first told you not to do it I thought you needed extra flow and diddnt have such a long duct run.

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:yeahthat:

That's what I thought also, I didn't think you had a long run of ducting. If you have a long run of ducting then at some point in the ducting the airflow starts to drop lower and lower so adding a fan in there is fine as long as you're not just putting one fan up, then a few feet of ducting then another one.

I wasn't saying that it was nute burn mate, I just said a nutrient issue, whether thats PH affecting uptake, or lockout, or whatever else can affect the feeding in any way. I just think that if it was a temperature issue in your space, more of them would have been affected.

Overspin is something that also happens in aircraft engines/props when they pick up too much speed. It's not a theory, it's just something that happens when the rotor moves at a higher speed than it's engine is propelling it at.


As for vegging, in my opinion, veg until your plants reach about half the size you want them to turn out in the end, then flip them.

Whats up guys???? Hope all is going well for everyone. I am stopping in, to give an update.

I bought the Fox Farm Soil Trio Pack - Big Bloom, Tiger Bloom, and Grow Big. I will start feeding at 1/2 strength tonight per the feeding schedule on the fox farm website but only with these 3 nutes. I will be adding another resevoir and drip system for the nutes. I water 2 times a day at 00:00 hours and 12:00 hours, both for 2 minutes on a 1gph dripper. So 1 feeding will be from the nute resevoir and the other feeding will be from the plain tap water....I am hoping this works out well b/c dont forget, I have built my grow room to be hands free so I can leave for business and weekend trips. I have left for a max of 4 days already.

I bought a brand new hortillux Eye 400 watt bulb to run. Hope it is worth the investment. I will flip to 12/12 on Friday.

Here is a pic of my girls in week 4, taken today! The plant on the far right will be going outside when I make the flip to 12/12.....Shes a runt.

Smoke good guys!

I had my 1st round of nutes tonight.....I put 2 tsp of big bloom and 2tsp of grow big in a 1 gallon jug and shuck it up really good....I turned my 1gph droppers on for 4.5 minutes and most of the 1 gallon nute solution was gone.

I will observe my girls and see how they react but I'm not gonna feed every other feeding.....I'm gonna do 2xs per week 1st and see how they react.......there are conflicting post on the web so I really don't know what to do....


We shall see

Looking nice a green.

I water 2 times a day

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Mj needs a dry period to help them thrive. Watering twice a day is to much in soil. In my 1 gallon Smart Pots, I water every other day and in my 5 gallon Smart Pots it is like every third or fourth day. Water only when dry.

Do u water until water comes out the bottom of the pots?
Or do u water a measured amount?
I guess I could let them dry out completely, bc they never dry completely!

You should let them dry out completely. Not to where the girls are droopy but to where your pot is quite light. Then when I water, I water very slowly till water drains/drips out the bottom. I have saucers under my smart pots that catches this water and then gets sucked back up into the soil, in a short period of time.