theCre8or
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Aug 20, 2007
- Messages
- 119
- Reaction score
- 8
Hi everyone. THis is my first grow. I'm a little paranoid about keeping a grow journal. It seems really stupid, putting all the evidence where it can be seen, but everyone else seems to be doing such larger scale opeartions than my little personal grow, I figured they'd go after them before me. Sorry, don't mean to bring any bad energy. May we all nurture our love of nature in peace.
Anyway, here it is.
Some specifics: My box I constructed from 1x2's for an open floor (like a pallet) and walls and door made of hardboard which I painted white. This makes it really light and easy to move around. There is some bracking with 1x2's for the roof - a piece of 1/4" plywood. The interior dimensios of the box are about 19" x 19 " x 42 " That's about 2.5 feet squared and about 9 cubic feet. It's small, but I think it's big enough to do a decent sized grow. I decided to go with CFL's becaues they are cheap and are not super expensive to power. I know in the end cost per watt, other lights are cheaper, but I won't be doing a large scale grow where that would work out. I also changed all the light bulbs in my house to CFL to try to offiset the enegy costs. I plan on doing other tricks as recomended by mutt, such as wrapping my cold water heater in a blanket. ANyway. As for lights I'm using (7) 1300 lumens, 5500k CFL's for veg. I plans on switching to (5) 2600 Lumens 2700k cfls, plus (2) 1800 lumens 2700k CFL's for flower. The reason for the two dimmer bulbs is I want to put these on the sides of the plants. I have fixtures that will work nice for this, but the larger bulbs will not fit in them. The fixtures with the yellow handles are the ones i'm refering to. (pict 003) According to calculations of 5000 lumens per sq foot, just the 5 should be enough and so these side lights will only be icing on the cake. Comments are welcome, but I will not be switching to HPS or HID. The only other lights I'll consider are LED. Very intriguing what's going on there and I would like to try it. I've seen enough evindence on this board for the potential of CFL. I may lose a bit in yield, but I can't imagine it would be that much to make it worth the extra trouble. This project has taken more time and money already than I expected.
I took advantage of the special on Jock Horror seeds from Nirvana. I stuck 3 beans in soil in tiny plastic nursery flat pots and only 1 sprouted. I think I didn't have them in warm enough conditions. See sad plant in 2nd picture. SHe (i hope) is about 2 weeks old. Ran into many problems.
First problem - i thought I can do an exhaust fan easily with just a True Air fan sitting on top of a hole in the top of the box. This worked ok for bringing fresh air in from the open bottom of the box, but it didn't have enough force to pull the hot air out. I lined the hole with plastic to create a gasket and it helped a little bit, but I could not close the door on the box without the temp going way up. I discoverd this after I left town for 2 days and came back to find the box was at about 99 degrees F. More on the resolution to this in a bit.
2nd problem - I transplanted way too early. SInce I was leaving town, and I thought I was going to be gone longer, I wanted to put her in a larger pot that would hold more water. THe stress of this transplant and the excessive heat put a strain on the seedling.
When I returned, I cooled the plant off by pointing a fan right at her. Another mistake. The temps came down to a more reasonable 80 degrees, but this lead to the 3rd problem that I discovered much too late. More on this in a bit.
To resolve the exhaust issues, I rearranged my exhaust system by creating a carbon filter as described in other links on this forum. I did the one that wraps a honeywell universal active carbon filter around some screen. It seemed like the cheapest and easiest way to do it. We'll see how it works when my crop starts to smell. See picture (pict009). IT looks like it is venting in to the heating duct but it does not. THat's the heating duct for the house. I suppose I could have it vent in there, but then it will be much noisier as the sound of the fan will go through the vents. There is a tiny space between the heating duct and my exhaust pipe. They dont' touch. The exhaust fan is a 110 CFM computer case fan.(pict005) I used the tabs on the end of the ducting to hold the fan in place then used duct tape to try to seal the openings. I get a good amount of air out of the filter and my temps seem relativley lower in the box. I also added a smaller 30 CFM case fan as an intake fan. I can close the door and it's cool enough in there.
By about the first week I wasn't noticing any improvement in my sick plant. It was getting mroe and more yellow. I thought it was still getting over the heat stress, but was begining to think something else was going on. At this time I decided to germinate 3 more seeds. 2 Jock Horror and one mystery bag seed. This time I put them in a much warmer place. I also did the paper towel method. All three seeds sprouted a tap root and at about 1/4" I popped them into the soil. I've read some conflicting threads about which direction to place the tap root, so I put the seeds sideways. I know, I think now it sounds stupid, but it made sense at the time and I wasn't even on meds. Anyway, 2 sprouted. 1 sprouted leaves as expected, and the other, what looked like a root. I left it alone for a day thinking it might turn around, but the tap root developed tiny roots and no sign of the sprout. So, I tried to invert it. It was going well, then as I placed it back in the soil, the large curly root broke almost in half. I gasped, stuck the remainder in the soil and gave it some water. I put both of them under a humidity dome for a day, hoping the damaged one would develop new roots. Day 3 after sprouting I put them under the lights, this time in the humidity dome, unlike the first run. They both are a good dark green with the tiny damaged one showing some yellowing on the tips. (pict 007 and 008) I lost track of which was the Jock, but I'm thinking it's the smaller, borken-root one. The larger one looks less like my first lab rat plant, but maybe not. I would definltey prefer the sativa buzz of Jock. The bag this seed came from wasn't bad, but it wasn't great. And since it's such robust growth in nearly the exact same conditions as the other, I'm guessing it's more indica. Still the shorty might just be so tiny because of the broken root, so we'll see.
On about day 12 of the first plant I started noticing brown spots. I touched the leaves and they felt brittle. My watering schedule had been fine, based on my experience in my regular deck garden with other flowers and plants - watering only when the soil about 2 inches under the surface feels dry. This is when it hit me. It's the fan. It's constantly blowing right on the plant and it's drying the leaves out. I'm giving my seedling wind burn! This tiny plant is technically still a seedling and I read seedlings do best in higher temps and higher humidity. IDIOT! However, I had a problem. Removing the fan shot the temps under the lights up to 96 degrees. I got a clear plastic container and washed it out. Then I placed it over the plant. Inside the dome it got to 86-89 degrees, but I thought this would be ok. I've seen people post that their plants thrive in this temp. I also placed a small cup of water under the dome next to the seedling to keep the humidity level up under the dome. This seems to have done the trick. The old leaves are nearly all yellow with many necrotic spots. However, there is new growth. It is green. It still looks a bit pale, but green it is. I'm also misting it throughout the day to keep it very mosit in the dome. The fan is still blowing on the dome and the temp in ther gets to about only 83 degrees. PHeW. I think I may have saved it.
Anyway, that's it so far. I plan on making some changes. These 2.5 gallon pots are ok, but i think after these get going. I'm going to switch to a micro grow with several smaller square pots. I've also got some ideas for a seperate small cloning, germinating, veging box. It should be easy to do in a large plastic storage bin. I'll build it, then germinate the rest of my Jock seeds about 2 weeks before taking some clones off of these ladies (hopefully). Then I'll put them in the cloning box while these ladies (more wishful thinking, c'mon wish with me!) begin their flowering. Hopefully, with some LST tricks, I'll be able to do most of the veg of the clones in the storage bin. I guess they'll have to be in there until the first round of flowering is done.
Any tips and suggestions are welcome.
Oh and I should say, thanks to everyone on this forum, the pros and the noobs. The pros for answering the noobs and the noobs for asking the questions. I haven't had to post many questions becuase they've mostly been asked and answered expertly. Thanks for your Help!!!!!
a few other detials -
Using FOx Farms potting soil. ONe pot has about 40% perlite, the other does not. I'll transplant the strongest of the new seedlings in the perlite pot and get a small pot for the third. Hopefully, when I comes time to sex 'em, it will work itself out. I may just get small square pots and put thew new seedlings in there in preparation for a micro grow. We'll see.
Anyway, here it is.
Some specifics: My box I constructed from 1x2's for an open floor (like a pallet) and walls and door made of hardboard which I painted white. This makes it really light and easy to move around. There is some bracking with 1x2's for the roof - a piece of 1/4" plywood. The interior dimensios of the box are about 19" x 19 " x 42 " That's about 2.5 feet squared and about 9 cubic feet. It's small, but I think it's big enough to do a decent sized grow. I decided to go with CFL's becaues they are cheap and are not super expensive to power. I know in the end cost per watt, other lights are cheaper, but I won't be doing a large scale grow where that would work out. I also changed all the light bulbs in my house to CFL to try to offiset the enegy costs. I plan on doing other tricks as recomended by mutt, such as wrapping my cold water heater in a blanket. ANyway. As for lights I'm using (7) 1300 lumens, 5500k CFL's for veg. I plans on switching to (5) 2600 Lumens 2700k cfls, plus (2) 1800 lumens 2700k CFL's for flower. The reason for the two dimmer bulbs is I want to put these on the sides of the plants. I have fixtures that will work nice for this, but the larger bulbs will not fit in them. The fixtures with the yellow handles are the ones i'm refering to. (pict 003) According to calculations of 5000 lumens per sq foot, just the 5 should be enough and so these side lights will only be icing on the cake. Comments are welcome, but I will not be switching to HPS or HID. The only other lights I'll consider are LED. Very intriguing what's going on there and I would like to try it. I've seen enough evindence on this board for the potential of CFL. I may lose a bit in yield, but I can't imagine it would be that much to make it worth the extra trouble. This project has taken more time and money already than I expected.
I took advantage of the special on Jock Horror seeds from Nirvana. I stuck 3 beans in soil in tiny plastic nursery flat pots and only 1 sprouted. I think I didn't have them in warm enough conditions. See sad plant in 2nd picture. SHe (i hope) is about 2 weeks old. Ran into many problems.
First problem - i thought I can do an exhaust fan easily with just a True Air fan sitting on top of a hole in the top of the box. This worked ok for bringing fresh air in from the open bottom of the box, but it didn't have enough force to pull the hot air out. I lined the hole with plastic to create a gasket and it helped a little bit, but I could not close the door on the box without the temp going way up. I discoverd this after I left town for 2 days and came back to find the box was at about 99 degrees F. More on the resolution to this in a bit.
2nd problem - I transplanted way too early. SInce I was leaving town, and I thought I was going to be gone longer, I wanted to put her in a larger pot that would hold more water. THe stress of this transplant and the excessive heat put a strain on the seedling.
When I returned, I cooled the plant off by pointing a fan right at her. Another mistake. The temps came down to a more reasonable 80 degrees, but this lead to the 3rd problem that I discovered much too late. More on this in a bit.
To resolve the exhaust issues, I rearranged my exhaust system by creating a carbon filter as described in other links on this forum. I did the one that wraps a honeywell universal active carbon filter around some screen. It seemed like the cheapest and easiest way to do it. We'll see how it works when my crop starts to smell. See picture (pict009). IT looks like it is venting in to the heating duct but it does not. THat's the heating duct for the house. I suppose I could have it vent in there, but then it will be much noisier as the sound of the fan will go through the vents. There is a tiny space between the heating duct and my exhaust pipe. They dont' touch. The exhaust fan is a 110 CFM computer case fan.(pict005) I used the tabs on the end of the ducting to hold the fan in place then used duct tape to try to seal the openings. I get a good amount of air out of the filter and my temps seem relativley lower in the box. I also added a smaller 30 CFM case fan as an intake fan. I can close the door and it's cool enough in there.
By about the first week I wasn't noticing any improvement in my sick plant. It was getting mroe and more yellow. I thought it was still getting over the heat stress, but was begining to think something else was going on. At this time I decided to germinate 3 more seeds. 2 Jock Horror and one mystery bag seed. This time I put them in a much warmer place. I also did the paper towel method. All three seeds sprouted a tap root and at about 1/4" I popped them into the soil. I've read some conflicting threads about which direction to place the tap root, so I put the seeds sideways. I know, I think now it sounds stupid, but it made sense at the time and I wasn't even on meds. Anyway, 2 sprouted. 1 sprouted leaves as expected, and the other, what looked like a root. I left it alone for a day thinking it might turn around, but the tap root developed tiny roots and no sign of the sprout. So, I tried to invert it. It was going well, then as I placed it back in the soil, the large curly root broke almost in half. I gasped, stuck the remainder in the soil and gave it some water. I put both of them under a humidity dome for a day, hoping the damaged one would develop new roots. Day 3 after sprouting I put them under the lights, this time in the humidity dome, unlike the first run. They both are a good dark green with the tiny damaged one showing some yellowing on the tips. (pict 007 and 008) I lost track of which was the Jock, but I'm thinking it's the smaller, borken-root one. The larger one looks less like my first lab rat plant, but maybe not. I would definltey prefer the sativa buzz of Jock. The bag this seed came from wasn't bad, but it wasn't great. And since it's such robust growth in nearly the exact same conditions as the other, I'm guessing it's more indica. Still the shorty might just be so tiny because of the broken root, so we'll see.
On about day 12 of the first plant I started noticing brown spots. I touched the leaves and they felt brittle. My watering schedule had been fine, based on my experience in my regular deck garden with other flowers and plants - watering only when the soil about 2 inches under the surface feels dry. This is when it hit me. It's the fan. It's constantly blowing right on the plant and it's drying the leaves out. I'm giving my seedling wind burn! This tiny plant is technically still a seedling and I read seedlings do best in higher temps and higher humidity. IDIOT! However, I had a problem. Removing the fan shot the temps under the lights up to 96 degrees. I got a clear plastic container and washed it out. Then I placed it over the plant. Inside the dome it got to 86-89 degrees, but I thought this would be ok. I've seen people post that their plants thrive in this temp. I also placed a small cup of water under the dome next to the seedling to keep the humidity level up under the dome. This seems to have done the trick. The old leaves are nearly all yellow with many necrotic spots. However, there is new growth. It is green. It still looks a bit pale, but green it is. I'm also misting it throughout the day to keep it very mosit in the dome. The fan is still blowing on the dome and the temp in ther gets to about only 83 degrees. PHeW. I think I may have saved it.
Anyway, that's it so far. I plan on making some changes. These 2.5 gallon pots are ok, but i think after these get going. I'm going to switch to a micro grow with several smaller square pots. I've also got some ideas for a seperate small cloning, germinating, veging box. It should be easy to do in a large plastic storage bin. I'll build it, then germinate the rest of my Jock seeds about 2 weeks before taking some clones off of these ladies (hopefully). Then I'll put them in the cloning box while these ladies (more wishful thinking, c'mon wish with me!) begin their flowering. Hopefully, with some LST tricks, I'll be able to do most of the veg of the clones in the storage bin. I guess they'll have to be in there until the first round of flowering is done.
Any tips and suggestions are welcome.
Oh and I should say, thanks to everyone on this forum, the pros and the noobs. The pros for answering the noobs and the noobs for asking the questions. I haven't had to post many questions becuase they've mostly been asked and answered expertly. Thanks for your Help!!!!!
a few other detials -
Using FOx Farms potting soil. ONe pot has about 40% perlite, the other does not. I'll transplant the strongest of the new seedlings in the perlite pot and get a small pot for the third. Hopefully, when I comes time to sex 'em, it will work itself out. I may just get small square pots and put thew new seedlings in there in preparation for a micro grow. We'll see.
I don't know much about indoor growing, but wanted to send you some green mojo anyhow. Looks like you've really thought this out, and in about 3 or 4 months you'll be reaping your rewards. Good luck man!
